House of Blues executive vice president Kevin Morrow oversees the booking at all eight HoB nightclubs nationwide. He recently announced the launch of the HoB Club Network, which would hook up a national sponsor for unsigned bands who would play the eight House of Blues nightclubs, as well as clubs in other cities that don't have a HoB. "The biggest complaint in this business, besides ticket prices, is there's not enough bands being developed," said Morrow in a recent Pollstar magazine, a concert industry trade publication.

HoB announced it would open a downtown nightclub in 1999. The date was pushed back over the years. In March of this year, the L.A.-based entertainment group said that by the end of 2004, two new HoB clubs would open -- in Cleveland and San Diego. The Cleveland HoB opens this month. But major construction at the site of the San Diego club -- at a former Woolworth building on Broadway between Fifth and Sixth Avenues -- has still not begun.

An assistant for Jack Gannon, the L.A.-based director of marketing for HoB Entertainment, was iffy about corporate plans. "Sometime next summer, but that's only an estimate," he said about the opening of a local House of Blues nightclub. "I don't think [Gannon] will confirm a concrete date."

Gannon did not respond.