Schubas II, Take Two

Greg Kot got the scoop on Chris and Mike Schuba opening a new venue where the old Three Penny Cinema used to be. There's a bit of hand-wringing from commenters and competitors about Lincoln Hall over-saturating the market with similar-sized venues, but given how good Schubas seems to be at booking up-and-comers who can sell out that room, this gives them a way to "graduate" some of those artists into larger confines will still maintaining their relationships with some of these bands. They have a certain aesthetic that other venues in that size range don't, so there may be less cannibalization than some fear.

That said, this isn't the first time Chris Schuba has tried expanding into a larger room. There was an attempt to run a theater up on Chicago Avenue in Evanston back in 1994 that didn't even last a year, but I think the big problem there was that suburb's restrictive liquor laws, which meant the venue couldn't serve booze. Plus, it was in Evanston, so the combination of those two sort of doomed it from the start.