Premature death hits underground music venue

After just five months in operation, the underground live music and art venue known as the Warehouse has been forced to close.

Its former residents say they are not down for the count, but rather are brainstorming new ideas on how to continue the unique, local legacy of the Warehouse in a different, and perhaps better, location in the coming months.

“We were shut down because our landlord cited us for operating an illegal business,” said Adam Ydstie who, with friends Doug Stoeckicht, Emily Nollmeyer and Julie Rex, lived in and organized house shows at the Warehouse for the less than six months it was operational.

The four friends remain unclear as to what the said illegal activity specifically was. Stoeckicht said the landlord, noted Tacoma real estate developer Fred Roberson, did not provide specifics on why the four were being evicted.

“We asked for any evidence they may have about us but we never saw any information back. He didn’t define ‘illegal’ – that’s the evidence we asked for.”

Roberson declined to comment on the matter to Tacoma Weekly.

The fact that liquor was being served at Warehouse events seems key as to why the venue would be shut down. While liquor was not being sold outright, Stoeckicht said that a small portion of cover charges collected at the door was used to keep the bar stocked, although the large bulk of the funds went to pay the musicians.

“I talked to someone at the Liquor Control Board and she said it’s not (illegal) – it’s a grey area, but technically not illegal,” Stoeckicht said.

Liquor Control Board Lieutenant Dave Cornett would disagree.

“It’s totally illegal…and there’s no license (the friends could have purchased) for that to take place.”

He said that unless events at the Warehouse were by invitation only, the four were violating the law by opening the door to the public with liquor available. Invitation-only events – like weddings – are allowed to serve liquor because such events require a banquet permit, which comes with its own restrictions and are only issued to private parties.

Ydstie and Stoeckicht said they never meant to do anything wrong; all they wanted was to give Tacoma’s nightlife a boost by opening up an art and music space where anyone of any age or walk of life could come and feel comfortable to see a show.

“We never wanted to do anything illegal. If I thought something was illegal I wouldn’t be involved with it at all,” Stoeckicht said. “We haven’t tried to deceive the landlord in any way.”

Now that the four have moved out of the Warehouse, they are setting their minds to opening up in the near future a new venue for underground music and house shows, perhaps opening a full-fledged business.

“This is something we have a lot of passion behind, so much that we’re still looking into other avenues where we can continue to do shows,” Stoeckicht said. In order to do this, he and Ydstie are seeking input from the local community via their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=374852415920.

“As we’re looking to create a business plan, we want to get an idea of what Tacoma wants, especially those who have been to our shows and have seen what we do and how we do it,” Stoeckicht said. “It would give us the opportunity to see what other venues in Tacoma are lacking.

“The more people we get to respond to this, the sooner we can get busy meeting the community’s needs because that’s always been our focus – on the community.”

Commenting rules