COLUMN
FROM THE MUSIC DESK
Beautiful Places of the Great Northwest
NXNW needs a new home. And so many options!

by ZACH DUNDAS and JOHN GRAHAM
zdundas@wweek.com
jgraham@wweek.com

We've all been there. The place you've been hanging your hat for years isn't going to work out anymore, and suddenly you need to move. So we can sympathize with the plight of North by Northwest, the music festival late of Portland, now bound for Parts Unknown.

For seven years, Willamette Week helped Austin's South by Southwest stage a three-day music fest in Portland. Last month, when WW decided not to co-sponsor the festival this year, the SXSW folks decided it was time to move on to greener pastures here in Proud Cascadia.

We certainly want to see it all work out for the wacky crew from Austin, which includes many fine people. (After all, they're still going to welcome each and every Portland act they invited to this year's SXSW rumpus in Austin with open arms. Right?) We know they've looked into doing NXNW in Seattle--but how predictable is that?

The festival needs to get creative. The Great Northwest offers no shortage of out-of-the-way villages and smart little-cities-that-could. So let's have a look at some potential new homes for the region's premier music festival!

Manzanita, Ore. (Pop. 785): A friend of ours once stumbled across a $100 bill lying on the ground here. It's a goddamn omen! NXNW may never have turned a profit in Portland, but this quaint ocean 'burg clearly has its money mojo workin', yeah! Beware the riptide, though--don't want any of those big rock stars to do a Dennis Wilson drowning act. Now that would make for some bad press.

Possible media co-sponsor: The Seaside Signal ("The North Coast's Community Newspaper Since 1905")

Madras, Ore. (Pop. 3,443): Yes, it lacks readymade venues. But given the dramatic makeover of Rocco's Pizza that's been a fixture of past NXNWs, this little river town's smattering of juke-only watering holes should suffice. Bonus: Easy access to whitewater rafting may help attract "Xtreme" bands. Big money. Guaranteed*. (*Guarantee not valid during non-summer months of October-June.)

Possible media co-sponsor: The Bend Bulletin. This estimable daily covers most of central Oregon.

Aberdeen, Wash. (Pop. 16,565): For an event seeking to tap the musical heritage of the Northwest, what better place than the town that gave the world Kurt Cobain? Relive the recessionary angst that made "grunge" so great! See the playground where Our Martyred Hero was beaten by jocks! Feel the oppressive cloud of doom settling over this decaying mill town!

PMC-S: The Daily World (This paper's "Teen Connection" section may provide a handy "in" with the festival's target demo.)

Longview, Wash. (Pop. 31, 499): Nothing says "rad music" like the city that bequeathed its name to Green Day's breakout hit. The fact that "Longview" was about this whistlestop town's spirit-killing paucity of, well, anything to do whatsoever is irrelevant. It's all non-stop action here. Entertainment central. Really.

PMC-S: The (Longview) Daily News (www.tdn.com)

Spokane, Wash. (Pop. 361,364): It's a common misconception that all of the action in the Northwest goes down on the Coast. Check out the self-proclaimed capital of "The Inland Empire," a city that has all the "retro kitsch" hipsters can handle. A dusty downtown core that hasn't seen a single urban renewal project harks back to the '50s glory days of Rock, while the creepy, deserted "Expo" pavilion on the riverfront is a '70s wonderland. Better yet, they've got a classic venue: Ichabod's is like the old EJ's (with the addition of hulking, triple-Y-chomosomed jock bouncers).

PMC-S: Spokane is a real live metro area, boasting not one, but two alternative weeklies, The Inlander and The Local Planet. Either of these bizarrely named publications should be able to provide the requisite shout-outs.

Whitefish, Mont. (Pop. 4,368): Again, the Xtreme angle. Snowboarding, dude! All the kids love snowboarding! They'll also love getting wasted at the Black Star Brewery (where that faux-micro beer is made), smoking that premium kind bud back-packed in from B.C. and checking out 300 of America's hottest young bands at the Whitefish metro area's approximately three night clubs. Can you dig it?

PMC-S: The Whitefish Pilot. One ex-colleague who went to work there says: "The whole paper fails the 'who cares?' test."