Why not, WHY?

This could have been you, Spokane.

Update: This show has been moved to the Center, a venue on Lidgerwood. All tickets purchased for the A Club show will be honored (whoop whoop.)

I have a lot of reasons to be mad about the Spokane music scene (it’s not exactly friendly, being slightly under 21.) And once a year I get to make it a wee bit better through an event my job entails, but the rest of the year, I have a going list of music-related reasons to pack up and leave the city I love so much.

On the top of the list is the fact that one of my favorite bands, the incredible indie genre-bending freakout WHY?, can’t seem to garner a decent Spokane gig. After a disastrous show a few years back, the band’s lead man (and over-disclosing rapper) Yoni Wolf was said to have muttered something along the lines of “I’m never coming back here,” and ever since, the group has left Spokane off of all of its tours.

After a relatively populated Facebook campaign, WHY? made a point of playing the A Club on February 28th, much to the delight of many fans (whether this was influenced by Facebook or not is unknown, but I’m guess it was.) Initially 21+, it was even miraculously made all-ages at some point. I bought my ticket the moment this became a thing. Needless to say, I was quivering in my combat boots with excitement. And then in typical Spokane music scene fashion, something went horribly wrong.
The A Club closed its doors and cancelled all of its shows.

So I’m a little pissed. Okay, more than a little pissed. And here’s why:
It’s very, very seldom (we’re talking once a year at most,) that a band high-up in my  ”favorites” list decides to grace Spokane with a memorable night. The last time this happened, in September with the Head and the Heart, I got sick the night of the concert, and didn’t end up staying long enough to use the remainder of my voice in singing “Down in the Valley.” So the universe owes me one. And not just me, but goddamn Yoni Wolf.

Word on the street is that Platform Booking is trying to save the show, but the likelihood of it being transferred to another all-ages venue is slim seeing as wait….we don’t really have one. At least, not one that would work for this kind of show.

I guess I can only hope that the Bartlett pulls through, and maybe some day WHY? will return, and then I can sing all the “Cheery-A Cheery-E Cheery-I Cheery-O Cheery-U’s” I want, in a crowd of like-minded fanatics. And in the meantime, if anyone wants to donate to the “Audrey-Would-Like-A-Legally-Obtained-CD-Copy-Of-Mumps, etc-Fund,” you know where to find me.

Ahem, A Club.

The saddest part of all of this is not necessarily that just I won’t get to see a band I’ve been in love with for the past three years of my life, but that dozens–likely hundreds–of like-minded fans who’ve supported and followed the band through the fantastic albums and unique attitude its brought to our ears and lives will also be deprived of witnessing them in person.

And on the other side of the issue, WHY? has possibly been proven yet again that Spokane isn’t fully invested in its music scene, despite the many dedicated to improving it. Unless something drastic happens in the next three weeks, it’s likely that the band probably won’t come here again. Which is truly tragic to all 232 (and counting) fans who were excited that for once, Spokane had done a little bit better.