It’s been a tumultuous few months (and really, years) for some of Seattle’s smaller music venues, with several local institutions going off into the great rock club in the sky — or at least being displaced until settling elsewhere. The farewell pilgrimage to a beloved haunt has become an all-too-frequent ritual in contemporary Seattle, but it ain’t all doom ‘n’ gloom.
It’s worth remembering that among the unwelcome adieus, there are new beginnings, too. Here’s a rundown of some of the recent shake-ups among the Seattle-area club scene in the past few months.
Tim’s Tavern (reopening)
In that not-at-all whimsical game of cultural space whack-a-mole playing out across the city, Tim’s Tavern seems to have come out on top. After making 17 pandemic rent payments for a bar they couldn’t operate, the Greenwood live music pub cautiously reopened in summer 2021, only to be informed that the landlord no longer wanted live music in the space, said co-owner Mason Reed. With the future of indoor gatherings still looking dicey, the chef and his music-booking partner Matt O’Toole started hunting for a new place where they could have outdoor shows.
“We told our real estate person it would be awesome to find a place like Drunky’s in White Center, because they have the outdoor stage,” Reed said.
Following a year and a half of fruitless searching, during which Reed worked as a backstage chef to the stars at some of the Northwest’s largest venues, their fortunes turned. The Drunky Two Shoes owners had split for Spokane and quietly closed the barbecue joint that brought a slice of Austin to White Center. Reed and O’Toole pounced and Tim’s reopens this weekend with shows featuring alt-rockers Asterhouse, soul-powered vocalist Grace Love, Randy Weeks, the Marmalade funk crew and more.
“It was serendipitous, man,” Reed said. “This was kinda the spot we wanted all along and it came right our way, so we’re stoked.”
The covered stage on the patio is, of course, staying put, as is the funky outdoor bar made from a converted Airstream trailer. Other than some of the reclaimed wood, Drunky’s roadhouse-y décor is gone as the Tim’s crew wanted it to feel like “more of a live music venue.”
“A lot of matte black paint, like a good rock ‘n’ roll dive bar should have,” Reed said.
Tim’s new home is six times the size of their old spot, he said, with room for 200- to 250-capacity shows outside and a smaller indoor stage for “more mellow” acts and open-mic nights. That should be music to artists’ ears, as Tim’s has been a staple among the network of smaller, neighborhood clubs that serve as incubator stages for developing artists. Food-wise, Reed’s pushing out Pacific Northwest-inspired pub fare, with ample plant-based and gluten-free options, including separate fryers for each so those vegan nuggets won’t be fried in chicken grease.
One holdover from the old Tim’s, besides the community approach to booking: The neon Tim’s Tavern sign that glowed on 105th Street made the move across town and will hang inside their new digs. Even matte-black rock dives need a little color, after all.
Lo-Fi Performance Gallery (closing July 1)
When word came that dive bar/rock club Victory Lounge was throwing in its bar towel at the end of 2022, unable to secure a new long-term lease, it didn’t look good for the neighboring Lo-Fi, housed in the same building. Owner Scott Behrens, who’s helmed one of Seattle’s funkiest music spaces for the past 15 years, had been trying to sell the Lo-Fi and even had a buyer lined up. But with the landlord looking to sell the building and only offering short-term leases with demolition clauses, selling the club wasn’t feasible and instead the Lo-Fi will close July 1.
“It’s just been an honor to be a part of this community and this scene, and putting events on that people enjoy,” Behrens said. “You do it for the people and hope they like it. When that works, it makes you feel great.”
The Lo-Fi has been a home base for events like last weekend’s shoegaze/psych rock fest Seagaze and the long-running Emerald City Soul Club dance night, which, with the impending closure, has already slid to Belltown Yacht Club. (Soul Club’s vinyl-spinning DJs will return for a two-night blowout in May.) Between the Lo-Fi, the Vic, the semipro wrestling events downstairs and the next-door DIY venue Black Lodge (which is slated to reopen with help from the Vera Project), that Eastlake Avenue East complex had been one of Seattle nightlife’s coolest offbeat combos on the edge of South Lake Union, a scruffy holdout amid the neighborhood’s eruption of glassy towers. The Lo-Fi space in particular — with its front bar, shotgun lounge area and primary backstage down a narrow hallway — is one of the city’s unique music spaces.
“People are always asking me if I’m going to move the Lo-Fi,” Behrens said. “I’m like, I can’t move the Lo-Fi. Lo-Fi’s name is 5% of what the entity is. It’s all about that space and the uniqueness of the location. So yeah, it’s going to be sad for the Seattle music scene to lose that, but we had a 20-year run. That’s pretty good.”
Closing weekend will likely feature a mash-up of some of the Lo-Fi’s most beloved dance parties, and this Friday sees the return of Studio 66, Chris Porter’s mod night that had a 10-year run, with Seattle psych rock favorites Acid Tongue.
Raisbeck Auditorium (open)
Cornish College actually opened this 177-seat auditorium (not to be confused with its neighboring Raisbeck Performance Hall) and an adjacent art gallery in the Ivey on Boren last year. But after a number of student and faculty events, the new hall on the ground floor of the 44-story high rise is getting its highest profile gig yet, thanks to an Earshot-promoted date with Philly sax star Immanuel Wilkins this weekend (7:30 p.m. April 1, $10-$30). At 25, Wilkins’ young career is off to a blazing start, earning raves with his first two albums on Blue Note Records, including 2022’s bluesy “The 7th Hand,” which flashes Wilkins’ compositional grace and his ace quartet’s freeing improvisations.
Bar House’s downstairs stage (closed)
This March, the same weekend U District punk dive Kraken Bar & Lounge was having its last call, another heavy music hotbed was also hosting its last shows. Two years ago, Fremont’s favorite metal bar, Bar House, quietly started throwing not-so-quiet shows on a temporary basis in a downstairs space. Run by Ben Verellen, of noise-rock sluggers Helms Alee and Constant Lovers, the very-much-open Bar House is still serving drinks and blast beats upstairs. But alas, the show zone that made Fremont a little freakier is no more, following a run of memorable dates and DJ nights that included last fall’s surprise Botch reunion and a rib-crushing set from progressive sludge lords Sumac in February. The loss of Bar House’s stage came after the closure of Ronette’s Psychedelic Sock Hop, a short-lived Frelard joint Verellen co-owned with These Arms are Snakes singer Steve Snere and others.
Rabbit Box Theater (open)
Late last year, Pike Place Market got a new restaurant, cocktail den and arts venue when the Rabbit Box took over Can Can Culinary Cabaret’s previous space. Launched by local arts vets Tia Matthies (of the fabled OK Hotel and the Royal Room) and writer/booker Robynne Hawthorne, the Pike Place hideaway has hosted a mixed bag of shows (everything from comedy to jazz brunches) with an emphasis on literary events and live music geared toward locals but welcoming to tourists. Hitting the stage this week are Seattle singer-songwriter Christy McWilson (April 1) and local Americana fave Caitlin Sherman with Hillary Tusick of garage rockers Linda From Work and more (April 5).
Kings Hall (open)
In a very McMenamins-esque move, a former Masonic temple in downtown Everett is being transformed into a multivenue complex dubbed Apex Art and Culture Center, the Everett Herald reports. Once fully up and running, the funky old brick building decked out with the owner’s vast graffiti collection will house the 16 Eleven steakhouse, cocktail bar El Sid, a private event space and concert venue Kings Hall. With its 800-person capacity, Kings Hall became the city’s largest music club when it hosted its first show with AC/DC tribute act Hell’s Belles and Seattle rock vets the Grizzled Mighty back in February. Though its bookings have been scarce since then, the space will fire up again when Washington country staple Aaron Crawford performs April 14 and the venue will serve as one of the primary stages during next month’s Fisherman’s Village festival.
