I am taking a lil vacation to Seattle next week, my first time there, and was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction by answering such questions as:
Where’s the best session? - Fado on Sundays looks good…
Which pubs are worth hitting?
Where are the good spots to hear live trad and are there any trad bands in Seattle I should try to see?
Much thanks!
the fado session is ok I guess, if you don’t mind being handed a big fat rulebook, last I heard there was a strict “no-strumming” rule for guitarists and if you absolutely must strum you must only do it on the downbeats.
there’s a session at the old peculiar on sundays that’s really good from what I hear.
and then there’s the molly macguires session, this is where the cream of the crop plays, can be pretty intimidating if you haven’t been playing for 20+ years. this one is also on sundays I believe
there’s a sesison at the irish immigrant but I don’t have any info on it
and finally there’s the celtic bayou session, this is the one I’m always at. pretty easy going, wide range of talent and experience and free beer. every thursday at 9pm.
I think that’s all of the sessions in town but there could be others.
as far as pubs to go to? owl and thistle is pretty cool, they get some great bands there including the owl and thistle band. kells on post alley gets some good trad bands in there too.
fado’s is pretty much an irish pub in name only, it’s more of a sports bar.
Last time I was in Seattle, I visited the session at the Irish Emmigrant, found it to be quite unfriendly and unwelcoming to both the locals or other visitors who weren’t part of the core group of 4 or 5. I’ll not go back there again or recommend it to anyone who asks.
Since I travel quite frequently to Seattle on business, I’d be very interested in recommendations for other sessions in town…
good thing I asked, thank you Illuminatus and Eskin for the info. Yeah, I was more than leery about Fado, it’s a chain pub for goodness sakes! A question or two, Illuminatus, about Celtic Bayou: is it far from Kent (where I’m staying)? Is it all Irish trad at the session?
Thanks again for the helpful tips, glad to hear the Owl and Thistle band is good, they’d be easy/fun to check out.
The only Fado session I’ve been to was in Atlanta after Swannanoa Irish week last year, and that was a very nice group.
We played well past 1 AM before they finally had to throw us out since the place was closing and they wanted to clean the floors…
Even though its a “chain pub”, I really enjoyed my time there…
it’s in bellevue, there’s directions at www.celticbayou.com it’s not quite all irish trad, it depends on who shows up and where everyone wants to go with it, sometimes we do nothing but trad all night and sometimes we break out the pub songs and on rare occasions some eagles or pink floyd or whatever else comes to mind.
we’re a pretty laid back friendly bunch at the bayou. we’ve had a few unfriendly/egotistical players before but they usually don’t last long.