My band played a show there the other night, and we were told we couldn't have any beer on stage. When I asked why, they told me that the Liquor Board had come in a few days previously and cited them for band members having alcohol on stage.

Over the last 20 years, I have played dozens of clubs in most of the cities (large and small) in Washington State, and I have never heard of this picayune rule being enforced EVER.

Fuck Tom Carr and Greg Nickels for their ticky tacky police state bullshit (and that goes double for the bullshit residential parking zone they put in for the condos behind the Blue Moon that prohibits all parking between 6PM and 12AM).

"Good neighbor" my ass.

Give me a break. The Blue Moon is about as much of a threat to our civic values as the Georgian Terrace at the Olympic Hotel (who I bet didn't have to sign any good neighbor agreement)

The WSLCB is a retarded remnant of our state's backward past. The agents, at least when I was working in a bar, are a combination of Barney Fife and Frau Bleuker. Self-important little creeps who couldn't even keep track of their own byzantine rules.

Shut that stupid thing down and privatize the liquor stores. Let the cities enforce the state's liquor laws.

Nice Frau Bleuker reference!

I'm with ya, Catalina. Privatize. The LCB is antiquated and fickle. The state run liquor biz is a racket.

Did you know that last year they considered instituting new laws for all ages shows that would have required a floor-to-ceiling wall separating the booze from the minors, in addition to dedicated entries and exits? Imagine what that means at a venue like the Showbox; 25' foot-high walls dissecting the room to create a minor pen. Beautiful.

The Blue Moon is smelly and lame. I moved to Seattle from Milwaukee expecting to find hip exciting nightlife, not a rank den of old hippies with BO.

We don't need Blue Moon and new people are not going to miss it. We've got cool new clubs like Sugar and Havana to frequent instead. Old hippies, your days in Seattle are over.

Justin,

Can I interest you in a one way ticket back? How about an old-fashioned ass kicking?

You'll be doing us all a favor by staying away from the places real Seattleites like to frequent. Nothing like a little newbie trash like you to fuck up a good watering hole.

Seattle Hippies you are no longer wanted in this town. Hippies should read Seattle Weakly. They should fumigate Blue Moon and then tear it down and put up something more like Viceroy or Havanna with artesian cheese plates instead of beer nuts and pretzels.

Hippies, The Stranger hates you! Go away.

How about a Cracker Barrel? Too bad the lot is too small for a Wal-Mart....

I eat only locally grown sustainable food and drive a hybrid car. Wall-Mart is for poor people and Cracker Barrel does not even serve vegetarian entres.

I hope the put in a Whole Foods. The Blue Moon had its day - more people would use Whole Foods now. FYI You can even buy organic beer at Whole Foods now.

Whole Foods on Roosevelt is only a mile away from the Blue Moon.

Now, 45th could use a PCC...

Whatever the Blue Moon used to be, it was a shithole as recently as 4-5 years ago and it's a shithole now. Given the bar's clientele, you can only blame so much of that on an alleged neighborhood vendetta.

there you go. rather than worry about the principle of the government selectively enforcing laws to muscle people it doesn't like out of business, let's instead debate whether you like that business, and whether there are any other bars you'd like the mayor to decide to knock off the map while he's at it.

I'd have much more sympathy if crackheads weren't shooting up and dealing behind and around the premises, and in the neighboring Kinkos.

Gogo -- There are crack heads in the next block where I live. Are they there because of something I did? Or was it YOU?

So the Blue Moon owner and customers - they are supposted to replace SPD to battle crack heads?

I think you should go there and do the community vigilante thing.

The Mayor migh give you a certificate.

There is danger when the Mayors office think they must monitor all bars and taverns to the max and to suit some vague blue nose standards.

Not cool, stupid, and a waste of tax dollars.

I think over time the Blue Moon has had a very solid business plan. Tip of the old hat..... making money selling beer and snancks..... Year after year after year...... all the way to the bank.

Unless they're harboring said crackheads... the Blue Moon should call the damn cops when they're doing their business around their quarters, like every other club and bar owner worth their salt does.

. I see a lot of PERSONAL opinions here. If you want artesian cheese plates, beer nuts & pretzels, even zinfandel with a melted Brie medley, or pigs knuckles w/ hard boiled eggs, there is a place for you in Seattle. I’m not gonna slam your choices or your favorite place, whether you came from Milwaukee or Tucumcari. Tho I would expect tolerance from newbies when discussing a historical landmark with deep iconoclastic roots.
. The flaming isn’t productive. What’s happening to the Blue Moon appears to be contrary to an open & transparent discourse about our government’s objectives and agenda fore our city. Subtracting the childish & selfish “knock it down, I don’t like the menu/patrons/decor” arguments, little is left except a two wildly different stories about what’s really going on. We need to get to the bottom of this disagreement.
. The unique places that serve eclectic tastes shouldn’t be singled out for elimination. Cool clubs (Sugar, Havana) may need help in 10 to 20 years, if they don’t fade like a fad. Let the marketplace decide who survives! Instead of back-room deals and politics.