Brooke Parrott and the Mirabeua Room

I went out on Sunday night and watched a friend from my Entrepreneurship class perform at a little club on Queen Anne called, “The Mirabeau Room.” From class I learned that Brooke Parrott is in the process of starting her own record company. She passed me a demo CD of six of her songs last week, so I already knew that this little songbird has got some serious pipes. It was truly my pleasure to hear her perform live.

Accompanying Brooke’s vocals and piano was her new bassist, Evan Flory-Barnes. Yeah, Evan was a joy to watch. He got up on stage and played his upright solo for about a half an hour before Brook went on. He was gone! My favorite part of Evan’s public departure was watching someone that I’m guessing was one of the Mirabeua Room’s higher-up’s standing at the foot of the stage, about five feet away from him, waiting to get his attention. He waited about five whole minutes, just standing there. It was beautiful.
Now, if I understand correctly, the Mirabeau Room opened a little over a year ago in the location that used to be Sorry Charlie’s. It’s a small, dark and fashionable gin joint that’s unsurprisingly as trendy as its customers. For the most part, beyond the obligatory support group of friends, I saw stereotypical twenty-something’s that were far more interested in pretence and posturing than in music. I was a little embarrassed, but I honestly wasn’t quite sure who I was embarrassed for. What the fuck do I care? Seattle really needs more places where pretty people can make believe they care about culture or talent and get loaded and laid. It’s just a shame that most of the people I saw on Sunday may never know that they missed a good show.
Anyhoo, when I talked to Brooke in class last night she told me that she’d already picked up another gig. Apparently, one of the owners of a nearby venue was at her performance last night and really liked what he heard.
I responded by telling her that she needs to have some photos taken, and that I need take them.