Truly All-Ages

There’s a buzz around Mayor Mary Verner’s support of all-ages music. She touted it as an under-examined way to a “vibrant economy” at the Spokane City Forum in November and is quoted in Spokane Metro magazine as saying that, “the city and [Greater Spokane Incorporated] can work to encourage the development of new venues and work to eliminate obstacles to that growth.” New venues? What about the existing venues?

Marlene Feist, the city’s public affairs officer, says Verner was making a general statement about wanting to create spaces “not just for people of drinking age but [for] underage students and artists.”

Feist’s statement seemed to assume that the places of-age artists and underage artists see and play shows are different. They aren’t.

Five major area venues regularly host all-ages shows. They all serve alcohol. Even the Cretin Hop, specifically created to give teenage kids a place to play punk, hardcore and metal, serves beer. Owner Thomas Chavez says a business model that doesn’t include alcohol is doomed. “Who wants to run a business that only pays the operating expenses?” he asks.

Because there’s so little money to be made from live music, venues are becoming smaller, more nimble and less discriminatory based on arbitrary things like age or drink preference. The economics of music are naturally making us a town of all-ages venues.

It’s encouraging, then, to hear Public Policy Coordinator Erin Vincent talking about GSI’s latest draft proposal for its Spokane All-Ages Music Initiative. Originally conceived to develop a nonprofit music and education space for teens, the steering committee is on the verge of a significant revision. Rather than create its own venue initially, SAAMI would begin life as a kind of incubator, eliciting “a mix of traditional fund-raising options,” then distributing the funds to existing all-ages venues.

She’s been listening to the community. “They want something that supports what already exists,” Vincent says, “not something that eats up all the resources in the community.”

Right now, we have the most robust all-ages scene Spokane has had in years. Still, resources are scarce and audience demand is finite. It makes sense to strengthen the scene before trying to grow it. GSI’s provisional plan is incredibly smart. Let’s hope City Hall sees the wisdom.