CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Summer Wildcat Chrissy Goral helped start the Flash Gallery, which is located on Congress Street. The Flash Gallery is open to the public Thursday through Sunday, and it offers late night entertainment.

Things always seem to balance out on Congress Street. You give a bum some change, you find some on the ground. You buy a friend a drink, he buys you one. You lose a big historic concert venue, a new one pops right up to take its place.

Now that the Rialto Theater has shut down temporarily, there is a considerable gap left in the downtown music scene. The newly opened Flash Gallery (310 E. Congress) hopes to fill that gap and then some.

Which is not to say that bands like Maroon 5 and their radio-friendly ilk will find a new home at Flash, which is located immediately next door to the Rialto. Rather, the people who run the gallery (which is dubbed Club la Nuit when it hosts concerts) hope to bring something smaller and stranger to downtown.

"It's more underground," said Jacob Cooper, who helps to book bands and run sound for Flash. "It's good. You can get more arty and abstract bands that wouldn't have a place to go otherwise. And it's a collective thing, so people are in and out of there all the time. People can do what they want."

Booker Andrew Gardner gets a purposeful twinge in his voice when he speaks about the possibilities of Flash and Club la Nuit.

"I'm looking for acts that will progress modern music, bands that will push boundaries. I'm looking for bands that will up the ante for garage bands."

Though Flash Gallery is only open to the public Thursday through Sunday, it offers late-night possibilities for those who can't wait until last call gets pushed back until two a.m. Oftentimes a stream of people can be seen crossing the street from Congress to Flash just after one a.m. to enjoy the art and music that stops when clubs can no longer reap the benefits of alcohol sales.

In contrast, Flash's mission seems to have little to do with money.

"We started the Flash Gallery at the beginning of April," said co-founder Chrissy Goral. We just started inviting the downtown folks to do whatever they want. In the future we want anybody to be able to use it as a venue. We have an upcoming AIDS benefit, we hosted an independent film festival and we're hoping to get the university to hold some events down here. It's a place for all kinds of things to happen."

If this sounds different from the way most art galleries and concert venues are run, it's because the people from Flash like to keep it in the family.

"It's basically just a bunch of friends," said Cait NiSimone, a local artist who serves on the board of directors. "We have a board of about ten directors and they issue a call to artists who want to hang their stuff."

Between Solar Culture, Tucson's other major venue/gallery, and Flash, a kind of renaissance of underground music and local arts may be on the horizon for downtown.

Flash Gallery is located at 310 East Congress Street, across from Hotel Congress and next to the Rialto Theater. It is open to the public Thursday through Sunday with additional days announced individually. Their next concert is Missing Pilots with Bark Bark Bark on Tuesday, June 22.