We've been hearing rumors for a little while now, but today we confirmed that the bad news was true: The A Club is closed.
The 300-capacity downtown rock venue shut its doors at the end of December, operations manager David Lewis confirmed today. "The live venue was a losing proposition since day one," he says, "It was time to stop the bleeding."
The venue had played host to national touring bands over the past three years, and had been packed to the gills during The Inlander's own Volume Local Music Block Party last June. But the few packed shows didn't keep the place afloat, Lewis says.
The space, on the second floor of the 400 block of West Sprague Avenue, isn't going to sit empty. Lewis says it will be converted to a massive dance club called Club 412, which will open officially on Saturday, Jan. 26.
All shows currently listed on the A Club's website are cancelled, including the El Ten Eleven show that we wrote about in this week's Inlander.
Former talent buyer Quinn Tanzer has moved his booking operations over to a brand new 500-capacity venue, The Center. Watch the Inlander for more on that venue in the coming weeks.
Dave was the manager of this music venue but the only thing he managed to do restrict the only person in the entire organization with any business sense, Quinn Tanzer, from run his side as efficiently as he was capable of. Time and time again there was no budget given for advertisement and promotion on any of these major label touring acts and then all of the sudden the place is empty. Not only is terrible, but there was also a habit of Dave Lewis not paying bands on time and again passing the buck on this shortcoming. I personally know that bands would come to the A CLUB to play only because Quinn Tanzer was the person they were able to interact with and do business with. Not Dave Lewis.
The staff hired to clean this venue was not only completely unprofessional, but more often than not were just friends of theirs (some unreputable people in ANY society) that looked like they were ready to tweak at any given moment and kept the place looking filthy. IT IS NOT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE VENUES TALENT BUYER TO BE THE ONE CLEANING THE WALLS.
Personally I think it would be interesting to see the books from the past few years. Not what they claim to report, but what the budget was for these bands that usually cost 5000 dollars and your employee was able to bring in for 2000. How much did you really care about the success of this venture when you made almost zero effort to make it happen?
But you know what Dave? You were right, the A CLUB was doomed from the beginning....and i believe it was because you had the final say. Jan 11, 2013 | Reply to this comment
Dave was the manager of this music venue but the only thing he managed to do restrict the only person in the entire organization with any business sense, Quinn Tanzer, from run his side as efficiently as he was capable of. Time and time again there was no budget given for advertisement and promotion on any of these major label touring acts and then all of the sudden the place is empty. Not only is terrible, but there was also a habit of Dave Lewis not paying bands on time and again passing the buck on this shortcoming. I personally know that bands would come to the A CLUB to play only because Quinn Tanzer was the person they were able to interact with and do business with. Not Dave Lewis.
The staff hired to clean this venue was not only completely unprofessional, but more often than not were just friends of theirs (some unreputable people in ANY society) that looked like they were ready to tweak at any given moment and kept the place looking filthy. IT IS NOT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE VENUES TALENT BUYER TO BE THE ONE CLEANING THE WALLS.
Personally I think it would be interesting to see the books from the past few years. Not what they claim to report, but what the budget was for these bands that usually cost 5000 dollars and your employee was able to bring in for 2000. How much did you really care about the success of this venture when you made almost zero effort to make it happen?
But you know what Dave? You were right, the A CLUB was doomed from the beginning....and i believe it was because you had the final say not because you didnt have the capability to bring in shows and stay afloat.
Jan 11, 2013 | Reply to this comment