Capitol Hill rock venue Neumo’s has seen an unexpected (if not unforeseen) crackdown on its capacity practices.

Neumo’s has been “fooling” the City of Seattle by counting “capacity” as everyone who could safely fit in:
1) the main show floor
2) the upper balcony (“mezzanine”) surrounding the show floor
3) the completely separate Moe Bar

Anyone who’s bought a ticket isn’t going to stay on the Moe side, and that’s why we’re all so accustomed to shows being “oversold” at Neumo’s. Everyone wants to crowd onto the show floor or the balcony as the lights go down, and then it’s sardine-time.

The new, temporary policy allows for a very-slow-motion flow between these areas (keep in mind that the restrooms are NOT on the main show floor).

Anyone with an understanding of the tragedy in Rhode Island in 2003 (as well as Seattle’s progressive mindframe and unwillingness to take a backseat attitude in West Coast politics) knows how surprising it is that the crackdown has taken this long. It won’t be the first (cough-rebar-cough-chopsuey-cough).

Currently there’s a lot of discussion on both sides of this issue. Many folks seem to have the issue confused with the condo-fication of Pike/Pine. Many others think that Neumo’s shows are always too crowded and now they’ll have a better view of the stage and be able to move more freely, with only 223 people on the main show floor.

Can’t be good news for continuing to attract top acts (and by attract I mean paying them). Those shows by high-profile acts like Moby and M83 will still have to be paid their guarantees, and that’s a big problem for the viability of Neumo’s as we know it..