Recent Stories with tag seattle center

At Bumbershoot Monday, the Broad Street Stage had the awesome back-to-back-to-back lineup of Japandroids, Surfer Blood, and The Thermals.  Before their set, Surfer Blood briefly chatted with The Thermals in Japandroids' plush (souped up with a DVD player and wifi), creepy (tinted windows), environmentally friendly (biodiesel) Sprinter van.  All three bands play this weekend's MusicfestNW in Portland, The Thermals' new album, Personal Life, is out on Kill Rock Stars as of Tuesday, and Surfer Blood will be back in Seattle with The Drums, at Neumo's on October 4th.

Thomas Fekete, Surfer Blood guitarist: What famous people do you see from Portland in the grocery store?

Kathy Foster, Thermals bassist: Quasi-famous. Quasi.

Hutch Harris, Thermals guitarist/vocalist: I saw Danny Glover one time.  Danny Glover has a house in Portland.

KF: Steve Malkmus and I are on a softball team this summer.

HH: Except he kinda flaked out.

KF: He only played one game.

HH: What, Pavement had to tour?  Didn't they know he has a softball team?

TF: The first time I ever saw Steve Malkmus in person, he was sitting in a mall, cross-legged, eating an ice cream cone, by himself on a bench. It was pretty perfect.

K: What mall?

TF: It was in Barcelona.

HH: I made coffee for Art from Everclear one time.

TF:  Everlast tried to fight us.  Do you guys know the guys from Everlast?  Have they ever tried to fight you?  [laughs]  Because apparently they try to fight every other band in the world.... (more)

This sums things up nicely.

There is once in a lifetime, and there is once in a lifetime. Yesterday, a small group of about two hundred Bumbershooters (lucky End listeners, some VIPs, and yes, mostly press) gathered in a tiny room upstairs in McCaw Hall to see Courtney Love give a very intimate Hole performance.

Ultimately, it took up the biggest chunk of my Bumber-day, as we all excitedly waited in line for an hour, then waited for Courtney for half an hour, and then got four songs and a whole lot of talking from Ms. Love over the next hour.  I didn't know quite what to expect, and yet it went exactly as expected.

"Do we have an African-American child in our family now?" And so it began.

Over the next scatterbrained hour, Courtney went on to mispronounce "schadenfreude," rail against the Weekly's recent cover story on her ("the most irresponsible thing I've ever seen"), and occasionally answered a question from Red, The End DJ trying to conduct a Q&A--though it did take Red asking a question about the forthcoming Kurt biopic thrice to get a semi-coherent answer.... (more)

Plants and Animals

Yesterday was a good way to kick off Bumbershoot: the weather was just warm enough, we got a little sun, and Seattle Center wasn't too crowded. I'm vowing to make this year's fest a laidback experience. I'll catch what I can catch, and I'm not going to stress about it. Besides, it's easy to see a little bit of everything, if you're like me and start to get itchy after twenty minutes of a festival set. (Be sure to follow us @thesunbreak on Twitter, to catch our collective Bumbershoot observations as they occur.)

Saturday I started things out with Montreal's Plants and Animals, who combined their fuzzed-out, prog-leaning surf rock with words of wisdom: "It takes a good friend to tell you you've got your head up your ass." Their sped-up version of La La Land's "Tom Cruz" ended with a drawn-out jam. From there, I caught the tail-end of The Constellations, who played some cowbell from the photo pit, before closing their set with a cover of "I'm Waiting for the Man."

I made some time for one of the comedy stages, for the showcase with Joe Mande, Chelsea Peretti, and Donald Glover (Doug Benson is acting as MC, as well as appearing on Mark Maron and Chris Hardwick's live podcasts during the fest). Joe Mande covered his "hate crime fantasies," Twitter fights with celebrities, and the erotic origins of milk. Chelsea Peretti discussed the self-righteousness of owners of three-legged dogs. And Community's Donald Glover had a polished, easily excitable set that drew on everything from Michael Cera playing Shaft to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a "homeless man's fever dream." Thankfully, all three made fun of vegans.... (more)

It's Bumbershoot this Labor Day weekend (see our takes on Saturday and Sunday's lineup), and before we get to the acts, let's recap on strategery:

• Daily tickets are $22 (no mainstage) or $40 (mainstage). The $22 Saturday tickets are already sold out. Buy in advance, 'cause at the gate it'll go up to $30 and $50, respectively. All adult-accompanied kids 10 and under get free festival admission (doesn't include mainstage).
• You can meticulously plan an electronic schedule ahead of time using this online whirlygig or keep your options open by stocking your pocket with a printed PDF version
• Driving anywhere near the Seattle Center will be a pain, slightly less if you get there very early. Any number of buses will drop you there, including special festival shuttles. From Capitol Hill, it's the mighty #8. From downtown, you take the Monorail and arrive in style.
• Check the weather before you go and dress appropriately (or not, what the hell, it's your life). For the pack: water bottle, something blanket-y to sit on, sunscreen, sweater. On Monday, you'll probably want to bring an umbrella and waterproof jacket, just to be safe. 

By the time Bumbershoot reaches Monday, everyone is pretty damn tired. But if you're still able to summon up the energy to make it to Seattle Center early, there are plenty of good options, in the form of rootsy Bobby Bare Jr. (12:30), country and banter care of Brent Amaker & The Rodeo (11:45), the big pipes of Nouela Johnston in People Eating People (12:30), and JEFF the Brotherhood (1:15), who are neither brothers nor named Jeff.

Monday is also your last chance to check out those things you've been meaning to do all festival, like hitting up the short films in SIFF Cinema, the Counterculture Comix retrospective (curated by Larry Reid and our good friends at Fantagraphics), or seeing some dance, theatre, or comedy. Especially if it's raining outside. We've been giving shout-outs to comedy throughout the festival, but I'd like to give a special mention to Kumail Nanjiani, who specializes in the fish-out-of-water humor of being a Pakistani in America. (I also went to college with him--jealous?) He's performing as part of a comedy nerd lover's dream showcase with the also-very-funny John Mulaney and Nick Kroll (3:45).... (more)

It's Bumbershoot this Labor Day weekend, and before we get to the acts, let's recap on strategy.

• Daily tickets are $22 (no mainstage) or $40 (mainstage). Buy in advance, 'cause at the gate it'll go up to $30 and $50, respectively. All adult-accompanied kids 10 and under get free festival admission (doesn't include mainstage).
• Driving anywhere near the Seattle Center will be a pain, slightly less if you get there very early. Any number of buses will drop you there, including special festival shuttles. From Capitol Hill, it's the mighty #8. From downtown, you take the Monorail and arrive in style.
• You can meticulously plan an electronic schedule ahead of time using this online whirlygig or keep your options open by stocking your pocket with a printed PDF version
• Check the weather before you go and dress appropriately (or not, what the hell, it's your life). For the pack: water bottle, something blanket-y to sit on, sunscreen, sweater. Maybe an umbrella? The forecast looks like the festival might (again) live up to its namesake climate protection device.

More than the other two festival days, Sunday is the one with a mainstage lineup as likely to draw former fans looking for a trainwreck as current fans in seeking magical musical moments. In their heyday (aka "the nineties") the headliners released near-flawless and now-iconic albums and then became different kinds of unglued. As far as I'm concerned, Hole's Live Through This is an unassailable classic. Despite all of the tabloid drama, ditching the rest of the band, and the absurdly ungrammatical twitter breakdowns, that record and her rogue 1995 post-VMA appearance will have me on Team Courtney and hoping that her performance falls into the category of "unexpected brilliance" instead of unmitigated disaster.

courtney love (photo by & courtesy of whitney pastorek)

Then there's Weezer. Weezer of that self-titled (aka "Blue") album that wore out many an early model Discman. Weezer that took seemingly forever to come back with still-beloved masterpiece (Pinkerton, aka "the misogynistic one," or in more charitable moments, the self-lambasting one) because their frontman was hiding out in a tinfoiled room at Harvard while suffering to stretch a malformed leg. Weezer that decided that if playing a song with the Muppets was cool (it kind of was!), then why not release a single about being the worst human in California, or make an album of internet memes, or do something called "Raditude," or put the dude from LOST on the cover in ultra close-up. They're headlining.

The last time I saw them was when they were touring behind their second self-titled ("Green") album. It was fun. There was a lot of confetti. I have no idea what to expect because I haven't been able to bring myself to listen to a whole Weezer song since "Beverly Hills." Their mainstage show will break that drought and may extinguish any lingering warm sentiments toward the band. All the joys and sorrows of being old enough to have important bands from your childhood stick around long enough to throw gasoline on your memories.  Or it could be amazing! That's why I'll be there, instead of bolting across town to the Paramount for Pavement, a band whose window of opportunity opened and closed before I was paying attention, I guess. ... (more)

It's Bumbershoot this Labor Day weekend, and before we get to the acts, let's recap on strategy.

• Daily tickets are $22 (no mainstage) or $40 (mainstage). Buy in advance, 'cause at the gate it'll go up to $30 and $50, respectively. All adult-accompanied kids 10 and under get free festival admission (doesn't include mainstage).
• Driving anywhere near the Seattle Center will be a pain, slightly less if you get there very early. Any number of buses will drop you there, including special festival shuttles. From Capitol Hill, it's the mighty #8. From downtown, you take the Monorail and arrive in style.
• Check the weather before you go and dress appropriately (or not, what the hell, it's your life). For the pack: water bottle, something blanket-y to sit on, sunscreen, sweater.

Saturday Picks!

You can meticulously plan an electronic schedule ahead of time using this online whirlygig or keep your options open by stocking your pocket with a printed PDF version. But no matter what, there is a knife hidden in every Bumbershoot--an inevitable knife--that stabs the moment you realize two of your favorite things are playing at the exact same time. What to do? Me, I say roll with it and wait until you are there and need to make the call. Often you're in the mood for one or the other by the time the moment of decision rolls around.

That said, for a themed day, there's a couple of tracks you could run. Here's an all alt.folk.country day in music with Star Anna & the Laughing Dogs (1:15 p.m.), Zoe Muth & the Lost High Rollers (2:45) or The Maldives (3), Justin Townes Earle (4:45), The Decemberists (5:30), Pete Molinari (6:45), Neko Case (7:15), and Bobby D (9, mainstage), if you're into older dudes.... (more)

If you're attending Tristan and Isolde's opening night at Seattle Opera this Saturday, the word from SDOT is to arrive early. Like, 5 p.m. may be good.

Both the Torchlight Parade (7:30 p.m.) and Torchlight Run (6:30 p.m.) conflict with the opera's 6:30 p.m. curtain time. The south side of Seattle Center is a no-go zone; the run crosses Denny twice, closing the street to traffic, so there will be significant congestion.

SDOT suggests--besides arriving very early--that you approach the Seattle Center via Aurora or I-5. Here's what you need to know besides Denny equals "here there be monsters." The parade will be staging on Mercer Street, with one or two lanes open, and will head south down 5th Avenue, then to 4th Avenue.

If you take Aurora, remember the Broad Street exit is closed, so you need to exit on a side street. From I-5, you'll take Broad Street to Harrison to 5th. You'll be able to take 5th Avenue northbound to Roy, if you're heading to the parking garage. Just don't count on traffic moving quickly as the parade time nears.

The Monorail has its charms. Look! You drive it with a friggin' joystick! How awesome is that? Still, the world's only single-rail train is frequented almost exclusively by tourists, because who else goes to Westlake? I kid! I'm at the Washington State Cougars-themed apparel shop all the time! It's worth taking a trip if you haven't. Here's how.

June is here (sorta, if you don't look outside), and with that comes the first wave of artists tapped for this year's Bumbershoot.  It's the festival's 40th anniversary, so that means trotting out musicians both old and new, which in this case means Bob Dylan and Hole. Dare we dream of a croaky-voiced Courtney Love-Bob Dylan trainwreck duet?

Single-day tickets are available online as of today, and via Ticketmaster this Friday. Just a reminder on how the tickets are different this year: 

The Bumbershoot Standard Ticket ($40 advance/$50 gate) includes guaranteed Mainstage admission, as well as first-come, first-served access to all other Festival venues. The Bumbershoot Economy Ticket ($22 advance/$30 gate) gives ticketholders first-come, first-served access to everything at Bumbershoot except the Mainstage performances in Memorial Stadium. Economy Ticket holders may be able to purchase Mainstage Upgrade Tickets on-site for $30, if space in the Mainstage is still available day-of-show.

There's one more Mainstage act to be announced (mayhaps Soundgarden?), along with the literary, comedy, performing arts, visual arts, film and theater artists, and whatever other music groups get added to the bill. Check out the lineup by day, and the full list is after the jump.... (more)

One thing I love about photocoyote's snaps is that he wakes me up to how the city looks. Do you know where these stone faces live? They're somewhere in Seattle Center, making the area look like a hip Old-World plaza. We have 84 photographers participating in our SunBreak Flickr pool. Jump in, and get Glimpsed! 

The good folks at Sub Pop, fresh off the label's twenty-second birthday last month, have decided to act like responsible grownups and take care of local music youngsters. To that end, they just donated $15,000 to non-profit all-ages venue The Vera Project, and have challenged the people and businesses of Seattle to come together and raise another $10,000 to help the Vera reach their spring fundraising goal of $25,000 by May 15.

This isn't the first time Sub Pop have put their money where their mouth is: Just last summer, they donated $10,000 to the Northwest Film Forum to help the the arts organization close its $70,000 budget shortfall.

Speaking about this latest donation, Sub Pop's Megan Jasper said, "It's through artistic expression that we discover who we are as individuals and who we are as a community. When young people have the freedom for this type of exploration, anything is possible. They end up making music, opening music venues, becoming djs and working at record labels, and in doing so they change the world. We feel so proud to support the Vera Project."

To which Monica Martinez, a Vera Project volunteer member replied, "Sub Pop and Vera both emerged from Seattle's homegrown, grassroots music scene, and both have grown into stable and thriving local institutions. Sub Pop's pledge will help Vera cultivate the future of Seattle's music and arts scene." Get a room, you two!

Donating to the Vera has its perks: 

Vera will show its appreciation to those who pledge $300 and up by mounting their name on a gold 7” record inside Vera's venue; those who pledge $1,000 and up receive a gold LP record.

Plus, the Vera is listing the names of spring fundraising drive donors, updated every so often. I see the names of people I know! They are famous! (And the Vera's recent web redesign is most excellent.) ... (more)

Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter at McCaw Hall

There were a couple things I knew going in to the Conan O'Brien show Sunday night. It was at McCaw Hall, Conan would be there, and...that's about it. (Sunday also just happened to be Conan's birthday!) Not a lot was said about the show, and no one knew who the guests would be. Would he set it up like a talk show? Would he ride a unicycle for 90 minutes?

It turned out to be an interesting mix, more like a variety act than a comedy tour. There's been some positive and negative talk about the tour, but if you're a huge fan of his talk show, then you probably would have had a fantastic time. The show's opening act, Reggie Watts (formerly of Seattle and currently of Maktub), did a great job of working up the crowd and getting them ready for 90 minutes of hot Coco action. He brought on a lot of laughs with his great mix of electronic music, dirty jokes, and wacky lyrics. The Seattle-specific call-outs really perked up the audience as well as his dazzling voice. 

And then on came Conan with a bang, kicking off with a two-minute standing ovation by the awaiting audience. He started with a pretty typical introduction, talking about the tour and its purpose, with quite a bit of the complaints that we've gotten used to hearing from the ex-NBC host over the last three months. The Seattle crowd ate it up, and it must have felt good to have that many people behind him. Guests that joined the comedian onstage included his sidekick Andy Richter, one of his writers, Deon Cole, who did a short stand-up routine, La Bamba and his "Big Band," and that night's special music guest Dave Matthews.... (more)

Seattle Center is holding a "Fun Forest Redevelopment Public Hearing" in the Center House, Conference Room A, tonight at 6:30 p.m. Most of you dodged an earlier solicitation for public input, so they're doing it again, using the heated public reaction to the Wright family's Chihuly glass house proposal as a motivator.

While it's your golden opportunity to chime in about the Fun Forest space south of the Monorail, the Center is also interested in public suggestions for events, art installations, and community gatherings that could be held in what they're calling the Center Square, the three acres north of the Monorail, where the Fun Forest's larger rides used to be.

The only hitch is that the use is temporary--at the end of 2011, the Center will need the Center Square back for their 50th Anniversary celebration in 2012. Otherwise, redevelopment of the north space is all planned out: Center spokesperson Deborah Daoust says there'll be a large tent for concerts, a 3,500-sq.-ft. children's garden, a basketball court, and a hay bale maze. They're also taking over the Center Square Pavilion, a 7,000-sq.-ft. building adjacent to the Center House's east side that I remember mainly for having an ice cream shop with exactly the same choices as those inside the Center House.

For the south area's redevelopment, Daoust says the future of the 1.5 acres is being opened up to an RFP process, to see if members of our outraged public can come up with a better idea than the Wrights'. Meanwhile, the Fun Forest's "kiddie rides" will remain in place until Labor Day 2010.... (more)

"Tourist," a view from the Columbia Tower, courtesy of The SunBreak Flickr pool's slightlynorth.

It was a week featuring two of Seattle's most prominent architectural icons: on the tenth anniversary of the Kingdome implosion, the market for commercial space downtown has imploded, too. Beacon Capital Partners missed a loan payment on the Columbia Tower, and faces a 33 percent vacancy rate once Amazon decamps next year. Starbucks announced ten-cent-per-share dividends at its annual meeting. One of our hippos died.

Plans for a private Chihuly exhibit at Seattle Center ran smack into Seattle process; now the Center will open up public bidding for use of the space vacated by the Fun Forest. Seattlepi.com reports that "Beth Campbell filed a motion in U.S. District Court asking that construction of the southern mile of a viaduct-replacement project be delayed until a full environmental-impact study is done of the entire viaduct project."

The city council joined every other Washington Democrat in wishing AG Rob McKenna would not challenge the constitutionality of the federal health care reform bill. Seattle's direct care providers Qliance are looking forward to the new insurance exchanges. Seattle was named the top city for cybercrime in America.

Mayor McGinn claims he has an affordable West Seattle-Ballard light rail line up his sleeve. Amtrak passengers had to take the long way around when a mudslide hit the tracks near Mukilteo--for the second time in two weeks. Mudslides aside, we now have extra Amtrak to Vancouver, B.C., through September. Nick Licata wants to lean on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for help with the seawall replacement.... (more)

Looks like Conan O'Brien has found something to do with his free time, as today he announced a thirty-city live performance tour.  Dubbed "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour," his live show promises "a night of music, comedy, hugging, and the occasional awkward silence."  That sounds like the Conan we all know and love.

Kicking off in Eugene, Oregon on April 12th, the tour will take place over two months, making stops in twenty states and three Canadian provinces, as well as a special appearance at Bonnaroo.  Locally, Conan will perform at McCaw Hall on April 18th and April 19th--looks like this second show was just added!  Prices start at $39.50 (but this is Ticketmaster, so let's just say $50) all the way up to $695 for the drool-worthy special VIP meet-and-greet package. 

Full list of tour dates as of right now--ticket sales are strong, so second shows keep getting added--after the jump.... (more)

So the latest hullabaloo is over the Wright family proposal to build a Chihuly glass house where the Fun Forest once misspent idle youth--the news made the USA Today, for heaven's sake. The lesson seems to be that if you say you'll pay for construction, you can build whatever you like at Seattle Center.

A glorified Chihuly gift shop/restaurant was on no one's top ten list for the Center--well, except for Dale Chihuly and the Wrights, apparently, where it was number one with a putti.

Mossback crawled out from beneath a seed log to make the point that the Center has never been all that high-toned--that was in defense of Chihuly, by the way. On the City Council, Sally Bagshaw said, What about our Central Park plan? Mayor McGinn said, It makes money? And Council President Richard Conlin plumped squarely for a Central-Parkesque open space with a glass house in it.

Here and there, Seattle Center is sporting more and more the handiwork of Owen Richards Architects. A principal with LMN on the McCaw Hall renovation, Owen Richards has since come back twice to make improvements on the Hall's cafe and to create SIFF Cinema. It's also the firm chosen for the SIFF Group Film Center on Center campus.

Now the firm has been tapped for the glass house project. I'd rather see someone tackle the real white elephant on Center grounds, the hulking ex-armory Center House, which has the effect of making any cultural celebration held there feel vaguely Stalinesque. It's the heart of the campus, and what everything else relates to. It seems odd simply to plunk things down around it, in the hope that when something is finally done with it, it will "work" with everything else.

This weekend, Urban Craft Uprising--"Seattle's largest indie craft show"--will be taking over Exhibition Hall at Seattle Center. No matter what you're looking for, short of a flat-screen TV, you can probably find it here, handmade by local artists, knitters, potters, jewelers, and other crafty types. One look at the vendor list and one can see the endless gift possibilities.

Personally, I love these shows. It is immeasurably more fun to spend an hour or a whole afternoon around these clever vendors than it is to visit the mall or Bed Bath & Beyond or any other brightly lit chain store coffin. Also many of them are quite foxy.

• December 5 and 6, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Seattle Center Exhibition Hall; free admission.

Hoops fans, we bring you live to Seattle Center on this, the first night of the NBA season. Let's take a walk around the grounds and get a sense of the excitement.

Here, at Memorial Stadium, we have...a rec league soccer game. How about the EMP? Hmm...two teenage girls sitting on a heating grate. And at Key Arena? Nothing.

Well, maybe Seattle's premier sports bar, the Sport Restaurant and Lounge, at Fisher Plaza, will be packed with hoops aficionados. Let's see.

Okay, walking past the Jamal Crawford, Nate McMillan, and Todd McCullough jerseys to the bar, and here, for tip off of Cavs/Celtics, the first game of the season, we have...me. And my friend Nathaniel, who has to file a story about the game for The Sporting Blog.

(Nathaniel, who under the pen name Bethlehem Shoals is co-author of the mind-alteringly awesome Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac, is one of two nationally-respected NBA writers who, oddly, live in this the largest American metro area without an NBA team. The other, stats whiz Kevin Pelton, has chosen to travel to Portland for opening night (here's his story).)

This can still be a basketball event! First, though, perhaps management wouldn't mind turning up the game audio, and down the Crosby, Stills and Nash song? Thanks.

Midway through the game, we have expanded our numbers almost to double-digits! Four other NBA fans have shown up at Nathaniel's Twitter invitation. Down the bar, a Cavs fan arrives with his (clearly bored) girlfriend just in time to watch his team collapse against the Celtics.... (more)

There was one non-negotiable must-see at Bumbershoot Monday, and that was the Lost writers panel. Sorry Say Hi, Black Joe Lewis, Grand Hallway, and the Lonely Forest, you were playing at the wrong time; there was no way to catch any of your sets and also be back at the Leo K. Theatre early enough to snag some seats. I wasn't alone: the nerds had shown up early, and there was a long line of folks who were just not going to get in. For those of us who made it, however, we were treated to a lively discussion between Entertainment Weekly's Lost guru Jeff Jensen and Lost executive producer-scribes Carlton Cuse, Eddy Kitsis, and Adam Horowitz.

The show is three weeks into filming its sixth and final season, which Kitsis claimed would be "all killer, no filler." The writers showed the three teasers previously viewed at Comic-Con (and subsequently all over the tubes), which seem to indicate that perhaps time has been rebooted following Juliet detonating a hydrogen bomb in the season finale. Everyone will have to wait... (more)

Despite the talk of a monsoon this weekend, I ain't care. If fewer people venture to Bumbershoot this year, that is fine by me. It just makes for more music, comedy, and performances for the rest of us.

This year I am all about Monday. The music lineup is solid. Ignore the Black Eyed Peas (please--maybe that will make them go away), and take your pick from The Lonely Forest (3:15-4:15pm, EMP), Champagne Champagne (4:45-5:45pm, EMP), Trucksaurus (7:45-8:45pm, EMP), Portland Cello Project (6:45-7:45pm, Northwest Court), Say Hi (2:30-3:30pm, Broad Street), Mirah (4:15-5:15pm, Broad Street), Metric (9:30-10:45pm, Broad Street), The Cave Singers (6:45-7:45pm, Mural Amphitheatre), Janelle Monae (5:45-6:45pm, Fisher Green), and Franz Ferdinand (7:45-9:00pm, Memorial Stadium). Any or all of the above is sure to please.

While the overall Bumbershoot music lineup seems to be flailing at best (above company excluded), their comedy offerings only get better, and on Monday you've got tons of great laugh options, including... (more)