Alcohol and short term memory loss at 80's night...

[manny at telerama.com]

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004, Allison Bryan wrote:
> > Joker should buy it for the new venue he's sure to be opening before March
> > 31. (Think about it - he has no choice). Of course now with Joker and Ron
> > on bad terms that might not happen.
> 	According to this article listed below, Joker's the primary
> booking agent for national acts at Club Cafe now, so would he still go
> forward with opening a new venue himself?
> http://www.pittsburghpulp.com/content/2004/01_01/news_cover_story.shtml

duh and double duh.

first of all, as an asidem massive diss on that Pulp piece:
that Pulp article was terrible. If I saw Shanley in person I
would tell him so. Poorly researched, bad information.
Mentioning the venue that replaced Metropol was irrelevant to the article
since it is only a danceclub with zero live music plans.
Talking to Roboto was irrelevant too, since Roboto is a small place not
equivalent to the size of shows that go to Laga. Roboto and 1877
factions ever agreeing to merge and open a bigger venue is a pipe
dream - a collective will never work at that size of a venture 
(Roboto's not even a collective right now - Mike Roth said himself it's
only run by five people. that's more like a voluntary partnership). If
another 'Roboto II' emerges, it will be due to the efforts of a couple
strongheaded people (maybe Roth himself) and not a collective effort per
se. Anyway that's all hypothetical, not facts on the ground, and shouldn't
have been included.

Shanley should have focused on the venues which could or would be taking
up the slack of shows that would otherwise be at Laga: Rosebud, Nick's,
The Rex (not mentioned AT ALL!), and Mr. Smalls among others.
I don't care if he mentioned the Eye or not, he just did a bad job
not mentioning the others.
He should have clearly mentioned that Joker is working on opening a new
venue (Joker told me, so it's no secret).
Pulp also omitted important info - it's clearly known that Laga is closing
March 31, and the Upstage will continue to exist (so theoretically, it
could also still be a live venue) but he didn't mention that at all.
Wouldn't that be important for readers who follow 80's night or Ceremony?

Now, as to your original question about Club Cafe:
Club Cafe, the folly of a multi-millionaire baby boomer Internet mogul,
holds fucking 100 people. It can't contain hardly any shows
other than a few smaller yuppie singersongriters. Joker grabbed it because
it gives him the only power base/home base office he could grab for the
short term. Club Cafe is no solution for any shows he wants to do over
100 people (which is, most of his shows - all the mall punk type stuff).
Therefore, with Laga closing, and Elko dominating Rosebud (though Joker
is still allowed in there), Joker *must* open his own venue. I knew from
the start he would do this. Otherwise he would basically have to stop
doing business. I don't see why this isn't obvious.