T‑Bones Late‑Night Lines
- Fans queued at T‑Bones Records and Café in Hattiesburg starting 6:30 p.m. Friday ahead of Record Store Day. (wdam.com) - Reporters observed people still waiting outside around midnight, underscoring intense local enthusiasm. (wdam.com) - The coverage framed the wait as social ritual, blending crate-digging with community and events at the shop. (wdam.com)
At midnight on Friday, April 17, people were still lined up outside T-Bones Records and Cafe in Hattiesburg for Record Store Day, after some arrived as early as 6:30 p.m. that evening. (wdam.com) WDAM identified one of those early arrivals as Carter Templeton, who told the station he came for the atmosphere as much as the exclusive releases. Reporters described “constant chatter” outside after staff had gone home. (wdam.com) Record Store Day 2026 fell on Saturday, April 18, and the official organizer said participating independent shops were selling special titles tied to that one-day event. The Record Store Day site published the 2026 list and said those releases were available through participating stores. (recordstoreday.com) T-Bones is one of those stores. Its Record Store Day profile lists the shop at the corner of 21st Avenue and Hardy Street in Hattiesburg, four blocks east of the University of Southern Mississippi, and describes it as an independent record store with a coffee shop, cafe and live music. (recordstoreday.com) That setup helps explain why the line functions as more than a retail queue. T-Bones says it sells vinyl, compact discs, cassettes, turntables and books alongside sandwiches, salads, desserts, coffee and tea, and says it has operated in Hattiesburg since 2002. (tbonescafe.com) Record Store Day itself was built around stores like that. The official site says the event was created to celebrate independently owned record stores, and the 2026 edition centered on limited releases that could draw collectors to shops before doors opened. (recordstoreday.com) That pattern showed up in Hattiesburg this weekend: people came early for scarce records, but the local coverage focused on friends swapping stories and reconnecting while they waited. In that account, the line outside T-Bones was part shopping strategy and part annual gathering. (wdam.com) By the time Record Store Day began on Saturday morning, T-Bones had already turned the sidewalk into an overnight hangout — the kind of scene the event was designed to produce at independent stores. (wdam.com; recordstoreday.com)
