The Bay Area has Yoshi's. In Portland, it's Jimmy Mak's. Seattle's upscale, sit-down, dine-in concert venue is the Triple Door, and it's not bragging to say it's the best of the bunch, and this week marks its fifth anniversary.
Historically speaking, swanky supper clubs are a remnant of America's Jazz Age in the 1920s. Today's versions exist somewhere between beer-in-hand nightclub and suit-and-tie concert hall: Luxury and sound quality are paramount, but you can enjoy a cocktail and an hors d'oeuvre at your table while watching the show. They continue to thrive because music — not just jazz — benefits from a setting in which appreciating excellent music comes first and appreciating excellent food and drink is a close second. Humans are really very simple animals.
With gilded colonnades and sconces left over from its 1920s vaudevillian heyday, plush half-moon booth-seating illuminated by individual electric candles, and a stage backdrop lit by a field of stars, the Triple Door retains a sophisticated ambience. Add some of the best acoustics and sightlines in the city and you have a venue approaching world-class. Then there's the menu, cribbed liberally from Wild Ginger, the 19-year-old Asian fusion restaurant next door owned by the same people. In fact, the well-known Wild Ginger enabled the Triple Door's very existence, financially supporting the club until it finally turned a profit last year.
But even with all that what really sets the Triple Door apart is its adventurous programming.
The past year, the place has hosted San Francisco digital magicians Matmos; U.K. dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson; a sweat-drenched dance party with the Congo's Konono Nº1; and an emotional album-release party for local rockers Grand Archives. Wednesday, pop guru Todd Rundgren will play his second Triple Door gig in three months. In June, Seattle International Film Festival screened the 1927 silent film “Sunrise," soundtracked by sonic landscapers the Album Leaf; last week, Decibel Festival brought its first-ever “ambient showcase" to the Triple Door.
Then there's jazz: icons like the Headhunters, Marcus Miller and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band; young lions like Skerik, Marco Benevento and Industrial Revelation. And for 10 days every fall, Seattle's annual Earshot Jazz Festival makes the Triple Door its home base. (Earshot is coming up Oct. 18-Nov. 9.)
Historically speaking, swanky supper clubs are a remnant of America's Jazz Age in the 1920s. Today's versions exist somewhere between beer-in-hand nightclub and suit-and-tie concert hall: Luxury and sound quality are paramount, but you can enjoy a cocktail and an hors d'oeuvre at your table while watching the show. They continue to thrive because music — not just jazz — benefits from a setting in which appreciating excellent music comes first and appreciating excellent food and drink is a close second. Humans are really very simple animals.
With gilded colonnades and sconces left over from its 1920s vaudevillian heyday, plush half-moon booth-seating illuminated by individual electric candles, and a stage backdrop lit by a field of stars, the Triple Door retains a sophisticated ambience. Add some of the best acoustics and sightlines in the city and you have a venue approaching world-class. Then there's the menu, cribbed liberally from Wild Ginger, the 19-year-old Asian fusion restaurant next door owned by the same people. In fact, the well-known Wild Ginger enabled the Triple Door's very existence, financially supporting the club until it finally turned a profit last year.
But even with all that what really sets the Triple Door apart is its adventurous programming.
The past year, the place has hosted San Francisco digital magicians Matmos; U.K. dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson; a sweat-drenched dance party with the Congo's Konono Nº1; and an emotional album-release party for local rockers Grand Archives. Wednesday, pop guru Todd Rundgren will play his second Triple Door gig in three months. In June, Seattle International Film Festival screened the 1927 silent film “Sunrise," soundtracked by sonic landscapers the Album Leaf; last week, Decibel Festival brought its first-ever “ambient showcase" to the Triple Door.
Then there's jazz: icons like the Headhunters, Marcus Miller and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band; young lions like Skerik, Marco Benevento and Industrial Revelation. And for 10 days every fall, Seattle's annual Earshot Jazz Festival makes the Triple Door its home base. (Earshot is coming up Oct. 18-Nov. 9.)
For more information contact All About Jazz.
