So I remember when Little Brother's closed there was a lot of feeling that Columbus needed another venue in the 400-size capacity to fill the space..

Since then some clubs like Skully's, Rumba, Carabar, Summit have taken some bigger bands to make up for it...

But I am just curious, do people still feel like another venue would be good for the city? Maybe even a 600 size?

Or are things good as?

Remember when there was gonna be that venue in that side street across-ish from High Five?

I was just thinking about it, figured it might be a good conversation.. maybe not..

I think the death of Little Brother's left a void that has since gone unfilled; miss it (and Stache's) and Dan Dougan.

For me, Outland has sort of filled that void - caught Fanfarlo and The Posies there this year.

Skully's never booked a ton of national acts but it feels like they've completely stopped doing that which is a shame.

Lack of advertising/websites are KILLING Carabar and The Summit as far as I'm concerned but then again I'm a 'burb dwelling father of 3 so maybe those places don't need advertising. At least I know where to look (MySpace) to see Rumba's schedule but even that isn't real easy to find.

Too bad Slapsy Maxie's isn't located in a good spot ... that's definitely my "diamond in the rough" for 2010. It's a great rock bar with a great setup, cheap beer, etc., etc.

I'll second the lack of info from certain venues. I saw this morning that a band I would have liked to have seen played Skylab over the summer. Bummer. I don't recall seeing any flyers or posts for that matter.

It is sorta funny that Now That's Class in Cleveland sends flyers to Columbus for shows up there. We can't even get a schedule for venues here but we can find out what's going on in Clevo. WTF???? Sad state of affairs...

Benco has been booking national acts at Skully's. Kurt Vile... I forget who else but he is doing a good job promoting his events. Kudos to him. I agree that Outland could pick up the slack from the void of Little Brothers. While I hated LB, I did enjoy Outland for the Swans.

Agree that Ben does a great job of promoting. I'm on the Skully's email newsletter list and I rarely see a national touring act on the schedule.

little bros's is missed. but i'm thinking the OLD lil bros. the one that booked awesome shows, not the one that started booking for cash. the last couple years they were only booking shows that would make them money so it started to get kind of lame.

Skully's
Outland

Basement

Wexner -- is wonderful, but all you can do there is watch.

Chip is right. Summit and Carabar could use some sort of smoke signal to let people know who's playing and when -- really the only source of info is this message board and word of mouth it seems. (Please don't say the local papers -- cause they aren't doing the job).

I hate to say this town needs a House of Blues, but after my experience at the Cleveland version, I'd say it does. That place seems to do everything right for a concert of a particular size.

Whatever happened to the rumors of a new Stache's in the old Miani's -- is that just rumor?

Is the city missing a mid to small sized venue?

No.
Outland, Skully's and even whatever BOMA is called now are size appropriate for what Little Brother's offered. And I'd argue that they all have superior sound systems. (Skully's ranking highest, BOMA is questionable due to not typically housing bands, and the last show I saw at Outland pretty much sounded as good or bad as Little Brothers used to)

Plus, we typically forget about The Basement, AND there's talk that Rumba may double in size much like Woodlands just did. Although I question the function of the Woodlands set up, and the fact that it's probably the furthest from high street and the older crowd blues leftovers from Thirsty Ear still kinda linger. But that's a different topic.

So venue wise, from a technical standpoint? I don't think we need it.

The question is, are we missing a consistent venue who brings the national little guys through? And that answer is yes, although I think Benco is really trying to make that venue be Outland. I think Outland has an uphill battle to be THAT venue for a few reasons but if the Brewery District can begin to ressurect itself from the fatal blow dealt by the Arena District, then it might be possible.

For now, there's not a singular venue where you know that smaller touring acts are most likely to hit right now.

I'm surprised it's not Skully's, but some of that may have to do with the bar being booked out some 4-5 months in advance at times.

Kind of off topic but why did everyone quit booking at Ravari? I mean yeah it always kind of sucked for shows but still it used to have a few gems(non pig fuck metal) a year.

And yes we need a good mid sized venue run by people who like music.

Ravari: there is about an 80% percent chance of getting towed while seeing a band there. I'm not really interested in paying $113 to see the Phantods open up for Fitz and the Tantrums.

Basement: Bad set up mediocre sound.
Carabar: Fine venue but it's soon to be gone too, right?
Summit: Fine venue.
Rumba: Needs to be bigger but other than that I love seeing bands there. Great staff.

i find that has the most reliable show listings. joel usually knows what's going on at carabar & other elusive venues. thanks, joel!

+1 on Cringe listings, The Summit and The Rumba staff. The Basement is a profoundly bad place for rock and roll although I do get a kick out of watching clips from time to time of some of the world's worst bands ever packing the place after SNL.

Yeah it is still missing.

Some places have tried, but they are not doing it for me. The number of shows I go to has plummeted since lil bros closed.

Parsons Ave is ripe for a concert only mid size venue. A couple of those empty buildings would be perfect.

The Summit is a bit of a boxcar and Bobo is still a tiny tree house. Rumba only likes singer songwriters or funky jazz cover bands. Skully's could of did what Little Bros.did, but probably didn't want to. Carabar's ok, I guess. I'm not sure touring bands are thrilled to play these places. Driving all day to play The Treehouse must totally suck.

Ravari had some sweet shows. I always had a great time hearing bands like The SuperSuckers, Baroness, Black Tusk, Charles Walker and the Dynamites, Budos Band, Jucifer, Fu Manchu, Witchcraft, Heavy Trash, Eli Paperboy Reed, Burkina Electric, Helmet, Entrance, Thrill Kill Kult, Valiant Thor, Totimosi, They Never Sleep, Nebula, Kharma to Burn, High on Fire, The Sword, etc.

The promotion sometimes was weak or nonexistent, and it's always hard to park in the city. Never park at Sloppies (read the signs, they are serious!).

By the way, why isn't that old Sloopie's the new Little Brothers? The size is right. Heard it's going to be a restaurant. Hope not. That could be the one.

I finally got down to Woodlands this weekend, I think that space has a lot of potential... They probably need a little more PA on the big stage.

I'm still missing Stache's