Ann Arbor is back to having only one Bluegrass Night on Wednesdays, at Circus, since October 13 officially marked the last Bluegrass Night at Live at PJ’s (which had been up and running since June). But how did Tree Town end up having two venues simultaneously offering the exact same theme night in the first place?

The answer lies in Bluegrass Night’s origins. Three years ago, Bluegrass Night at Circus — organized by Greg Burns and Matthew Altruda — began a popular local, live music tradition that suddenly made Wednesday nights hip.

Starting out as a casual event wherein musicians could hang out and play, Bluegrass Night at Circus (part of the Cavern Club complex at 210 South First Street) was the site for a broad range of non-pop, live music that got patrons dancing. And it caught on quickly.

“We’d get close to 400 people through the door a night,” said Altruda, who booked bands for Circus’ Bluegrass Night (and manages the popular local band The Macpodz).

In June of this past year, however, due to personal and professional differences — including pay — Altruda and Burns parted ways with Circus and launched their own competing Bluegrass Night at Live, also on First Street.

Circus owner Nick Easton said that when he learned that Burns and Altruda had planned to program the same night in another venue, he was surprised. “I thought things were going along fine,” said Easton. “… They did approach me about adding a cover charge, and asked for more remuneration for their services. But I’ve been in business for a long time, over 40 years now, and if you’ve got something good going, you can tweak it, but if you change the formula, you can lose it real quick. … It did hurt when (Altruda and Burns) split off, but we kept right on at it, without a skip, and the crowd came back and said, ‘I like it here better.’”

Easton said that a cover charge was probably partly responsible for the downfall of Live’s Bluegrass Night (Circus doesn’t have a cover charge), but Altruda said they stopped charging a cover at Live after the first two weeks. And while this helped bring in more patrons, it hurt Altruda and Burns’ ambitions for the theme night.

“When we moved it to Live, one of the things we wanted to do was get more money for the bands, so we could bring better bands in. … There are lots of bands out there that just won’t play for three or four hundred a night.”

Altruda noted that on some Wednesdays, they got three or four hundred patrons at Live, while other nights, depending on the band, didn’t do nearly as well.

“The built-in scene of Circus was split, so neither of us did as well,” said Altruda. “Nick cut all his drink prices, until they were next to nothing. … Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great business strategy. But it obviously affected our crowd.“

Easton indeed credits Circus’ drink specials with the survival of the club’s Bluegrass Night, but he also argued that there’s more to it than that.

“There’s a formula for making a theme night work,” Easton said. “It’s not attributable to one thing. It’s not just the music. It’s also the surroundings, the friendliness of the staff, low prices, the atmosphere. … And so many bands just want to play to be visible. It’s not just financial for them. If you’re a musician, you want to practice your craft and get out in front of people.”

Altruda noted that his experience working with Rob Perkins, owner of Live (and former drummer for the likes of Michael Buble, Toni Braxton, Herbie Hancock, and others), was a very positive one, and credits Perkins for wanting to feature good bands.

“But they’re having a hard time losing the image that they have (at Live),” said Altruda. “It’s hard to switch from being a dance club kind of nightclub to a live music venue.”

Ultimately, as patrons remained split between two competing Bluegrass Nights all summer, and Altruda and Burns got busier with the other aspects of their careers, they “decided it was time to just kill (Bluegrass Night at Live),” Altruda said. “Neither of us had the heart to keep it going. … And for how much work it takes, there just wasn’t enough money to be working that hard. The cons just outweighed the pros.”

Altruda noted that he might, in the future, help plan another sort of local live music night, but for now, he’s concentrating on other projects.

Meanwhile, Bluegrass Night fans can still go to Circus, with doors opening at 8 p.m. Wednesdays. This week features Ann Arbor's Dragon Wagon; later this month, see Chicago's Henhouse Prowlers, November 10; the Whistle Pigs, from Illinois, November 17; and Traverse City's Blue Dirt Band, November 24. For more information, see the Cavern Club website.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.