After years of speculation, Seattle nightlife mainstay the Showbox
has finally been sold. No, the club at First and Pine isn’t being
turned into condos. The business—not the property—has been
purchased by a massive entertainment company for an undisclosed sum.
Los Angeles–based AEG Live—which owns several soccer teams
and theater chains, and produces the Coachella Music
Festival—will operate both locations of the Showbox (the other is
in Sodo). But not much is likely to change.
Andrew Roe, AEG’s regional marketing director, says his company
doesn’t plan to
tamper with the Showbox’s success. “[We have]
deeper pockets to improve the venue,” he says. “People are afraid of
the independent spirit of the Showbox [disappearing]. That’s the last
thing I want to see. I come from the independent music world, man.”
Roe says all of the Showbox staff are being kept on.
Philip Anschutz, the man behind AEG, helped fund the intelligent
design–pushing Discovery Institute. No word on whether the
Discovery Institute will use the venue to rock against evolution.
