[1][2] The 40 Watt Club was the primary performance space for numerous "Athens bands", including Pylon, R.E.M., Love Tractor, Dreams So Real, Guadalcanal Diary, The Primates, Modern Skirts, and others.

In more recent years, the club has been the home-base for such nationally renowned local bands as of Montreal, Reptar, Drive-By Truckers, and The Whigs.

Crowe's first party in his space, on October 31,[4] featured his band Strictly American, a group of friends from Marietta, Georgia, which included members of the future Guadalcanal Diary.

Crowe and Tabor would hang out in his loft upstairs and listen to Michael Lachowski and Randy Bewley practice the same riff over and over again in the space directly below.

Local artist and musician David Hannon Pierce created the first iteration of the club's famous logo, as well as all the updated variations still in use.

With the Georgia Theater taking over as the high-capacity venue and with the closure of the smaller Uptown, there was again a market for a small club that would focus on local acts.

[2] Rolling Stone also called the 40 Watt among the best clubs in the U.S. in 2013, with an uncredited columnist writing, "Years before Michael Stipe used to stage-dive into the crowd at this legendary Georgia nightclub, the future R.E.M.