Known for staffing their clubs with members of the Seattle music community as well as providing a welcoming atmosphere for live music fans, owners Linda Derschang, Jeff Ofelt, and Wade Weigel have the Midas touch when it comes to creating successful nightclubs on the Hill (see news story, page 12). After some renovation, expect the new club to host DJ nights as well as live music. The eternally sunny Harrop, who counts her years at Sub Pop as well as her success as a DJ among the many assets she'll bring to the all-too-important job of talent booker for the new spot, promises "sexy bartenders and a hot rock staff." She sums up her hiring thusly: "I think I'm qualified for the position, given the life of rock and roll debauchery I've led."
Now, before you all start hollering "conflict of interest," let me just say cram it. I haven't been so supportive of that space up on Capitol Hill in the past couple of years simply because, well, the booking left something to be desired. As in, it was stale. I live in the neighborhood, and would like nothing more than a place within walking distance in which to hear kick-ass music. And I truly believe Canoe is the woman to make my dream a reality once again.
Just an idea: Considering that the name Chop Suey connotes the Americanization of Asian culture, and given that the Cha Cha is a kitsch-laden tribute to Mexican bars, and the new space is likely to be a Chinese variation of the same theme, what's say we get a fleet of burros and rickshaws to shuttle customers from one bar to the other?
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Wake me when it's over. Grunge nostalgia is at a peak these days, and will only get stronger when Everett True's engaging (and, of course, boastful) memoir, Live Through This, hits American bookstores in February. So it should surprise no one to learn that Mark Lindquist's book Never Mind Nirvana is, indeed, being made into a movie. Rumor has it that sometime around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lindquist will join the director and location scouts as they pillage the "scene" for significant backdrops against which to set his semi-fictional coming-of-age story. Several popular clubs played key settings in Never Mind Nirvana, as did a lot of well-known members of the music community (whom Lindquist incorporated into his novel by using their real names).
Will the director keep the scene where the protagonist gets pulled over for reckless driving after he drives by the Cha Cha in hopes of catching the eye of Jenn Ghetto, with whom he imagines he shared a romantic spark? And if so, will barmaid Kim Warnick once again pull down a bottle of Jack Daniel's and lead the room in a rousing rendition of "Beth"? Hee-haw.
