Avid readers of Underage may recall last week’s column where I went on a Fan Outreach adventure with the Super Magnificent Action Trio. Sadly, just days after that issue had gone to press, the band called it quits. Bummer. Now on to better news!
It feels very, very good to finally say the Teen Dance Ordinance is dead. The All Ages Dance Ordinance is in, the TDO is out; now it’s time to dance.
Not even three weeks after the historic Seattle City Council vote took place, The Stranger, the TDO Resistance, Fuzed Music, and JAMPAC threw a dance party at Sit & Spin. DJs Plan B, Wordsayer, and Señor Pepe supplied the beats, and guest speakers showed up to give thanks and revel in the fact that the TDO was gone, gone, gone!
Welcomed with enthusiastic applause, guests took the stage one by one; among them were Stephanie Pure (of the Music and Youth Task Force), Seattle City Council Member Nick Licata, all-ages activist and Paxil Rose bassist Keenan Dowers, and Kate Becker (of the Vera Project and the Old Fire House). Even Stranger news editor Josh Feit and I said a few enthusiastic words to the crowd.
“What’s really interesting and good about this process is that it shows if you organize, if you keep at it, you can get victories,” Licata said.
Before Becker took the stage for the night’s final speech, Greg Bennick, the event’s MC (and the lead singer of the defunct but legendary hardcore band Trial), read a hilarious spoken-word piece written a couple of years ago, shortly after former mayor Paul Schell vetoed the first TDO repeal.
“We’re not giving up, we’re not quitting, we’re not giving in,” he read. “And there’s nothing you, the city attorney, the police, the media, the landowners, or anyone else’s pocket you hide in in the city of Seattle can do about it.”
The crowd, of course, cheered. And they cheered even louder when Becker stepped up.
“For all of you who come to the shows, volunteer at the shows, play in bands at the shows, and spin at the shows, and who do it time after time after time, and make my job so easy,” she said, wrapping up, “thank you.”
My sentiments exactly. MEGAN SELING
