Explone

This Friday Explone plays a show at a club called Fuel in Pioneer Square.  It’s literally been years since I’ve played anywhere in the Square, and it got me thinking about how that neighborhood has changed over the years, and my relationship to it and to the rest of Seattle.

 

The Square is the “historic” area of Seattle, which means it has all the old brick buildings which haven’t yet been converted into mixed use/luxury living urban epicenters. Although most of them have already made the switch, there are still a fair number of historic buildings in Pioneer Square hanging on to their dilapidated, original glory. Throw in the cobbled streets and the overall lack of neon and available parking, and Pi Square fits the “historic neighborhood” template fairly well. 

 

Once the sun goes down, most people probably think of Pioneer Square as the destination for drunken sports fans, and in 2012 that is certainly true. Its location next to all the football/baseball/footballsoccer stadiums makes it the prime spot to find wasted Mariners fans crying over cheap draft beer and puking in filthy alleyways. It’s also the city’s most established host to Amateur Night for clubgoers (although Belltown is gaining fast in this category).

 

But here’s the thing: Pioneer Square used to be the most vibrant neighborhood in Seattle for live music. When I first got to Seattle proper and was hunting for a scene with other musicians, it was where we went: The Central, The Swan Café, The OK Hotel, and later The Colorbox, The Fenix, and The Velvet Elvis. Even marginal Pioneer Square venues had their own good runs as live music venues: the Old Timer’s, Doc Maynard’s and Dutch Ned’s all hosted a lot of musicians over the years. If you wanted a break from the racket you would go around the corner and grab a drink at the Pioneer Square Hotel Bar, which felt like a big green room for all the bands who just played or were waiting to play at some other joint in the neighborhood. After the show wrapped up you might grab a bite at Trattoria Mitchelli, a decent Italian joint that stayed open all night and served piles of alcohol-absorbing, greasy pasta drenched in tomato sauce and capers.

 

Every phone pole in town used to be plastered an inch thick with show posters, and most of the shows were happening somewhere in Pi Square. All the grunge bands who eventually got famous and (for better or worse) defined Seattle for the rest of the world played at The Central, while all the later-era bands who came up played at The OK Hotel or The Colorbox. I worked at a music store in the neighborhood for a few years, and many times after work I’d just walk down the block to see a show, play a show, or work at a show doing sound at one of the venues. I worked at and saw so many memorable shows at The Velvet Elvis, it would be difficult to recount them all. And I played the Colorbox so many times, some of the bartenders thought I worked there.

 

Times change, and neighborhoods change along with them. Seattle built a couple of monstrous new sports arenas, and as Pioneer Square blossomed into a neighborhood of historic sports bars, the music scene moved elsewhere. Belltown went upscale, Capitol Hill grew up and Ballard blew up. But I still have a soft spot in my heart for Pioneer Square, and I must say it feels kind of nice to be heading there for a show one more time. 

 

This show is the CD Release bash for my old friend Steve Bergstrom’s band Dapper Jones. Steve and I literally grew up on the same street in Renton, and it’s both wonderful and kind of strange that we’ve floated around the Seattle music scene for all these years, playing in bands—and yet this is the first time we’ve ever shared the stage.

 

The first video for our new EP is completed and ready to release. All we need now is to actually release the EP itself, which is taking some time while we get the artwork to our liking. In the meantime, we’re stockpiling good content to accompany the songs. But for now: Pioneer Square!

 

Go Mariners/Sounders/Seahawks!

 

--Patrick