Corporate Clubs: The Hostile Takeover of Seattle…
Occasionally, I get a well thought out correspondence from a reader or friend that makes me want to get up and applaud. Such is the case with the following email rant I received last week regarding a slew of hot upcoming shows by notable artists, all scheduled at either WaMu Theater or the other Showbox.
My initial excitement about Leonard Cohen’s upcoming tour died out quickly when I learned that Cohen Seattle gig would be happening at the WaMu Theater. I’ve only been to WT once and I’ve never been back. In addition to a myriad of other reasons, the $75+ dollar bar tab my friend and I ran up on beer (four beers a piece to be exact) at a Rat City bout was more than enough to say never again for yours truly. Even my stalker-like obsession love for Danzig kept me away from his show last year at The Showbox OhFuckNo SoDo after a horrible experience there at Nick Cave.
Anyway, here’s one of my favorite musical lucky charms, and his eloquent explanation (with assistance from some well placed expletives) of how corporate clubs in Seattle are making going to see live music a complete fucking drag…:
Well I am getting pretty fed up with Corporate bull shit. Especially when it begins to interfere with having a good time and one of my favorite passions: music.Lately there have been some good names in music making their way back to Seattle. Dropkick Murphy’s played recently which was a great show but shitty venue (I’ll get back to this). Found out Leonard Cohen, a Canadian Icon, was finally touring the US and Seattle is a date but guess what? It’s at one of those supermall-like venues: WaMu “Theater”. Let’s be real here okay?! For those of you who have not seen this place think old school concert arena covered with black curtains. Real class there. Then couple that with $8 Coors, Coors Lite, or some other not so local beer that would make me want to opt for water used to cool plutonium rods at some nuclear site. No thanks!!
There’s another venue here that sucks almost as bad. The only thing good going for this place is, and I am reaching, is good stiff drinks. You’d have to be plastered to enjoy any show at The Showbox SoDo (which I now refer to as The Shitbox). The REAL Showbox is the one located on 1st. Avenue and Pike St. The one that had Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters, and the Ramones, Police, XTC, Fingerprintz, the Specials, Ultravox, 999, the Jam, the Squeeze, the Psychedelic Furs, PIL, Nina Hagen, and Dire Straits as well as those by homegrown talents ranging from the burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, Mudhoney, TAD, Pearl Jam to name a few.
Anyways… I am on a rant here. Point is this. I’d rather pay $10 to $20 more to see a show at a local venue with some roots, that has a great atmosphere, great sound, and seating then be subjected to going to venues that over price their shitty drinks, have terrible security (bullies), and provide a sound and lighting that leave me thinking I should have just done something else.
Fuck…
Thanks to the Mad Irish Man (who isn’t really angry, just mad. There’s a difference) for the virtual middle-finger-salute to the soulless, corporate venues we could all do without.
Related Cherrybombed stories:
Ah, WaMu Theatre. I almost forgot about our Rat City date. But darling, you are forgetting the time we saw Iggy there. Technically you’ve been there twice. (Note – I said “technically”)
Corporate venues. Corporate radio. Corporate TV. Corporate ticketsales. Corporate advertising at all of the above. Coroporate beverages. We are all screwed by the corporations. But as much as I would love to see Cohen or a slew of other musicians how can I respect an artist who espouses one thing in his music and then sucks the Corporate Ball park Frank of the man with the same mouth? I ain’t getting anywhere near the mouth that has piped the “man”.