Tag Archives: music

First look: Life on Mars lands on Capitol Hill

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Severin, Sims, Richards, and Richards

Life on Mars, the new bar with a plant-based menu of burgers and waffle sandwiches, booze, and walls shelving thousands of records at the corner of Pike and Harvard is an answer, not a question for its music-loving founders.

“Everyone is so depressed, everyone is so down, the world is a hard place right now. And Bowie died! That’s sad, too! So in a way Life on Mars is kind of like a rebirth for us,” co-owner John Richards told CHS Thursday night at one of a series of pre-opening parties at the new venue.

The new bar will open, softly, to the public for the first time Saturday night.

The answer to Bowie’s Life on Mars? Yes. There is life out there. There is hope. There is something else to do in life as we get older and want to stay in touch with the things we love best — music, friends, a good drink… vegan food.

“It became more than that song, for sure,” Richards said. “That’s why we left the question mark off.”

Continue reading →

Volunteer Park Pride Festival, now one of the Seattle’s best days of free music, announces 2019 lineup

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Volunteer Park Pride Festival’s 2018 headliner, Tacocat

Born in 2019, the annual festival has grown into one of the city’s largest free music parties

The shifting personality of the annual Volunteer Park Pride Festival into one of the largest free music parties in Seattle was celebrated Tuesday with an announcement of the fest’s 2019 lineup live on KEXP.

Marco Collins, a longtime Seattle DJ credited for helping fuel the city’s grunge explosion on the national music scene and now part of the lineup of voices at the city’s nonprofit music giant KEXP, took to the airwaves Tuesday morning to announce “Seattle-based band and phenomenon” Thunderpussy as the 2019 headliner. Collins is curator for this year’s Volunteer Park Pride Festival and will help host the June 8th event along with drag queen Betty Wetter.

Volunteer Park Pride Festival

The KEXP announcement was a contrast with the lineup announcement for this summer’s Capitol Hill Block Party which typically is done live on the station but took a quieter route in 2019. Continue reading →

The Market Street Singers: “Turning 15” evening performance

Our 15th Anniversary Concert

It seems only like yesterday that we responded to a request by an organization called Arts Ballard to form a choir for an all-arts-inclusive festival in 2004. At the time there were no plans to continue, but a few people saw the need for a choir in the area and had the vision to launch what is now the Ballard community’s largest performing ensemble. We are proud and thrilled to be going strong 15 years later, and we invite you to celebrate this special milestone with us.

This will be a truly retrospective concert, all repertoire chosen by our members: their all-time favorites from over the years. We are also closing this performance in a unique way, by inviting all former members or members-on-leave to join us on stage to sing “The Awakening” by Joseph Martin, one of our very top favorite choral works (if you are interested contactdirector@MarketStreetSingers.org).

We are happy again to be performing at Seattle First Baptist Church, a venue that provides us with space and excellent acoustics. We have arranged for free parking in the adjoining lot for both concerts. Enter the lot from Seneca, Boylston, or Spring Streets. Please contact us at the email address above for any questions concerning accessibility issues.

Please note that both concerts are on the same day, May 11, with a choice of a 3:00pm matinee or 7:30pm evening performance.

We hope to see you there. Please spread the word to your family and friends.

This is a free event, but your contributions are always welcome and gratefully accepted.

Chris Vincent, Artistic Director; Ingrid Verhulsdonk, Accompanist

Tenebrae – A Service from Light to Darkness

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Tenebræ
a service from light to darkness

Music by Tallis, Allegri, Łukaszewski, and Gregorian chant,
sung by the St. James Cathedral Cantorei and Men’s Chant Choir.

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 7:30pm
St. James Cathedral
804 Ninth Avenue, Seattle

Free admission (a freewill offering will be collected), no tickets required

Thomas Tallis: Lamentations of Jeremiah
Gregorio Allegri: Miserere mei Deus
Pawel Łukaszewski: O vos omnes
Gregorian Chant

Each year during Holy Week, St. James Cathedral observes the office of Tenebræ (“shadows”) in which the sufferings of Christ are foretold in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and commemorated in the slow extinguishing of candles. The Very Reverend Michael G. Ryan, presider.

Under pressure from the city, costs, and neighbors, Capitol Hill Block Party announces 2019 lineup

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(Image: Capitol Hill Block Party)

Seattle’s alt-weeklies are dead but Capitol Hill Block Party will live on in 2019. With an earlier than ever and quieter announcement than in past years, producers of the annual three-day music festival in the streets of Capitol Hill announced the 2019 full lineup Tuesday morning for the 23rd edition of the signature Pike/Pine event that is facing yet another new wave of criticism from the business community outside the festival’s fences.

“Providing a platform where local artists can continue to grow and organizations benefit from the additional exposure is an important way to unify the local community and preserve our fiercely independent and artistic nature,” producer and Neumos co-owner Jason Lajeunesse said in the announcement of the 2019 lineup.

Capitol Hill Block Party 2019

The July 19th through July 21st festival will be headlined this year by “bass beacon” RL Grime, electro-pop duo Phantogram, and singer-rapper-flautist Lizzo. Single day, two day, three day and VIP passes go on sale Tuesday morning. Ticket prices were not included in the lineup announcement. Continue reading →

Life on Mars will create ultimate Capitol Hill DJ mix: vinyl with cocktails, beer, and a plant-based menu

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The Capitol Hill Block Party-worthy bar bringing together two first families of Seattle independent music will be called Life on Mars, a nod to David Bowie, of course. But also to an intergalactic sense of belonging.

“Also just love the notion that we might not be alone out here,” Leigh Sims says of the name of the new venue set to open this spring at Pike and Harvard.

Sims and Steven Severin represent the Neumos side of Seattle rock royalty behind the project. Seattle’s king and queen of independent radio, Amy and John Richards –John in the Morning of KEXP — round out the new royal family. The bar will pull off the ultimate DJ mix: vinyl with cocktails, beer, and a plant-based menu.

“We still love the experience of holding an album, flipping a record, and gathering in a record shop,” the Life on Mars announcement reads. “The bar is a way to mix music and gathering friends that’s not than a live venue or a dj booth — and with drinking.”

John probably designed this part. Life on Mars will have a gigantic record wall with thousands of records.  “It’s also a super excuse to get more vinyl,” the announcement reads. Continue reading →

With music festivals facing ‘interesting time,’ Seattle looks at keeping costs down for events like Capitol Hill Block Party

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Matt and Kim (IMAGE: CHBP WITH PERMISSION TO CHS)

Capitol Hill Block Party will rock again in the summer of 2019 — but after that, the city says it is ready to “assess the viability” of the annual neighborhood event. The attention on CHBP comes at an “interesting time” for area music festivals. Wednesday, the Paul Allen-backed Upstream Music Festival pulled the plug on a 2019 event as it searches for “the best format” to continue the event.

Amid the upheaval, City Hall says it is looking for way to better support Seattle’s largest, most popular events even as costs continue to rise.

Organizers for Upstream didn’t call out the fees specifically but many event organizers have complained that the city’s increased fees for Seattle Police and Seattle Fire support have climbed too high even as City Hall has sought to further increase its “cost recovery” for staffing assigned to support permitted events. Continue reading →

Irish Tenor Emmet Cahill Live in Seattle

Join Ireland’s most exciting young tenor Emmet Cahill as he embarks on his biggest tour to date and debuts his brand-new album of traditional Irish songs in 2019! This follows his number-one World Music album “Emmet Cahill’s Ireland” on the Sony Music USA label and his sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall.

Emmet will perform many of the songs from the new album, as well as Broadway standards, nostalgic favorites and beloved church hymns. And no Emmet Cahill concert is complete without the ever-popular “request medley” segment, which often brings surprises from the audience!

Emmet is known as a principal singer with the popular Irish music show Celtic Thunder. As a solo artist, he has performed in over 60 cities across North America, and he has been a guest artist with several US symphonies.

Don’t miss this unforgettable evening of songs and stories! General admission tickets are $30 and may be purchased online at www.emmetcahill.com/tour-dates/ or at the door. A limited number of Meet & Greet + Concert tickets are available for $45.

Christmas Eve Services @ Grace Church Seattle

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Join us at 4pm or 6pm on Monday, December 24th as we celebrate the birth of Jesus by reading through scripture and singing carols together. Childcare is available for children ages 6 months to 3 years during both services.

Additionally, we will have a time of fellowship and holiday cheer in the foyer with warm beverages and baked goods from 5:15-6pm between the services.

Be sure to invite your friends and family to join you!

After Capitol Hill Block Party 2019, city to ‘assess the viability of this event in this neighborhood’

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(Image: Capitol Hill Block Party)

Seattle City Hall is asking the Capitol Hill Block Party to clean up its act on its edges and will be conducting its own round of outreach to neighboring businesses and Pike/Pine residents “in order to better gather feedback on benefits and impacts” from the annual summer music festival “and other major Capitol Hill events,” city officials tell CHS.

Don’t expect there to be any financial mitigation. And there is zero chance the city will cancel permits for the 2019 event. But 2020 — and beyond — is another question.

“It is clear the Capitol Hill Block Party is economically beneficial to some Capitol Hill businesses, and culturally beneficial to the Capitol Hill neighborhood and Seattle,” Chris Swenson, who leads the city’s Special Events planning process, said in a statement sent to CHS. “It is also clear through feedback from Capitol Hill businesses and residents that the Capitol Hill Block Party is negatively economically impactful to other businesses and residents, and presents significant access and operations impacts to neighborhood businesses and residents.”

“The City and Committee take these impacts very seriously,” Swenson added.

For the 2019 Block Party, the city is requiring Block Party producers to make “several physical immediate improvements” including “streamlining access for employees and residents in and around the event perimeter” and “adjusting placement of portapotties and other operational elements to be less impactful to businesses and residents.” It will also require security staffing to be trained “to better support business and residential access.”

But in a message to neighborhood stakeholders sent Thursday, the city says for 2020 and beyond, it plans to consider larger changes to the festival including an effort to “assess the viability of this event in this neighborhood.” Continue reading →