Recent Stories with tag paramount

A wide range of folks descended on the Paramount to see the iconic and enigmatic Morrissey on a Sunday evening. Seattleites from all over the subcultural spectrum showed up to sway along with their favorite British crooner.

Capitol Hill hipsters made sure their hair was perfectly styled, goth girls made sure their makeup was fully applied, tattooed hardcore kids wore their Smiths shirts, new Belltowners wore their suits, and a slew of regular people filled in the empty seats between them. Ages ranged from middle school to 40th-high-school-reunion.

There's something special about a singer that can attract such a variety of fans, especially a singer that is not particularly exciting to watch or listen to. Yet, Morrissey has been steadily adding to his fan base since the early '80s. It's a fan base that, while not quite Beatles-esque, is remarkably dedicated. One gentleman way up in the front even cut his hair to resemble the traditional Morrissey shaved sides and pompadour look that he has sported for the past...

(more)

The roar of cheers and applause that went up as Regina Spektor reappeared for her encore at the Paramount on Tuesday night was louder than anything else that night. All night, between songs, it had been "Regina, I love you!", "Regina, I love you more than that first girl!", and a baritone howl of "Regina, I want to have your babies!" Spektor, in contrast, traveled imperturbably from song to song, though the "babies" brought her up short. "All tour," she said, "it's been babies. I guess...thanks?"

If you were listening to her albums--Far is her latest--and debating about whether a live show was worth braving wind and cold, I can tell you it was. (Though if I had it all to do over again, I would have worn a scarf.) Spektor's ferocious talent puts her live show into life-flashing-before-your-eyes highlight-reel contention.

When she appears onstage, ducking and grinning shyly at the wave of applause headed her direction, you might not think "ferocious" is all that accurate or even appropriate. But when she's there alone on the stage singing "Silly Eye-Color Generalizations" a capella, full-throated, tenderly, mockingly, piercingly--over two thousand people are barely breathing.

Lyrically, she has a predator's ability to confound her prey so that you--little bunny rabbit, come for carrots--freeze right there, marveling at the silky verbal tricks. Vocally, she has very sharp teeth. One moment, she's a little breathy girl's bleat but with bounce, "It was so easy and the words so sweet", and then the mouth opens very wide and the voice gets very big and you would probably take a few steps back if your chair would let you. Still, even if she has you in tears or gibbering foolishly, she looks like she'd apologize profusely for having eaten the whole theater and gone to sleep.

Yes, she is acclimated, but she is a Russian bear. Do not forget this....

(more)

Tonight at the Paramount Theatre it's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which gives you an insight into the state of underwater photography (in Bermuda) in 1916. Who knew? Universal's silent film, directed by Stuart Paton, is loosely based on Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues and his Mysterious Island, and it contains what some have called the most remarkable overacting ever recorded, from Jane Gail.

You are also cautioned that the Captain Nemo (Allen Holubar) is old and dresses like Santa Claus. But there is "a full-size navigable mock-up of the surfaced submarine Nautilus," reports the Paramount. The Paramount's Mighty Wurlitzer Organ is helmed this time by Jim Riggs, so apparently STG never got that contretemps with Dennis James sorted out. The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $12.

Next Monday, November 9, it's The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the creation of a 23-year-old German teacher named Lotte Reiniger. In 1926, she used silhouette animation to tell the Arabian Nights-esque story of the prince Achmed, a sorcerer with a flying horse, Princess Peri Banu, and Aladdin. You will be familiar with the technique if you saw SIFF's trailers this spring or have watched the credits of A Series of Unfortunate Events recently. It took three years to make these 65 minutes of film, but people still call it "gorgeous" and "mesmerizing." So that's a top pick, if you're going to just one....

(more)

She likely broke your heart with "Fidelity," admit it. That vocalization on heart ("ha-ha-ha") seems skittering but try it at home. It's the singer's equivalent of an entrechat six. Regina Spektor seems nonchalant about it, the reinvention of laughter inside a heart.

Her new album Far opens with "Calculation," and here she lyrically, surgically, removes your heart and slaps it against a granite countertop. "Hey this fire, it's burnin', burnin' us up," she announces pleasantly. The album contains 13 songs that will tantalize a certain kind of music critic or fan with "meanings." If you like, you can start decoding the lyrics and the mystery, taking Spektor's temperature.

Strictly speaking, she has already come far. Born in Moscow in 1980, she left in 1989 when Perestroika brought on the peregrination of restless Soviets. Her parents were escaping anti-Semitism, so their next stop, Austria, can't have seemed in retrospect a well-researched choice. Italy didn't take either. Finally they settled in the Bronx.

You can read her lyrics as a kind of poetry which is not true of most--if poetry today can be too dependent on sight-reading, pop song lyrics lie there on the page, evoking nothing but banality until the singer interprets them. "Human of the Year" has a stanza that goes:

The icons are whispering to you,

they're just old men,

like on the benches in the park,

except their balding spots are glistening with gold.

First, that's a nice image. Secondly, just as poetry's description asks you a question about what you think you've seen, these lines ask a question about what holiness is. Maybe it is the ability to see the gold in bald spots....

(more)

In my notes for the Sunny Day Real Estate show at the Paramount on Friday, I wrote one word: Real.

Yes, it was really happening. Even though I was lucky enough to see them at the "secret" pre-tour show in Tacoma, the show still felt like a dream. The Jealous Sound had just opened with Jimmy Eat World songs polished up in brown and plastic Los Angeles. Following that nice set, one of my top five bands of all time were playing right there in front of me. The one that was never going to get back together.

I'm sure there were a couple thousand people there, but it really felt like they were playing a small venue. Mostly because my hard-earned spot in the second row put me so close. Sure, there are drawbacks to the front few rows at the Paramount (like not being able to hear anything from the P.A., such as Dan Hoerner's guitar parts or Jeremy Enigk's singing during the loud parts), but my old friends that tagged along all agreed that it was a fantastic place to listen.

From the first note to the last, every bit of...

(more)

Last Friday I ganged my way onto Holland America's Zandaam, a "mid-sized," 9-floor, floating buffet that comes with its own Dutch pipe organ. It was due to sail for Alaska's Inside Passage at 2:30, but I was there for a luncheon hosted by Seattle Theatre Group, Broadway Across America, and Holland America, to talk about tourism and the arts economy heading into the holiday season.

To get us into the right spirit, we got a mini-Rockettes show, in advance of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular that will have 43 performances here over the holidays (making 14 weeks of Broadway fare the Paramount offers this season). A lot of arts groups have learned to make the most of the holiday season with extended runs: besides the Nutcracker at PNB, ACT has its Christmas Carol and Intiman has Black Nativity. STG's Josh LaBelle mentioned that about 300,000 people are expected to attend a Seattle arts or cultural event in December.

From Tracy at the Seattle Convention and Visitor's Bureau came more stats: 9.5 million people visit...

(more)