The Modern Productions Revolution

By the late 1970s, Seattle’s nightclub scene was bogged down with shuffling country-rock combos and funky Motown-tribute bands, and little elbowroom was being made for the newest trends in music — the dawning of the Punk Rock/New Wave Era. But then, just at the turn of the decade, a new promotion firm, Modern Productions (run by Mike Vraney, Jim Lightfoot, Carlo Scandiuzzi, and Terry Morgan) discovered that the Show Box — then being used sporadically as the Talmud Torah Hebrew Academy Bingo Hall — was available to rent from its newest owner, Roger Forbes.

A new era in Seattle’s rock ‘n’ roll history began on September 8, 1979, when the moribund old venue was reawakened by Modern as a hall that would proceed to introduce local rock fans to the fresh “New Wave” of sounds emanating from England — beginning with a concert by Magazine, the very first British band of that era to come through town. That was just the start of a musical tsunami that soon hit these shores. Subsequently, many of the UK’s finest talents performed on the fabled stage of what was now marketed as the Showbox, among them the Police, XTC, Fingerprintz, the Specials, Ultravox, 999, the Jam, Squeeze, the Psychedelic Furs, PIL, Nina Hagen, and Dire Straits. And Modern Productions followed up with legendary shows by new Anerican acts including Iggy Pop, the Ramones, Devo, X, Pere Ubu, the Dead Kennedys — not to mention stalwart entertainers like Muddy Waters, James Brown, and Toots and the Maytals.

And as a result of being exposed to the new sounds and ideas presented by these seminal Punk Era acts the sleepy local scene was tremendously inspired and reenergized. Scores of new Northwest bands — including the Blackouts, the Enemy, the Look, the Macs Band, the Dishrags, Red Dress, the Debbies, Solger, the Wipers, the Fastbacks, the Cowboys, the Pudz, the Fartz, the Refuzers, and the Accident — got the wonderful opportunity to play for big crowds at the Showbox. Three of these lucky bands (the Blackouts, the Debbies, and Solger) even discovered free rehearsal space at the Showbox for a spell.