Outback Jack’s Expands, Reopens To Accommodate Up To 500 Fans
Outback Jack’s, the downtown hot spot for live music that closed last April, has been reopened by original owner Don Goligoski.
This is good news for the local music community.
The new Outback Jack’s, after undergoing some remodeling, can now hold up to 500 people, meaning the club can function as a major concert venue.
And, with Black Happy manager Scott Meyers handling the booking, Outback Jack’s will stage some significant concerts, beginning with Great White on March 1.
Spokane has missed a club like Outback Jack’s. Bands with followings too large for the Big Dipper and Mother’s Pub but not large enough to play The Met couldn’t gig here.
“It will bring more music into Spokane,” said Goligoski. “We’re going to have a lot of music from Seattle, Portland and San Francisco coming in.
“It will give a lot of local bands the chance to play also.”
Goligoski sold Outback Jack’s in 1993 to Kelly Galletti. Due to a couple of slow months last winter, Galletti was forced to sell the bar to Bonnie Blore and Steve Fisher, who opened the Quarterhorse, a pool hall. Blore and Fisher then sold the club back to Goligoski, who holds the lease on the building, and last week moved the Quarterhorse to a new location, W1321 Second.
Outback Jack’s will initiate its return to live, rock music tonight and Saturday with local headbangers Wiser Sin and guests.
Music starts at 9 p.m. The cover is $3. Bring your ID.
Elsewhere in the night
One of the Northwest’s talented blues bands, Yo and de Cats, plays the Fort Spokane Brewery tonight and Saturday. Both shows begin at 9:30 p.m. and have a cover of $5.
The Planetary Refugees, a local reggae band, plays Ichabod’s North on Monday. The band will continue playing Ichabod’s every Monday.
The band recently enlisted a new guitarist, Kim Holloway.
Music starts at 9 p.m. The cover wasn’t available at press time.
Locals Havana Blast and Washaway World play the Big Dipper tonight. Music at 9:30 p.m. The cover is $3.
Snaut headlines the Big Dipper Saturday. Opening for the raunchy, borderline-bad-taste band are Distraction and Echopool.
xxxx ON THE SCENE Nightwatch stopped by Mother’s Pub a week ago to catch Spokane’s noisiest trio, Cringe, which hammered out a 45-minute-long, ear-drumrupturing set. A wash of fuzz-tones, shrieking guitar feedback, distortion, emotionally-stirred vocals and samples gushed through of the sound system like water breaking through a collapsing dam. Cringe is a noise band that sounds like Sonic Youth on a steady diet of amphetamines. The chaotic display wasn’t pretty, but it sure was thrilling. If you catch this band any time soon, don’t forget your ear plugs.