Beast Blog

Venues & Clubs

in my opinion, i think oakland has the most to offer in terms of venues & clubs in the east bay. it has the most spaces that could be kick-booty clubs, if only the city lets it happen. in the meantime, the warehouse & house party phenominon is killer in oakland.

i like rock, indie, & experimental live performance genres, so oakland does it for me. if you like rootsy, bluesy, or folk, berkeley is prolly where ya wanna be. if you like DJs, well, that's a whole different ball o wax. (ruby room? radio? shattuck down low? where do the DJ people go?)


the best places for my kinda stuff? well, as an indie promoter, i get to select the venues where i place things based on MY criteria. i choose the oakland metro, the black box (oakland), and the starry plough (berkeley).

why? the motives of the people who own/work there, mainly. at the metro & the black box, the venues are owned & run by artists & people who run a venue because they love the arts. the starry plough is a family-run business, and as a leftie, i appreciate their anti-racist, pacifist politics.

they also happen to run a great feeling place from an audience point of view. the places just feel... comfortable. lived in. friendly.

i also like(d): cafe eclectica (albany), the now-defunct club muse (albany), 924 gilman, & the parkway theater.

now the dish:
i have also placed things at places i did not like for different reasons (from both a promoter and audience point of view). i've had run-ins at:

1. the now-defunct talk of the town (oakland). what a nightmare. i thought i was gonna have a heart attack each show. badly run by tweakers.

2. ivy room (albany). never really liked it. most of the music is not my fave.

3. 21 grand (oakland). a fine place, but the volunteer staff can be overworked & sometimes uptight.

4. the stork club (oakland). i was the club booker here for almost two years. there were some serious things i did not like here that i won't get into.

5. imusicast (oakland). a venue run like a tightwad dotcom. do not like this place. they make bands pay for lots of tech stuff that regular shows do not need (webcasting & staff). hard for bands to make a living here. the "no sticker" rule is also a drag.

6. rooster's roadhouse (ex-minnow, alameda) there have been staff & promoter upheavals here over and over. for good reason.

i would say that i would work with 21 grand again, and if the stork problems went away, the stork club too. the others? nah. can't recommend them to others, either. sad, really.

what's your fave club?