-- by Jenn Anthony If you walk near Jefferson Avenue and 15th street today, there’s no sign that one of Tacoma’s most eclectic 1970s music spots once stood there. The Last Chance Tavern has disappeared from the city’s physical landscape and almost its collective memory. No neon sign survived. No building remains. Even the address... Continue Reading →
--by Mason Seay Jazz music still floats throughout the streets and neighborhoods of Tacoma. While Jazzbones and Bob's Java Jive remain popular, The Spar Tavern is a hidden gem in Old Town. Let’s go back 110 years to 1916 when The Spar was built. The $7,500 building stands on the corner of North 30th Street... Continue Reading →
-- by Trinity Kovalick In the early 1920s live music was the bees knees. A budding city like Tacoma had been gaining in popularity as they didn’t adhere to strict rules like Blue Laws that required venues in Seattle to stop playing music at a certain hour. Linked directly to prohibition and founded out of... Continue Reading →
-- by Deyana Pangelinan Figure 1: Steve's Gay 90s, April 1951Figure 2: Steve's Gay 90s location, 2018 In 2018, huddled in the dusty dilapidated corner of a slowly deteriorating building on South Tacoma Way lies the recently closed down restaurant of what used to be called, “Ah Badabing Pizzeria” right next to a quaint little... Continue Reading →
-- by Kim Davenport For her final paper in my Musical History of Tacoma class at UW Tacoma, student Kaisa Cannon decided to explore her father's favorite band, Nirvana, and determine whether the band typically associated with Seattle had any roots in Tacoma. Even a casual devotee of the grunge group would likely guess the answer... Continue Reading →
Tacoma Music History 