this would be an AWESOME thing.

YEAH DUDE! that would be SO AWESOME! If there were BARS AND CLUB EVERYWHERE! We could all go to concerts and drink beer more easily! YEAH !

"brilliant idea" Ha.

Grow up.

It's a good in theory - but the problem is that unlike in Austin, there aren't that many places within walking distance of each other for this to do much good.

That's one reason why MusicFestNW is a dismal failure compared to something like SXSW. We were just talking about this while looking at the map of hosting clubs last night while waiting for a show to start at the Tonic (which is near nothing else.) There just aren't enough close venues.

If all - or even most- of our music venues were in Oldtown/Downtown this could work - but actually, while Austin is awesome for SXSW, I'm glad we don't have to deal with the hassles of everyone trying to be in the same place because that's 'the club' district.'

Most of the time it's kinda nice that our stuff is spread out - it just makes all inclusive things not work very well.

I generally hate that it's all spread out. On one hand, that means there's probably a good bar near where you are. But on the other hand, when that bar pulls some crazy Portland shit—like closing at midnight on a Friday (I'm looking at you, Amnesia) and trying to remove your pitcher at 11:30 pm—it's nice to have a few options in the surrounding blocks.

You mean when my drunk frat boy ass is thrown out of Lotus & Barracudas, I'd be able to walk over to Ash Street and annoy the people in there without paying any cover to the bands playing??
Man, that sounds like heaven.

Aw, hells ya!

I like the idea and think plenty of clubs that host shows are within easy distance of each other.

Thumbs up, bitches!

For this to work the clubs would have to get together and share the cost of advertising and split up there collection of door money. Much like NAFTA this would end up with a few clubs that try carrying much of the load for a clubs that already do a half ass job. The clubs that are doing OK now don't need this type of headache. Not to mention how this wouldn't work with any club that hires touring bands. Why would they pay a high advance to a band, just to have to split their door with the lazy club that only wants to hire local DJs.
Take a look at the calendars for the "Club Stamp"clubs. The things they book don't draw anything other than the drunk meat market crowd.
Like I said before that sounds like heaven. Right?

For Club Stamp, the club that collects your cash, keeps your cash. So they don't have to divvy it up later.

In fact, one club was kicked out of Club Stamp a few years ago. Neighbors might say it was because the club was a magnet for police calls, but the owner claimed it was because his club was more popular, especially for early evening happy hour, and he was collecting a lot of the door money in the neighborhood.

Satyricon and Long Goodbye used to do that quite a while back (and I mean a while). Which was great b/c one of those clubs would never card me prior to my coming of age, which doubled the number of clubs I could go to pre-21 once I got the stamp.

Thanks for posting this, Amy. I'm probably a little late chiming in here, but I wanted to note a few things:

-There are actually quite a few music venues (as distinct from "just bars" which I'm not particularly concerned about, or the, for lack of a better word, frattier dance clubs like Barracuda) in Old Town:
Berbati's, Dante's, Ash St., Valentine's, Tube, Satyricon, Someday Lounge, Backspace, Ground Kontrol.

-I would agree with the idea that there are advantages to having clubs in town spread out amongst the neighborhoods if more of these spaces actually functioned as community or neighborhood spaces. But I can't really think of a music venue (again, as opposed to plan bar) in Portland that people will come to hang out at, to some extent regardless of who's playing, since The Blackbird. There's probably some argument to be made for Doug Fir or Holocene, but they both feature drinking spaces that are distinct from the performance spaces.

-In talking with some club owners and bookers about this idea, I discovered that a handful of the music spaces in inner NW are planning on implementing just such a plan: Ground Kontrol, Satyricon, Backspace and Someday Lounge. Pretty exciting, I think! The details have yet to be worked out, but I'll definitely keep people posted. It's interesting to me that some the clubs trying this out are more along the lines of flex, multi-use spaces (arcades, internet cafes), and less old-style rock clubs.

I like the clubs mentioned above that are in talks to have something like Seattle's Joint Cover. That might work well.

But. Have you been to Pioneer Square in Seattle on Joint Cover night? It's pretty obnoxious.

I and most folks I knew up there avoided Joint Cover like the plauge and also tended to get harassed by sloshed Bellevue-ites. But maybe that's just my experience.