The future: a mixed-use Neumos, of course (Image: CHS)
Neumos asked for AI visions of its next 20 years so up top is CHS’s take on the corner during Capitol Hill Block Party 2044.
There is no telling what the next 20 or 30 years will bring at the southwest corner of 10th and Pike. CHS can tell you what the past 30 brought: music, drinks and good times.
The first decade of those good times? That was Moe’s Mo’Roc’N Café and an assortment of clubs that lived hard and died young. But those last 20? Those are all thanks to Neumos, the outgrowth of Moe’s that has gone on to be a center of the neighborhood’s entertainment community with a place among Capitol Hill legends like Neighbours, Century Ballroom, The Cuff, Wildrose, and Linda’s.
The live music club celebrates its 2004 birth Wednesday with a free night of music and performance. The free tickets were still available when we started writing this. They might be snapped up before you are done reading.
Asheville’s Wednesday band on the Neumos stage (Image: Neumos)
“We saw all these people walking down the hill for shows … we thought ‘why not have something here,’” Moe’s founder Jerry Everard told CHS about the original inspiration to transform an old Salvation Army on the corner into a new hangout 30 years ago.
Before you were born (Image: King County)
Moe’s shuttered in 1998. At the time Soundgarden had just broken up and Everard told CHS he saw the writing on the wall: The grunge era was over, electronic and DJ music was packing venues, and he wanted to start a family.
Despite groans and moans about the slew of new concepts that took over Moe’s, Everard said electronic-focused ARO.space and Noiselab brought more revenue into the space than the rock stage ever did.
In 2004, when Everard was ready to jump back into managing the club, he looked down the Hill for a partner to be his talent buyer. Jason Lajeunesse, then booking shows for Graceland, seemed like the perfect fit. He had brought Graceland back to prominence following the post-grunge crash but was ready to expand into a nicer space.
The Neumos team formed around preservation-minded developer and Moe founder Everard, as Lajeunesse, Mike Meckling, and Steven Severin joined in promoting and growing the club.
In 2012, Neumos didn’t grow taller like many other corners of Capitol Hill. It went underground, opening the subterranean, smaller, and more intimate Barboza beneath 10th Ave.
In 2017, the partners reopened Neumos after a complete overhaul that included an upgraded sound system and new lighting plus new life for the old Moe Bar next door which became The Runaway.
2017 also brought its neighboring food and drink partner Bok a Bok onto the block.
Today, the company that runs Neumos is now made up of Everard and Lajeunesse.
Severin, who opened Life on Mars with KEXP DJ John Richards in 2019, runs Bumbershoot production company New Rising Sun with former Vito’s owner Greg Lundgren.
Neumos’s influence in the city, meanwhile, has grown. It continues to host touring acts that haven’t reached Paramount or stadium status — yet — along with a mix of events promoting local causes and neighborhood music legends staying in touch with their roots.
Last year, the Neumos-backed Capitol Hill Block Party marked its 25th anniversary. Yes, the math works out. The Block Party’s origin is attributed to Jen Gapay of Thirsty Girl Productions, though a skate shop and longtime Pike/Pine business Crescent Down Works may have hosted some version of the event before Thirsty Girl’s first party in 1997. The Block Party grew through the 2000s and didn’t skip a beat until COVID-19 before returning in 2023 after two years of pandemic cancellations. The Block Party is now run under producer Daydream State, formed by ownership from Pike/Pine institutions including Neumos and Barboza, Lost Lake Cafe, the Comet, and Big Mario’s.
Like the recent celebration of 30 years at Linda’s, an important part of the Neumos story is how development has ebbed and flowed across the neighborhood. Somehow, the 97-year-old building Linda’s calls home managed to escape redevelopment. Elsewhere, growth is being planned to wrap around institutions like Chop Suey.
Neumos, for now, seems well protected. Everard bought the 1916-era building for $577,895 in 1993, according to King County records.
Could the corner someday join much of the rest of Pike/Pine with a mixed-use development above the club? Not anytime soon, apparently. Neumos used the spectre of mixed-use development to warn about the potential loss of live music venues in 2020 and housing seems conspicuously absent in the futuristic Capitol Hill AI-renderings Neumos posted to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Neumos celebrates 20 years on Capitol Hill with a free Wednesday night party, February 28th starting at 7 PM. It is located at 925 E Pike. Learn more at neumos.com.
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Neumos is home :)
Love this. Twenty years in Seattle is quite an achievement. And in this neighborhood no less!
I was gonna say Aero Space was the clurrb before all that! All the children used to show up there… it was a good time. We were so young and gay!!!! Ughh… then hit neighbors ally up, or hang out with the street kids. We were sooooo alive!
I remember my mom was like, “if I catch you up there again ‘black person’, im putting you out?”
Next weekend…
Me: “Woooooooow”
I did not partake in the drugs tho… the night life was more than fitting enough a crystal for me to see my future with drugs. The drug culture was pretty bad back then too, but not don’t go to qfc bad.
Happy Birthday! Century Ballroom will celebrate with you this week when we celebrate 27 years! Here’s to growing old on Capitol Hill!!
Congratulations. Should have included Century in our incomplete Capitol Hill hall of fame list above — will update :)
Happy Anniversaries to Neumos and Century Ballroom! CHS, please keep these “growing old on Capitol Hill” (thanks, Hallie) posts coming…it’s a good reminder to support the business we love so they can live on.
Lots of great memories at Neumos, Moe Bar, and the best kept secret pulled pork sandwiches at the old Pike St. Fish Fry :)
How about Wildrose?
Also a hall of famer!
All hail The Wildrose!