Hendrix museum strikes right chord in Seattle

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/10/2002 (8632 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SEATTLE — It’s not like this place was hurting for cool attractions.

With a lively downtown anchored by Pike Place Market — and the Olympic mountains, Mount Rainier and San Juan Islands nearby — Seattle has so many tourist draws it’s almost unfair.

Paul Allen decided to create one more anyway.

Allen, the guy who helped start Microsoft but then left the glory to Bill Gates, is a longtime devotee of late ’60s guitar god and Seattle native Jimi Hendrix. He plays a little ax himself, as a matter of fact.

A few years ago Allen, who owns the Seahawks football team among other things, hatched a plan for a popular music museum loosely built around his collection of Hendrix memorabilia.

The result is Experience Music Project, which opened two summers ago at Seattle Centre, the complex just north of downtown where visitors inevitably go to ride to the top of the Space Needle.

There is no missing the place. EMP, as it is known, occupies a gigantic multicoloured metal building with swoopy sides and bizarre angles. Acclaimed architect Frank O. Gehry was inspired by the shape of an electric guitar, “then went wild,” according to one guidebook.

The building is said to be controversial among Seattleites, some of whom consider it a bit over the top for their earth-toned city. But that’s their debate.

All I know is that during a vacation to the Seattle area with our sons — one a 15-year-old aspiring garage band guitarist, the other a drummer about to turn 13 — we wound up spending more time at EMP than at any other single attraction.

At $19.95 US per adult, $15.95 ages 13-17 and $14.95 for ages 7-12, it’s a pricey diversion from the area’s outdoor wonders. But after an entire morning in the place, followed by a second visit later in the day (a hand stamp allows you to come and go), we did not feel cheated.

EMP is, on one level, a conventional museum with themed galleries that go far beyond Allen’s Hendrix collection.

As you might expect of something conceived by a Microsoft mind, however, this is no static repository of stuff under glass. Visitors are offered personal tour-guide devices to download audio accompaniments, for instance.

And, yes, they get a chance to strap on a guitar or pound the skins in the Sound Lab. You can even bask in the shouts of adoring fans on a simulated arena stage or record your own CD.

It all adds up to a sort of pop music theme park.

Visitors enter EMP through the Sky Church, a soaring central hall and stage area where evening concerts are sometimes scheduled. At other times, music videos flash across what is billed as the world’s biggest indoor video screen.

Nearby is a two-storey, tornado-shaped sculpture made mostly of real guitars. Some are computer programmed to play examples of different musical styles.

Music Exhibit Guides, or MEGs, are issued and explained at a station near the sculpture. Slightly bigger than a portable CD player, they are carried with a shoulder strap. At each gallery you can download audio, delivered via headphones when you punch in a number for a specific exhibit.

Permanent galleries focus on various pop music genres, the careers of Hendrix and assorted other luminaries, and the guitar designs of Leo Fender, Les Paul, Orville Gibson and others.

They include hundreds of interesting items: some of Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics; guitars used by everyone from Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry to Eric Clapton and Kurt Cobain; one of Dr. Dre’s drum machines; and a collection of “fanzines,” to name just a few.

There’s also a rotating special exhibit. The current one, (Un)Common Objects, a collection of way-cool pop music artifacts ends a six-month run tomorrow.

The objects range from a plaid shirt worn by Bruce Springsteen to Kiss bassist Gene Simmons’ platform dragon boots. There’s the wispy outfit Britney Spears wore while cavorting with a boa constrictor a couple of years back, famous glasses worn by John Lennon, Roy Orbison and Bono, and one of Frank Sinatra’s tuxedos.

Opening Nov. 23 is Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights. EMP says it is “the first museum to take an in-depth look at disco and all of the political, social and cultural influences of the era.”

EMP also offers a motion ride of sorts, Funk Blast, which puts visitors in hydraulic chairs whose movements are synchronized with a film. The mildly amusing plot follows two funk-challenged teens as they search for the right sound and find it at a street party led by James Brown, Chaka Khan, et al.

What really sets EMP apart is the second floor Sound Lab. Here you can put your fingers to the strings and feel the rush of sending a power chord through an amp set on full distortion. You also learn about reverb, wah-wahs, flangers and other effects that help the pros sound like pros.

Guitars, electronic drum pads and keyboards are mounted in kiosks with small speakers for each instrument. Touch-screen computers walk neophytes through, while players can select their favourite sound style and just fool around (and show off).

You’d think having a roomful of guitars and drums for use by tourists would create chaos and cacophony. But it’s well organized.

The computer reminds you periodically to be aware when someone is waiting for a chance to play. This being mellow Seattle, everyone seems to co-operate.

More serious players can retire to soundproof rooms, and some are equipped for small jam sessions. A 10-minute limit is politely enforced by Lab staffers.

Families or groups can go “onstage” and play such three-chord classics as Wild Thing for a simulated crowd. Technicians program the instruments to play the right notes, and will sell you a poster photo of your moment in the spotlight.

For another $10, players can cut an eight-minute CD in a special Sound Lab studio, with technicians providing a professional mix.

Our boys gave it a go. The result was a little rough around the edges, but who knows? Someday their debut session at EMP could be a rock ‘n’ roll legend.

— Cox Newspapers

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IF YOU GO

Where: Experience Music Project, 325 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle. Adjacent to the Space Needle and downtown monorail station.

Hours and costs: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Adults $19.95; senior citizens (65 and older) and ages 13-17, $15.95; children ages 7-12, $14.95; 6 and under free.

Extras: The museum also includes the Turntable Restaurant, Liquid Lounge and the EMP Store, all accessible separately.

Information: www.emplive.com.