New WaMu concert venue not fancy, but functional

Qwesto-chango!

Qwest Field Event Center morphed into something laughingly called a "theater" Friday night, transforming the bland, hangarlike exhibit space into a charmless but servicable concert venue.

If it were music, WaMu Theater would be industrial rock. The high ceiling is crisscrossed with huge pipes, thick wires and long metal beams. The floor is hard concrete. In a city full of aesthetically-pleasing theaters – the Paramount, McCaw Hall, Benaroya, The 5th Avenue, even the tawdry Moore – WaMu has a lot of nerve calling itself a theater. Performance space is more like it.

Just days before, a car show was held at the Event Center. The WaMu Theater area was created by hanging heavy curtains and setting up rows of cushy folding chairs on the flat floor, with some raked bleachers in the back. The portable theater can seat from 3,300 to 7,000.

Sightlines from the floor seats are not good after the first 20 rows or so, due to the flat floor. Because of that, the space needs video screens. Big ones. There weren't any for this opening concert, but other tours may bring them along. Ideally, the space should have built-in ones.

The "lobby" is a very large open area with four bars (beers are $8), a hat check and a souvenir stand. A big bar, high-end food booths and restrooms occupy another big space beyond the lobby.

The highly anticipated debut of Paul Allen as a guitar-wielding rock star did not take place as advertised. The opening band, an amateur group called The Predicaments, said he was sick. First & Goal, one of Allen's companies, is partners with AEG LIVE, the world's second-largest concert promoter, in the WaMu venture.

Rock 'n' roll artifacts from another of Allen's local playthings, Experience Music Project, were on display in the lobby, including a motorcycle jacket Elvis Presley wore and a guitar Kurt Cobain smashed.

The Seahawks did make their advertised appearance – 28 of them, standing in a row across the stage, which gives you an idea of how big it is.

The star of WaMu's opening night was Seal, the international pop star, backed by his five-piece band.

As a singer, Seal is a very handsome fantasy lover. He encouraged the audience to sing along with him, which was only fair, because most everybody in the audience could sing as well as he could.

His pop songs, invariably romantic, were strings of predictable cliches. At least the ones I heard. Deadline pressure prevented me from seeing the whole show. Not that I minded.

Did I mention he's sexy? A woman behind me said to a female companion, in a tone of both admiration and jealousy, "Heidi Klum is so lucky!" The supermodel, known for hosting TV's 'Project Runway," is Seal's wife.

Yeah, a sexy male pop star married to a supermodel. Seal's whole life is a cliché!

Patrick MacDonald: pmacdonald@seattletimes.com