Recent Stories with tag columbia city

The still relatively new Columbia City Theater played host to some exciting bands on Saturday. It was Youth Rescue Mission's CD release show, and they shared the stage with the eclectic Heatwarmer and the emotional Grand Hallway.

Youth Rescue Mission are a new group formed chiefly of four siblings. They brought the whole family with them Saturday, with their parents on cello and electric bass and their cousin on drums. The siblings had wonderful four-part harmonies, which the crowd enthusiastically welcomed. There was even a little singing and stomping along from those at the front.

Heatwarmer followed with an astounding set, prompting Grand Hallway's Tomo Nakayama to declare them his favorite band in Seattle. Heatwarmer takes the standard rock lineup, adds keyboards and an electric wind instrument, and then proceed to play Frank Zappa jams. It's almost as if they took a look at the joke combinations of genres bands use on MySpace (like easy listening/zydeco/eclectic) and actually formed a band around it. Influences from all over the place could be heard and the musicians are ridiculously talented. For the last few songs, they brought in a saxophone quartet dubbed the "Seattle Sax Murderers." If anyone was making an '80s-style superhero show, they would be required to employ the services of Heatwarmer for the soundtrack.... (more)

Photo: Chris Blakeley of The SunBreak Flickr pool

First it was Queen Anne's venerable Uptown theater, owned by AMC Theaters, who are closing "uncompetitive" theaters across the country. Their doors are already shut, as of November 28. Then lease negotiations fell apart for Landmark Theatres' Neptune Theatre in the University District. They'll cease screening films in February of 2011.

In this case, the Seattle Times reports, the building's owners opted not to renew Landmark's year-to-year lease in favor of a ten-year agreement with Seattle Theatre Group, who currently operate the Paramount and the Moore theaters. STG plans to remodel the Neptune, then use it primarily for live performances with "local and touring artists." However, they'll keep the ability to show films there.

Both of these arthouse-friendly venues saw heavy use annually as part of the Seattle International Film Festival, and gave the festival a strong presence in Queen Anne and the University District. Down two venues, it's about time for SIFF to be breaking ground on their new Seattle Center office complex, which will include a small screening theater, in addition to the 390-seat SIFF Cinema in McCaw Hall.

Finally, the getting-by-on-getting-byColumbia City Cinema (not the Columbia City Theater) is also facing closure, if the owners can't raise the money needed for the sprinklers required by the fire code. They're trying to raise $50,000 by selling $100-minimum bundles of stock, and "We're not to the halfway point yet on the required 50,000 shares by January 1 but we're getting close," says the blog. The three-screen theater is an anomaly among independents in that they show first-run fare like (at the moment) Tangled, Unstoppable, and Megamind. 

Friday night the Columbia City Theater hosted an evening of music curated by our good friends at Sound on the Sound, bringing together Portland's Jared Mees and the Grown Children and local headliners Black Whales, who somehow had to try and follow the middle act, Vancouver singer-songwriter Dan Mangan.

As you can see above, for his final song, Dan made his way through the crowd to do a mid-audience acoustic sing-along version of "Robots." (SotS also captured a charming version of "The Indie Queens are Waiting," featuring "gender-bending backing vocals from the band.") Mangan put on a charismatic show of quick-witted folk pop with sharp observations of the everyday, which included a song where his band eschewed drums in favor of just stomping out the beats on the stage. His whole set had an easy energy that was hard to resist. Do yourself a favor and stream new album, Nice Nice Very Nice, at Dan's website.

If you haven't been to the refurbished Columbia City Theater yet, what the hell are you waiting for? The venue hosts great shows in a cushy club, delivers tasty libations care of the bar, and the light rail can get you there on the cheap in no time. 

If you need another reason, Columbia City Theater has a big (and diverse) Halloweekend lined up, with Mash Hall's final (ever? or at least for a while) show on Friday, the orchestral pop of Hey Marseilles and the heavily tattooed, tiny dog-loving singer-songwriter Fences on Saturday (both of whom recorded Doe Bay Sessions with Sound on the Sound earlier this year), and the Cabaret Macabre on Sunday, with Bad Things, Baby Gramps, burlesque (natch), and more. COSTUMES HIGHLY ENCOURAGED--caps not mine, but I appreciate the sentiment, plus it gets you in for $2 cheaper on Saturday and Sunday.

The SunBreak has a pair of tickets to give away to Saturday night's show with Hey Marseilles and Fences.  The show is 21+, so you be that old too. We'll be drawing a winner on Friday at noon. Enter below for your chance to win.... (more)

While we were down in Columbia City the other day visiting the Columbia City Theater, we stopped in for lunch at Geraldine's Counter and had a bowl of three-meat chili ($6.95) that it took some digging to reach the bottom of. After a quick conference, The SunBreak Breakfast Team moved Geraldine's up to the top of our breakfast hit list.

Geraldine's Counter (4872 Rainier Avenue South) is right around the corner from a lot on South Ferdinand Street full of 2-hour parking spots that cost exactly $1. (It's also, I will estimate, a 7-minute walk from the Columbia City light rail station.) That's almost thrill enough, but the ambiance of the place--booths to your right as you walk in, light pouring over tables set next to windows on your left, and just in front, the eponymous counter seating--exceeds expectations.

The place is rated highly by the Surly Gourmand, which makes sense because our lunchtime waiter, if not surly, must have made some crotchety vow of silence. There was never any warning or explanation for the fact that two bowls of chili, a cup of tomato soup, and three-cheese sandwich ($6.50: cheddar, Havarti, gruyère) ) took over half an hour to arrive. (In some circles, half an hour is lunch.)

Everything is better with breakfast, though, and that included our service. I asked the waitress for help deciding between the biscuits and gravy ($9.50) and corned beef hash ($8.75), and she gave it real thought--it's a dilemma!--and said hash. I will have to return for biscuits and gravy to be sure, but they serve up a mighty plate of corned beef hash.... (more)

The Columbia City Theater (Facebook) is a music club to fall in love with. It re-re-re-re-opened (the old vaudeville hall has been around since 1917, in various guises) in June of this year, and vaulted into the Seattle Weekly's "Best of Seattle" list less than two months later.

Before we go behind-the-scenes, here's the lowdown. You'll find the Theater at 4916 Rainier Avenue South, which is just beyond the Columbia City Cinema. (Take the #7 or #8 bus or light rail--the last light rail train leaves SeaTac for downtown at 12:10 a.m., Monday through Saturday.) It's adjacent to the award-winning pizzeria Tutta Bella, who serve up the eats in The Bourbon, Columbia City Theater's bar. The bar is open seven days a week, 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The bourbon-heavy cocktail list ($8-$10) features pre-Prohibition favorites (Mint Julep, Derby, Commodore), as well as some rye (Red Hook; Fratelli Cocktail, with Fernet Branca; Diamondback). Bar entertainment ranges from djs to karaoke to live music, and on nights when there's a show in the theatre, you can watch the show projected live on a screen. Happy Hour most of the week is 4-7 p.m., and all day Monday, and brings you such wonders as $5 pitchers of High Life and $3 wells.

Past the bar, on your left, is the entrance to the theater, which has a bar of its own. It's an intimate shoebox space, though it holds over 200, and the acoustics require no over-amplification. The ambiance--the curtained stage and brass lighting fixtures and brick walls--makes this unlike any other music club you're likely to step into in town.... (more)

Times are tough for everybody, especially in the arts.  Between the Northwest Film Forum's fundraising last summer to close a $70K budgetary gap and 4Culture's current funding strife--not to mention KEXP's pledge drive that ended earlier this month and KING FM's announcement that they are also shifting to a listener-supported model--it seems like every local business or organization at all affiliated with the arts has a cup out.  Well, add one more to that list: Columbia City Cinema.  Move over, Haiti:

For the last few months we have been in a state of undeclared Chapter 11 holding creditors and lenders at bay, trying to figure out solutions. We've danced our way of trouble and imminent closure several times but we're running out of options. Use any metaphor you want: We've hit the iceberg and we're going down. We've avoided checkmate a dozen times but we're running out of moves. We're almost out of gas. There are no more rabbits to pull out of the hat. You get the idea. We are in endgame unless something happens to turn the game around....

Send money. The good news is we don't need a lot. We just need a little from a lot of people. We believe in the power of many. We're trying to raise $20,000. That much will catch us up, pay the rent, keep the doors open and carry us through to the big summer movies that begin in May, when we can breathe again. The bad news is we need it now, today, from all of you or survival is iffy. We are the perfect poster child example of a neighborhood cinema in need.

Of course, big-hearted gift-givers will derive personal benefit from their donations.  Yes, you get to keep the theater in the neighborhood, for the good of the entire community, but there's also the promise of bogus stock options and a deed for virtual land--suitable for framing! The full text of owner Paul Doyle's plea after the jump.

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