6 YEARS OF MECHANISMUS - part i of vi

Summer of 2007 on a drive back to Seattle from Chico California Seth, Brain, and I were listening to [S.I.T.D] in the car. We began complaining about never being able to hear NEW Industrial music in Seattle. Why is it that Seattle supposedly being such a "city for music", you go to clubs and hear songs and bands from 10 to 15 years ago? Now granted I love the "classics" as much as the next rivet head but when there are so many bands, labels, and DJ's out there struggling to keep the music alive by putting out new material that is not just as good but sometimes even better than the older materials WHY the HELL does it not get any club play?? Why isn't there a night out there that focuses on new music?

A few weeks later in late August of 2007, I decided that what we spoke about in the car ride back from Chico was something worth pursuing. We bitch and moan about a lack of movement in the Seattle rivet head scene all the time, why not actually do something about it? Why not have a night focused on progressing the music? A night where people can still hear the classics but be exposed to new music. Thus the conversations between Seth and I started. What would we call the night? Where would we do it? HOW do we do it?? We met on a regular basis, at bars taking shots of Vodka, to decide how this seemingly impossible endeavor was going to work out. We needed a name and a location. We consulted a good German friend of ours to come up with a name for the night. The original name was NEU MECHANISMUS, meaning "New Machinery" but shortly later we changed it to MECHANISMUS as the "NEU" part would be too hard to pronounce and didn't exactly roll off the tongue right.

Next came the location…we found the now defunct Capitol Hill Arts Center for our base of operations. A small venue located in the heart of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Our first show was February 8th, 2008. 30 people showed up. Seth and I were the only acts as we DJ'ed. Me for my first time ever. The turnout was something we considered a success and thus decided we were on to something…

To be continued...

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