It’s a quiet afternoon at the new downtown bar and music venue Thrashers, where a giant, 12-foot skeleton perches on the roof.

No, it’s not because co-owners, husband and wife Connor and Dania O’Neal have a Halloween obsession. It just looks cool and was inspired by one of Connor’s favorite venues, a brewery in Harrisburg, Pa., where he and his band, the popular Tejon Street Corner Thieves, play on tours.

Inside Thrashers, the latest incarnation of the building, which once housed Zodiac, Rocket Room, Prime Time and Cloud 9, a few people congregate at the bar. An open stage, outlined with lime green railings and fuchsia curtains, waits for musicians to tickle their fretboards and belt their lyrics.

Five dozen decorated skateboard decks ornament the ceilings and walls, each one bedazzled by local individuals and businesses, like The Black Sheep, What’s Left Records and the Leech Pit.

The O’Neals are children of the 1990s and this is an homage to their heyday, a bar for punk rock lovers, skaters, fans of cheap, live music (shows are only $10), and fingerboard aficionados. The bar opened in July.

“We’re both from the era and grew up skateboarding,” Dania said. “It’s a slice of our childhood.”

If you stumbled over the word fingerboard, you’re forgiven for being unfamiliar. But brace yourself, because fingerboarding is a whole subculture. It means using your fingers to ride a tiny, hand-sized replica of a skateboard.

Fingerboarders like to ride their boards and do tricks on mini versions of skateboard parks, one of which occupies the ledge above a row of booths at Thrashers.

On this cool, overcast afternoon, a young guy is doing just that – flipping his tiny Tech Deck (one of the most popular fingerboard brands) and rolling it on the ramps and straightaways in the fingerboard park made by local fingerboard artist Anthony Blake, who owns Renegade Professional Handcrafted Fingerboards. Two of his parks have been displayed at the Denver Art Museum.

“He introduced me to this whole community,” said Connor. “Now we get all these fingerboard guys in daily with these things. As far as I know, we’re the only publicly accessible park in Colorado Springs.”

The O’Neals met about 11 years ago at the now-defunct bar Oscar’s, where Dania was a server and bartender and Connor ran an open mic.

As the years went by, they each gained expertise in their fields – Dania as an entrepreneur with a jewelry business who worked as a server and bartender for two decades, which included managing the Triple Nickel Tavern, and Connor, also an entrepreneur, who built a successful music career.

Combining their decades of knowledge in the music and service industries seemed like the next step.

“It was a natural transition if you already manage and know everything about a bar, and I’ve been in the music and entertainment industry forever,” Connor said. “We put our skills together.”

Connor, a Springs native who graduated from Cheyenne Mountain High School, is a longtime staple of the Front Range music scene. His first notable band, Yes Ma’am, preceded Tejon Street Corner Thieves, which started about a dozen years ago. The group still performs locally and around the U.S., including shows Oct. 11 and Nov. 14-15 at Thrashers. The latter is a festival featuring almost two dozen bands.

Dania graduated from Woodland Park High School and earned a bachelor’s in the entertainment business.

“For us it was just time to do something ourselves. Step up,” she said.

Every night is a little different at the bar. Tuesdays is bingo. It’s free to play and winners get tickets to Black Sheep shows. Wednesdays is live music or video game night, where people can play Nintendo games. Thursdays are karaoke and Fridays and Saturdays are live music. Sundays feature local sax player D. Patrons also are able to get a full meal from the next door Green Line Grill.

Local, regional and national bands will fill the roster, and even though they call themselves a punk bar, the O’Neals are open to a variety of genres. They just want to keep the stage filled and the musicians and crowd happy.

“With our experience we’re geared up to be excellent place for live music from the band’s perspective and the crowd’s perspective,” he said. “And that’s what ultimately makes a good show. If the bands are happy and want to come back then it’s going to show on stage and create the hype you want. It’s a dive bar, but we still care.”