Where to Find Upcoming Seattle Shows
Remember when if you wanted to find out what shows were coming up in Seattle you’d just open up The Rocket or later The Stranger and find all the venue’s concert calendars? Those were the days. Many have tried to create a centralized place for compiling this information but most seem to be a little clunky, a little overwhelmed with ads, and mostly about generating revenue than actually telling me what shows are happening in Seattle. Until now! I’ve recently come across the simplest website for giving me what I want to know.
SEA GIGS is an artist-owned and operated portal to the world of public-facing creative events in Seattle aka a great place to find upcoming Seattle shows. I caught up with the creators to learn more about their Seattle concert calendar.
Who is behind Sea Gigs?
The original idea started with Kay Redden and Mike Sampson and they shortly found a group of like-minded Seattle music community members (Malia Seavey, Nate Louis, April Stark) who were looking for another way to help others, and themselves, find gigs in town easier.
What motivated you to start Sea Gigs?
Both Kay and Mike had separate but similar show listing website outlets in their formative years of going to gigs (showli.st and the Boston Compass respectively). Kay had been wanting to start something similar in recent years for the Seattle area as an effort to get people off of Facebook and make gigs less about ads, clicks, and likes. Mike shared similar ideals and the know-how to tackle the technical side of things. Kay runs Den Tapes, a local music label, and Mike has been active playing in the area for years, so they both had a special connection to the community that got them working on this as soon as the idea became feasible.
How can artists get their gigs on Sea Gigs?
First and foremost, we always ask that you check to see if your event is already listed. We list as much as we can on our own, but it's always helpful for bands to confirm their show is up on the site. It's easy to do with the search feature. If not, feel free to use our submission page and after you submit, we'll approve it on our end and make sure it's formatted correctly. We've been working to get as many gigs listed as we can as well as working with bookers to list their gigs all at once as well.
What has been the response in the community to Sea Gigs?
We've seen a lot of "this rules", "we needed this", and "this is so useful" so it's getting a good response so far. There's so much more we'd eventually like to do with it but the fact that everyone was so stoked on even Sea Gigs version 1.1 is really exciting. More people immediately reached out than we thought would, whether it was bookers, artists or organizations, it seems like more people felt we needed it than we even could've guessed.
How can people support your work at Sea Gigs?
Use it! Tell your friends! Tell your coworkers! Tell your enemies! Tell everyone!
Is there anything about Sea Gigs you want people to know?
Sea Gigs is only as useful as it used. This whole site came about from wanting to get people out to see local bands so please support your local music community and help it thrive!