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• Best Music Venue That Isn't One

  2020 Cycle

  Overzealous security guards and 15-year-old hipsters are par for the course at most of Seattle's music venues, but 2020 Cycle, a bike shop in the Central District, offers some relief for those in the know. There, amid walls adorned with bike parts and hanging wheels, you can catch up-and-coming bands as well as local institutions like Karl Blau and the… More >>

• Best Venue for One-Hit Wonders and Noodles

  Triple Door

  Of all the music venues in the city, the Triple Door is the only one to bring in the one-hit wonder as often as it does indie bands and national acts. Musicians like Joan Osborne, Shawn Mullins, and Edwin McCain have all graced its stage, to the delight of diehard fans and those who simply love, well, that one song.… More >>

• Best Way to Score Free Concert Tickets

  Marymoor Concert Recycling Program

  How many times have you called a radio station and actually won the concert tickets they're giving away? Exactly. That's why you're far better off applying to become a volunteer with the Marymoor Concert Recycling Program. You'll work a three-hour shift policing concertgoers' trash-disposal practices (it sounds easy enough...until you have to lecture a drunk Flogging Molly fan on littering),… More >>

• Best Impersonation of a (Formerly) Northwest Musician

  Susan Boyle

  Remember when Mick Fleetwood auditioned for Spinal Tap wearing a flame-retardant suit? Fans of Britain's Got Talent or Aberdeen upstarts the Melvins can be forgiven for briefly believing that grumpy frontman Buzz Osborne was attempting to pull a similar stunt when his unkempt doppelgänger Susan Boyle took the stage in front of Simon and company for her now-famous rendition of… More >>

• Best Theater for Seeing a Concert South of Town

  Pantages Theater

  When an artist skips her hometown for most of her career, it stands to reason that's because there isn't an adequate venue in said town. But there must be another reason in the case of Neko Case, because when she went home to Tacoma, the Pantages Theater, in the City of Destiny's forever-"emerging" downtown, outshone the evening's headliner. Like a… More >>

• Best Reason to Go Out on the Fourth Friday of the Month

  The Corner

  Candidt, the swami of the local hip-hop scene, founded his monthly showcase of Seattle's extensive rap talent, "The Corner," with the idea of mixing the well-known with the unknown. Held monthly at the Jewel Box Theater inside the Rendezvous, the event is an in-your-face live concert–meets–house party, featuring the kind of no-holds-barred performances given only by those who've yet to… More >>

• Best Way to Crash a Showbox Performance

  The Green Room

  A common misconception is that only concertgoers are admitted to the bar housed within the Showbox. But all you actually need to enter the Green Room is an I.D. A bouncer keeps an eye on bar patrons to make sure they don't sneak into the performance space, but don't let that deter you. A surprising number of people show up… More >>

• Best Sports Radio Jingle

  Emerald Downs' radio campaign

  In an age when it's kosher for of-the-moment indie bands to pepper Volkswagen and Apple commercials with their latest, hippest offerings, there's something refreshingly retro about Emerald Downs' radio campaign, which centers on a countrified version of one-hit wonder Matthew Wilder's 1983 single "(Ain't Nothin' Gonna) Break My Stride." The lyrics are certainly germane to horse-racing, but the ability to… More >>

• Best Reason to Get Excited for Handel's Messiah Five Months Early

  Tudor Choir

  In Seattle, most people associate epic compositions like Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," and Handel's Messiah—with its booming "Hallelujah" chorus—with Benaroya Hall and the Seattle Symphony Chorale. And sure, when performed by more than 100 voices and an enormous orchestra, these pieces can blow your mind. But Handel's opus, for one, didn't start out being performed by casts of… More >>
• 

  Best Urban Muralist

  Ryan Henry Ward

  About 16,000 years ago, upright apes walked into a cave in France, lifted their knuckles off the ground, and drew pictures of animals on the walls. 16,000 years later in Seattle, a heavily bearded hippie named Ryan Henry Ward took up a brush and began painting animals of his own on walls around the city. Unless you're a shut-in, you've… More >>

• Best Museum Comeback

  Bellevue Arts Museum

  It may still have a way to go before it regains our Westside trust, but the Bellevue Arts Museum has been mounting stronger exhibitions in recent years, while remaining true to its renewed focus on craft. BAM began in 1975 as the Bellevue Art Museum, and in the early aughts mounted exhibitions too eccentric (some say too contemporary) for its… More >>

• Best New Old Venue

  The Crocodile

  When Seattle lost the Crocodile Café, a local institution was lost forever. But the Crocodile's rebirth marked the beginning of a new, improved era for Seattle musicgoers. No, it's not the Crocodile Café anymore, but the new Croc manages to pay homage to the venue's history without getting so nostalgic as to cling to some of the features everyone disliked… More >>

• Best Flute Performance in a Quiet-Storm Setting

  Bernie Jacobs

  The late-breaking, unexpected, and perfectly awesome horn solo has long been an effective pop-song device, dating back at least to "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" and "Lively Up Yourself." The tradition is taken into a higher-pitched realm on Can't Get Enough, this year's irresistibly smooth release of "quiet storm" R&B from Seattle pianist/singer Darrius Willrich. On a slow-grooving… More >>

• Best Little Cafe That Could

  Faire Gallery and Cafe

  Walking into Faire Gallery & Cafe on the corner of Olive Way and Melrose Avenue feels like being on vacation—maybe you, maybe them. Unlike most morning-focused cafes, this one doesn't even open before 10:00 a.m. It fills up most in the evening, with live music much of the week and art on display that's a cut above the usual cafe… More >>

• Best Hetero Meat Market

  Peso's Kitchen and Lounge

  Lust springs eternal at Peso's Kitchen and Lounge. The crowd consists almost entirely of drunk and attractive 20-something singles—meaning it's a breeding ground for hookups. (Full self-disclosure: Not once have I ended up in my own bed following a night out here.) Prime cuts of meat show off their biceps, cleavage, and immaculate haircuts as they mingle. And even the… More >>

• Best Independent Radio Station

  Hollow Earth Radio

  You thought I was going to say KEXP, didn't you? Wrong. That'd be too obvious. KEXP already knows it's awesome. No, this one goes to Hollow Earth Radio, a DIY station based in a basement that plays shit so obscure it flies under the radar of even KEXP's well-versed spin jockeys. Some of it is experimental, even downright bizarre—don't be… More >>

• Best Place to Get Wasted and Play Ping-Pong

  Bit Saloon - Closed

  By night, the Bit Saloon—a two-room dive just shy of the Ballard Bridge—attracts its clientele with a host of cheap libations and local bands. The bar's best attraction, though, is only out during the day, when the oi! punks are still sleeping off last night's bender: a Ping-Pong table. For those who prefer to imbibe during daylight hours, there's no… More >>