Everett Archives: Behind the Mill Town Music
Everett rocks.
The city has a long-standing aesthetic tradition of musical culture: from the early days of civic groups and ensembles, marching bands, family acts, up through rock and roll music and arena rock, and indie rock.
Musicians Carol Kaye and Kenny Loggins hail from Everett, as well as contemporary notables the Moondoggies, Fauna Shade, and Oliver Elf Army. The Pacifica Chamber Orchestra packed seats in pre-pandemic times, bringing highbrow music to the masses.
Let’s take a look at the history of music in Everett and some of the best acts that have played here — some of which you may know (or remember), and some that you may be surprised by!
The Early Days
It’s obvious when you think about it, but music was pretty different in the late 1800s when Everett was founded. There were no records or radios. Music was performed live by local musicians — often families or municipal groups.
The Everett Business and Professional Women’s Club Orchestra was the musical arm of an organization designed to help working women in their careers. By day they were secretaries, postal clerks, librarians, and pharmacists. By evening they encouraged one another in their careers and put on special events for the public, including live music performances.
The Everett Business and Professional Women's Club Orchestra // Courtesy of the Everett Museum of History
Photos of early Everett also show marching bands. The Everett Theatre brought in nationally acclaimed entertainers of high caliber: Nat King Cole, the Marx Brothers, and Ruth St. Denis.
Teen Music
In the 1950s and 60s an emerging force began to sculpt American popular music: the teenager. Children of the postwar baby boom came of age and had disposable time and income. Recording industry marketers and show promoters began to take notice and curate acts to teenage tastes. During the 1960s, a few national acts swept through town.
The Beach Boys & Buffalo Springfield brought their good vibrations to the kids. What a double-header! On February 1, 1968, these famed Boomer bands played at Everett Community College. You could see Brian Wilson for $3, $4, or $5. Also, you could see a young Neil Young, who would return to Everett many decades later.
Beach Boys // Courtesy of Everett Clipper
Paul Revere and the Raiders brought psychedelic-flavored garage rock to the Normanna Lodge on Oakes Street fifty years before the Everett Music Initiative would do the same. Across the street, the NW garage rockers The Sonics tore into a set full of fuzzy, distorted anthems at the Armory.
Floral Hall at Forest Park was a popular music venue for teens, too. A little band from the Kirkland and Bothell area named White Heart played Floral Hall in 1969. They would go on to gain notoriety as the superpowered rock act known as Heart.
Paul Revere and the Raiders played here // Courtesy of the Normanna Lodge #3.
One of the most talked-about shows to this date in Everett among Boomers was the Chuck Berry concert at the Everett Roller Rink on California (the building is now used as an indoor soccer arena). Incidentally, a roller rink with lacquered hardwood floors is quite a place, sonically, to blast out rhythmic rock and roll. By all accounts, the Prime Minister of Rock and Roll brought down the rink.
Arena Acts, Throwbacks and Indie Rock
In the 2000s, the city built an arena at the corner of Hewitt Avenue and Broadway. The Angel of the Winds Arena (previously known as Comcast Arena and Xfinity Arena) brings in national acts that draw audiences from around the Pacific Northwest.
In 2011 the KISS Army descended on the Comcast Arena. They rocked and rolled all night. They partied every day. And fans came from miles around to see the pyrotechnics, the studded body armor, the glitter, and the hairspray. Neil Young, Alice Cooper, Toby Keith, and the Backstreet Boys have all drawn fans to this venue.
During the 2010s, the Historic Everett Theatre built a business model around bringing throwback and nostalgia acts to town. They packed seats in the classy old building by grouping together oldies and AM rock bands like Grand Funk Railroad, Blue Oyster Cult (of “more cowbell” SNL fame), the Young Rascals, and The Association.
At the same time, the Everett Music Initiative began to bring nationally-renowned independent music to Everett music venues, attracting crowds for acts like Kevin Morby, Courtney Marie Andrews and Mount Eerie.
What will live music look like in a world on the other side of a pandemic? That remains to be seen. But I’m guessing that music is too deep in Everett’s DNA for the flame of music to die.
Rock on.
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