I got a tip that the Loft at 21 Commerce wasn’t open over the weekend. Then I went down there to snoop around this afternoon and saw that the doors were chained from the inside. So I gave owner Jeff Corbin a call to see what’s up.

“It’s shut down,” he said, declining to comment further on what has apparently shuttered the downtown dance club for good. The venue — which previous owner Jon Tartaglia opened in 2000, and which Corbin, also the owner of Lakewood’s Maggie O’Toole’s, bought in 2006 — had already been shut

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Thankfully, Entercom has gotten over last year’s habit of having its Seattle stations throw their summer rock galas in uncomfortable, trash strewn parking lots. (Click here and here to freshen your memory.) So there was actually grass at KISW-FM’s Pain in the Grass show Saturday at Auburn’s White River Amphitheatre — you know, if you were up in the cheap seats on the lawn. Seether, Shinedown, Sevendust, Drowning Pool, Earshot and Jet Black Stare all made appearances. But the whole thing was headlined by local prog-metal heroes, Queensryche. And here’s some of

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I missed Duff McKagan’s Loaded the last couple of times the band swung through town. But last night I finally caught the outfit, which also includes local boys Jeff Rouse and Geoff Reading. (Didn’t catch whether guitarist Mike Squires was from Pierce County, but he sure had some sweet looking guitars. But I digress.) And now I think I actually like Loaded better than McKagan’s bread and butter, Velvet Revolver. For starters, Duff is charismatic and way funnier than Scott Weiland (though my editors would prefer I not

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So, I finally found a few minutes to post the rest of my Duff McKagan sound bites. Tonight, his band Duff McKagan’s Loaded will headline Hell’s Kitchen. But in these he’s talking about Velvet Revolver stuff.

Pt. 1: Realizing things weren’t working out with Scott Weiland

Pt. 2: No, Lenny Kravitz won’t be the new VR singer (but "that would be killer")

Hmmm. I see a band called the Cupcakes is opening for Duff McKagan’s Loaded tonight at Hell’s Kitchen. Now what was that rumor a reader passed along about “the Cupcakes?” Oh, yeah. That they’re actually Sweet Water.

At least, the band’s fans received this e-mail which, along with the band’s previous surprise show at the Kitchen, has lead to some speculation.

A message to all members of sweet water What up original gangsters? Here is what be new for the crew. Which is me and you.

New video for an old song

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I’m a fan of NWA and Ice Cube from back in the day, though my interest waned a bit in the ’90s. And it’s been fun, if sometimes weird, watching Cube grow into a lovable Hollywood icon. So in the days leading up to his Thursday night concert at Showbox at the Market, I wondered why I’d never seen the guy perform live? And would it be lame watching a nearly 40-year-old star of family flicks trying to cling onto a gangsta shtick? But a couple of songs into a set that Cube

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As you might have read in a previous post, ex-Guns N’ Roses and current Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan will bring his other band, Duff McKagan’s Loaded, to Hell’s Kitchen tomorrow. And recently I called the guy at his home in Seattle to catch up. Duff’s a pretty laid back, candid guy, and I got lots of good clips about all three of his bands, including his account of what went wrong between former VR singer Scott Weiland and the rest of the guys.

But I thought I’d post these things in a couple of installments

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Radiohead (guitarist Ed O’Brien, singer, guitarist and keyboard player Thom Yorke and bassist Colin Greenwood shown above) headlined one of the summer’s most hotly anticipated concerts Wednesday night — a sold out affair at Auburn’s White River Amphitheatre, where England’s alt-rock heroes last headlined in 2003. The band’s two-hour set was befitting of one of the World’s most critically acclaimed rock bands. It was heavier than you’d expect on the new material (unless you’d been taking sneak peaks at set lists posted on sites like AtEaseWeb.com) with the band performing

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Just read an update on the Dave Matthews Band’s site about a LeRoi Moore memorial fund being set up to benefit charities the band’s recently deceased sax player was passionate about. Click on the link for details.

Moore died Tuesday from injuries sustained in an ATV accident, in case you missed the news. DMB’s tour, which will make its usual three-day stand at the Gorge on Labor Day weekend, is going on with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones saxophonist Jeff Coffin, according to a Rolling Stone report, which you can read here.

Just got back from Radiohead’s amazing show at the White River Amphitheatre. Here’s a set list for starters. And I’ll have some photos and a few notes posted in the morning.

Radiohead set list

Aug. 20, 2008

White River Amphitheatre

15 Steps

Reckoner

Optimistic

There There

All I Need

Pyramid Song

Talk Show Host

The National Anthem

The Gloaming

Videotape

Lucky

Faust ARP (with a couple of false starts)

Jigsaw Falling Into Place

Climbing Up the Walls

Dollars & Cents

Nude

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