All good things must come to an end. So they say. It shouldn’t have to be true.
Club Impact has been primarily managed, especially the booking, by Derek Smith and his wife for the last 10-plus years. As Smith leaves Club Impact to focus on “the home front and family and job …” Club Impact Version 1.0 comes to a close and Club Impact Version 2.0 emerges — a change I’ll explain later. To bid farewell to the Smith couple and send them out with a bang, there will be a Torch Passing Music Festival on Saturday, April 25, bringing the Club Impact we know and love to an end and beginning a new chapter in the South Sound all-ages scene.
Smith explains that when booking bands for the special event he “carefully handpicked Club Impact’s veteran bands — all of which have been fixtures over the past 11 years.” Smith hopes to represent the venue’s history with bands that are “nice, really easy to work with, respectable, just really cool guys.”
This criterion ensures that the show will go off without a hitch and that everyone involved will have an amiable time. Vision and Valor, formerly known as Tyson and Holyfield, will add their own brand of pop to the show Saturday, along with Madison Drive and SoulDeep.
But don’t be deterred if you’re into a bit of moshing and brutality: The Secret Armada, Monsters Scare You, and others will cover that ground.
It’s not all going to be guitar throws and power chords; Dewey Lybecke, solo singer-songwriter, will also be gracing the festival with his calming presence. Instant Winner, power-pop troupe extraordinaire, is even coming out of hiding for the 12-hour event, which starts at noon and goes until around midnight — or whenever the noise and hullabaloo starts to die down.
Headlining the show is the Pacific Northwest’s own hometown hero, MXPX. Frontman Mike Herrerahas has always been a staunch and active advocate of the all-ages scene. In his own words, he laments the change in the venue:
“It’s always the good venues that come and go. I’m just happy to have been a part of it. We played a lot of great shows there with MXPX and Arthur, and made some fond memories.”
But Club Impact isn’t going to be completely gone — just altered. Smith has been around since 1998. He literally started working at the club roughly a month after it opened, and as “people came and went” he “ended up running the show,” he explains. For Club Impact Version 2.0, which will be launching later this year, some of the management will remain sans the Smith duo. The major difference will be felt on the booking front; Smith is “pretty meticulous,” he explains, and “very strong on communicating with the bands closely.”
Only time will tell how Smith’s absence will truly be felt. He has watched the all-ages scene grow and flourish within the South Sound and especially T-town.
“Tacoma has gotten pretty good,” Smith says, mastering the understatement.
Come out and let the sun set on Club Impact Version 1.0, and welcome in the new staff of Version 2.0 with an electric bill of bands. An upgrade is bound to happen every now and again. Change happens.
[Club Impact, Passing the Torch Music Festival with MXPX, Vision and Valor, Instant Winner, Dewey Lybecker, End the Century, SoulDeep, Brandon Bee, Madison Drive, Colonies, Love Unfailing, Aspen, The Secret Armada, Monsters Scare You, Bloodbought, A Leaf, If Bears Were Bees, Noon, $13 adv, $15 at door, all ages, 754 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.606.1529]
