Happy Fourth of July from Seattlest
Seattlest Pix: 09Jul04
Seattlest Pix: 09Jul05
Seattle Int'l Beer Festival Ends at 7 p.m.
We've got some cool Liars swag to give away and then Seattlest has for you our highly anticipated report on the venue unfortunately known as WaMu "Theater", as well as some notes on last night's Liars/Interpol show.
First, the goodies: If (like us), you missed out on Liars' surely awesome set last night, you can certainly benefit from enjoying their music in recorded form. Seattlest has a Liars prize pack, including the band's complete full-length CD catalog (their current self-titled release, Drums Not Dead, They Were Wrong So We Drowned, and They Threw Us in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top), a 7" of their latest single "Plaster Casts of Everything," a poster, and some stickers. Just fill out the form below for your chance to win. No worries: Your info is safe with us and will not be shared with advertisers and/or the government, yadda yadda yadda. We'll be drawing one winner Monday at 10am.
And now some words about WaMu Theater...
First off, we're terribly disappointed to have to say that we completely missed Liars last night. The concert time listed on the WaMu Theater website said 8:00, so like every other Seattle music venue, we assumed that meant doors open at 8:00. This being the case, we showed up at about 8:45 only to learn from a ticket gal that doors opened at 6:30 and we'd missed Liars' entire show. This left us not only disappointed, but also wondering how many other people didn't get a chance to see the opening band due to misinterpretation. We're not completely blaming the venue -- as we checked the website today, it does say the word "show" after the time. Perhaps it'd be more clear if they added the doors open time?
Upon entering the lobby -- or more appropriately, the concourse -- we were immediately uncomfortable. The place is huge, cavernous even. Everywhere you look, blue lights shine down from the ceiling while blue curtains separate the theater/concert hall/whatever from the rest of the place. We wander and eventually make our way to the beer garden. We enter and immediately we're thankful for the two Snowcaps we just drank at Pyramid Alehouse, because all we'll find here is a sad collection of domestic piss-water and gross wine. As we leave the garden, we notice a separate little area with people lounging on white couches. We ask what it is and we're told it's the something something Lounge and we can hang out in there if we're a WaMu customer. So, basically, if we'd remembered that our home mortgage is through WaMu and had the papers with us to prove it, we could have sat on some white couches and drank the same nasty beer available out in the garden. Neat.
Now we enter the theater/hall/whatchamacallit and we're completely taken aback by how massive the place is. At first we hate it, but we then remind ourselves that this is what this place is all about: a venue with a capacity more than the Paramount and less than Key Arena. Alright then. Next observation: chairs. Why the fuck are there chairs all over the place? No one's going to be sitting for an Interpol show. The seats prove to be awkward to navigate around, but we eventually make our way toward the standing-room-only area in front of the stage, where there is clearly plenty of room for more people. Nope. Denied. A small man with a barista headset crosses his arms and tells us, "None shall pass!", or something to that effect. We quickly realize that these reichsprotektors in barista headsets are all over the place in here. We take our seat and think about what a fun place this is.
As expected, Interpol takes to the stage and everyone stands.
Up to the point just before the lights went down and the music began, we were clearly not having a good time. In fact, we were ready to leave. Once the lights went down, however, and Interpol dove into "Pioneer to the Falls" everything changed. Suddenly we didn't care about the barista control-freaks or the stupid chairs.
And you know what? The sound was great.
Throughout the course of the performance we trained our ears to try and pick up any echo noise or unintentional reverb. Nothing. The drums, guitars, keyboards, vocals -- every thing was pitch perfect. When Andrew Roe (Marketing Director, AEG Live) said, "these bands wouldn't go on stage if they weren't happy," he was right. Especially a band like Interpol who are so well known for putting on such tight, measured performances.
The verdict: It's not a horrible place to see a show. In fact, if a band we really adore were playing there we might go back. Put another way: We'd see a show here before Key Arena any day.
But please, WaMu Theater, get rid the chairs for certain shows and get some beer that isn't an insult to our senses. These are not outrageous requests.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
To be fair, the Moore/Paramount list their shows by show time rather than doors, though they also usually fail to mention the opening act(s), so if you do show up late assuming the time listed was for doors, you still end up being there before the headliners.
The same thing happened to me at the recent Feist show. I completely missed Grizzly Bear, it was devastating.
yep. it was a painful lesson, but from arcade fire at hec ed, I learned that arena shows list showtime on the tickets. actually liars started a little after 8; so even the tickets weren't completely accurate.
I wish we could trade places. Got there before it started so I got the whole show. The Liars were the worst band I've ever seen.
But didn't the tickets for Arcade Fire say 7:30 and the Gossip went on around 7?
yeah, but the Gossip wasn't listed on the ticket.
(no, this doesn't make me feel any better about missing them, but that's my best interpretation of the bizarro arena ticket logic.)
I had a long day and felt like sitting for the show. It was nice to be up front for what I saw of The Liars, but I should have known that people would be standing for Interpol. After their set began I went to the elevated seats in the back, which on either side were probably the worst spots in the house. For pretty much the entire set I had spotlights flashing right in my face. That = headache = not enjoyable. Besides this and the gorilla security force watching our every move, I'd say it was a great show. Ha.. not.
PS. I have to agree with courtneyj; The Liars were a horrible assault on my senses. I'm all for experimental but it's a fine line between avant-garde and just plain annoying.