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<< Previous   of   Next >> Michael O'Leary / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Eugene Capon II, a 23-year-old Everett Community College graphic arts student, hands out leaflets to fellow students promoting a fundraising event for the Everett Theatre. (click to enlarge) Michael O'Leary / The Herald Eugene Capon (right), a 23-year-old Everett Community College graphic arts student, hands out a leaflet to fellow student Esther Bowman promoting a fundraising event for the Everett Historic Theater. (click to enlarge) Michael O'Leary / The Herald Eugene Capon, a 23-year-old Everett Community College graphic arts student, hands out leaflets to fellow students promoting a fundraising event for the Everett Historic Theater. (click to enlarge) Michael O'Leary/The Herald Megan Payne (left) listens to Eugene Capon, a 23-year-old Everett Community College graphic arts student, urges her and other students to attend a fundraising event for the Everett Historic Theater. TONE  (click to enlarge) MC Geologic (left) and DJ Sabzi of the Seattle hip-hop duo the Blue Scholars, plan to play their first show in Everett this Saturday at a benefit show for the Historic Everett Theatre. (click to enlarge) TONE MC Geologic, left, and DJ Sabzi, members of the Seattle hip-hop duo the Blue Scholars, plan to play their first show in Everett this Saturday at a benefit show for the Historic Everett Theatre.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Everett Theatre turns to youth, tries for new life By Andy Rathbun Herald Writer A venue best known for community theater will break into hip hop this weekend, hosting two of Seattle's most buzzed-about acts. The Blue Scholars and Common Market will headline the Everett Theatre on Saturday night, as the struggling venue tries to attract a younger crowd -- or really, any sort of crowd at all. Ed Beeson, a board member at the theater, worked with a college-aged group of volunteers to put the show together. He supported it for two reasons: The 20-somethings' enthusiasm was infectious and the theater's financial situation was precarious, leading to new priorities. "The biggest part of the market we weren't serving was the market most interested in what we could do here," Beeson said. "And that's young people." The 107-year old theater, home of the Northwest Savoyards musical theater group, has been on thin ice for some time. It launched a campaign earlier this year, saying if it didn't raise $75,000, it may close. Since then, staff has been reduced to one paid individual -- a box office attendant. That's where unpaid volunteers enter the picture. "We were like, 'We could save the theater by having a variety show,' " Eugene Capon II said. The 23-year-old visual arts student and some friends pitched the idea to the board with a poster. It showed a giant radioactive spider attacking Everett. The spider represented economic peril. Beeson, a Seattle music industry veteran who booked acts for Bumbershoot from 1995 to 1999, liked their energy but not their idea. He steered the greenhorns away from a variety show and toward a concert. After a series of meetings with about six volunteers, Beeson used his connections to book the Blue Scholars, a hip-hop duo that often sells out Seattle clubs, and the up-and-coming act Common Market. Capon lauded the choice. "They're incredibly influential," he said of the Blue Scholars. "I love the fact they're all about rights for all people, youth empowerment. They kind of reach the target market we're looking for." Members of both acts sounded excited about the show. The Blue Scholars, which released its first album in 2004, has never played Everett. "I didn't even know Everett was an option," said Alexei Saba Mohajerjasbi, aka DJ Sabzi of the Blue Scholars. "I've always thought of Western Washington as a small place … but it seems like the concert-going public is big enough and spread out enough that we can do Seattle and Everett." The groups, which are playing for a reduced fee to take into account the theater's predicament, also were glad the concert would be open to all ages. "If it was up to me, personally, we would never do a 21 and over show," said rapper RA Scion, or Ryan Abeo of Common Market. "The majority of our fans are youth." If the show is a success, that could mean more bands playing Everett. Beeson and Capon mentioned the possibility of booking the multiplatinum Seattle rock band the Presidents of the United States of America in the winter. But like the future of the theater, nothing's set in stone. "You have to take the talent when it's available," Beeson said. You also have to have ticket sales. The 834-seat theater needs to bring in 300 people to cover the cost of the Blue Scholars show, Beeson said. "We can't do anything but break even, because there's nothing to fall back on," he said. With 140 tickets sold as of Monday, success is not yet in hand. If the show falters, however, it won't be for a lack of trying. Capon and his friends plan to hand out as many as 5,000 fliers. They set up a table at the Everett Mall on Sunday, and on Monday, hit Everett Community College. While many students were unaware of the show, some said they were ready to buy a ticket after taking a flier. "Blue Scholars -- great, great group," Dylan Yunker, 19, said at the college. "These guys need to be more known." Reporter Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or arathbun@heraldnet.com Blue Scholars with Common Market 8 p.m. Saturday, Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave., Everett; 425-258-6766, www.everetttheatre.org; tickets are $16.50 READER COMMENTS Log in or register to post new comment | Log out might not be right for everett Hip-Hop, promotes violence, drug use, lawlessness, theft, materialism, and treating women as sex objects. It's a negative influence on everyone who embraces it. "I love the fact they're all about rights for all people, youth empowerment. They kind of reach the target market we're looking for." Yes, I looked them up and they preach about racism however the groups that they have toured with seem to have racist views towards whites, It seems that "they're all about rights for all people" other than whites. I can't list everyone but here is an example of one group, wu-tang clan."I may die in the scuffle but I'm taking forty devils"; "The City"; Wu-Tang Clan, Wu-Tang Forever, "Listen to this black visionary, bringing war like a revolutionary. . . . go on a killing spree, putting devils out their misery" "Like an armed struggle. . . . I come with the New Wu Order. . . . waging war on the devils' community. . . . whipped cardinals and one Pope"; "Killing devils and scatter they ashes over the sea of Mediterranean. . . . open your eyes to the revolution. . . . unite with the black coalition"; That's just a little bit of it. Doesn't seem like the right thing for Everett, Even though you might just be trying to help I would just try something else. If it's for kids then try something fun, hip hop isn't fun. besides, Hip hop is yesterday's news. The people who listen to hip hop and came of age during its heyday are already losing their hair and putting on couch potato fat. Let the younger generation have its own music. You all had yours, and now go out to pasture and make room for the new generation of youth. hip hop is to music what Porn is to art, I think that pretty much sums it up. alphakenny1up | Oct 16, 2008 1:32 pm | 2 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal alphakenny1up could use some more sunlight. I'm a Christian and I could pull lines like that from Revelations. But it doesn't mean the Bible is all about the ***** of Babylon. Hip Hop is about stories. Hip Hop is a miracle where everyone I've ever met fashions them self as some kind of secret street poet. In fact I've yet to meet anyone under the age of say 35 who deep inside hasn't written one hip hop rhyme they want to rap in my ear. For everybody has something they hope to say - something they wish they could find words to express; a story they wish they could share about their own lives. It goes back farther than the Odyssey; this yearning we see in Hip Hop to express experience is but one tiny part of humanity's great unrecorded story. And now thanks to Hip Hop culture these stories are being recorded and you're grandchildren's grandchildren will study this movement in schools, long after myself and alphakenny1up are forgotten and dust (at least I'll leave behind a hip hop album). Hip Hop music is incredibly diverse and ranges from what alphakenny1up might actually fear from his compound, to the positive and progressive content Blue Scholars and Common Market is presenting to Everett Youth this Saturday. While I think alphakenny1up just created some really intense porn of his own for White supremacist and those that think what they hear on the radio or see on TV is reality rather than mere caricature - he does give Everett more encouragement to support events like the Hip Hop event happening this Saturday at The Historic Everett Theatre. His words prove to me we need more culture and more events in this community. As one of the volunteers promoting this event I can tell you that kids in Everett do still care a lot about Hip Hop. Passing out fliers in the last two weeks I met 1,000 of them. -DP STAXX davin stedman | Oct 17, 2008 3:30 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

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