The Blvd. | Moving to Riverside Ave.

Well folks, tonight marks the end of The Blvd's five year run as a Spokane live music venue. At their current address anyway.

For some time the Spokane Public Facilities District have been looking forward to expanding the convention center complex to the south side of Spokane Falls Blvd and tonight brings the inevitable one step closer.

We've caught no word on when the actual demolition of the 100 year old building will happen but we plan on having some great and sad pictures on The Blvd's final day.

Tonight's show, reportedly the last at the venue will be the annual Wig Bash 2009 co-presented by Seattle's The Wig, our very own Platform Booking & The Inlander. Photography by Blush Response.

We're listing the show something like this:

Shim - Myspace (Seattle, Wa)
Cyrus Fell Down - Myspace (Spokane Valley, Wa)
See Me River - Myspace (Seattle, Wa)
Truckasauras - Myspace (Seattle, Wa)
$5 / 9p / 18+

After this weekend of shows, The Blvd. will be moving to 230 W. Riverside Ave.

Aside from jokes about having to change the name, the address should serve the new tenants well as it has played host to past venues such as The B-Side, The Spread and most recently The Zombie Room.

We look forward to many more years with The Blvd as a great place to be here in Spokane. A little closer to downtown, a little further from the rowdy opera house scene, a hell of a lot of good music to come.

4th Annual Sommy Awards

Updating a few things a little early this week.

I know we usually only post updates on Sundays and Wednesdays but I figured that a few mid-week updates probably wouldn't hurt anyone. Plus we'​ve updat​ed the calender​ a little so that you can start planning your upcoming weeks musical outings.​

One such outing should be a trip down to The Blvd. this Friday for the Fourth Annual Sommy Awards. I usually attempt to not lean toward one venue or show more than another but this being a Spokane-area-local-musician-music award show, I feel it's important to at least check it out. Live music will include Belt of Vapor, Oil of Angels and Mon Chéri. Expect to pay no cover charge for this 18 and over event starting at 6pm.

Spokane calendar | News

The Meeting Northwest's upcoming.txt page is where we keep show info until it is posted on the calendar. We often suggest to bands and venues that they bookmark this page and check it often in order to make sure we've listed their shows correctly.

You can also subscribe to our feeds, one of which will notify you when the upcoming.txt page is updated.

If you have bookmarked upcoming.txt in the past, please note:
It has been changed to the following URL:
http://www.themeetingnw.com/upcoming.html

If you have a show coming up and find that you are not listed, please contact us.

4th Annual Sommy Awards

Som Jordan will be hosting the 4th Annual Sommy Awards at The Blvd on February 13th. Categories include Best Metal, Hip-hop/R&B, Singer-songwriter, Rock, Artist, New Artist, Live Performance, Album and Band of the Year. Winners will be decided solely by online voters this year so If you've missed the Sommy's in years past, now may be a good time to get over to http://thesomshow.com, check out the Sominees and cast your vote for you favorite local artists.

BOBfest bands needed

"Local Teen Bands Needed For BOBfest 2009

Release Date: 1/6/2009 12:00:00 AM
Contact: Michael LeaderCharge, (509) 625-6054

The Chase Youth Commission, in partnership with Hoffman Music and the YMCA, are looking for local teen bands in all musical genres to apply for BOBfest 2009, Battle of the Bands competition. Twelve bands are needed to compete in the event, which will take place in Riverfront Park on Saturday, June 13.

BOBfest is an opportunity for Spokane to help launch local teen musicians toward a musical career. Selected groups will participate in a Musicians’ Clinic, record their own original song in a professional recording studio at College Road Recording, and perform live in Riverfront Park with a professional backline and road crew. The winning BOBfest band will receive paid performance sessions, CD production, and Hoffman Music gift certificates.

Bands interested in competing in BOBfest 2009 can pick up an application at Hoffman Music (1430 N. Monroe St.,Spokane, WA), chaseyouth.org, or by calling the Spokane Regional Youth Department at 625-6440. Applications along with demos and song lyrics are due to Hoffman Music by 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 6.The selection of final bands will be made by the Youth Commission’s Teen Advisory Council.

For more information contact the Spokane Regional Youth Department at 625-6440 or chaseyouthcommission@spokanecity.org."

-spokanecity.org

The Production Company presents: Hip Hop Royale

"The Production Company presents their first series of hip hop competitions in Spokane. In the Hip Hop Royale, we seek to foster Spokane's hip hop scene, forge new relationships between acts and clubs, and provide a platform for new groups/emcees/deejays succeed as far as they wish.

Here's how the event will work:

There will be two preliminary rounds, and seven artists will play each show. The top three winners of each preliminary round will compete in the final round, six acts total playing.

Artists will move on to the final round based on votes from the audience. Pre-sale tickets will be provided to sell to fans, friends and family - and will need to be turned in before performance.

The winner of Hip Hop Royale will receive $500 cash.

The preliminary rounds will be on Sunday February 8 and Sunday February 15. The finals will be on Saturday March 21. All events will be all ages at the BLVD. We are seeking Spokane area acts who would like to participate in this event. If this appeals to you, please message us back right now to enlist into the competition!"

- Production Company Myspace bulletin

And once again, you may either view the regular calendar on our site at themeetingnw.com or as a Myspace blog

Take care,

Robert Hammett
The Meeting Northwest
Spokane, Wa
ICQ: 23525903

themeetingnw.com | Subscribe to blogs / updates | rob@themeetingnw.com

News | January 04, 2009

Well, the calendar has been updated and re-updated with shows for tonight through the 9th.

As you may have heard, The Cretin Hop is, for the time being, without a cabaret license and therefore not able to host shows. As of now, shows that were scheduled to be held at The Cretin Hop are being moved to other area venues. I would advise calling ahead of time to verify location and time.

Som Jordan will be hosting the 4th Annual Sommy Awards at The Blvd on February 13th. If you've missed the Sommy's in years past, now may be a good time to get over to http://thesomshow.com and cast your ballot for you favorite local bands.

View calendar (Subscribe)

View Myspace blog (Subscribe)

Take care and keep warm/dry/from slipping on slushy snow,

Robert Hammett
Spokane, Wa
ICQ: 23525903

themeetingnw.com | Subscribe to blogs / updates | rob@themeetingnw.com

The Blvd. | To be condemned?

The Blvd. | To be condemned?

I read a Myspace comment posted Nov 15 2007 3:31 PM on http://www.myspace.com/hailthegunfire by Ryan Levey [ERC] that said:

"Alright, so here's the deal with The Blvd, the Spokane Convention Center is trying to get the building condemned so they can build an expansion over on that side of the street.

"So The Blvd is being taken to court. This process takes several months, so we only have to worry in the long run. It's not even a for sure thing yet. But knowing the luck of the music scene, it'll go down just like Fat Tuesday's. And The Big Dipper. And The Detour. And every other venue we can get going for us."

I couldn't quite understand how The Blvd as a business could be "taken to court" over a property issue such as this. After some searching around, I found an article, which I've linked to below, that explains what has been going on. All my research came from this article. I couldn't however, find out what is going on now; as far as a master plan. It sounds like a waiting game.

Pretty much, the Spokane Public Facilities District, who owns things such as the Convention Center and the INB Performing Arts Center (Opera House) and the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena would like the property for expansion. It has been said that the SPFD is claiming that the owner of the property and the single building at 333 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., is refusing to sell his property to them.

The Executive Director of the SPFD was quoted in an article by Richard Ripley in the Spokane Journal of Business issue dated March 08, 2007, as saying "...property is needed to do something for the public good, and someone is not willing to accept market value for their property.”

The SPFD did infact ask the city to condemn the property [1] for "the good of the public" which it makes this an eminent domain issue. Read the definition of eminent domain at Wikipedia.org.

The owner, Glen Cloninger, says he just wants market value for his property and is not refusing to sell.