Seattle Rock Lottery Challenges Musicians to Perform on the Fly
More than 20 musicians will gather to write and play brand-new songs in a single day
By Seattle Mag February 16, 2016
On Saturday, the Seattle Rock Lottery will once again take over the Crocodile main stage for its annual mash-up, which includes some of the city’s highest caliber musicians.
Prolific artists such as trumpeter Owuor Arunga (who regularly tours with Macklemore), haunting folk singer Annie Ford, space-age rapper Catherine Harris-White (a.k.a. SassyBlack) of THEESatisfaction and Dan Peters of Mudhoney are just a few of the 20-plus musicians who will throw their names into a hat Saturday morning to be chosen at random and form the five bands that will play on the Crocodile stage that same night.
“Our goal when choosing the participants for the Rock Lottery is to reflect the diversity and breadth of the city’s music scene,” says the night’s co-curator, Chris Weber.
The first Rock Lottery took place in Denton, Texas, on February 9, 1997. And the first Seattle incarnation occurred July 18 in 2004. Weber and his co-founder, Kathy Lindenmayer, create a list of players and ask them to gather at a venue early in the morning. The musicians’ names are then randomly drawn from a hat and formed into bands, at which point they leave and return later with a band name and three to five songs written from scratch (one song can be a cover, Weber says) that they’ll perform for the crowd.
“The audience is 100 percent on the side of the bands,” Weber notes. He has been organizing the event for 19 years in Seattle. “[They’re] already cheering and chanting before the first song starts. Imagine a world where every brand-new band was given that chance and that positivity right out of the gate.”
To get excited for the Rock Lottery, check out these videos featuring some of the night’s performers:
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