The War Room Press

Yelp.com Reviews on The War Room The War Room - City Search Profile. Map and Directions to the War Room, 722 E. Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98122 The Stranger Blogs : Get Your War (Room) On Posted by JENNIFER MAERZ at Wednesday July 13th, 2005 10:52 AM For a fairly new club, The War Room has been stirring up some seriously good shit in Seattle. Tonight they present an event by a group that's been recommended to me, Skullicorns, that encompasses art, free mixtapes, t-shirts, DJs (Fourcolorzack, Sean C, FITS), and more. Sign up for their mailing list and the door prizes have even better benefits. I can't get the stupid HTML to work today for some reason, so I'll send you to their site the old school way: www.skullicorns.com. Seattle Weekly CLUB PICK - July 13 - 19, 2005 War Room - When word spread that longtime Seattle club masterminds Marcus Lalario (Stuck Under the Needle/Yo Son!) and Brian Rauschenbach (Graylife) were set to open the War Room this past March, there wasn't a pair of dancing shoes in the entire city that didn't get spit-shined and laced up. Ultrastylish and ultrasmart, the War Room quickly became the "it" club; Monday nights feature regular appearances by break-dancers Circle of Fire, on Thursdays there are live rock bands, and Saturdays, it's hip-hop the way hip-hop was always meant to be at Yo Son! With two rooms for dancing and mingling plus a spacious roof deck for surveying serious scenes—and a tag line professing that "Peace Is Our Profession"—the War Room couldn't be more vital and au courant. 722 E. Pike St., 206-328-7666, www.thewarroomseattle.com. MSN City Guides - From Los Angeles to New York, check out June's hottest new nightlife. War Room featured on MSN City Guides as top five "New and Notable Nightlife" spots. (June, 2005). Click to view feature. Visit CitySearch.com and see The War Room editorial profile by Hannah Levin. Dance Party of the Week The Stranger April 14 Live wire by Jennifer Maerz Dance party of the week: Yo, Son! is showing no signs of atrophy at its new War Room home. A recent stop at the Saturday night weekly showed two rooms (and a rooftop) full of partygoers dancing and drinking until last call. The $10 cover doesn't seem to be scaring away our dedicated local hiphop contingent--who look much cozier and more comfortable in their new Pike Street digs. LET'S START A WAR The Stranger March 31 by Jennifer Maerz It's not every club that has a GQ photo shoot on its roof pre-opening night. And it's not every night that a new venue sports work by internationally renowned street artist Shepard Fairey on its walls. But it's not every ownership team that can turn a nondescript former gay bar into a hopping new watering hole. Judging from the look, crowd, and energy level of the new club the War Room (722 E Pike St) on the eve of its public opening, though, the place is about to score on all fronts (GQ photographers were spotted snapping away on its roof last weekend). Owned by Under the Needle/Yo, Son!'s Marcus Lalario and Graylife's Brian Rauschenbach, the War Room is a gorgeous multi-level club that further brings the high-class touch of Belltown bars like Viceroy to the Hill. Between its dim lighting, wood paneling, and low lounge seating, the vibe is a mix of modern L.A. lodge and kick-back dance club--and once the weather changes, happy hour will be all about securing seating on the rooftop deck before the mad rush (plan your early-weekend work escape routes now). The War Room officially opened March 27, announcing the return of Circle of Fire's weekly and plans for indie-mash-up, hiphop, and rock nights in the hopper, so stay tuned for further developments on that space. The Seattle Times, March 11th 2005 Night Watch "Yo Son!" commander readies his War Room By Tom Scanlon - Seattle Times staff reporter New spots are popping up around Seattle like pop-up ads on the Internet. Unlike Viagra knock-off hustlers, some of these places might turn out to be the real deal. Perhaps the most promising is the War Room, at 722 E. Pike St. on the up-slope of Capitol Hill. One of the owners is Marcus Lalario, a rising player in the Seattle music scene, as the honcho of Under the Needle Recordings and the man behind "Yo Son!" The latter is the hip-hop night that started at Chop Suey, then moved to Neumo's on Saturday nights. "Yo Son" will be one of the centerpieces of the War Room, which will mix-and-match drum-and-bass (Tuesday nights), live rock (Thursdays) and hip-hop/dance parties (Fridays and Saturdays). Lalario says he hopes the War Room — "our tag line is 'Peace is Our Profession' " — will be ready to go the last weekend of March. Club Beat: War Room opens in Capitol Hill TIZZY ASHER SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER War Room opens With Neumo's, Chop Suey and the Capitol Hill Arts Center all offering an eclectic mix of experimental music and performances in the upper part of the Pike/Pine corridor, it was high time someone graced the area below Broadway with a venue. (We love the Baltic Room, but on a busy night, it's about as comfortable as rush hour on the Tokyo subway.) Enter Stuck Under the Needle's Marcus Lalario and Graylife's Brian Rauschenbach. The team behind Sal's Barbershop and the Belltown bar Viceroy, are opening a new venue called the War Room at 722 E. Pike St., the space formerly known as the video bar Blu. The 3,500-foot space features hip-hop, DJs and rock in a range of weekly nights and special events. (It will also retain Blu's best feature -- the rooftop deck.) Confirmed offerings so far include rock on Thursdays, b-boys Circle of Fire on Mondays and drum and bass on Tuesday. Lalario is moving "Yo Son!", his long-running hip-hop dance night, from Saturdays at Neumo's to Sundays at the War Room. The venue officially opens on Sunday with its first night of "Yo Son!". Despite the club's anti-war theme (the decor is anti-war propaganda by the "Obey Giant" artist Shepherd Fairey), antagonism has already sprung up over Lalario's decision to move "Yo Son!" In a terse press release, longtime "Yo Son!" collaborator DJ Scene announced he was disappointed the move would force him out of the "Yo Son!" lineup. The new night conflicts with "Juicy," his collaboration with the Blue Scholars' Marc Sense and DJ Sabzi at Chop Suey. Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room. The Stranger STRANGER SUGGESTS SUNDAY MARCH 27 The War Room (NEW CLUB) Tonight, the crew of entrepreneurs responsible for Yo Son! open a new club called the War Room in the old Blu space. The new owners removed the building's hideous tin skin and replaced it with a rich, woody, log-cabin look. The War Room will mix indie-rock with indie-hiphop sensibilities, and aims to be the joint of the summer, as it has a deck. (The War Room, 722 East Pike St, 9 pm. ) CHARLES MUDEDE The Stranger Live Wire February 3, 2005 In other club news, look for the War Room to open in the old Blu space on Pike Street mid-March. Run by Graylife's Brian Rauschenbach and Yo, Son!'s Marcus Lalario, the 350-capacity space will host a wide array of live rock and hiphop. Two War Room staples already in the works: Thursday night weeklies with DJ Cherry Canoe (Kerri Harrop) and Mondays with b-boys Circle of Fire. The Stranger Live Wire February 10, 2005 (Speaking of patios, I forgot to mention last week that the new Pike Street club, the War Room--which opens in March--will keep the rooftop patio that made the space's former tenant, Blu, so popular in the summer months. Music venues with outdoor spaces are few and far between, so I'm reserving my deck chair now for that one). The Stranger My Philosophy (hip-hop column) March 17-23 Issue Yo, Son! (and daughter)! Mr. Marcus Lalario is moving his world-famous club night once again, location-wise, from Neumo's to his new space, the War Room, the spankin' new club in the Pike-Pine corridor (the old Bleu). Night-wise, the weekly is back to its original Sundays, starting on March 27. Under the Needle's equally renowned, six-years-strong Drum & Bass Tuesday is also relocating to the War Room from the Baltic Room, as will b-boy-centric Monday nights with Circle Of Fire… so see ya soon at the newest contender for Cap Hill club supremacy. (Note - This went to print prior to deciding on Saturdays for Yo Son. -Larry Mizelle The Stranger Up & Coming March 17-23 Issue ED RUSH & OPTICAL (War Room) If it were 1996, this bill would be cause for mass hysteria. In 2005, though, the morbidly dark tech-step experimentations wrought by British producers Ed Rush & Optical have faded in their power to excite and surprise. Still, whether you're a jaded old-school junglist or a fresh-faced newbie, you should come to see if these drum 'n' bass legends have any juice left in their engines--and to catch an early glimpse of the new Capitol Hill club, the War Room (722 E Pike St), which officially opens March 27. DAVE SEGAL The Seattle Times Night Watch March 25, 2005 Co-owner Marcus Lalario unveiled Capitol Hill's smartly renovated War Room (722 E. Pike, formerly Blu Video Bar) Tuesday night, showing off an open-air deck that alone would make the club a hot spot. After a private party on Saturday night, the War Room officially opens Sunday night, with the hip-hop party "Yo! Son" — which started at Chop Suey, then moved to Neumo's. Circle of Fire will host a b-boy night on Mondays, drum-and-bass DJs spin on Tuesdays, and live bands are booked on Thursdays. For more info: www.thewarroomseattle.com. The Seattle Weekly WITH THE LIGHTS OUT The War Room by Michaelangelo Matos It's tempting to figure that Marcus Lalario named his new, 350-person-capacity Capitol Hill club the War Room (722 E. Pike St.; 206-328-7666) in tongue-in-cheek fashion. After all, as one of the men behind Yo! Son, the popular hip-hop club night that's switched from Neumo's to the new venue, and the eclectic Stuck Under the Needle record label, Lalario seems like he's on a mission to take over Seattle's nightlife. And where better to hold strategy meetings than . . . ? Of course, that isn't quite the idea. "[The War Room's space] was a lease that I got when I was 19 years old," said Lalario shortly before the club's invitation-only soiree on Saturday, March 26. "I had this club, the Beatbox, there, and someone came and bought the business from me, but I stayed the landlord. At the end of December, the owner of the building called and let me know I might have the opportunity to get the building back, because legally, it was mine, and I would be responsible for the rent. So I remodeled it." Indeed he did. Split into a bar-decked front room and a larger (about twice as big) dance/lounge area with a striking antiwar mural by artist Obey, it's dark but appealingly loose—and it'll probably be looser when it isn't as crushingly full as it was on opening night. That's partly because of the good will Yo! Son has built up over the years, and partly because, especially on a rainy Saturday night, there are no two more magical words in the English language for city-dwelling hipsters than open bar. Especially one as toweringly stacked as the War Room's—the back spread appeared to have at least one bottle of everything you can imagine, as well as several beers, including Guinness, on tap. "At first we wanted to do a little loungey bar," Lalario says. "I'd been doing this club [promotion] shit since I was 14. So I said, fuck it, let's get some liquor and do it. I didn't even have plans to move Yo! Son there—it was gonna go a little bit longer [at Neumo's], but we just decided that's the way it would go. There's no ill will against Neumo's." Also at the War Room was SW music listings editor and staff writer Andrew Bonazelli, preparing to do more than party. At the end the week, Andrew will be moving to Philadelphia to work as reviews editor for Decibel, the upstart extreme metal magazine run by occasional SW contributor Albert Mudrian. Decibel is my favorite American music magazine right now—smart, superbly written, funny as hell, all too cognizant that the music that is its reason for being isn't all that's out there, and just as aware of why that music is worth both mocking and celebrating. It's a magazine after Andrew's heart and writing style, and knowing that just makes his loss all the more acute. Godspeed, dude, and don't forget to write (for) us once in a while.

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The War Room
722 E. Pike Street Seattle, WA 98122
phone: 206-328-ROOM (7666)

the war room "peace is our profession", copyright 2005-2008

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