A place where I like to see shows is the BellyUp Tavern in Solana Beach, California. It's been around for a while and books a wide array of musical talent. Memorable shows I've attended here include the Reverend Horton Heat, the Supersuckers and many Rugburns shows. The BellyUp site is a charming, if not mostly text-based, peek into the club and its goings-on. It's set up with those annoying multiple frames I can't stand, but this doesn't ruin the total experience.
The "Bellybuttons" include BellyUp info, merchandise, comments, directions, ticket ordering and an event calendar. The ticket ordering and calendar portions are the saving graces of this site. It's cool to be able to order tickets directly from the site, as the BellyUp has been known to sell out. The calendar is set up and viewed like an actual calendar, and has ticket and time info as well. Go see a show here. You can get close to the stage and drink lots of beer, just like me.
Another groovy San Diego club is the Casbah. In fact, this is my favorite club in the whole world, kiddies. It's that hip, alternative type of place—you know the kind. Seen lotsa shows there, too—Morphine, Social Distortion, and many cool local bands, as well. The Casbah site is just as groovy as the club. The page opens with a swank little glowin'-lookin' Casbah logo and some wacky buttons for links to the subsequent pages. These links include a schedule of bands, a featured band article, merchandise (with male and female hat models), a forum for Casbah online chat and news, and some Casbah history (open since '89, moved in '94, Smashing Pumpkins, Social Distortion, blah-blah-blah). Casbah—you gotta love it. Booze, music, lounginess, tattoos, pool and tiny bathrooms.
Now up North a bit to that lovely place called Los Angeles—Hollywood, to be more specific. The Troubadour is a club that's been around for 38 years, and the Troubadour Web site, or TroubWorld, is billed as a "living environment of sight and sound." The main menu here is set up like a building blueprint, with many interesting areas to explore—some serious, some tongue-in- cheek. Parts of TroubWorld are still under construction, as well.
One interesting section is the TroubWorld Archive, with photos and press clippings of bands that have played the Troubadour. These artists range from the Eagles to the Byrds to Pearl Jam to Social Distortion. Quite a diverse musical history. Coming soon is "Troub TV," which will utilize CU-see-me to show hot, up- and-coming bands on your computer screen. Also under construction is a musicians' referral and classified section for artists looking for bands, equipment, and so on.
You can even send a friend a Troubadour cyber postcard from here. And if you are in a band, you can look at Tech Info and find out about the clubs' sound equipment and policies, and contracts for artists playing at the Troubadour. Last, but certainly not least, is the Troubadour calendar of events, the monthly list of scheduled bands.
Similar in history to the Troubadour is the Whisky a GoGo, another Hollywood mainstay since at least the '60s. Whisky Net is a small site, but it gets the basics down. The main page features a sort of psychedelic image of the club floating in some surreal landscape. The Marquee holds the calendar of scheduled artists; Swag covers merchandise like hats, shirts, and shot glasses. There's also a groovy Whisky Chat section which has real-time chat capabilities.
A newer Hollywood club is the House of Blues, which is actually a pretty happenin' club. They've got a great sound system and it's set up so you can see the bands easily from all over the club. I've seen great shows by the Reverend Horton Heat and the Cramps at the House of Blues. The H.O.B. site itself is pretty useful and fun. There are Real Audio broadcasts of H.O.B. shows, there's H.O.B. chat, and you can get schedules to all the House of Blues clubs (L.A., New Orleans, Chicago, and Boston). There's also a search engine where you can search for info on blues artists and so on, doing a general search or a search of the Blues News section. You can also order music from the site.
Obviously a club is going to set up a site to advertise what it has to offer the public, whether it be bands, merchandise or whatever. This is fine and dandy; you'll get plenty of people checking your schedule. If a site becomes more than that and offers practical applications beyond the advertisement blockade, it's a lot more useful. Something like a band feature, audio clips, a chat section, or a musicians' classified section really stands out and adds more value for the user. The ability to order tickets online is cool, too. If a club site just has a schedule, I'm going to look only occasionally. If there's more interesting stuff, I'm going to come back to find out about new bands, or chat about shows, or check out the musicians' classifieds.
I like the Casbah, TroubWorld and House of Blues sites the best because they offer more than just a calendar with resources for musicians and music fans. The BellyUp site is also sweet, though, in that you can order tickets, music and merchandise online. And I like the way the calendar at the BellyUp site is set up—easy to see and easy to read. And we all love EASE and CONVENIENCE, don't we?