Letters: You don't like new WaMu Theater, either

Seattle Times rock critic Patrick MacDonald's reviews of two concerts last weekend at the new WaMu Theater at the Qwest Field Event Center garnered a lot of response, positive and negative. Some readers took issue with his criticism of the pop singer Seal. A number of others agreed with his assessment of the new venue.

No view of Van

I just wanted to share with you the feeling of anger and disappointment I felt after last night's concert at WaMu Theater. I have been counting the days until the Van Morrison concert, as he is one of my all-time favorites, and you know how rarely he tours. We bought the tickets early through the Mountain's "pre-buy" offer, so we could get decent seats. They were $178 each! But I thought that would be worth it for a good seat to see Van the Man. Boy, was I wrong!

While we were seated in row 20, we were all the way over to the left side of the "theater," and our view of the stage was so cut off that during the entire concert, all we could see was the backsides of the three backup singers, the organist and an occasional glimpse of Van whenever he leaned forward. The view of the rest of the show was cut off by the edge of the stage or the equipment on stage. This was especially frustrating, as the TicketMaster site described these tickets as "left of center." A slight understatement ...

If I had gone to a Broadway play, they understand their responsibility to tell you when your tickets are "partial view" tickets, and they also reflect that fact by lowering the ticket prices accordingly. But for the WaMu to jack up prices to these astronomical levels and on top of it, provide me the worst view of a concert I have ever had in 30-plus years of attending concerts in Seattle, is a sad state of affairs.

— Mark Kettering, Redmond

The real Seal deal

As someone who goes to many concerts, I totally disagree with you and your review on Seal. I thought the concert was great and that Seal was amazing. For the price, I thought the theater was fine. And yes, my girlfriend and I would have loved to have seen Seal with no clothes on ... hehe. And obviously the audience thought he was great, too.

— Lynn S., Kirkland

A $252 scam?

I'd probably have agreed with Patrick MacDonald's review of Van Morrison at the new WaMu "Theater" [sic], but even with my $225 ticket ($252.04 with fees!), I couldn't see him 85 percent of the time, and when I could, just his distant head floating above the keyboards.

I was in the fifth row, Section A, Seat 1. This should have been one of the $95 tickets (and would still be grossly overpriced at that). Everyone around me was complaining. Not only were we way off in the corner beyond the stage, the large cabinet behind the keyboards blocked the view of most of the band, including Van. Patrick MacDonald was right in his WaMu review ... this is no "theater" ... not even close!

I'm a serious Van Morrison fan; I've traveled to see him up and down the West Coast. I had no problem with the 90-minute show aspect; I expected that, and I could even stomach the price if there was value to match. Instead, I feel like I was raped by WaMu, Paul Allen and AEG. It was a miserable experience, but only because of combined corporate greed, myopia and broken promises. They got my money, and I'm sure there's zero chance their greedy little hands would ever do the right thing and refund it; all I can do is alert as many as possible about my experience, hope it saves someone else from the same scam and ensure it costs Allen/AEG/WaMu more in the end than my wasted $252.

— Neil Simmons, Kenmore

So much for so little

Thank you for your very accurate description of the WaMu Theater. What a disappointing venue for Seattle. The sound wasn't bad, but the views are ridiculous unless you are fortunate to have purchased seats that are directly center, providing you are taller than the people in front of you. I'm certain this venue will be as popular as the equally disappointing EMP, another gift from our local hero.

Van Morrison is a rock icon, which no one can deny. His live recording "A Night in San Francisco" is in constant rotation on my stereo. That being said, this has to have been one of the lamest concerts I've attended in years. Vocally ... yeah it was Van all right, but with the passion of a throw rug.

Never before have I paid so much and received so little. During the show, as I looked around the room, I didn't see smiles. Instead, a sense of boredom, with a hint of "I paid $180 per ticket for this?!"

— Mark B., Tacoma

Down with negativity

Your [Seal] review was a poorly written and narrowly focused piece with unwarranted negativity. A critical review doesn't necessitate negative criticism. Of course, we were six rows from the front, maybe that made the experience spectacular. Perhaps it was the incredible acoustics you failed to mention. Perhaps it was Seal's energy or the intimacy of his performance style. Maybe it was Seahawk Craig Terrill's energy he brought to the first set. If you're going to call yourself a writer, write a fair article. Tell Seattle what rocked along with what didn't at WaMu.

— An Unimpressed Reader, Lynnwood

Not built to spill

We (my wife and some friends) made a quick trip to Seattle from the hinterlands of Idaho to see one of our all-time favorites, Van Morrison. As most of his fans know, Van doesn't tour much, and when we found out he was performing in Seattle on Saturday night, we got out the credit card, went online and got tickets. Some research on the venue, the WaMu Theater, turned up some very positive news, a midsized hall with a new sound system. With reasonable airfare and Seattle's wealth of good hotels, we looked forward to a great weekend.

For the most part, that is what we experienced. Van was in great voice, and his band was impeccable. The sound system was unbelievable, transforming a warehouse-type room into a great-sounding concert hall.

Unfortunately, the lack of sufficient entry doors resulted in a long line and many people finding their seats well after the show started. We also visited the refreshment booth and paid dearly for our beer and wine. When we tried to go into the hall when Van came onstage, we were informed that we couldn't take our drinks into the show. I guess they didn't want spills on the concrete floor. Since it's been a few years since we got out of college, we didn't opt to chug them and left our $30 worth of refreshments behind. I hope someone else enjoyed them.

— Paul Ingersoll, Boise, Idaho

"We've never felt so cheated"

Van Morrison and his band were so good, so thoroughly enjoyable, that it assuaged our anger and indignation of having to wait for over 25 minutes in a line that stretched halfway to Portland to enter the WaMu Theater to see him perform. When we were finally admitted and took our seats, Van the Man was already on his second or third song. We missed the opening numbers.

You would think that the production team might delay the start of the concert so people who paid hundreds of dollars and arrived fifteen minutes before the scheduled start of the show might actually get to see the entire show. But no! We've never felt so cheated.

Do you know of a contact person to whom we might write in order to get some satisfaction here? If so, we would greatly appreciate your assistance.

— Bruce and Janine Johnson, Seattle

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