Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
Cubs Combat Casino
PHOTOS: Peaches And Amanda Blank At Metro
The Return of The Chicagoist Reader Meet-Up
County Sales Tax Rollback Vetoed - Here We Go Again
We admit that we stopped even running articles on the new Bottom Lounge's opening dates since they always got pushed backward. Heck, wasn't the room supposed to open last year? Or the year before?
Well, now all the licenses are in order, the construction dust has settled, and it looks like it was well worth the wait. Bottom Lounge has restaurants with late-night menus on both floors, the first floor music room has a brand spankin' new sound system, and the city finally gets a new tiki bar with the second floor's ‘Volcano Room’ with over 100 rum-based cocktails on the menu. To top it off there's a 2000 square-foot outdoor deck where you can grab some fresh air (and maybe a smoke?).
What has us most excited is that Bottom Lounge finally gives MP Shows' Brian Peterson a permanent home after a few years of temporary residencies in a number of clubs. While we're sure we'll still see him doing shows around town, Bottom Lounge will finally give hi the freedom to build bigger, better, and more ambitious concert bills. It might take a little for this to come into effect since tours are planned out months in advance, but we're curious to see what he comes up with.
We're sure other venues in town are not looking forward to the new competition, especially after a particularly brutal winter has hurt a lot of clubs financially. But from a concert patron and fan's perspective the place looks like a welcome addition to Chicago's music scene.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
as long as the new one isn't as abominably cold as the last one.
Too bad Brian is a dick who likes to screw over small bands. Ask around, I'm dead serious.
I've never had a bad experience with Brian, and I've worked with him from the band (booking my own), the booking (him booking shows into a club I ran at the time), and the promoter (booking my own bills into clubs he ran) angles.
So I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Do tell, what small band are you in? sure, I can be a dick but I don't screw over bands, ask around, I'm dead serious.
lookin fwd to peepin this. hell yea walking distance.
So I'm not sure what you're talking about.
A lot of people know EXACTLY what he's talking about.
Then why don't a lot of people enlighten us?
I am sure there are smaller LOCAL (not touring) bands that feel this way because they don't understand why we sometimes give touring bands 100% of the money after we pay the club their cut on smaller shows, I can understand this being a bummer, but just to defend myself, we always pay local bands before we take a penny for ourselves and payout info is always available at the end of a show or via a follow up email to me, I think there are alot of smaller locals who have never left Chicago and don't understand the concept of touring etc...or they feel that I should pay them out of pocket for their skills even when they don't draw, if you want to call that "screwing" then thats fine, I am used to being a scapegoat for lame bands with egos who don't draw....this will never change probably, its much easier to blame me than to figure out how things work. we are very transparent.
I was in a small local band that got booked through Brian a number of times, always a fair and straight forward experience.
This place has the potential to be great.
Late night food. Funky drinks.
Is there bike racks outside yet?
I just hope is doesn't become douchebag central...
So like most Chicagoist posts, this one is missing severe details without having to click on a link.
WHATS THE ADDRESS?
also,
i had someone arrested at the old bottom lounge.
To get back to the point of the article, I went by yesterday at 545, it wasnt open, and a guy who works there said maybe Friday. So it is in fact not open for business yet.
@ carapatrcia: Gee whiz, just click on the Bottom Lounge link in the post and get the address.
it was open last night. Had a drink there myself. Its going to be a great venue, and you can smoke and drink on the roof top deck. excellent
I went there last night as well to drop off some flyers. The stage is huge, the venue is monsterous, great dressing rooms, comfortable atmosphere, sweet roof deck.
I'm playing there next thursday (the 12th) with The Atlantic Divide. Come on out. It'll be one of the first shows of the venue.
Well it wasnt open at 545 on 6/4. And the one person who worked there in the parking lot said it won't be open until Friday. Thats really annoying, get your sh*t together.
So the random person you ran into in the parking lot at 5:45 in the afternoon told you the club wasn't open and you decided to just believe them?
Relax, the place is open, so stop bein' so ornery you showed up too early.
And by the by, I ran into some folks that have been there last night and everyone raves about the second-floor outdoor patio, so I'm looking forward to checking that out.
I don't really have a horse in the race, but I have heard that bands are "strongly encouraged" to travel out to Otto's in DeKalb to play for next to nothing if they want to set up a -possibly- more lucrative show in the city. Is there any truth to that?
we don't book Otto's any longer, but yeah, we would always strongly encourage bands to play Otto's, we would also try to work more with locals who wanted to work with us...there were local Dekalb area bands that would want to play the city so we would try to work with them in Dekalb and help them develop themselves in Chicago and vice versa, you say "bands" when obviously it was probably a "band" that was bummed they played Dekalb for 10 people and barely got gas money? who knows, I am sure we could pick every show apart and there would be an issue, Dekalb is tough for sure and we got out before another rough summer.
Fair enough.