KEXP, Seattle Center team up for free concerts at the Mural Amphitheatre

Live musical entertainment in a beautiful outdoor setting: This is one of the greatest luxuries afforded by summer in the Pacific Northwest. Thanks to a savvy new partnership between two Seattle institutions, we'll enjoy a lot more of it this summer.

Seattle Center and KEXP 90.3 FM launch Concerts at the Mural on Friday, offering four weekly performances that showcase top-notch national and local musical talent at a Seattle-centric locale and a recession-special price. Imagine the thrill of Bumbershoot distilled into a relaxed, three-hour span, with 68,000 fewer people trampling your picnic blanket. For free.

Last year, Seattle Center hosted more than 500 events, according to John Merner, director of Seattle Center Productions. Many of these took place at Mural Amphitheatre, a wide, grassy slope under the shadow of the Space Needle, backdropped by a gleaming glass mosaic by Seattle artist Paul Horiuchi. Most were oriented toward specific ethnic communities (Iranian Festival, Brazil Festival) or less traditional kinships (Juggling Festival, Accordion Festival). Unless you're into exotic percussion or part of the city's Tibetan-American population, you probably didn't know they were happening.

KEXP is, of course, the immensely popular listener-supported radio station with its home base just north of downtown. Specializing in alternative rock and underground music of every stripe, it's one of the last taste-making radio stations in the country. For this series they act as curators, and the Mural Amphitheatre is their gallery. Friday's bill starts at 5 p.m. with Portland Americana rockers Blitzen Trapper and Seattle indie-poppers Throw Me the Statue, and on each following Friday through August, two bands will each play hourlong, open-air sets. One-third of the lawn will be given over to a 21-and-up beer garden; the rest is open to all ages.

It's the kind of event great summer memories are born from.

"Government providing an opportunity for a sense of renewal from the public is really important," Merner said recently. Seattle Center Productions, he explained, is a department of the City of Seattle, funded publicly as well as via the nonprofit Seattle Center Foundation. "There are so many things in life that sort of wear you down, and we want to provide activities that give you that sense of renewal and lift you back up."

In 2006, Seattle Center and the mayor's office launched Century 21, a yearlong assessment aimed at determining general public demand for Seattle Center programming and renovations. "The number one thing we heard form people was that they wanted free music outdoors," Merner said.

Next was the matter of curating that music and spreading the word. Who else to turn to but one of the most distinguished public radio stations in the world?

"Promotion is expensive, and historically we haven't done a good job of promoting what we have to offer," Merner said. "We wanted to develop this concert series, and we knew that we needed a partner who could help us guide it artistically and help us promote it. We spoke to some of our younger staff and had them do some research around radio stations, and they said it's really no question: KEXP is the place."

For their part, the people at KEXP are equally enthusiastic about working with Seattle Center.

"They're great about looking for partners within the community that make sense for them," said Cheryl Waters, KEXP midday DJ and on-air events coordinator. "We feel honored that they felt like we would make a good partner for that. It's a good combination of putting two groups together and taking advantage of their skills and their experience."

Waters described the scene at one of last year's four KEXP-sponsored Mural Amphitheatre shows, which were the inspiration for this year's more fully realized series.

"I have lots of friends who have kids, so we came early and totally staked out. We had five blankets laid out and the kids were playing in the fountain and came over wet and joined us, and everybody was opening picnic dinners and going over to hang out in the beer garden, and we took turns watching the kids. It was so fun we were like, yeah, let's do this again. And then we made it bigger."

In addition to the four Friday evening shows, KEXP will host their seventh annual listener-appreciation barbecue on Saturday, Aug. 8. It goes from 2 to 9 p.m. and features five bands instead of the regular two. Guitar-slaying alt-rock heroes Dinosaur Jr. headline.

"It's a combination of bands that KEXP has been playing a long time, and then a lot of the bands are recent discoveries and somewhat new," Waters said of the series lineup. "We have a local band on almost every night."

Not surprisingly, KEXP and the Seattle Center have similar goals, but it's the people of Seattle who benefit most from their partnership.

"We feel like it's pretty significant, especially in these times, to be able to provide this many shows and bands of that caliber for free," Waters said. "It's just a way we can give back to the community and enrich people's lives through music."

Jonathan Zwickel: zwickelicious@gmail.com