Music of Seattle
Encyclopedia
The music of Seattle has long played a role in the development of the music of Washington State. The "Seattle Sound" was at one time a field of alternative rock
that produced the sub-genre grunge
and major bands like Nirvana
and Pearl Jam
. Seattle is still home to some influential bands, labels and venues.
quickly became an important part of Seattle's economy, and the city grew rapidly, gaining brothel
s, saloon
s and other informal businesses that sometimes featured musical entertainment. Immigrants came from the East Coast, primarily, though the region also became home to a large Chinese immigrant community, who brought their own styles of Chinese music
. The same period saw perhaps the first major musical innovation from the city, the invention of one of the first electric guitar
s by Paul Tutmarc
.
In 1909, amidst the excited boosterism engendered by the city's first world's fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
, the Seattle City Council adopted "Seattle, the Peerless City" (words by Arthur O. Dillon; music by Glenn W. Ashley) as Seattle's official song, an honor it still holds (lyrics on the City Archivist's website).
By the early 20th century, Seattle had an upper-class society that established an urban culture, which included music; the city's high culture was, however, shadowed by that of San Francisco, which was then the major cultural center of the West Coast. Seattle also became an important stop for vaudeville
tours, put on by large chains like Pantages
and Considine
; the city also produced a major attraction in the exotic dancer Gypsy Rose Lee
. By the 1920s, Seattle had also come to support a politically radical American folk scene
, inspired in part by several lengthy stays in the region by folk singer Woody Guthrie
; Seattle's folk performers included Ivar Haglund
, who later founded a chain of successful seafood restaurants. The Seattle jazz scene included Jelly Roll Morton
for several years in the early part of the century, as well as Vic Meyers, a local performer and nightclub owner who became Lieutenant Governor
in 1932.
Early, respectable musical establishments included the art school founded by Nellie Cornish
, which saw residencies from both John Cage
and Martha Graham
, and the Seattle Symphony
, which became embroiled in a controversy in the early 1940s when British conductor Thomas Beecham
either described Seattle as a "cultural dustbin" or warned that it could become one.
, Parker's
, Odd Fellows Temple
and Trianon were also major big band
ballrooms, all of which eventually became major rock venues. Police officers also tolerated an after-hours jazz
scene, based in Chinatown, Seattle and including most famously the Black and Tan Club. This period produced a few local performers of note, including Hollywood star Ray Charles
, who recorded his first single and made his first TV and radio appearances in Seattle, and Bumps Blackwell. Blackwell was a bandleader whose band's members included the instrumentalist Quincy Jones
, later to become a major record company executive, producer and composer. Harry Smith
was a college student in the 1940s when he found a number of recordings of folk music about to be recycled at a Salvation Army
depot. He rescued the recordings, which became hot commodities when released by Folkways
on the landmark Anthology of American Folk Music
.
Seattle's local regulations changed in 1949, facilitating a shift from "private clubs" to "restaurant-lounge combinations" which "didn't support much in the line of creative nightlife" and even helped to drive out the city's jazz nightclub scene. The manufacturer Boeing
emerged in the 1940s and 50s as one of the city's largest employers, and, according to local music historian Clark Humphrey, helped give the city a reputation as "quiet, orderly (and) dull"; in the mid-1950s, the reporter Emmett Watson with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
was asked to begin a column on Seattle's happenings, but he responded that there was nothing worth writing about. Seattle did develop some local television of note, such as the children's performer J. P. Patches
, later cited as one of the inspirations for Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons
, and the duo Stan Boreson and Doug Setterberg, who performed a vaudeville
act that include comic Swedish-accent songs by Yogi Yorgesson, a 1940s radio performer.
The early 1960s saw Seattle become home to a local dance scene built around venues like the Trianon and Parker's. The city also became the major center for recorded popular music in the Pacific Northwest, and had the first American pop hit from the region with The Fleetwoods
"Come Softly to Me" in 1959. That same year, the DJ Pat O'Day
began working for KJR, and then mounted a series of teen dances featuring bands like The Fabulous Wailers, later to become famous as The Wailers
with hits like "Tall Cool One". The Wailers first album came out on Golden Crest Records; subsequent releases came out on Etiquette, the first record label owned by the band that recorded for it. The Wailers only had one more national hit, "Mau Mau", but released a long series of regionally popular recordings. Though The Wailers were very popular in the Seattle area, they were actually from Tacoma, Washington
, as were several other regional bands, including The Swaggerz.
O'Day worked with a number of local bands, several of whom had regional hits like The Frantics
' "Werewolf" and "Straight Flush". The Frantics, The Wailers, and most other local rock bands in the Pacific Northwest were basically instrumental combos, with either no or very limited vocals. The Ventures
and The Viceroys
were both largely instrumental, with the former gaining national acclaim as a surf
band. Though most of the regionally important bands in the 1960s were dominated by white men, Seattle also produced a few female country rock
performers, most notably Merrilee Rush
and Bonnie Guitar
. The city's black music scene include Ron Holden
, a soul singer whose "Love You So" was a Top Ten hit, vocal group The Gallahads and R&B instrumentalist Dave Lewis, who had several hits like "Dave's Mood" and "Little Green Thing". Perhaps Seattle's most famous black musical export is Jimi Hendrix
, who began performing in the city but didn't gain a major national or regional reputation until moving to England. Though Hendrix had to move to England to start his recording career, the reverse also became true for the musicologist Ian Whitcomb
, who performed in the city in the 1960s. He recorded "This Sporting Life" with Gerry Rosalie of The Sonics, and the song became a major hit, and an early anthem for the gay community.
Sax/conga drum vocalist Gerald Brashear
and Wanda Brown were fixtures in the Seattle jazz scene from the 1930s to the 80s.
described the Seattle music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s as crucial in its "vibe and ethic" which inspired grunge
music. The earliest local alternative music scene was based around a gay glam theater group called Ze Whiz Kids, one of whose members, Tomata du Plenty
, became a fixture in New York before returning in 1976 as part of The Tupperwares with long-time boyfriend Gorilla Rose; Blush described this as the first punk rock in the area. Tomata and Gorilla left for Los Angeles in 1977, but a new wave of local bands emerged in their wake, congregating at a local venue called The Bird. These bands included The Enemy, The Lewd, The Mentors
, Chinas Comidas, The Telepaths, The Beakers, Red Dress, X-15 and the New Wave of the Mice. Following The Bird, local punk centered around an old theatre called The Showbox, where touring bands from Los Angeles, New York, London and elsewhere played. Other, smaller venues included The Gorilla Room and Wrex, which later became Vogue. Hardcore punk, a loud, intense and angry form of punk, first came to Seattle in the band Solger
, which formed in 1980. They were followed by The Fartz
, who included Paul Solger of Solger, and became well known in hardcore scenes across the West Coast, and touring with Black Flag
and the Dead Kennedys
. The Fartz dissolved in 1982, just as their EP World Full of Hate was released by Alternative Tentacles
. Other local bands included The Fags, The Refuzors, The Rejectors, The DT's and RPA (Rebellious Peasant Americans); The Fastbacks were affiliated with the scene, but were not considered either hardcore or punk. Also of note from this time frame is the national emergence of progressive heavy metal artists Queensrÿche
(technically from Bellevue
, a suburb of Seattle). The Smoldering Remains, a traditional new wave/punk power art trio threesome of three, from Tacoma, riveted the faithful with their zippy Nisqually Valley Liberty Cap fueled takes on pop culture in both The Gorilla Room and Tacoma's Pogo-a-Gogo. Fifteen selected bands of that era, including The Blackouts, The Pudz, the Fastbacks and the Fartz contributed songs to the first edition
of the "Seattle Syndrome" compilation, released in late 1981 on Engram Records and regarded by music historian Stephen Tow as "a critical yardstick in the history of underground Seattle music".
, a term allegedly coined by Mark McLaughlin of the brief joke band Mr. Epp and the Calculations who gained some local notoriety. In 1985, two local bands began their careers, later become well-known icons of the era: The U-Men
and Green River
, the latter of which was the true beginning of grunge. Local music author Clark Humphrey has attributed the rise of grunge, in large part, to the scene's "supposed authenticity", to its status as a "folk phenomenon, a community of ideas and styles that came up from the street" rather than "something a couple of packagers in a penthouse office" dreamed of, as well as Seattle's isolation from the mainstream record industry. Rebee Garofalo attributes to the unlikely rise of Seattle's alternative rock to the legacy of local rock left behind by The Ventures
and Jimi Hendrix
. The grunge scene revolved around Sub Pop
, a record label
founded by Bruce Pavitt
and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop was founded by Bruce Pavitt, who began with a local radio show and began releasing tapes of local bands. Radio stations like KJET and KCMU and local music press like Backlash and Seattle Rocket also played a vital role. Grunge's entrance into the mainstream is usually traced to the release of Nirvana
's Nevermind
in 1991, though others point to the signing of Soundgarden
to A&M Records
in 1988 and their Grammy-nominated Ultramega OK
, and the release of a compilation album called Deep Six
on C/Z Records
in 1986. Though Soundgarden failed to bring in large national audiences at the time, record executives saw enough promise in the local sound to send scouts out to the major bands, many of whom signed to large labels. The release Nevermind catapult the local scene into national fame. Nirvana, Pearl Jam
and other grunge bands became best-selling groups; many of their earlier fans greeted this development with cries of selling out
, and the bands themselves struggled with the irony of alternative rock bands entering mainstream pop culture. Seattle grunge as national fare ended abruptly in a few years, however, beginning with the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain
in 1994. During the Nineties other forms of music were also springing up in the land of grunge, almost as a counter musical movement, including industrial bands such as Kill Switch...Klick
, Noise Box and Sounds of Mass Production
and ethereal bands like Faith & Disease
and Sky Cries Mary
.
, Modest Mouse
, The Postal Service
, Death Cab for Cutie
, Band of Horses
, The Head and the Heart
and Fleet Foxes
. In 2001, KCMU changed their call sign to KEXP
, and continues to be active in promoting independent and alternative Seattle music. Grunge-era venue The Crocodile Cafe, where Nirvana played some of their earliest live shows, closed in 2007, but reopened March 2009. Numerous local venues such as Neumos, The Showbox Theatre, The Vera Project
, Chop Suey, The Comet Tavern and The Sunset Tavern also continue to showcase live performances of local bands.
In 1993, underground cult band Sun City Girls
relocated to Seattle from Arizona, bringing with them influences of world music
and psychedelic
and experimental rock
. Sun City Girls member Alan Bishop co-founded the record label Sublime Frequencies
, which focuses exclusively on "acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers", especially from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia; this brought a new awareness of world music traditions to the Seattle music scene. More local experimental groups formed, such as Climax Golden Twins and Kinski
, and the scene attracted established groups such as Estradasphere
. Local recording engineer and musician Randall Dunn has brought more psychedelic, drone, and world-music inspired groups to Seattle to record at Aleph Studios in West Seattle, such as Six Organs of Admittance
, Sunn O)))
, Earth
, and Secret Chiefs 3
, members of which are based in Seattle. Dunn also performs in Seattle-based supergroup Master Musicians of Bukkake.
Seattle has recently been noted as the new face of (underground) Hip-Hop. From the beginnings with Sir Mix-A-Lot to now being known by Hip-Hop artist such as the Blue Scholars, Common Market, Oldominion, Jake One and Macklemore.
Experimental music has flourished with the improvisational groups We Paint With Sound, The Avant Garde Dogs, the St. Bees Group, and the Mike N Dave Channel. This art form, called Co-comprovisation, involves the spontaneous co-composition, performance, and recording of a completed work on the first take.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
that produced the sub-genre grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
and major bands like Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
and Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
. Seattle is still home to some influential bands, labels and venues.
Founding: 1800s-1945
Seattle's music history begins in the mid-19th century, when the first European settlers arrived in the area and the city was founded. LumberLumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
quickly became an important part of Seattle's economy, and the city grew rapidly, gaining brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s, saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
s and other informal businesses that sometimes featured musical entertainment. Immigrants came from the East Coast, primarily, though the region also became home to a large Chinese immigrant community, who brought their own styles of Chinese music
Music of China
Chinese Music has been made since the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...
. The same period saw perhaps the first major musical innovation from the city, the invention of one of the first electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
s by Paul Tutmarc
Paul Tutmarc
Paul Tutmarc was a Seattle musician and musical instrument inventor. He was a tenor singer and a performer and teacher of the lap steel guitar and the ukulele. He developed a number of variant types of stringed musical instruments, such as electrically amplified double basses, electric basses, and...
.
In 1909, amidst the excited boosterism engendered by the city's first world's fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition was a world's fair held in Seattle in 1909, publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest.It was originally planned for 1907, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush, but the organizers found out about the Jamestown Exposition being held...
, the Seattle City Council adopted "Seattle, the Peerless City" (words by Arthur O. Dillon; music by Glenn W. Ashley) as Seattle's official song, an honor it still holds (lyrics on the City Archivist's website).
By the early 20th century, Seattle had an upper-class society that established an urban culture, which included music; the city's high culture was, however, shadowed by that of San Francisco, which was then the major cultural center of the West Coast. Seattle also became an important stop for vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
tours, put on by large chains like Pantages
Alexander Pantages
Alexander Pantages was an American vaudeville and early motion picture producer and impresario who created a large and powerful circuit of theatres across the western United States and Canada.-Early life:...
and Considine
John Considine (Seattle)
John Considine was an American impresario, a pioneer of vaudeville.-Youth and arrival on the scene:Born in Chicago, Considine grew up attending Roman Catholic parochial schools, and eventually briefly attended St. Mary's College, Kansas. Briefly a Chicago policeman, he was involved in the raid...
; the city also produced a major attraction in the exotic dancer Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:...
. By the 1920s, Seattle had also come to support a politically radical American folk scene
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
, inspired in part by several lengthy stays in the region by folk singer Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
; Seattle's folk performers included Ivar Haglund
Ivar Haglund
Ivar Haglund was a Seattle folk singer and the "flounder" of Ivar's.-Background:Ivar Haglund was born in Seattle, Washington. Ivar Haglund was born to pioneers Johan Ivar Haglund, a Swedish immigrant and Daisy Hanson Haglund, daughter of Norwegian immigrants...
, who later founded a chain of successful seafood restaurants. The Seattle jazz scene included Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
for several years in the early part of the century, as well as Vic Meyers, a local performer and nightclub owner who became Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant Governor of Washington
The Lieutenant Governor of Washington is an elected office in the U.S. state of Washington. The current incumbent is Brad Owen, a Democrat who has served since 1997...
in 1932.
Early, respectable musical establishments included the art school founded by Nellie Cornish
Nellie Cornish
Nellie Centennial Cornish was a pianist, teacher, writer, and founder of the Cornish School in Seattle, Washington. She was influenced by the pedagogical ideas of Maria Montessori as well as Calvin Brainerd Cady's ideas about teaching broader values through music education...
, which saw residencies from both John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
and Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
, and the Seattle Symphony
Seattle Symphony
The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra's season runs from September through July, and serves as the pit orchestra for most productions of the Seattle Opera in addition to its own concerts...
, which became embroiled in a controversy in the early 1940s when British conductor Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
either described Seattle as a "cultural dustbin" or warned that it could become one.
Postwar Era: 1945-1975
World War 2 brought many changes to Seattle, including a "flourishing" "vice scene downtown", where "booze, gambling and prostitution" were unchecked by "paid-off cops". The Showbox Ballroom was a major center for these activities, and was open twenty-four hours a day, geared towards active members of the military, featuring popular performers like the racy Gypsy Rose Lee. In addition to the Showbox, Washington HallWashington Hall (Seattle, Washington)
Washington Hall is a historic building and a registered city landmark in Seattle, Washington. It was originally built as a community center by the Danish Brotherhood in America, a fraternal organization, with meeting halls and one-room apartments for new immigrants...
, Parker's
Parker's
Parker's is Australia's largest pretzels company and is owned by its parent company The Smith's Snackfood Company.In addition to typical hard pretzels, Parker's distributes a variety of uniquely-flavored pretzels, including flavors such as Tomato & Basil, Sweet Chili, and Potato &...
, Odd Fellows Temple
Odd Fellows Temple
Odd Fellows Temple may refer to:in Canada*Odd Fellows Temple , Listed as a historic property, located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewanin the United States* Odd Fellows Temple , listed on the NRHP in California...
and Trianon were also major big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
ballrooms, all of which eventually became major rock venues. Police officers also tolerated an after-hours jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
scene, based in Chinatown, Seattle and including most famously the Black and Tan Club. This period produced a few local performers of note, including Hollywood star Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, who recorded his first single and made his first TV and radio appearances in Seattle, and Bumps Blackwell. Blackwell was a bandleader whose band's members included the instrumentalist Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, later to become a major record company executive, producer and composer. Harry Smith
Harry Everett Smith
Harry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...
was a college student in the 1940s when he found a number of recordings of folk music about to be recycled at a Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
depot. He rescued the recordings, which became hot commodities when released by Folkways
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
on the landmark Anthology of American Folk Music
Anthology of American Folk Music
The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records , comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932.Experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith compiled the music...
.
Seattle's local regulations changed in 1949, facilitating a shift from "private clubs" to "restaurant-lounge combinations" which "didn't support much in the line of creative nightlife" and even helped to drive out the city's jazz nightclub scene. The manufacturer Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
emerged in the 1940s and 50s as one of the city's largest employers, and, according to local music historian Clark Humphrey, helped give the city a reputation as "quiet, orderly (and) dull"; in the mid-1950s, the reporter Emmett Watson with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
was asked to begin a column on Seattle's happenings, but he responded that there was nothing worth writing about. Seattle did develop some local television of note, such as the children's performer J. P. Patches
J. P. Patches
J.P. Patches is a clown portrayed by Seattle entertainer Chris Wedes . The J.P. Patches Show was one of the longer-running locally-produced children's television programs in the United States, having appeared on Seattle TV station KIRO channel 7 from 1958 to 1981...
, later cited as one of the inspirations for Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, and the duo Stan Boreson and Doug Setterberg, who performed a vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
act that include comic Swedish-accent songs by Yogi Yorgesson, a 1940s radio performer.
The early 1960s saw Seattle become home to a local dance scene built around venues like the Trianon and Parker's. The city also became the major center for recorded popular music in the Pacific Northwest, and had the first American pop hit from the region with The Fleetwoods
The Fleetwoods
The Fleetwoods were a singing trio from Olympia, Washington, United States; formed in the late 1950s. They were responsible for eleven hit songs, beginning with "Come Softly to Me"...
"Come Softly to Me" in 1959. That same year, the DJ Pat O'Day
Pat O'Day
Pat O'Day is a Pacific Northwest broadcaster and promoter. He is probably best known as the afternoon drive personality at Seattle's KJR 950 in the 1960s, he would eventually become program director and general manager. He owned KYYX - FM 96.5 Radio in Seattle in the mid seventies and early...
began working for KJR, and then mounted a series of teen dances featuring bands like The Fabulous Wailers, later to become famous as The Wailers
The Wailers (rock band)
The Wailers, often credited as The Fabulous Wailers, were an American rock band from Tacoma, Washington. They became popular around the United States Pacific Northwest around the late 1950s and the start of the 1960s, performing saxophone-driven R&B and Chuck Berry rock and roll...
with hits like "Tall Cool One". The Wailers first album came out on Golden Crest Records; subsequent releases came out on Etiquette, the first record label owned by the band that recorded for it. The Wailers only had one more national hit, "Mau Mau", but released a long series of regionally popular recordings. Though The Wailers were very popular in the Seattle area, they were actually from Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, as were several other regional bands, including The Swaggerz.
O'Day worked with a number of local bands, several of whom had regional hits like The Frantics
The Frantics
The Frantics or Frantics is the name of:*The Frantics , a punk rock band.*The Frantics , a Canadian comedy troupe.*The Frantics , a Showtime network series....
' "Werewolf" and "Straight Flush". The Frantics, The Wailers, and most other local rock bands in the Pacific Northwest were basically instrumental combos, with either no or very limited vocals. The Ventures
The Ventures
The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...
and The Viceroys
The Viceroys
The Viceroys, also known as The Voiceroys, The Interns, The Inturns, The Brothers, and The Hot Tops, are a reggae vocal group who first recorded in 1967. After releasing several albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they split up in the mid-1980s...
were both largely instrumental, with the former gaining national acclaim as a surf
Surf music
Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...
band. Though most of the regionally important bands in the 1960s were dominated by white men, Seattle also produced a few female country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
performers, most notably Merrilee Rush
Merrilee Rush
-Career:As a girl, Merrilee studied classical piano for 10 years. In 1960, Rush auditioned for a band, directed by her first husband, that played sock hops. Next, she was part of Merrilee and Her Men, doing covers of male pop hits. Then she joined a Seattle rhythm and blues group called Tiny Tony...
and Bonnie Guitar
Bonnie Guitar
Bonnie Guitar is an American Country-Pop Singer. She is best remembered for her 1957 Country-Pop crossover hit "Dark Moon"...
. The city's black music scene include Ron Holden
Ron Holden
Ron Holden was an American pop singer. He was born in Seattle, Washington.Holden was discovered by Larry Nelson, who had just left work as a police officer to start his own record label...
, a soul singer whose "Love You So" was a Top Ten hit, vocal group The Gallahads and R&B instrumentalist Dave Lewis, who had several hits like "Dave's Mood" and "Little Green Thing". Perhaps Seattle's most famous black musical export is Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, who began performing in the city but didn't gain a major national or regional reputation until moving to England. Though Hendrix had to move to England to start his recording career, the reverse also became true for the musicologist Ian Whitcomb
Ian Whitcomb
Ian Whitcomb is an entertainer, singer, songwriter, author, record producer, and actor...
, who performed in the city in the 1960s. He recorded "This Sporting Life" with Gerry Rosalie of The Sonics, and the song became a major hit, and an early anthem for the gay community.
Sax/conga drum vocalist Gerald Brashear
Gerald Brashear
Gerald Brashear was a prominent Seattle jazz performer from the 1940s to the mid 1970s. He played the conga drums and saxophone and was an inventive scat singer. Brashear married jazz singer Wanda Brown after the death of Wanda’s first husband, drummer Vernon Brown...
and Wanda Brown were fixtures in the Seattle jazz scene from the 1930s to the 80s.
Counterculture: 1975-1985
Music author Steven BlushSteven Blush
Steven Blush is an American author, publisher and promoter.His book American Hardcore: A Tribal History was released in 2001 through Feral House publishing. The film version, American Hardcore, was released September 22, 2006...
described the Seattle music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s as crucial in its "vibe and ethic" which inspired grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
music. The earliest local alternative music scene was based around a gay glam theater group called Ze Whiz Kids, one of whose members, Tomata du Plenty
Tomata du Plenty
David Xavier Harrigan, aka Tomata du Plenty the singer of the late 1970s Los Angeles synthpunk band The Screamers. He was also founder of Seattle's counterculture troupe Ze Whiz Kidz...
, became a fixture in New York before returning in 1976 as part of The Tupperwares with long-time boyfriend Gorilla Rose; Blush described this as the first punk rock in the area. Tomata and Gorilla left for Los Angeles in 1977, but a new wave of local bands emerged in their wake, congregating at a local venue called The Bird. These bands included The Enemy, The Lewd, The Mentors
The Mentors
The Mentors are an American heavy metal band noted for its deliberately sexist shock rock lyrics.They formed in 1977 in Seattle, Washington and relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1979, where their irreverent attitude aligned them with the city's punk rock scene. Their music has developed...
, Chinas Comidas, The Telepaths, The Beakers, Red Dress, X-15 and the New Wave of the Mice. Following The Bird, local punk centered around an old theatre called The Showbox, where touring bands from Los Angeles, New York, London and elsewhere played. Other, smaller venues included The Gorilla Room and Wrex, which later became Vogue. Hardcore punk, a loud, intense and angry form of punk, first came to Seattle in the band Solger
Solger
Solger was considered by many as the first hardcore punk band in Seattle. The name Solger was a misspelling of Soldier, coming from their anti-draft song Dead Soldier...
, which formed in 1980. They were followed by The Fartz
The Fartz
The Fartz were originally formed in 1981 and were one of the first well-known hardcore bands from Seattle, Washington. They were signed to Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles Record label...
, who included Paul Solger of Solger, and became well known in hardcore scenes across the West Coast, and touring with Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
and the Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys
Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
. The Fartz dissolved in 1982, just as their EP World Full of Hate was released by Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles
Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label originally based in San Francisco, California and was established in 1979. It was originally used as the label name by the Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single "California Über Alles", and after realizing the potential for an independent...
. Other local bands included The Fags, The Refuzors, The Rejectors, The DT's and RPA (Rebellious Peasant Americans); The Fastbacks were affiliated with the scene, but were not considered either hardcore or punk. Also of note from this time frame is the national emergence of progressive heavy metal artists Queensrÿche
Queensrÿche
thumb|250px|right|Queensrÿche's classic line-up performing at the [[Sauna Open Air Metal Festival]] 2011 in [[Tampere]], [[Finland]]. Left to right: bass Eddie Jackson, lead vocals Geoff Tate, drums Scott Rockenfield and guitars Michael Wilton....
(technically from Bellevue
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...
, a suburb of Seattle). The Smoldering Remains, a traditional new wave/punk power art trio threesome of three, from Tacoma, riveted the faithful with their zippy Nisqually Valley Liberty Cap fueled takes on pop culture in both The Gorilla Room and Tacoma's Pogo-a-Gogo. Fifteen selected bands of that era, including The Blackouts, The Pudz, the Fastbacks and the Fartz contributed songs to the first edition
Seattle Syndrome Volume One
Seattle Syndrome Volume One is a compilation of Seattle-based bands and artists released on vinyl and cassette in late 1981 on Engram Records...
of the "Seattle Syndrome" compilation, released in late 1981 on Engram Records and regarded by music historian Stephen Tow as "a critical yardstick in the history of underground Seattle music".
Grunge music: 1985-1995
Prior to the mid-1980s, the local hardcore and metal scenes were often violently confrontational with each other. The opening of the Gorilla Gardens venue changed that by offering two separate shows at the same time; as a result, both hardcore and metal were frequently played on the same nights. The softening of relations between the two groups helped inspire the look and sound of grungeGrunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
, a term allegedly coined by Mark McLaughlin of the brief joke band Mr. Epp and the Calculations who gained some local notoriety. In 1985, two local bands began their careers, later become well-known icons of the era: The U-Men
The U-Men
The U-Men were a Seattle-based post-punk band active in the early to late 1980s. They toured extensively across America and even had a song by the Butthole Surfers named in their honor...
and Green River
Green River (band)
Green River was an American rock band from Seattle, Washington that was active from 1984 to 1988. Although the band had little commercial impact outside of its native Seattle, Green River proved to have significant influence on the genre later known as grunge, both with its own music and with the...
, the latter of which was the true beginning of grunge. Local music author Clark Humphrey has attributed the rise of grunge, in large part, to the scene's "supposed authenticity", to its status as a "folk phenomenon, a community of ideas and styles that came up from the street" rather than "something a couple of packagers in a penthouse office" dreamed of, as well as Seattle's isolation from the mainstream record industry. Rebee Garofalo attributes to the unlikely rise of Seattle's alternative rock to the legacy of local rock left behind by The Ventures
The Ventures
The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...
and Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
. The grunge scene revolved around Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
, a record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
founded by Bruce Pavitt
Bruce Pavitt
-History:After briefly attending Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois and subsequently transferring to The Evergreen State College in Washington State, Pavitt started a fanzine entitled Subterranean Pop in Olympia, Washington in 1980, about American independent rock bands. Three cassette...
and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop was founded by Bruce Pavitt, who began with a local radio show and began releasing tapes of local bands. Radio stations like KJET and KCMU and local music press like Backlash and Seattle Rocket also played a vital role. Grunge's entrance into the mainstream is usually traced to the release of Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
's Nevermind
Nevermind
Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind was the group's first release on DGC Records...
in 1991, though others point to the signing of Soundgarden
Soundgarden
Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
to A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
in 1988 and their Grammy-nominated Ultramega OK
Ultramega OK
Ultramega OK is the debut studio album by the American grunge band Soundgarden, released on October 31, 1988 through SST Records. Following the release of the EPs Screaming Life , and Fopp , both for the Sub Pop record label, Soundgarden signed with the independent record label SST and went to work...
, and the release of a compilation album called Deep Six
Deep Six (album)
The Deep Six compilation was released March 1986 . It was the very first release by C/Z Records, a few months before the release of Sub Pop 100 from Sub Pop Records. It was also arguably the second record to influence the later "Seattle sound" that would be known worldwide as grunge...
on C/Z Records
C/Z Records
C/Z Records is a Seattle-based record label that was established in early 1985 by Chris Hanzsek and Tina Casale with the release of the now-legendary, Deep Six LP, which collected the earliest recordings of the real pro-genitors of what later came to be known as grunge...
in 1986. Though Soundgarden failed to bring in large national audiences at the time, record executives saw enough promise in the local sound to send scouts out to the major bands, many of whom signed to large labels. The release Nevermind catapult the local scene into national fame. Nirvana, Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
and other grunge bands became best-selling groups; many of their earlier fans greeted this development with cries of selling out
Selling out
"Selling out" is the compromising of integrity, morality, or principles in exchange for money or "success" . It is commonly associated with attempts to tailor material to a mainstream audience...
, and the bands themselves struggled with the irony of alternative rock bands entering mainstream pop culture. Seattle grunge as national fare ended abruptly in a few years, however, beginning with the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
in 1994. During the Nineties other forms of music were also springing up in the land of grunge, almost as a counter musical movement, including industrial bands such as Kill Switch...Klick
Kill Switch...Klick
Kill Switch...Klick, also known as KsK and Kill Switch is the name of an American industrial rock band. The band is best known for its releases on Cleopatra Records and Go-Kustom Rekords. KsK was formed in 1991 by D.A...
, Noise Box and Sounds of Mass Production
Sounds of Mass Production
Sounds of Mass Production is a cyberpunk/rap/nu metal/Industrial music band from Seattle, WA . The band name is often referred to by the acronym SMP...
and ethereal bands like Faith & Disease
Faith & Disease
Faith & Disease is a Seattle based Ethereal Wave music project formed in the early 1990s and still active. Core members are Eric Cooley and Dara Rosenwasser . The band was signed to Ivy Records and more recently Projekt Records. They have 6 full length albums and dozens of compilation appearances...
and Sky Cries Mary
Sky Cries Mary
Sky Cries Mary is an American trance rock musical group from Seattle, Washington, that formed in the late 1980s.The husband and wife team of Roderick Wolgamott Romero and Anisa Romero sing dual lead vocals...
.
Expansion: 1995-present
Even though the grunge era faded in the mid-90s, Sub Pop records maintained a strong presence in the indie music scene, signing and promoting Seattle- and Northwest-regional bands such as Sunny Day Real EstateSunny Day Real Estate
Sunny Day Real Estate is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. In the 1990s, the group expanded upon the grunge style that was popular in the local scene to make a more melodic sound. While not the first band to be classified as emo, they were instrumental in establishing the genre. In...
, Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. They are based in Portland, Oregon. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think...
, The Postal Service
The Postal Service
The Postal Service is an American electronic indie pop band composed of vocalist Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and producer Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel and Headset.-Background:...
, Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard , Chris Walla , Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr ....
, Band of Horses
Band of Horses
Band of Horses, originally briefly known as Horses, are an American rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle by Ben Bridwell. They have released three studio albums, the most recent and most successful of which is 2010's Grammy nominated Infinite Arms...
, The Head and the Heart
The Head and the Heart
The Head and The Heart is an indie folk-pop band from Seattle, Washington. Formed in the summer of 2009 by Josiah Johnson and Jonathan Russell , the band also includes Charity Rose Thielen , Chris Zasche , Kenny Hensley , and Tyler Williams...
and Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes are a folk rock band which formed in Seattle, Washington. They are signed to the Sub Pop and Bella Union record labels. The band came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP, Sun Giant, and their debut full length album Fleet Foxes...
. In 2001, KCMU changed their call sign to KEXP
KEXP
KEXP-FM is a public radio station based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys. Its broadcasting license is owned by the University of Washington, which operates the station in a partnership with Paul Allen's Experience Music Project...
, and continues to be active in promoting independent and alternative Seattle music. Grunge-era venue The Crocodile Cafe, where Nirvana played some of their earliest live shows, closed in 2007, but reopened March 2009. Numerous local venues such as Neumos, The Showbox Theatre, The Vera Project
The VERA Project
The Vera Project, or VERA, is an all-ages, non-profit youth arts organization in Seattle, Washington.-About:Based on the Vera club in Groningen, Netherlands, Seattle's VERA Project was founded in 2001 by James Keblas, Shannon Stewart , and Kate Becker , along with the help of many other...
, Chop Suey, The Comet Tavern and The Sunset Tavern also continue to showcase live performances of local bands.
In 1993, underground cult band Sun City Girls
Sun City Girls
The Sun City Girls were an American experimental rock band, formed in 1979 in Phoenix, Arizona. From 1981 the group consisted of Alan Bishop , his brother Richard Bishop , and the late Charles Gocher . Their name was inspired by Sun City, Arizona, an Arizona retirement community...
relocated to Seattle from Arizona, bringing with them influences of world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
and psychedelic
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
and experimental rock
Experimental rock
Experimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique....
. Sun City Girls member Alan Bishop co-founded the record label Sublime Frequencies
Sublime Frequencies
Sublime Frequencies is a record label based in Seattle, Washington that focuses exclusively on "acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers," mostly from Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East...
, which focuses exclusively on "acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers", especially from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia; this brought a new awareness of world music traditions to the Seattle music scene. More local experimental groups formed, such as Climax Golden Twins and Kinski
Kinski (band)
Kinski is a rock band from Seattle, Washington, in the United States. They formed in 1998 in a pub, when bartender and drummer Dave Weeks overheard a conversation between two customers, Chris Martin and Lucy Atkinson about analog recording. Weeks joined the discussion, and they found they also...
, and the scene attracted established groups such as Estradasphere
Estradasphere
Estradasphere was an experimental band that originated in Santa Cruz, California during the late 1990s. The band, which in its last incarnation was based in Seattle, consisted of 6 multi-instrumentalists from a variety of musical backgrounds trained in disciplines ranging from classical music and...
. Local recording engineer and musician Randall Dunn has brought more psychedelic, drone, and world-music inspired groups to Seattle to record at Aleph Studios in West Seattle, such as Six Organs of Admittance
Six Organs of Admittance
Six Organs of Admittance is the primary musical project of guitarist Ben Chasny. Chasny's music is largely guitar-based and is often considered new folk, however it includes obvious influences, marked by the use of drones, chimes, and eclectic percussive elements...
, Sunn O)))
Sunn O)))
Sunn O))) is an American doom metal band known for its synthesis of diverse genres including drone, ambient, noise, and black metal. Supported by a varying cast of collaborators, the band has two core members: Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson .-History:Sunn O))) is named after the Sunn...
, Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, and Secret Chiefs 3
Secret Chiefs 3
Secret Chiefs 3 is an instrumental rock group led by guitarist/composer Trey Spruance . Their studio recordings and tours have featured different line-ups, as the group performs a wide range of musical styles including surf rock, Persian, Arab, Indian, death metal, film music, electronic music,...
, members of which are based in Seattle. Dunn also performs in Seattle-based supergroup Master Musicians of Bukkake.
Seattle has recently been noted as the new face of (underground) Hip-Hop. From the beginnings with Sir Mix-A-Lot to now being known by Hip-Hop artist such as the Blue Scholars, Common Market, Oldominion, Jake One and Macklemore.
Experimental music has flourished with the improvisational groups We Paint With Sound, The Avant Garde Dogs, the St. Bees Group, and the Mike N Dave Channel. This art form, called Co-comprovisation, involves the spontaneous co-composition, performance, and recording of a completed work on the first take.
Venues
Below is a short list of notable venues:- Can Can
- Cha Cha Lounge
- Club Motor
- The CrocodileCrocodile CafeThe Crocodile is a music club at 2200 2nd Avenue at Blanchard Street in the neighborhood of Belltown in Seattle, Washington, USA. Opened as the "Crocodile Cafe" on April 30, 1991 by Stephanie Dorgan, it quickly became a fixture on the local music scene. It closed on December 15, 2007...
- The Comet
- Chop Suey
- D4
- Dimitriou's Jazz Alley
- El Corazon
- The Funhouse
- Havana Cocktail Club
- High Dive
- Neumos
- Jules Mae's Saloons
- King Cat Theater
- The Moore TheatreMoore Theatre (Seattle, Washington)The Moore Theatre in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. is a 1,419-seat performing arts venue located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street, two blocks from Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. It is the oldest still-active theater in Seattle. The Moore hosts a mix of theatrical productions,...
- The Nectar Lounge
- The ParamountParamount Theatre (Seattle, Washington)The Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington is a 2,807-seat performing arts venue at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in Downtown Seattle in the United States of America. The theater originally opened March 1, 1928 as the Seattle Theatre with 3,000 seats, the theater was placed on the National Register...
- The Q Cafe
- Showbox at the Market
- Showbox Sodo
- Slims Last Chance
- Squid Row
- Studio Seven
- The Sunset Tavern
- ToST
- The Tractor Tavern
- The Triple Door
- The Vera ProjectThe VERA ProjectThe Vera Project, or VERA, is an all-ages, non-profit youth arts organization in Seattle, Washington.-About:Based on the Vera club in Groningen, Netherlands, Seattle's VERA Project was founded in 2001 by James Keblas, Shannon Stewart , and Kate Becker , along with the help of many other...
- The Viaduct
- The Gorge
- The Fart