Some friends and I were in Seattle from Juneau for a wedding and stopped in the Comet on our last night in town. One of my friends wears a lot of black and his wife happened to be wearing it too that night. We discovered on arrival that Mos Generator (from Bainbridge, I think? I know they had to catch a ferry after the show) was the band that night. We got some beers and soon the show started- it was an amazing gig and while head-banging away I was very amused to be not only ancient-at-38, but also the only person in the whole joint not dressed head-to-toe in black. I bought an EP on vinyl which I love. I've had many sleazier memories there, but that was a really nice one.

I'm always going to miss the Comet. As well as having some great nights seeing shows there (Why has nobody mentioned the best part of that Black Flag cover night: how when the fuses blew, the drummer kept going and the WHOLE CROWD sang the songs?), and great nights playing there (Steel Tigers Of Death once got panties thrown at us), it was one of the only bars around where I could bring my dog.

She's really going to miss the Sunday afternoons I spent reading a good book while she wandered around smelling what must have been the smell equivalent of a Dostoyevsky novel.

Specs, Tulsi and I played the first show of our 2008 westcoast tour at The Comet and it was hella fun, but my favorite memory is from 1991 when I was 15 doing a piece on the free wall outside and my uncle and his crazy old crusty friends came out from the bar to watch. He always kicked it there and it was the first time in my young life that I felt like part of the neighborhood. :)

I wish this article dug further back. It is pretty shallow being a history of the last 15 years only, which is kind of past the real heyday of the place, which was one of the few go to spots on the hill for decades (Ernie Steeles, that Chinese joint at the end of Broadway, Tugs II, the Eagle and two more or so places that are slipping my mind. Piecoras was even considered a bar then as there were so few places in that section of town.)

For example, the governor of WA state: Mike "the gov. of love" Lowry used to swing by the Vomit semi regularly- and Jesus fuck, you did not even mention Mia Zapata. Or the Pompeii apartments above. WHERE ITHE HELL IS CLIFF THE MAGICIAN IN THIS?

Kinda weak sauce- I like the idea of this series though.

the bartenders sucked, the sound sucked, the stage sucked, the sound guys sucked, the door guys sucked, parking sucked. but somehow i always enjoyed playing and seeing shows there.

First time I heard Mark Lanegan was at the Comet, on a shitty bar stool with the rain pounding a hole in my head. Suddenly, I saw the light and embraced the gloom.

I love how you all say it sucked so bad when truly is was the venue with the most energy in the city. It didn't suck it was great (and I do mean in terms of true greatness). I am proud of that place and my ownership of it and am glad the name will continue. Mama Casserole gets all the credit of bringing it back to life but at least I was smart enough to let her take the reigns on the music side. Ill take credit for adding the booze and CC ability and have the bathrooms fully cleaned at least once. HAHA

First went to the Comet as a 16 year-old runaway w/fake I.D. & older 'Hippie' friends in fall of 1967. Ethel O'Hearn(RIP) was the matriarch possibly since the 30's. We'd go upstairs in back and smoke pot. Sometimes drop acid & go up the street to the old 'Encore Ballroom' for awhile. Whenever in Seattle, thru the years, I was a Comet-ite. I miss Sam and (RIP)Karen, former owners. Bill B.from VAMC, David G., Cliff, Mick Conway(RIP), Amy & Rob & Walter(in prison?)from mid 80's. Came back again in 90's & met old friend Jeanine S. from Takilma and Cliff & David G. still around. I wonder if it will bear any semblance to the old Comet.It did go downhill after nightly music & booze came. I'm Steve at airwindfire@gmail.com old Comet folk welcome to write!

In the 1970's, the Boeing Bust was in full swing, and my mother was a struggling Seattle artist who often had shows in the cheap, semi- vacant derelict warehouse spaces in the area. Lacking a babysitter, she'd take me with her to shows and to the hangouts at the Comet afterward. and I still remember being 5? 6?, getting handed a glass of apple juice by the bartender and falling asleep under the pool table.

@5 - Jade Pagoda.

I don't even drink, but I used to go for the filthy ambience.

The Comet was the first tavern (they didn't serve liquor back then) I drank in when I moved to Seattle in 1985 - couch surfing at a friend's apartment on Union & Harvard - we walked over minutes after I pulled into town and before I even took my suitcase out of the car.

It was divey then, and stayed divey right up to the end; in fact it didn't look much different the last time I was there a couple of months before the shutdown.

And let's hope the "new" Comet isn't completely devoid of dark, dinginess - frankly, I don't think anything short of declaring it a Superfund site could entirely eradicate its decades accumulation of funkiness entirely.

But yes, not feeling like I need a shot of Penicillin after using the Men's Room, WILL be nice change-of-pace...

Things change—the douchebags took over stumbling around Capitol Hill anyway—so we'll have to move on to a new shitty club in some other part of town.

As much as I hope this wouldn't come to pass, I fear that is has.

Have we figured out where that other part of town is yet?

@14:

If where ever you are is devoid of B&T wannabe fratboy douches, plant the freak flag and give us a shout!

I can't fathom why it closed. Doubtless, it will be missed.

I spent a fair portion of the late '80's and early '90's in The Comet. My room mates were bartenders there and sometimes I would work the door for free beer. In those days it had a tavern license, meaning beer and wine only. The strongest thing that could be served was port, and man, did we drink a lot of it. So much, in fact, that at some point in there, The Comet was the leading on premise seller of Sandeman's Port in the US. The folks from Sandeman's even paid a visit one night, in well tailored Italian suits, to see who was selling so much of their product. I've always wondered what they felt when they walked into grunge ground zero to find a room full of goateed, tattooed, pony-tailed unemployed musicians and junkies swilling port like it was the elixir of life.
The Comet is also the only place I ever witnessed some one get thrown out western-movie style. Guy was trying to pick a fight with another regular. As soon as he swung he found himself face down on the ground, then picked up by the legs and shoulders by two bartenders who then ran towards the front doors which were opened with his face, the bartenders let go and he flew out to the sidewalk. It was awesome.

@15: I'm on it, brother!

i drank beer by the pitcher after pitcher until i pissed clear. i met mudede when he first moved here there although he wouldn't remember. it and whasis name from the presidents and what's that band ummm love battry ?.. y'all know who i'm talking about.. the drummer.. yeah.. we used to have kfc from up the street and beer ever goddamn week. and i took my momma up in there once and some fool called her a 'bitch'. i was gonna fight him ( and i'm not a fighting man ) but alls i could do was chase him around and grab him by the collar and wrassle him to the ground before one of the bartenders said 'leave him alone, he's gay'.. and i said ' well so am i'. she let me go but gay dude had already left so i still haven't been in a fight bar fight or other..well except the time i got sucker punched by some rajneeshi asshole at the virginia inn.
and dag.. that memorial for stephanie of 7 year bitch who was a regular there.saddest thing i ever seen
oh.. and squirrels used to run through there from time to time. like get in somehow but forget how to leave and then just run around the joint until somebody would herd em out..
i stopped way before they started selling liquor, mostly because the cig smoke was thick and old and foul and if i ever succumb to second hand smoke disease, i will try to sue those unclefuckers. or haunt them.. of course since meinert's taking it over, i guess my spectre will have to do an innernet search of where to find them.
'damn.
i loves you people'

Lotta ghosts in that joint.

I'm in a Canadian band called Les Jupes and our first couple Seattle shows were at the Comet and they were a real blast. That joint sealed the deal on making Seattle our favorite place to tour.

Our best story - during our last show there, great crowd, everyone on point ... some guy keeps asking our drummer from backstage if he can come on stage. Drummer says no, several times. 5 minutes later everyone starts holding their nose and it smells like rotten eggs and farts.

The dude had opened up all the propane tanks that were standing in the backstage area. Cleared out the whole bar.

Squid Row was much more fun than this dump ever was and ever will be. First the article on Linda's and now this...yawn.

And now it's going to be turned into a trending overpriced hipster restaurant....YAAAAAY!!!!

Comet was cool until new owners bought it maybe... 6-7 years ago? Painted the walls black and hired a complete prick/dickhead staff. Who knows. Maybe got better again since.

@ 24 Squid Row indeed! Once upon a time in the early 90s there was a rehearsal space called the Blue Room on the 10th Ave side of the Comet. One night the bums that hung in front of the Comet decided to go after the dough on the ceiling and they broke into the Blue Room. Went into a storage closet containing a shitload of valuable guitars and amps. Dug a hole through the wall into the tavern, where they set off an alarm and were busted. That's how I heard it from the Blue Room owner anyway. He installed his own alarm RIGHT after.

@28 - Share your Mia Zapata memories in this comment thread.

I sadly never knew her (but wish I had, and had lived in Seattle then)

"The sad and strange saga came to an end when the owner secretly removed the sound system and other items of value from the venue and changed the locks, ..."

You called that a "sound system?" – "Items of value?" Perhaps in the crudest sense of professional terms.

Moving to Seattle in 1990 from New York and going to the Comet was such a memory to me! Grungy Punk rock kids everywhere! Getting way too drunk and well, it was the 90's. I ended up working there a year ago till the end. Knowing as soon as started working there that this will not last. But the bartenders kept that place open longer than it should. I miss dive bars in Seattle. But i will always remember the old comet. The comet from the nineties was different from the comet 10 years ago but throughout time it still had that real dive bar feeling. And well capital hill will never be the same either. It's lost but they can't take my memories away from me.
Suzanne S. (Former Comet Bartender)