#The Comet Tavern in Seattle

[morbidology]

Born on August 25, 1965, in Louisville, Kentucky, Mia Zapata grew up in a family that nurtured her artistic inclinations. From a young age, she displayed a deep passion for music, influenced by artists such as Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith. Zapata learned to play the guitar and piano and by her teenage years, she was already honing her vocal talents.

In 1984, Zapata moved to Ohio to attend Antioch College, where she studied liberal arts. It was here that she co-founded the punk band The Gits in 1986. The band, which was known for its raw energy and Zapata's soulful, powerful voice, quickly gained a following.

In 1989, Zapata and her bandmates relocated to Seattle, a city that was emerging as a hotbed for alternative music, soon to be internationally recognised as the birthplace of grunge. The Gits became a fixture in the Seattle music scene, earning respect for their intense live performances and Zapata's emotionally charged lyrics.

Seattle, during this time, was teeming with creativity, with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam redefining the sound of rock music. The Gits, though not as commercially successful, were deeply respected by their peers and had a dedicated following.

On the night of July 7, 1993, Mia Zapata left the Comet Tavern, a popular hangout in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, after spending the evening with friends. She never made it home. Her body was discovered early the next morning in the Central District of Seattle. She had been brutally beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled to death.

The news of Zapata’s murder sent shockwaves through the Seattle community and beyond. In the wake of her death, local musicians and community members came together to form Home Alive, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing self-defense classes and raising awareness about violence against women.

For nearly a decade, Mia Zapata’s murder remained unsolved. The Seattle Police Department, despite extensive investigations, was unable to identify a suspect.

But then in 2001, a routine search through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System yielded a match between DNA found on Zapata’s body and that of Jesus Mezquia, a Florida fisherman with a criminal record. Mezquia was arrested in 2002 and extradited to Seattle to stand trial for Zapata’s murder.

In 2004, Jesus Mezquia was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 36 years in prison.

[eopederson2]

Comet Tavern, Capitol Hill, Seattle, 2015.

An institution of sorts. Is it still operating?

[amelialovesyou]

Yeah but that's where WIlliam met Kathleen and she's Elvis Presely and Priscilla Presley's daughter. Any bar should have an investment in that. That's also where the local Seattle Janis Joplin Mia Zapata, the lead singer of the punk band The Gits, used to play shows, and Mia Zapata is Amelia's namesake. Mia Zapata was brutally raped and murdered by her ex-boyfriend and Kathleen became known coloquially between locals as the Queen Of Ski Ball and they have or used to have a ski ball table at the Comet Tavern.

[dizzy-on-the-come-down]

Loved this place

Comet Tavern

Capitol Hill

Seattle, WA

[emeraldcityadventures]

Comet Tavern

[tomatotomorrow]

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Mia Zapata(27 Club) who Died: July 7, 1993 in Seattle, Washington

Mia Katherine Zapata (August 25, 1965 – July 7, 1993) was an American musician who was the lead singer for the Seattle punk band The Gits. After gaining praise in the nascent grunge scene, Zapata was murdered in 1993 while on her way home from a music venue, at age 27. The crime went unsolved for a decade before her killer, Jesus Mezquia, was tried, convicted and sentenced to 36 years in prison.

Mia Zapata was raised in Louisville, Kentucky and attended high school at Presentation Academy. Zapata learned how to play the guitar and the piano by age nine, and was influenced by punk rock as well as jazz, blues, and R&B singers such as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Hank Williams, and Sam Cooke.

In 1984, Zapata enrolled at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio as a liberal arts student. In September 1986, she and three friends formed the punk rock band The Gits. In 1989, the band relocated to Seattle, Washington. Zapata found a job at a local bar and the four band members moved into an abandoned house they called "The Rathouse." The band released a series of well-received singles on local independent record labels from 1990 to 1991. As the Gits were making a name for themselves in the local music scene, they often played shows with their friends' band, 7 Year Bitch. In 1992, the band released its debut album Frenching the Bully. Their reputation progressively increased within the grunge scene in Seattle, before the band began work on their second and final album Enter: The Conquering Chicken, released in 1993.

Zapata came from an affluent family but often lived without material comforts. As her father described it: "Mia lived in two different worlds. She lived on two different sides of the street—the straight side on one, with parochial schools, an affluent family, and tennis clubs. But when she crossed the street, material things didn't mean anything to her." Zapata's music often led to a rejection of financial comfort, but regardless of status, Valerie Agnew describes Mia as "commanding respect and interest immediately".

Zapata was well connected to her community. Peter Sheehy recalls: "Mia was the hub of several social circles; a magnetic personality who drew all sorts of people together who otherwise might never have met." On his way to her funeral, Zapata's father became lost and recalls many people carrying yellow roses: the admission ticket to her service. Judge Sharon Armstrong, the judge during her killer's trial, highlighted Zapata as an "extraordinarily vibrant" girl, who was "obviously talented"; she was "struck by how closely Zapata had connected to so many people"

The Gits, who included guitarist Andrew "Joe Spleen" Kessler, drummer Steve Moriarty, and bassist Matt Dresdner, met in Ohio in 1986. A few years later, the band decided to move to Seattle to engage in city's burgeoning music scene. Within no time the Gits had developed a following amidst the local underground punk scene. Although the group was 75% men, the band as a whole and Zapata in particular became popular amongst the feminist community of Seattle at the time.

In 1990, after the move to Seattle, the Gits went on a successful international tour without the support of a record label. In 1992, their first independent album, Frenching the Bully, was released. The album had hits such as "Another Shot of Whiskey", "Second Skin", and "Here's to Your Fuck", receiving positive reviews. Throughout the recording of the second album, the band had planned a large U.S. and European tour as well as many local shows, all the while being courted by various labels. Unfortunately, before the band could finish and release their second album, Enter: The Conquering Chicken, Zapata was murdered. The band did continue making music, and found success in their second album with singles such as "Seaweed" and "Precious Blood".

Around 2 a.m. on July 7, 1993, Zapata left the Comet Tavern in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. She stayed at a studio space in the basement of an apartment building located a block away, and briefly visited a friend who lived on the second floor. This was the last time Zapata was seen alive. She may have walked a few blocks west, or north to a friend's apartment, or may have decided to take the long walk south to her home.

Zapata's body was discovered near the intersection of 24th Avenue South and South Washington Street at around 3:30 a.m, located in Seattle's Central District. She had been beaten, raped, and strangled. It is believed she encountered her attacker shortly after 2:15 a.m. Her body was not initially identified as she had no identification on her when she was found. An episode of the cable television show Forensic Files revealed that she was identified after the medical examiner, who was a fan of the Gits and had been to their concerts, recognized her. According to the medical examiner, if she had not been strangled, she would have died from the internal injuries suffered from the beating. According to court documents, an autopsy found evidence of a struggle in which Zapata suffered blunt impact to her abdomen and a lacerated liver.

Zapata is interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Louisville. The Seattle music community, including its most famous bands – Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden – helped raise $70,000 to hire a private investigator for three years. The funds dried up without any major breaks in the case, but the investigator, Leigh Hearon, continued to investigate on her own time. In 1998, after five years of investigation, Seattle police detective Dale Tallman said: "We're no closer to solving the case than we were right after the murder."

In 2003, Florida fisherman Jesus Mezquia, who had come from Cuba in 1980 in the Mariel boatlift, was arrested and charged in connection with Zapata's murder based on DNA evidence. A DNA profile was extracted from saliva found on Zapata's body and kept in cold storage until the STR technology was developed for full extraction. An original entry in 2001 failed to generate a positive result, but Mezquia's DNA entered the national CODIS database after he was arrested in Florida for burglary and domestic abuse in 2002. Mezquia had a history of violence toward women including domestic abuse, burglary, assault, and battery. All of his ex-girlfriends, and his wife, had filed reports against him. There was also a report of indecent exposure on file against him in Seattle within two weeks of Zapata's murder. However, there was no known prior link between Mezquia and Zapata.

Mezquia never testified in his own defense, and still maintains his innocence. The theory is that he saw Zapata leave the bar and followed her a short distance before he attacked. Her headset covered her ears so she would have been unaware of any danger until he grabbed her and dragged her to his car, where he assaulted her in the back seat. Mezquia was convicted in 2004 and initially sentenced to 37 years, which he appealed. He was then sentenced to 36 years.

[tasteofgasoline]

Jason Finn (Love Battery, The Presidents of the United States) takes up residence at the Comet Tavern 

Seattle

1990

[7yr-bitch]

7 Year Bitch reunion

[undergroundrockpress]

Advertising for the Comet Tavern (Seattle) in 1970.

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 551: Helms Alee Night Terror

For as large as this album loomed in my life, I should have some memory of the first time I heard Night Terror. But by the time the 2008 debut album by the Seattle trio came out, a lot of these songs already felt familiar. Three of the tracks were on the band’s small-run debut EP. And then there was the whole thing with Helms Alee being a hardworking local band. They played around Seattle a lot, and I grabbed every show I could. Their first show was with These Arms Are Snakes at a tiny burlesque bar in Pike Place Market, and I remember thinking it was like watching a band that had already been playing shows for a couple of years. There were no growing pains, no tough formative years. They just sorta materialized and ruled right off the bat. 

When Night Terror came out a year later, it didn’t feel so much like some gift of new music as much as it felt like a document of that era of Seattle, like sorting through snapshots of the last 12 months. And in some ways, that made me love the album all that much more. These were our friends, and they’d made this thing that was beautiful and powerful and felt deeply rooted in the sonic history of the Northwest. It was impossible to be objective about it---I just immediately loved Night Terror because it felt like a perfect document of my little world. But I listened to this album a lot on the first few Russian Circles tours, and my bandmates’ ears would perk up every time I threw it on the van stereo. It quickly became apparent that Helms Alee wasn’t just a phenomenal friend’s band, they resonated with people that had no affiliation with the group. We took them out on a few West Coast dates and established a precedence where we’d take them out on tour for nearly every album cycle.

Every album of theirs holds a certain kind of magic, but Night Terror is one of those records that immediately transports me back to 2008. The heavy moments remind me of the sheer girth of their sound at those early shows around town at dives like the Comet Tavern... feeling the volume and force coming off stage while we all huddled in closer with our tallboys of Rainier. The sublime moments, like those during “Betwixt” or the latter halves of “New Roll” and “Shhmna” remind me of long drives on my first RC tours, where the melodies just seemed to help us glide along the freeway, tethering me to home in some spiritual way while helping carry us to our next destination. Then there were the big triumphant rockers like “Paraphrase” that somehow sounded like an evolution in the Seattle sound---heavy and forlorn but not without some hint of hope---while also feeling completely of-the-moment, like some minor Zeitgeist for the older Seattle punks who still wanted to hear loud guitars in a decade where the city’s underground was continually pushing towards indie pop and DJ-fueled dance parties.

Helms Alee have always been one of those no-frills bands. There’s no gimmick. No shtick. No overall aesthetic. No scene affiliations. They don’t fit in anywhere. And I’ve always felt that one of the most fascinating and unorthodox aspects of their band is how they balance both feminine and masculine energy. There’s an inviting grace and brute force to their songs, which undoubtedly pushed them even further away from being pigeonholed. They’re just a great band who excel at every angle of their multifaceted sound. And that makes their music timeless in its appeal. But Night Terror will always be a special one for me because it reminds me of a year that felt full of new horizons.

[berlynn-wohl]

Mural on the south wall of the Comet Tavern, Capitol Hill, Seattle: May 2020, June 2020, and July 2020

[againstthegrainphoto]

#onthisdayinagainstthegrainhistory 4/20/08 Rough Chukar @ The Comet #roughchukar #thecomet #seattle #band #concertphotography #tour #thecomettavern #concert #music #againstthegrainphotography (at The Comet Tavern) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_OEoEjJ_2A/?igshid=9g94gmhoe6hg

[brown-eyed-vagabond]

Comet Tavern — Capitol Hill, Seattle

[calendarofanxiety]

July 7, 1993 ZAPATA Mia Katherine Zapata was the lead singer for the Seattle punk band The Gits. On July 7, 1993 she left The Comet Tavern in The Capitol Hill area of Seattle. She stayed at a studio space in the basement of an apartment building located a block away and briefly visited a friend who lived on the 2-nd floor. This was the last time she was seen alive. She was beaten, strangled and raped in The Central District of Seattle. Her body wasn't initially identified as she had no identification when she was found but an episode of the cable television show "Forensic Files" revealed that she was identified after the medical examiner who was a fan of the Gits and had been to their concerts recognized her. According to the medical examiner if she hadn't been strangled she would have died from the internal injuries suffered from the beating. According to court documents an autopsy found evidence of a struggle in which Zapata suffered blunt impact to her abdomen and a lacerated liver. The crime went unsolved for a decade before her killer Jesus Mezquia was tried, convicted and sentenced to 37 years in prison.

[nwbeerguide]

Silver City Brewing and MXPX set to release "MXPX Secret Weapon Left Coast Common"

Press Release

To stay up-to-date on the latest info, including photos and release events, please visit http://bit.ly/2oTLETT BREMERTON-BREWED PUNK RAWK 

Celebrating 25 years of loud, fast, left-coast punk rawk, MXPX and Silver City Brewery, both from Bremerton, Washington, have joined forces to commemorate the band's anniversary milestone with an exclusive, signature beer. Named after the band's 2007 hit, "Secret Weapon", the brew is a delicious amber lager brewed in the "left-coast common" style. 

A super easy-going beer with a full-flavored malt backbone and a clean hop kick on the finish, the recipe is a true collaborative effort between the Silver City brew team and band members Mike, Tom, and Yuri, who were heavily involved in its development, adding their own personal tastes and flavor preferences.

image courtesy Silver City Brewing Company & MXPX

"In our earliest meetings, before we had even settled on a style, we determined two goals," notes brewery PR rep Dan Frantz, "First, the beer had to be a thirst quencher-- hot and sweaty punk rock shows demand a cold and crisp beer with a reasonably light body. Second, the beer still had to be full-flavored. The MXPX band members are true craft beer fans, and tend to enjoy beers that have a solid malt presence, so we incorporated a special blend of seven malts along with some traditional German hops for a crisp finish."

The beer will be distributed throughout Washington State and Northern Idaho, as well as nationally available through an exclusive partnership with Seattle-based Tavour, market leaders in direct-to-door craft beer delivery.

Official release events for the beer will be held at Silver City Brewery's Taproom on May 4th and Seattle's Comet Tavern on May 5th, 6pm-8pm. Both events will feature the band members as "guest bartenders", and will be fun-filled evenings with the chance for fans to meet and greet the band.  These particular events will be beer-release events only (no live performances), as the band is busy gearing up for their official 25th Anniversary concerts to take place July 7th and 8th at the Showbox Market venue in Seattle. "Secret Weapon" beer will be available in 16oz cans at both shows.

image courtesy MXPX and Silver City Brewing Company

MXPX Secret Weapon Left Coast Common

Hops: Hersbrucker, Saaz Malts: NW Pale, Munich, Vienna, Flaked Barley, Caramel Malt, Chocolate Malt, Carapils IBU's: 35 ABV: 5.7% Additional Info: For most in the Puget Sound, when you look west at the Olympic Mountains you're looking right at the "Silver City". The convergence point right before you jump off into the wilderness of the Olympic National Forest on your way to the Pacific Ocean, resting between the edge of the Puget Sound and the base of the Olympic Mountains, rests Silver City. This Urban-Suburban experience is a sweet brewer's mash of Seattle city life and breathtaking outdoor adventure, all within ones reach. Beer, well made, brings the people of the "Silver City" together in celebration of having it all.

Silver City Restaurant & Brewery is the Kitsap Peninsula's premier destination for award-winning, handcrafted beers, Northwest-inspired food, legendary hospitality, and great memories in a fun, friendly environment. 

Silver City was started in 1996 by Co-owners Steve & Scott Houmes, and it remains a locally owned and operated family establishment. Silver City Brewery's handcrafted beers are available on draft, in 22oz bottles, and 12oz bottle & aluminum can 6-packs around the Western Washington area in bars, restaurants, and grocery stores.

Silver City Brewery's production facility & brewery taproom is located at 206 Katy Penman Ave. in Bremerton, WA. Silver City Restaurant is located in Silverdale at 2799 NW Myhre Rd.

from The Northwest Beer Guide http://bit.ly/2oU0j1v