A 2022 Harvard study<\/a> found that a third of Americans aged 18 to 25 report feeling lonely, and a 2024 report revealed that 74% of people with a \u201cthird space\u201d still feel something is missing. In Jacksonville, that national search for belonging lands directly at a Murray Hill bar.<\/p>\n Welcome to The Walrus Even on a school night, The Walrus is packed with college students, clad in their finest fishnets, tank tops, and eyeliner. My Chemical Romance blares from the back room onto the street in the otherwise quiet Murray Hill neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n The term \u201cthird space<\/a>\u201d is a sociological term coined back in the 80s to describe a place separate from the household and work that acts as a \u201cspace for informal, free social interaction, essential to democracy\u201d, according to American sociologist Ray Oldenburg.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter that class starts at 9 a.m. the next morning. Students hang out in the parking lot before the events start, then drift in and out all night as friends sign up to sing karaoke. Some are holding a beer. Just as many are holding a smoothie.<\/p>\n Owner Alexander Eli Michael mans the bar himself, crafting vegan sandwiches and smoothies. In the room adjacent, local and student bands play, and campus organizations hold benefit shows.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel very comfortable there. I feel at home,\u201d said Quinn Gomez, a third-year Information Science major at the University of North Florida. According to Gomez, The Walrus serves as a usual hangout spot for her and her friends. \u201cI wish I had known about it sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside, the bar is dimly lit and strung with balloon clusters, with a large papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 sandworm modeled from the \u201cBeetlejuice\u201d movie mounted on the wall above the bar, greeting patrons with its paper fangs.<\/p>\n Near the front door, a small bookshelf is stocked with queer media and literature, available for anyone to browse or borrow. <\/p>\n In the back, a large courtyard is bathed in blue and purple light, with a cluster of mismatched chairs and tables giving strangers somewhere to sit and talk. The walls surrounding the space are painted with murals, with depictions ranging from galaxies and the cosmos to Bart Simpson mooning passersby.<\/p>\n Students taking the stage<\/p>\n So far Gomez performed at The Walrus three times with her band, Cult Daughter, including at an SDS benefit show on September 13 that she organized.\u00a0 Michael said most student programming is student-run.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey organize themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cI give everybody the same room deal, and I pay it a lot more forward if it\u2019s for a community type of event.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael themself had performed professionally in bands, notably a band called Tomboy, for over eleven years, and experienced life on the road as a transgender band in a world that often viewed him as an outsider.<\/p>\n \u201cTomboy was really the first band that I was like, no, I\u2019m gonna be in an unapologetically queer band, and I really want there to be a queer scene in Jacksonville,\u201d Michael said. \u201cI want to make a bunch of gay ass music about being super gay and super trans, and I want to do it in a way where we carve out little queer spaces in these clubs for a bunch of our weirdo friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael said that background shaped the Walrus bar from its earliest days.<\/p>\n \u201cLive music\u2019s been here since the beginning,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we first started doing shows, it was on the floor. I was bringing my home PA system to make it happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Over time, Michael booked bigger touring acts and pushed the bar to build an actual stage and sound system.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all just a bunch of production nerds, and we just want it to be good,\u201d Michael said. \u201cThere\u2019s a realness of being trans, being queer in the South, and wanting to do something as excellent as we can with no money on a DIY budget.\u201d<\/p>\n Gomez said the venue\u2019s queer-friendly reputation is part of why bands like hers gravitate there over other Jacksonville venues, \u201cespecially in the South,\u201d where, she said, queer-led or all-female bands often \u201cget more judgment from outsiders\u201d elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s not really other places for them to play other than the ones\u201d like The Walrus, she said.<\/p>\n Robert Kuropkat, a sophomore English and philosophy major at UNF, got his band\u2019s first show at The Walrus through a connection his bandmate has with Gomez. For a newer college band still finding its footing, Strung\u2019s lead singer said just getting booked for a show meant something.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really cool to get up there and actually play with some legit bands there,\u201d Kuropkat said. \u201cEven just being allowed to get on a stage, five morons going out there playing some music that we made in a parking garage.\u201d<\/p>\n Kuropkat said many of the bands that influenced him got their start in bars like the Walrus.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cA lot of my idols, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, the Seattle grunge groups, they all started in bars and nightclubs,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s all of those fun things. A bar, a slightly disorganized place. And it kind of feels like I\u2019m actually becoming a musician. I\u2019m actually getting out there and doing stuff\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n According to Kuropkat, most Jacksonville bars are \u201cvery cover oriented,\u201d Kuropkat said, wanting familiar songs over performers\u2019 original material. The Walrus was one of the few places built to let a band like him actually experiment.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t vet us and really check and be like, \u2018What exactly are your lyrics?\u2019 They kind of just let us go up there and put some art on display,\u201d said Kuropkat.<\/p>\n Creating a \u201cthird space\u201d<\/p>\n Driven by a severe loneliness epidemic, Gen Z are going offline and seeking physical spaces to rebuild face-to-face communities. They are simultaneously fighting a \u201cpay-to-exist\u201d dilemma, demanding accessible spots where they can gather without the pressure of spending money just to sit down.<\/p>\n Michael, who has run The Walrus for nearly five years, says creating that environment goes into every event, smoothie, vegan sandwich, and bowl of boiled peanuts he serves behind the bar counter.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cI want you to be like a young person experiencing a live band, even if you can\u2019t afford it. But if you can\u2019t afford it, you should afford it,\u201d Michael said.<\/p>\n Michael said he\u2019d rather hand a broke college kid a free bowl of the bar\u2019s famous boiled peanuts than watch them go without.<\/p>\n \u201cIf all you can afford is the free water out of the cooler all night, you can come and hang out here and no one\u2019s gonna bother you about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For some students, the bar means more than a good hangout. Michael, who is transgender, said young queer and trans students come to The Walrus to \u201cfind and figure themselves out\u201d, sometimes for the first time, and that the bar hosts burlesque and drag nights alongside karaoke and art builds outside.<\/p>\n
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Maui Fili<\/a>
The Walrus in Jacksonville\u2019s Murray Hill neighborhood officially opened on August 28, 2021.<\/p>\n![\"Guitar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_6292-e1790691919499-450x600.jpg\")
Maui Fili<\/a>
Spencer Castleman, a UNF sophomore, plays with \u201cStrung\u201d (formerly known as Quarter Life Crisis) at the Jacksonville SDS Fundraiser.<\/p>\n
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