Reunited Oklahoma band Wakeland play final weekend for iconic OKC venue VZD's

More than a decade after the members of Wakeland called it a day, they got a request to revive their Oklahoma band in celebration of an iconic venue.

"A friend of ours named Eric Smith had just got done remodeling and was about to reopen VZD's, and he's like, 'Hey, why don't you guys reunite and play opening weekend?' That gave us an excuse to do it and do it for a friend of ours — and do it in a place that has always meant a lot to Oklahoma City and to the musicians in this town," recalled Brad Heinrichs, Wakeland's longtime guitarist.

They got together thinking it would be a one-off, but tickets for the weekend sold out quickly and they were having fun, so they kept playing.

Since playing the grand reopening of VZD's Restaurant & Bar in 2015, Wakeland has continued to perform about four shows a year, most often at the Western Avenue landmark.

Now, Wakeland is playing on, but VZD's is calling it a day.

Iconic OKC venue VZD's closing after more than four decades

In May, VZD's management announced on Facebook that "our chapter at 4200 N. Western is unfortunately coming to a close. Ownership of the building we call home has changed as of the beginning of 2023, and while we’ve explored every option to try to remain tenants, our new landlords will be exploring other options for our current space."

Named after the Veazey's Drug Store that was a longtime anchor of OKC's historic Crown Heights neighborhood, VZD's opened as a club in 1976, according to The Oklahoman Archives. Over the decades, a wide array of musical acts, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alejandro Escovedo, Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley, the Dixie Chicks (now the Chicks) and Oklahoma's own Flaming Lips, have performed there.

But it seems fitting that Wakeland, the 1990s staple of the Oklahoma music scene that came back together for the 2015 reopening of VZD's, will play the last two shows Sept. 1-2 at the iconic venue.

Heinrichs talked with The Oklahoman about VZD's final weekend as well as the past and future of Wakeland in a recent phone interview:

Q: What does VZD's mean to you?

Heinrichs: When we were first starting out, that's where the cool bands played. ... When we had nights off, it was a place I would typically end up going to watch live music and stuff. It's just become part of people's lives. It's part of the history, the culture, the music scene here in Oklahoma City.

Life is constant change, but it's always sad when you see something that has endured for so long reach its its last little moment. I'm not sure what's going to happen to that place after ... but every time I drive by, I know I'm gonna get a little sad.

Q: How is it going to be playing there on the final weekend?

Heinrichs: It's definitely gonna be bittersweet. We're going to try to have a good time, and we're expecting to see a lot of friends and lots of folks coming out Friday and Saturday.

But yeah, there's gonna be something in the back of our minds each time that we step on that stage, that 'This isn't going to happen again — at least not here.' ... Since we've started doing these reunion shows, that's been the place we've played the vast majority of the time.

So, for just Wakeland in general, it's an ending of a little era, too.

Q: But this isn't the end of Wakeland?

Heinrichs: Oh, no, no, no. Once we started doing the reunion, we put a record out (called 'Don't Listen to Your Head') basically right before the pandemic ... which is great timing.

We've had a long, crazy career, and every time something happens, or every time there's a challenge, we come back to the fact that we just love getting together and playing music.

And we'll figure out a way to make that happen. ... There's been some places open up, but we haven't really been looking.

Q: How have your lives changed since Wakeland called it quits in the early 2000s?

Heinrichs: For over 10 years, we played 200, 250 shows a year. We just toured and drove — and driving is like a love-hate relationship for me now. (laughs) I spent so much time doing it ... when we started out in our little SUVs pulling trailers. Then, we moved up to the vans and then RVs and buses and that stuff.

Being on the road is fun, but it's definitely a younger man's game. You hit your 30s, and you hit a wall. It's just like, 'Oh, my God, I don't ever want to walk into another smelly bar.' ...

Now, we all want to be home by midnight at the latest ... and we play about maybe four times a year. And we still call them reunions, because every time we play, there's somebody that we haven't seen in 20 years that shows up.

Q: What can people expect if they come out to a Wakeland reunion show?

Heinrichs: When we got back together, we decided every time we played, it was gonna be fun. So, if you've been a fan since the start, you're gonna hear the songs that you expect to hear.

This is the 30th anniversary of our second record ('To See the Sun') this year. But we play songs off of every record we've put out, and there'll be stuff off the new album.

Then, there'll be a whole bunch of stuff that either were influences of ours or songs from bands that we just like. We just lost Sinead O'Connor, and she was always one of our favorites. So, we've got a song of hers we're doing this weekend.

Then, there's just fun stuff, what I like to call our tongue-in-cheek covers, where they're just fun songs that put people in a good mood.

But the main thing is that when we get together, it's just fun. Life is heavy enough.

Q: What's next for Wakeland?

Heinrichs: I think we're going to do an EP hopefully within the next six months or so. I'll let you know how that's going. ... When we get together, we have to rehearse, there's stuff like that involved. But the purpose behind it is just because we enjoy doing it. ... I'm just really happy with my life.

VZD'S FINAL WEEKEND WITH WAKELAND

• When: 9 p.m. Sept. 1-2.

• Where: VZD's, 4200 N Western.

• Tickets: https://wakelandmusic.com/shows.

• Information: https://www.facebook.com/VZDsOK.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Iconic OKC venue VZD's closing with shows by reunited band Wakeland