By Fall 2013, Spokane will have a new live music venue called The Bartlett. The venue will be all ages with a 21+ bar.
The owners, Karli and Caleb Ingersoll, have dreamed about opening a music venue of their own since they first met over 4 years ago. They’ve been looking for the right building since the beginning of 2011.
“Spokane’s music scene has really been struggling for the past couple of years and we are ready to jump into something that will give it some positive reinforcement,” said Karli Ingersoll
“We are young, we don’t have any kids, and we are ready to take risks.”
During the day The Bartlett will be a coffee shop, but by evening will transform into a bar and music venue. On nights that they don’t have shows booked, they plan to host all ages open mic nights, poetry events, and other local community art focused events. Monday thru Thursday The Bartlett will open at 11a.m. and remain open until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday they will open at 11a.m. and close at midnight and they will be closed on Sundays.
Karli and her husband Caleb have both been in the music industry for a while. Karli says Caleb’s whole family is musical, and he studied audio engineering in college and spent a lot of time recording bands and playing the drums in bands as well. As a kid, Karli took classical piano lessons, then in college she played in bands for fun until 2007 when she started getting more serious.She spent a couple years touring, writing, and recording music. She also created posters and album art for bands and musicians.
Karli met her husband when she booked a couple shows at the venue that Caleb was running in Tri Cities where he lived. They are now in an indie rock band together called Cathedral Pearls.
“I really admired his skills and ambition, and we immediately became friends. Not too long after that, we started playing music together and spent a lot of time travelling around the west coast performing at different venues,” Karli said.
“We really believe it takes more than one venue to sustain a great local music scene. Other venues in town are approaching what they do in ways that are very different than our vision. Our goal is to fill a gap we see in the community. “ Karli said.
“The Knitting factory is substantially bigger than us and books bands that are much more established than what we will be booking,” Karli said. “Our focus will be more on up and coming indie buzz bands from around the country. We have really worked hard to gear our business to fit into a specific niche.”