Seal kicks off portable theater

The new WaMu Theater, which opens tonight at Qwest Field Events Center, fills a gap in Seattle concert venues. Between the Paramount Theatre's 2,800 seats and KeyArena's 17,000, WaMu takes the middle ground, with a flexible capacity ranging from 3,300 to 7,000.

Those midsize concerts have mostly gone to the 10,000-capacity Everett Events Center, which last year hosted 15 shows in the 5,000- to 7,000-ticket range, including Audioslave and Santana.

WaMu is a portable theater system made to fit inside Qwest Field Events Center, adjacent to the football stadium at 800 Occidental Ave. S. Concerts have been held at the Events Center before. But the venue, a large, open space mostly used for exhibitions (like the recent auto show), proved to be wholly inadequate, the worst live-music venue in town, due to the hard, flat concrete floor, the low ceilings, the walls of windows and the hollow-sounding acoustics.

Julian Casablancas, lead singer of the Strokes, took one look at the place when his band played there and called it "fugly."

The new WaMu will overcome the Events Center's concert inadequacies, its owners promise. The various seating configurations will be raked, as in most theaters, so every seat should have good sight-lines to the stage. Heavy, thick curtains will help hide the stark concrete walls and block the big windows, as well as aid acoustics. State-of-the-art lighting and sound systems are designed to make the space feel more like a real theater.

The new theater is a joint venture of Paul Allen's First & Goal Inc. and AEG Live, the world's second-largest concert promoter. FGI was formed by Allen in 1997 to develop and operate Qwest Field and its Event Center, after state voters approved their construction. AEG Live will present most of the pop concerts at WaMu, but other concert promoters may also use the venue.

Qwest Field is owned by state taxpayers. A percentage of its proceeds go to the state's common school fund. Since 2002, nearly $700,000 of Qwest Field revenues have gone into the fund.

Because of the Allen connection, the Seattle billionaire will perform with his rock band on opening night, and members of the Seahawks will make appearances. The show will be headlined by Seal, the Nigerian/Brazilian singer based in London, who had Top Ten hits with "Crazy" in 1991 and "Kiss From a Rose" in 1995, which won Grammys for best song, record and male pop vocal.

He's big in celebrity culture right now not because of his music but because he's married to model Heidi Klum, host of the popular "Project Runway" TV series. They have one child together and are expecting another.

A much bigger name comes to WaMu on Saturday — the great Van Morrison. Long one of pop music's most gifted artists — he was lead singer of Them, known for the 1966 classic "Gloria," before starting his successful solo career — his pricey tickets ($95 to $225) shout STAR!

Concert promoters blanched at his ticket top when the tour was announced. But fans have been snatching up the $225 seats as quickly as they've gone on sale throughout the tour — proving again the concert-business maxim that fans will pay through the nose to see their favorite artists.

Also booked at WaMu are comedian Cedric the Entertainer on Nov. 25 and a rock show starring All-American Rejects on Dec. 6.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com