Seattle Music Venue Rundown

The Nectar Lounge has blown my mind with what they have accomplished over the last few years. The major in-house booker Colin left the Chop Suey and, although I don’t know if it was done amicably or not, he seemed to take all of the best acts with him. This used to be a great spot because it was down the street from my apartment and the happy hour was really good ($5 pizzas) but the acts they get these days are considerably impressive for what I hadn’t thought of as much more than a cool neighborhood bar previously.

LA rap crew Living Legends will play collectively at a larger venue like Showbox or Neumos, but it seems that every solo member (Murs, Grouch, Scarub, etc) hits Nectar when they come to town. The acts are consistently diverse and of high quality with such performers as Roy Ayers, Yellow Man, DJ Spooky, The Dead C, Daedelus, Souls of Mischief, Pato Banton, Zach Hill, etc. etc. etc. They also hold many release parties for things like the last M.I.A. album which included giveaways.

The floor is a bit small but it flows out into a large patio and a nice balcony.

Neumos, pronounced “New-Moes”, is named in honor of “Moe’s Mo-Rockin’ Cafe” that used to occupy the facility back in the 90’s. The venue’s set up can be frustrating for someone like me that isn’t that tall. This is because the one-sided balcony usually has the view blocked by other patron’s and it can be difficult to view the stage from the floor. The acts that they book here, however, are untouchable in the Seattle area.

This year I’ve seen Spiritualized, Silver Jews, GZA, Daniel Johnston and missed even more amazing acts like The Tim & Eric Awesome Show Live and El-P. If you go to a show here, make sure to hit up The Fish Fry located in between the venue and the bar entrance. You can get a sturgeon sandwich with lemon aioli for about 8 bucks.

The Chop Suey is a cool little club with red-lighting and a nice generic Asian theme in the vein of Bruce Lee films. It can be a bit confining, like many small clubs, especially during all-ages shows when they are forced to block off the bar area forcing attendees to cram in even a little tighter.

I will always have love for the Chop Suey because they are the first venue that granted me free access to cover any show that I wanted, but in the last few years the events and acts that they book have fallen off considerably. The original booker now works at Neumos and his predecessor left to book at The Nectar Lounge, leaving them with next to nothing. Back when they opened, any DJ show or non-arena hip-hop act that you could ever want to see was at the Chop Suey. I’ve seen DJ Q-Bert, KRS-1, Amon Tobin, DJ Spooky, Saul Williams, and Squarepusher even performed there. They also used to have more indie and noise bands there like Wolf Eyes. One of the last shows that I saw there was a Gang Gang Dance show and, after the management kept cutting off their sound, a small riot ensued.

I predict that Chop Suey is getting it’s second wind and that they will definitely have one of the calendars to watch in the future. They have a scheduled performances by Swedish Psyche act DUNGEN and another one coming up from Thrill Jockey Recording artists The Sea and Cake, so things are looking good.

The Triple Door might be my favorite venue in Seattle. To reach the mainstage you must first pass by the upstairs restaurant, Wild Ginger, and head down the steps. The food is also served in the main lower area and, although it can be pricey, it’s delicious.

The venue is set up like a really nice old timey jazz club with low swanky lights accenting each step you walk down and the seating is arranged in half-circle booths so that the stage is visible from every angle. The photo above is of the stage after the curtain has been raised and you can see the star effect of the simulated nights sky that shows behind performers. Somehow they make it look beautiful and refrain from making the effect look cheesy..

The acts aren’t as consistent as Jazz Alley but the staff and ambiance blow it out of the water. Recently the booking has gotten more adventurous and out of the box for a club like this, by incorporating acts like Gang Gang Dance and Marnie Stern in to their calendar, which is more likely to consist of world music acts like Toumani Diabate and The Orchestra Baobab or amazing young free jazz musicians like Jacob Fred Jazz Oddyssey and The Benevento/Russo Duo.

The Paramount Theatre is a beautifully crafted historic building that holds larger profile events in town. There is a spacious balcony (pictured) and the floor is usually seated but the seats have been removed for certain performances that I have seen there in the past.

Along with the Moore Theatre, The Paramount is maintained by the Seattle Theatre Group and the two venues are closely affiliated. While artists like Prince perform in the Key Arena or the Gorge in Eastern Washington, slightly smaller events are held here. Big nam comedians (Robin Williams, Cheech & Chong, Kathi Griffin) that need more seating will appear there and I’ve seen some great concerts there as well (Ween, Oysterhead).

This is definitely a venue to watch. They will usually have something lined up on the calendar worth seeing.

The Moore Theater, connected to the Moore Hotel, is the theatre featured in Pearl Jams “Even Flow” video.

Smaller comedians like Charlie Murphy have performed at the Moore and they actually get really good concerts. Medeski, Martin, & Wood often performs here, I’ve seen Sonic Youth at the Moore, and I will be spending this New Year’s Eve at the venue watching Buckethead.

I took this photo of Dan the Automator at The Last Supper Club and it will probably be the only show that I ever attend at the venue. They let me eat some free tacos but the club is basically for people that really like living in 1995 and listening to House music.

The crowd was not made up of Deltron 3030, Dr. Octagon, or even Gorillaz fans. Anyone could have been the DJ at that show and it wouldn’t have mattered in the slightest.

Jazz Alley is a decent club but, most of all, they get really good jazz acts. This is a pretty straight up jazz club, as you might be able to tell by the title, but the ambiance is pretty weak and the staff has acted a bit pretentious towards, even when I was on the guestlist. A friend of mine had a birthday there years back and his group dropped over $300 but employees still expected him to sit quietly in his seat and were actually fairly rude to him We were at a Charlie Hunter show for chrissakes!

I’ve also seen John Scofield there, Dave Grisman will be performing soon, and Taj Mahal does a run around Thanksgiving every year. Most acts will do multiple shows, often in one night. It’s worth checking out the schedule if you like jazz, because they get some solid acts, but I’d rather see most of those acts perform anywhere else (ie. The Triple Door).

The Tractor Tavern is a small club in Ballard that books a lot of rock, folk, and jazz shows of different levels. Acts this year have included Mike Gordon (Phish) and the “Queen of Rockabilly” Wanda Jackson.

Usually there aren’t as many big name acts because of the venue size but that doesn’t mean that the acts aren’t of quality. It’s worth checking in periodically to see who will be playing there. I’ve seen some really great shows there by acts like Sex Mob and local saxophone legend Skerik.

I use to see some pretty sweet shows here but, as of late, nothing has really caught my interest. The first WEEN show that I ever saw was at the Showbox. I’ve also caught Del, Tortoise, Stereo Lab, Fantomas, and countless other shows there. I think Stereo Lab may have performed there again this year but it seems like they usually feature groups like Blues Traveler and more mainstream acts that I’m often not even familiar with.

Neumos is much more cutting edge and focused on cult followings and semi-large underground acts. Basically, Showbox is more likely to book Good Charlotte while Neumos books stuff like Deerhoof. They do always host the Built To Spill Seattle shows each year and have some good shows but it’s harder to peg what is or is not going to be presented there than it used to be.