It's hard to say the Spokane music scene is thriving right now. Lucky You Lounge recently shuttered its doors and some of the best local bands barely play shows around town anymore because Spokane audiences aren't super supportive. It can sometimes be a bleak scene, so any good news is welcome.
One positive development? The Big Dipper is now under new management.
Over the course of the summer, the couple that had been running the Big Dipper for years — Sunny Day Real Estate guitarist Dan Hoerner and his wife, Dawson — made way for Monumental Booking founder/owner Ryan Levey to take over as the man in charge. Under Levey's watch, Monumental had been booking the majority of shows that take place at the Dipper — primarily metal and hardcore punk shows (which is arguably the healthiest music subculture in town).
While the Hoerners kept the Big Dipper a going concern for Spokane concertgoers, Dan's increasing time commitment to Sunny Day Real Estate was leaving the burden of work on Dawson's plate while he was on the road touring. The couple thought it was the right time to let someone who could focus more on the venue's operations take the reins.
"Dawson and I have been doing it for 10 years, and it is time to have some young blood in there," Dan said this summer. "We're getting older and have three kids. It's been really fun, but really challenging. And I want to see the Dipper continue to grow, and Ryan really has just an incredible finger on the pulse of music in Spokane."
"It's just the combination of them wanting to retire from that role and me post-pandemic getting better at my role as a promoter and taking the next step up," remarks Levey. "That's really the next goal as an independent promoter — to get your hands on a venue. And being that I was booking 40 shows a year there, it made sense for me to kind of go in and give it a shot. I just never thought it would be the Big Dipper, because I've been going there since I was like 16."
The Big Dipper has long been a key cog in the Spokane musical ecosystem as the one small venue committed to being an all-ages space. That accommodating environment means not only that kids can go see touring rock shows by acts too small to play the Knitting Factory or Spokane Arena, but also the venue hosts many young bands' first concerts. Turns out it's kinda hard to have a thriving music scene when most folks under 21 aren't allowed into concert spaces.
"It's an option to see some of these smaller and up and coming bands, and there just really isn't anywhere else like that," says Levey. "That's one of the reasons why the Big Dipper stands out from everywhere else, that and the fact that it has so much history and a certain charm to it that you just don't really find anywhere else."
"I played my first show at the Big Dipper," says Dan Hoerner. "I was 20. I was not a professional musician — I was as amateur as amateur gets. And it was hugely impactful for me. It made me feel like there was a possibility that I can keep doing it, and here I am, however many years later, still doing it. It's really important for a town, especially the size of Spokane, to have a place where amateur musicians can play on the same stage as professional musicians. That mixing of those worlds."
Levey takes over the Big Dipper as a single-member LLC. The building itself is owned by Ryan Spickard, who became the executive of the estate after the building's longtime owner, Ryan's uncle Steve Spickard, died earlier this year.
While Levey is known for booking metal and hardcore music via Monumental, he's striving to offer a wider sonic palette at the Big Dipper, including adding more shows by artists playing hip-hop, punk and other genres.
"Something that I've kind of tried to do since returning from the pandemic is branch out and do different styles. But now with having control of the venue, it makes it even easier. Having the bar to help compensate certain costs for running the event helps out," says Levey. "The best venues are the ones that have that diversity. And that's one thing that I'd love to have a lot of with the Big Dipper. I'll always do metal and hardcore, just because I've been doing that since I was 19. But now, I'm 35 and I listen to all sorts of stuff. I've never pigeonholed my ears to one genre by any means."
For the most part, Levey doesn't want to overhaul the Big Dipper. He's not looking to reinvent the wheel or turnover the staff. The main goal is to book even more shows to keep the space busy, do some maintenance and slight redesigns for the space (a few fresh coats of paint, tweaking the layout of the side stage and some of the viewing areas to improve functionality, etc.), and potentially add food options.
The Spokane music scene may be forever in flux, but at least the circle pit at the Big Dipper will continue spinning.♦