Eugene Cho

its really true.  everyone in seattle is a musician. everyone’s in a band.  everyone’s in with eddie vedder.  everyone’s in with dave matthews.  and if you’re not in a band, you just lie and say you’re still in a band.  and if you want to skirt around the idea, you just say, ‘i’m an artist.‘  but let me just say, i love seattle because it has so many musicians, artists, and creative folks. this is one of the highlights we have had in planting quest church five years ago: we have met such a diverse community of people – especially entrepreneurs, social workers, globally minded folks, artists, and musicians.

while qcafe has had its ups and downs, it’s live music venue has been a wonderful blessing. it has hosted open mic’ers, gospel, alternative, hip hop, local dreamers and stars, national christian artists, one grammy winner, and of course, many questers. because minhee and i are fairly limited in our capacity for free time with three kids, crashing the live music shows on fridays nights on occassion has been one of our delights. so, here are some of the musical highlights for our venue/church:

some favorite questers: mercir (fronted by zadok wartes who leads worship at the 5pm) who i believe can win a grammy someday and zadok has promised to squeeze my name in after he thanks jesus and his mama; dandelion method (joel & sarah heng-hartse)before they became a vh1 ‘behind the scenes’ story), and i admit, late tuesday (tara ward).  i’m a closet late tuesday fan but i’m finally coming out!  and lots of soloists from open mic, benefit shows, and gigs.  please don’t be upset if i’ve played favorites here…

other highlights: tyrone wells (check out this short video of his recent gig at qcafe); royal priesthood choir, nickelcreek (grammy winner and sick with the mandolin), ginny owens (blind but such piercing clarity in her songwriting) and couple local artists who have since gone BIG – shawn macdonald and smoosh (who just showed up in a review in the recent time magazine edition).

i’m thankful to the countless volunteers, and the live music coordinators of past and present for their incredible work, sacrifice and ‘love of music’ (leah, jennifer, and now, rachel). if you’re in seattle and you want to volunteer at shows (free admission & coffee!), email rachel@qcafe.org.  open mic re:boots next week on tuesday nights at 7pm and live music is on most friday nights at 8pm. we’ve got some fun shows (check out qcafe on myspace) lined up in the coming months and yes, the rumor is true: chris tomlin is playing the cafe in november but unfortunately, it’s pretty much sold out already.  and one of these days, dave matthews will pop in during open mic…

newer folks at quest as well as outsiders often question if it’s proper for quest to sponsor a non-religious cafe and thus, a non-religious music venue. the music we host is all over the board (the majority of the bands/music are not ‘christian’) as long as they sign our policy for no cussing, no hate lyrics, and so forth.  for us, this is a tangible way to serve the local community, to add and hopefully beautify the local arts and culture, to build relationships with folks, and a direct output of our philosophy to be missional. no preaching, no proselytizing, no passing out tracts – the live music coordinator gets up during intermission, welcomes folks, shares the vision of the cafe, and shares how a church called quest church who meets in the same space on sundays raised funds to start the cafe/venue. all in hopes that our actions speak louder than our words.

and one of these days, my band – CHOMAMA AND THE OVERCOMPLEXIFIEDS will play the venue.  stay tuned…

Filed under: culture, emerging church, Q Cafe, seattle