The Off-Ramp/El Corazon/Funhouse, 109 Eastlake Ave E, Seattle.
A small place, it’s been a live music venue/bar since construction in 1910! During the 30s it was apparently a ‘race’ or ‘negro’ bar, but I’ve never found any firm confirmation of that, just word of mouth. That does make sense tho, then as now, it’s not in one of the ‘trendier’ spots.
Site of Pearl Jam’s FIRST show, everybody who’s ever played Seattle, played here. Soundgarden. Alice in Chains. Mother Love Bone. Mudhoney. The Gits. Gruntruck. Nirvana. The U Men. Everybody.
Dimly lit (getting good pics is a miracle), sweaty, dark, loud, tiny dive bar. The best place ever for the authentic ‘rock and roll’ show.
I noticed a photo of Soundgarden making the rounds and realized I’ve never told y’all about the Off Ramp, so here we go.
Pic 1) Original Off Ramp signage, at the Mopop, Sept 2019. This overlooks Andy’s statue in the Home And Away exhibit.
Pic 2) Flyer from 1991. Alice in Chains? Mookie Blaylock? What weird names these Seattle bands have!
Pic 3) Original outdoor signage in place, probably 1991 or 92, pic from the Rocket.
Pic 4) Front of the building, April 2018.
Pic 5) That’s the entire stage. All of it. Yup. That’s all. Pure power is concentrated! July 2018, before a FlannelFest show.
Pic 6) Soundgarden plays, probably Sept 5, 1991. Note the chicken wire wrapped around the sprinkler pipe in the upper right hand of the photo - this was due entirely to an earlier incident (probably the October, 1987 show) where Mr. Chris ‘OSHA’s worst nightmare’ Cornell managed to tear down the piping by swinging on it. Photo credit to Charles Pederson.
Pic 7) Pearl Jam’s (then Mookie Blaylock) first show, Oct 22, 1990. Photo credit (and our unending gratitude) to Karen Mason-Blair.
Pic 8) Sometimes you just don’t know who might show up. The bassist in this pic, from April 2016, is a guy called Hiro… Yup, Hiro Yamamoto, helping out in the band of the son of one of his friends from Stereo Donkey. Nobody knew he was going to be there, it was an electrified moment! These kind of things happen in Seattle.
Pic 9) Shenannigans go on with Hell’s Belles, September 2019. I’m squatting directly to the left of the sound rack seen in the pic above with Soundgarden to get this shot. Like I said, tiny place.
When I heard the place was in danger of demolition, I admit I MAY have decided to preserve a little bit of it. Picture 10. I’m not confessing to anything here but this MAY be the pull from the ladies’ room stall, second from the end. It fell off into my pocket. What can I say?
The current situation has everything on hold, the Off Ramp/El Corazon may come back, and we hope it does. So much history, so many memories.
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