Another Seattle dive takes a dive

Please sing to the tune of Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

Where have all the dive bars gone?

Long time passing (out)

Where have Seattle's dive bars gone?

Condos replacing every one...

Dank watering holes with makeshift stages for rowdy young bands are indeed being murdered by a pathological menace: The CondoFication Killer. He preys on little old buildings housing bars and shops, wiping them out and putting up giant condos.

The CFK just took out the Lobo Saloon. Fittingly, the Lobo went out on a Saturday night, with the Greenriver Thrillers, Dateless and Bad Ghost on the final bill. This grungy little joint used to live at Eastlake Avenue East and Republican on the edge of the South Lake Union "Allentown" area, which gets more condofied every day.

The Lobo was rocked to sleep with the likes of "Optimistic Wasteland" and a sped-up version of Berlin's "Metro." Beer was being splashed around, and some in attendance looked like they were raring to tear the place apart. The next night, the Lobo may have still been standing, but it was dark and dead, gone to that great happy hour in the sky.

Gibson's is long gone, an early killing. A fancy, upscale new nightspot recently opened on the site of the long-departed, gnarly downtown dive-and-punk venue.

The CFK is so menacing, several noteworthy dives have changed their names or gone undercover. Seattle singer Jesse Sykes has this note up on MySpace: "I met Phil Wandscher in 1998 in a dive bar back when Seattle still had dive bars (how I miss those times!)"

The Vogue, a dive-y dance club, was forced to move (hiding out in the basement of the Capitol Hill Arts Center) and change its name to Blacklight earlier this year.

Former dive bars the Rendezvous, Sunset Tavern and Breakroom have been rehabbed and are now disguised as reputable bars. All are now thriving as live-music venues (the latter as Chop Suey) where you don't feel the need for a hazmat spraydown after departing.

Zak's is also a member of the dive-protection-program. Now the Funhouse, it is hiding from the wrecking ball and is still the punkers place to party. Olympia hardcore vets Fitz of Depression rock the Funhouse, 206 Fifth Ave. N., at 9:30 p.m. Saturday ($5).

Sit & Spin in Belltown went down three years ago and is now a fancy sports bar. A similar fate whacked the beloved piano bar Sorry Charlie's.

The Colourbox, Back Door, Old Timer's Café, Patti Summers Cabaret, the Rainbow and Rain Dancer, Scarlett Tree, the Catwalk, Zasu ... gone, gone, dives long gone.

• But the CFK hasn't been able to lay his nasty mitts on two underworld gems, the Comet and Blue Moon taverns. Both have helped fill the CFK-created void and now regularly offer music on weekends.

At the Blue Moon, it seems like the doorman should ask for proof of medical insurance, as well as ID. But once you get past the "rough edges," it turns out to be a fun, unpretentious place to hear music. Dozens of books ("A Treasury of Laughter," encyclopedias) are lined above the battered-but-sturdy booths, and a Jimi Hendrix poster on the ceiling probably has been viewed many times, by flat-on-their-backs patrons.

On a weekend night, the population is a mix of college fun-seekers and mummified "regulars."

The Moondoggies rocked out at the Blue Moon last Friday. This band is a throwback to late- '60s/early-'70s psychedelic rock, at times evoking Steppenwolf, the Band, even the Grateful Dead. If you're allergic to jam bands, don't worry, they don't go quite that far.

The Moondoggies (myspace.com/thefamilyliars) play again at the High Dive at 9 p.m. Wednesday ($5). And don't let the club's name mislead you — this Fremont venue at 513 N. 36th St. takes its name from a vague swimming-pool theme and is too nice to be a "dive."

The Comet Tavern, under new ownership, has powered up its music schedule from "whenever we feel like it" to three-to-four nights per week. Good bands, too.

Holy Ghost Revival and the Pharmacy are on the bill tonight, and Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death — former Murder City Devil singer Spencer Moody as Steven Jesse Bernstein meets Tom Waits — gets weird at the Comet on Saturday.

• The CFK also has the Cha Cha Lounge on the run. The Cha Cha doesn't have live music, but it's a notorious local rocker hangout. With a wrecking ball looming over the building, the Cha Cha plans to high-tail it from its longtime hangout on lower Capitol Hill to a few blocks up the hill.

• The Vera Project used to be an all-ages version of a dive bar. The CFK chased it away from Fourth Avenue to its new home, a posh, very un-divey space in Seattle Center. The Trucks, four females from Bellingham who play slightly nasty electro-pop (imagine Peaches X 4), roll into the Vera at 8 p.m. Saturday ($7).

Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com