Could Sub Pop save Seattles nightlife?
Now that Sub Pop’s flag-raising, nostalgia-tripping, 20th-anniversary celebration is over, let’s revisit a very important truth: If Seattle government’s current attitude toward nightlife existed 20 years ago, Sub Pop would never have happened. There was an unplanned punk-rock moment at last week’s “Oral History Live” event at Experience Music Project that had nothing to do with the night’s interviewees, Sub Pop founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. It came directly after Mayor Greg Nickels officially proclaimed July 11-14 “Sub Pop’s Utterly Lost Weekend.” In the post-huzzah lull, someone in the crowd yelled out, “Now stop the war on nightlife!” Nickels had been damnably eloquent in his presentation, pandering to the locals with sarcasm, giving all the requisite lip service to the label, proudly equating its offbeat business strategy to multibillion-dollar megaliths Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft. You wouldn’t have known this is the man who, directly and through selective inactio
