Just posted, a massively long feature story about Slowdown, the new bar/music venue built by Saddle Creek Records’ Robb Nansel and Jason Kulbel, which opens this weekend (read it here). The story includes a brief history of the project, a walk-through description, and discussion of the club’s booking philosophy (Val Nelson and One Percent Productions), its all-age policy, smoking policy, and how the label fits into the equation, plus some nice photos from the fine folks at Paparazzi by Appointment.

There was a ton of information that didn’t fit into the story, including why they went after Urban Outfitters (“We thought it was a good fit. It made sense.”), why Yia Yia’s Pizza is out and their search for a restaurant to take its place (“I don’t think we’d want to put a sushi place next door. No knock on sushi.”), and their thoughts about baseball stadiums (“We’d rather have that than an empty field.”). I might weave that information into the initial reviews of the opening weekend. We also talked about the future of the music industry and Saddle Creek Records. Those comments will appear here in tomorrow’s column.

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s San Diego singer/songwriter Steve Poltz with Omaha legend Kyle Harvey and alt rockers Western Electric (which includes members of Such Sweet Thunder). $8, 9 p.m.

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