Update: The King Cat Theater Is Closed

Comments

Saw CASABLANCA there. First time I ever saw it on a huge screen. Grateful I did. And grateful it was at the King Cat.

Mullin on August 8, 2012 at 11:30 AM

I remember when Julian Hatfield was playing there and she was shocked at how quiet and immobile the Seattle crowd was during her sets.

Other than a few amongst us who were originally from other areas, nobody danced or moved during some really rocked out sets.

But that area has always been a bit scuzzy. Replace it with 40 story tall buildings and ground level retail, throw in a streetcar extension, and pop in a few bike-friendly libraries, daycares, and a dive bar that gets constant noise complaints and you're good.

It was also a good place for electronica, as I recall, so not surprised about Skrillex.

Will in Seattle on August 8, 2012 at 11:34 AM

I remember when Juliana Hatfield was playing there and she was shocked at how quiet and immobile the Seattle crowd was during her sets.

Other than a few amongst us who were originally from other areas, nobody danced or moved during some really rocked out sets.

But that area has always been a bit scuzzy. Replace it with 40 story tall buildings and ground level retail, throw in a streetcar extension, and pop in a few bike-friendly libraries, daycares, and a dive bar that gets constant noise complaints and you're good.

It was also a good place for electronica, as I recall, so not surprised about Skrillex.

Will in Seattle on August 8, 2012 at 11:34 AM

Saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind there at a time when people were still lining up around the block to see Star Wars at the UA 150/170 across the street.

Alden on August 8, 2012 at 11:38 AM

It's one of the blocks Amazon bought up to build its new towers. I'm an aged enough queen to have seen "The Man Who Would Be King" there during its original run. Fantastic moviegoing experience, just magical.

gloomy gus on August 8, 2012 at 11:43 AM

Oct 2001: Sigur Rós. I was standing in the line outside and I remember it still being sunny and warm, but perhaps I'm misremembering that part.

I had an extra ticket and some cute girl was looking for one. I sold it to her at face value, but she gave me at least $5 more and waved off my attempt to give her change. I think she told me to buy a beer with the extra money. The way she did the waving, while smiling, during the setting sun is a snapshot I'll associate with the King Cat.

stinkbug on August 8, 2012 at 11:45 AM

I saw Mike Watt play there in May 1995, with Eddie Vedder on guitar. Some guy in the crowd wore a hand-lettered "Fuck Eddie" t-shirt. Mike Watt invited the kid onto the stage so he could kick his ass.

Dave Grohl's "new band" was the opener. What was their name? Oh, yeah, the Foo Fighters. I wonder what happened to those guys...

DOUG. on August 8, 2012 at 11:45 AM

I remember seeing Super Deluxe's Christmas Show with the Screaming Santas there back in high school in 96 or 97. That was a fun night.

I was also at the Sigur Ros show, absolutely awesome.

Nic in Greenlake on August 8, 2012 at 11:47 AM

I thought it had become some nutjob Mars-hilly kind of church?

Catalina Vel-DuRay on August 8, 2012 at 11:51 AM

I saw Throwing Muses there, must have been mid-'90s, long past the Tanya Donnelly/Leslie Langston days. I think TM was a trio at that point, very spare. It was a disappointing show - I've seen Kristin Hersh in concert several times since then and those shows have always been so much better. I chalked it up to the band having outlived its original raison d'etre.

genevieve on August 8, 2012 at 11:52 AM

I've only been there once, to see Nick Cave, and was really impressed with the sightlines and the acoustics. I've often wondered, too, why it's not more popular!

Gospodean on August 8, 2012 at 11:54 AM

I remember getting into R-rated movies at the King Cinema, when I was TOO YOUNG! Then it was nothing. I didn't even know what The King Cat Theater was when Bettie Serveert, a Dutch band I loved, showed up in Seattle in 1997 and played there. I had pleasant flashbacks. Who knew?

Matthew Stadler on August 8, 2012 at 11:54 AM

@4: ditto

Timrrr on August 8, 2012 at 11:56 AM

The first show I ever got to see there was a concert by progressive rock heavies The Flower Kings about 10 or so years ago. A more recent visit there brought me to see Baroness who were just about to release The Blue Record playing a fantastic set that consisted of lots of epically long songs.

Grrr on August 8, 2012 at 11:58 AM

I think the last time I was in there was for a Joe Jackson concert in 2001.

COMTE on August 8, 2012 at 12:00 PM

@6 and @8 ftw. Yeah, I thought so too, @9.

Will in Seattle on August 8, 2012 at 12:01 PM

Steve Earle & Allison Moore did a show there a few years ago after he released Washington Square Blvd. Amazing show, great venue. "Is anybody out there listenin' now on the Satellite Radio..."

gawd on August 8, 2012 at 12:04 PM

I played my first real concert there in high school with our band Mister Frithers this girl rented it for her birthday and invited all these bands. I remember seeing neds atomic dustbin and mazzy star on the same bill when i was a teenager. i also saw coco-rosie there recently. sad day

peterd on August 8, 2012 at 12:05 PM

peterd on August 8, 2012 at 12:08 PM

I, too, saw Coco Rosie there for their first time in Seattle. And also enjoyed the Ignite series, where once we used that weird pit space to form teams and build playing card towers.

RIP King Cat...

treacle on August 8, 2012 at 12:13 PM

Liz Phair, Sebadoh, and Throwing Muses...I think there might have been a couple other shows I saw there, but those 3 I know for sure.

very bad homo on August 8, 2012 at 12:17 PM

I saw two shows there just this year: NOFX and Reel Big Fish. Prior to that, it'd been 12 years since I'd been to the venue, shortly after I moved to Seattle. Funny enough, it was Reel Big Fish then as well, the first time (of many) that I saw them.

It was a shitty music venue - the size of the stage and the screen dwarfed the bands, and the sound quality was SoDo-level mediocre. But it's kinda cool that my experiences with it started and ended with the same band, even though that first experience got me hooked on live shows and the last led me to finally write-off RBF.

@9/16 I believe it was a crazypants church for much of the past decade, but they still booked the occasional show.

T on August 8, 2012 at 12:42 PM

I saw Warren Zevon there in 2001--the very last of the dozens of times I saw his shows. He got sick a few weeks later, played a few last shows, then stopped touring for good. I'll always remember saying goodbye there--though we didn't know it at the time--to a one-of-a-kind talent. RIP, Warren Zevon, and RIP, King Cat Theater.

marymc on August 8, 2012 at 12:45 PM

I saw Sebadoh there in 1995. I remember Lou Barlow yelling at a guy in the crowd between songs for trying to mosh around like a dick when most people just wanted to enjoy the music.

Gern Blanston on August 8, 2012 at 12:58 PM

Music Box
Coliseum
UA 150
King Cat

this is a very bad trend.

Last show i saw there was fucking GRINDERMAN, and it was good.

Max Solomon on August 8, 2012 at 12:58 PM

@4 That was me in the Star Wars line!

Saw Rancid there, just when they were getting popular. I was there to photograph the band, and got a great one of Tim Armstrong flipping off the camera (or me, I guess). Show ended early, so we went to another show at the Lake Union Pub. It was my birthday, so my friend gave me a white leather jacket that became the butt of jokes for years (and still occasionally comes up). At the LUP, another friend gave me a cigar, which I smoked in its entirety inside the Pub, and then puked.

carnivorous chicken on August 8, 2012 at 1:00 PM

I've seen bands there twice and absolutely hated the place.
Plus they have the worst beer line/ corral situation that I've ever seen. Maybe like it for nostalgic reasons, but for me it was one of the worst venues I've ever been to.

Chester Copperpot on August 8, 2012 at 1:05 PM

I saw that Mike Watt show. I remember it was jammed--the kids all knew who was in Hovercraft and Foo Fighters already. And security was making people with chain wallets throw away their chains to get in--and in 1995 every Pearl Jam fan had a chain wallet.

Eric F on August 8, 2012 at 1:35 PM

The worst bartenders in all of Seattle and a barely functioning projector.
It's still a loss, and one not easily replaced. Where are they going to show all the new ski and snowboard movies this year?

SPG on August 8, 2012 at 1:35 PM

Yet another piece of Real Seattle is razed for a shiny office tower.. great.......

I still miss the Doghouse...... :(

merry on August 8, 2012 at 1:47 PM

uh, BACK WHEN IT WAS LIKE LIKE LIKE an actual like like like movie theater like like like I saw like Close Encounters there, and on the other side of the street was the awesome UA 150, and it deep curved screen and golden dome showing star wars, like....

Wild Bill on August 8, 2012 at 1:48 PM

I have so many memories of having few memories after having way too many beers with pro snowboarders at the King Cat during the annual fall blitz of shred movie premiers. It's a lot easier to swallow a $4 Session or a $8 cocktail when you've already had more than you can count on one hand (thanks C3!).

In all seriousness, the King Cat is where I first glimpsed the beginning of Brain Farm + Red Bull's progression of snowboard movies into something much more with their groundbreaking flick, 'That's It, That's All'. As an AMZN employee I'm sad to see the place go, but after all, the company has to grow (they're slowly turning our meeting rooms into offices - where the fuck am I supposed to meet? At the bar?)

pipedream on August 8, 2012 at 2:16 PM

The only show I ever saw there was The Residents in 2002. Good show, but not a revelatory as their 1999 Showbox appearance.

I remember there being a lot of shows that I was interested in checking out, but didn't for lack of strong desire to see any of them.

Matt from Denver on August 8, 2012 at 2:16 PM

Saw "An Unusually Quiet Evening with Yo La Tengo" featuring Lambchop, back in 1999 or 2000.

Miss Stereo on August 8, 2012 at 2:20 PM

Like many others, it's where I first encountered the third kind and met the man who would be king. I also went in there to go out of africa. But my fondest memory is of seeing Sigur Ros there for the first time!

cineaste on August 8, 2012 at 2:49 PM

I saw Crash Worship and Super Geek League there, and for those kind of shows, King Cat sucked. Too big, ceiling too high, and the ramped floor fucked up the mosh pit. Nowhere near as good as seeing them at Mo's, Neumos, and the Weathered Wall.

seandr on August 8, 2012 at 2:58 PM

35,,,THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, forgot about that awesome John Huston epic

Wild Bill on August 8, 2012 at 3:22 PM

Saw Jonathan Richman there 2001 or thereabouts. I remember when he was done, he was leaving, but a small child walked onstage and asked him to play I Am a Little Airplane. Magic!

skimming on August 8, 2012 at 3:23 PM

i saw "Tommy" on opening night with my best friend, then came back the next night to see it with my dad and his wife, who hated it. i loved it. also saw 'all that jazz' and the first tim burton batman film.

scary tyler moore on August 8, 2012 at 3:40 PM

The King Cat Theater has looked to be closed for years. Here's my favorite memory:

http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives…

Grant Brissey, Emeritus on August 8, 2012 at 4:04 PM

@24 I was also at that Sebadoh show. Saw Rancid, The Melvins, revival screening of Spartacus, and I believe the shitty Masters of the Universe movie there.

McGee on August 8, 2012 at 4:40 PM

This is amusing. The King is an ugly concrete box that opened in the seventies. It has no architectural significance and removing it would be a blessing. There are plenty of old theaters worth saving in Seattle that no one ever talks about, or even know exist.

David Jeffers on August 8, 2012 at 5:17 PM

I remember going to see movies there once upon a time, but it was sure a long time ago. My strongest memory is when a kinky acquaintance who went by the name of C.C. Sadist (or 'Caped Cru-Sadist) promoted some kind of kink festival there, and brought in Genesis P. Orridge to play.

I don't remember much about the festival part, but I remember going to see P.Orridge (who I was not familiar with) and realizing after about 20 minutes or less that his schtick was basically trying to drive people out of the venue with excruciating high volume. I don't remember any music as such, it was mainly just tones played at braincrushing decibel levels. You seriously had to be a masochist (and indifferent to ever being able to hear again) in order to stay. I guess P.Orridge figured he got to play sadist to a bunch of masochists or something...

Anyway, my experience of it was short but memorable, and that's the last time I can remember being at the King Cat...

Cordwainer on August 8, 2012 at 9:27 PM

A couple of my earliest Seattle memories were there, though I didn't remember the name of it. I am pretty sure that's where I saw Jello Biafra do a spoken word about...well, the stuff he usually talks about, in the early-mid nineties, probably. Also it was one of my first weeks after moving to Seattle I went to the premiere (?) of the 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues' movie (two hours which have since been mercifully scrubbed from my memory) and I thought it was a big deal that Tom Robbins himself was going to be there! I was a hayseed just in from Nebraska, so I didn't know any better.

gingerrox on August 8, 2012 at 9:56 PM

Seems like Seattle has to rebuilt itself every 40-50 years. No one could save the Fox Music Hall/Emerald Palace from destruction even though it won historic landmark status in the 1970s. In 1992, down she came. Money, you know. Couldn't keep it operating. Phil Donahue came and did a week of shows there to help save it back in the 80s, but eventually even the owners wanted it torn down. Worth more to the family as real estate than as a city treasure.

And again I lament that almost all of the Seattle I know and love has disappeared. If it isn't careful, Seattle is going to turn in the Bellevue - or Dallas.

Bauhaus I on August 9, 2012 at 3:10 AM

Would that "weird pit in the middle between the stage and the seats" be the orchestra pit? Do kids these days not know about those?

lurkylurky on August 9, 2012 at 11:06 AM

I remember going there once when Cinematic Titanic came to town to promote and perform live some of their new riffs! I was so excited, and surprised at what occurred that night! I got to meet some of my comedic heroes from my younger days watching MST3K at my grandmother's house in Texas, I watched one of those plastic receptacles for cigarette butts turn into a melty smoky mess, and I still hold those tickets to this day, with the signatures of all who performed that night. I remember thinking, damn, why don't I come here more often.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/te…

Shaman on August 9, 2012 at 11:31 AM

Obviously they should have built a 40 story building.

Bygones.

Oh, and Fnarf, suck on it.

Will in Seattle on August 9, 2012 at 11:44 AM

@48 no longer declaring Fnarf the king of every thread? The honeymoon is over?

Beetlecat on August 9, 2012 at 12:03 PM

@34 - I saw that one too. God that was boring.

crap bag on August 9, 2012 at 12:07 PM

Saw Richard Thompson, Jonatha Brooke and the California Guitar Trio there about ten years ago (three different shows). Good fun each time.

After that, I thought it closed down a couple times, then got taken over by some cult church.

tiktok on August 9, 2012 at 12:13 PM

@49 wins are only allocated when you win. Even a stuck clock is right twice a day, unless it's digital.

Will in Seattle on August 9, 2012 at 12:31 PM

the raves. OMG, the raves. mind bending good times.

Star Floors, anyone?

Rowlf on August 9, 2012 at 12:45 PM

The only show I saw there was Bob Mould on his "Modulate" tour around 2001. It's memorable because it was the first time I'd seen Mould live (after years of being a fan) and as far as I can recall it was a decent show (even though it wasn't the best album). Just him on stage, solo but electric, with some sort of crazy movie/video playing in the background (something he made I think). Added bonus: a friend was working the ticket window and comped me and a buddy in.

I'm OK, You're OK on August 9, 2012 at 12:48 PM

oh, and also, Jeff Buckley.

Rowlf on August 9, 2012 at 12:49 PM

Referring to the King as a "treasure" is absurd. It is a blight on the landscape. Its only value is the memory of shows attended there, as with buildings like RKCNDY or the Northgate. Calling it so demeans real treasures like the Moore or 5th Avenue.

David Jeffers on August 9, 2012 at 1:55 PM

@42: ok, crabby pants, NAME THE THEATRES.

Max Solomon on August 9, 2012 at 2:28 PM

Jeff Buckley a few months before he died. Joe Jackson 'round 2001. Both great. Opening screening of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - an ocean of entertaining disappointment. And a zillion movies back in the dim and distant days when it showed first-run films. (Yes, old enough to have seen Close Encounters there....)

The Voice on August 9, 2012 at 2:36 PM

@53 and Sky Cries Mary and so many more.

Jeff Buckley wow

Glad I missed Lambchops

Will in Seattle on August 9, 2012 at 3:18 PM

@56 Declaring an affordable venue a blight is absurd too. That's the real loss here, in that smaller events with smaller budgets won't have a place to put them on and will likely just not do it. That's where the real loss is going to be. Eventually we'll have a city of gleaming office towers and much less cultural life.
I'm not too big a fan of the King Cat as a venue except that it was cheap enough to bring in shows and events that otherwise couldn't have happened.

SPG on August 9, 2012 at 3:48 PM

@57: Do your own homework, LAZYBONES.

David Jeffers on August 9, 2012 at 4:47 PM

@60: Point taken.

David Jeffers on August 9, 2012 at 4:51 PM

@61: you made the assertion. as far as i know, there's very few theatres able to host rock shows left in Seattle, let alone downtown. are you counting the Colusseum where Banana Republic now wastes space? or are there unknown gems wasting away in the ID? Ballard? are you counting moldering churches as theatres?

Max Solomon on August 9, 2012 at 5:09 PM

@61: "There are plenty of old theaters worth saving in Seattle..." I never said anything about suitable "rock show" venues and I've never heard of the Colusseum. My definition of a theater would be any building originally designed and built for that use. Between WW1 and WW2 every neighborhood had at least one movie theater. Many are gone, but many were adapted for reuse and survive. Some of these buildings have been significantly altered, but others are surprisingly intact.

David Jeffers on August 9, 2012 at 5:26 PM

@8: I saw the Super Deluxe/Screaming Santas show, too! I think Gavin Guss opened? He played with them constantly, it seemed. I remember going to the Hurricane after that show for the first time (it was '96, as my ride was a year older and not off at WSU yet) and thinking I was SO COOL. We read the Stranger Sex Survey out loud and made up answers to all the questions.

In the summer of 2001 I saw Jello Biafra speak and swore I'd never see him again, because no human ass can take those uncomfortable seats for three hours straight.

Jessica on August 9, 2012 at 8:00 PM

We (Eleventh Hour Productions) held the national poetry slam finals there in the summer of 2000. In the middle of the show someone walked right through one of the plate glass windows from the lobby to the street. He wasn't drunk (and didn't get hurt, miraculously), there were just no stickers or indication that there was a window there, and the light was late-summer weird. The house manager wanted to shut down the show, to which I said, you'll just piss people off, just let's tape it off. We'll settle the insurance in the morning. He eventually agreed, and I was walking out of the office, when CRASH... someone else walked through a different plate glass window in the lobby (with only a cut finger). "I'll go get the checkbook," said I. The show eventually finished. A lot of yellow tape in the lobby. Our insurance paid the tab, no one sued (vestige of an older Seattle) and the King Cat put some 10-cent stickers on the new windows.

Bob Redmond on August 10, 2012 at 10:42 PM

soooo many rave memories! AHHHHH

zipaholic on July 20, 2014 at 7:05 PM

As per @34, the aforementioned Yo La Tengo/Lambchop show, saw Wilco at the height of the Jeff Tweedy/Jay Bennett tension and got really freaked out watching Starship Troopers there.

Lastly, there was some kind of film, alternative cable promotional event where they screened The Long Goodbye (and a couple of other classics that I forget) and then there were all of these discussions about how people aren't going to see movies in theatres any more and what will happen?

FWIW, that was at least a half dozen years before Netflix -- and a decade before streaming with NF, Hulu and Amazon Prime...

Buckywunder on December 19, 2014 at 9:44 AM

Update: The King Cat Theater Is Closed

Comments

Please wait...

Add a comment

Preview

More In Film/TV

Stranger Suggests: Cat Power Sings Dylan, Eric Kim, Massive: The Power of Pop Culture, Squatters’ Cinema, and Free Daffodils

What the Hell Is Make Believe Seattle?

Film Review: In 'The Taste of Things' Simple Pleasures Shine

Film Review: Love Lies Bleeding Is a Bold Newcomer to the Erotic Thriller Canon

Netflix's 3 Body Problem Turns Out to Be Porn for Conservatives

Creature Feature

Editors' Picks

Charles Krafft Is a White Nationalist Who Believes the Holocaust Is a Deliberately Exaggerated Myth

The Killer That Haunted My Adolescence

No, Washington Did Not Just Pass a Law Allowing the State to Kidnap and Transgenderify Children

When Gomer Pyle Married Rock Hudson

The Long Con

What Will It Take to Get Statewide Housing Reform?

Popular Articles

SIFF Unveils Full 2024 Lineup

Stranger Suggests: Cat Power Sings Dylan, Eric Kim, Massive: The Power of Pop Culture, Squatters’ Cinema, and Free Daffodils

What the TV Show The Diplomat Tells Us About Seattle Progressivism

The (Theater Formerly Known as) Cinerama Will Reopen in December

What the Hell Is Make Believe Seattle?

Film Review: Todd Haynes's May December Is a Lifetime Movie With a Semiotics Degree

Netflix's 3 Body Problem Turns Out to Be Porn for Conservatives

Support The Stranger

Comments

Please wait...

Add a comment

Preview

More In Film/TV

Editors' Picks

Popular Articles

Just Can't Get Enough?

Sign up for our newsletter for news recaps, updates, and more!