ATHENS CAFE 1982-83

Athens Cafe
2200 2nd Ave

"The Athens, on the corner of 2nd Avenue and Blanchard Street, is the most recent addition to the rock scene. A lighted sign outside the club boasts of the food ('Fantastic Greek Cuisine') and soft pedals the music ('Live Music'). Inside, Wednesday through Sunday nights, the reverse is true. The club books new wave, or what promoter Steve Pritchard likes to call 'creative, danceable new music,' which must be frustrating to patrons since the dance floor is so small. ... The interior of the Athens looks like an overly decorated school lunch room, with cheap tables, and colored paper streamers dangling from the ceiling next to plastic pineapple-shaped lamp coverings. For a new room, the club already has a good following. Some punks, new wavers, and members of the tweedy-looking intelligentsia of rock frequent the club." - Regina Hackett, Seattle P.I., January 31, 1982

The Athens officially opened January 2, 1982 (although I did find a November 1981 show listing).  Promoter Steve Pritchard left WREX and started booking late-night shows at this restaurant, which was located at 2nd & Blanchard.

1981

November 1981

29 - Robert DeLong & The Pushbuttons

1982

January 1982

2 - Blackouts, Pronoia

5 - Tuxedomoon, Pronoia

8 - Student Nurse, The Deans

9 - The Rats, Fastbacks

15 - Visible Targets, Red Dress

16 - Visible Targets, Moving Parts

21 - New Flamingos

22 - 3 Swimmers, e

23 - Blackouts, Napalm Beach 

28 - The Enemy

29 - The Enemy, Dynette Set

30 - X-15, The Rats 

February 1982

3 - The Features

4 - Napalm Beach, Larch

5 - Napalm Beach, Robyrt DeLong & The Pushbuttons

6 - Red Dress, Little Bears From Bangkok

9 - The Enemy, The Cowboys, Fly

10 - The Minkler Brothers

11 - No Cheese Please

12-13 - Robyrt DeLong & The Pushbuttons, Beat Pagodas

17 - Dementia Praecox

18 - The Deans, Queen Annes

19 - New Flamingos, Moving Parts (Seattle Times lists Child playing the 19-27)

20 - Sleeping Movement, Colored Twigs, The Huns

24 - Instant Karma 

26 - Child

(Athens ad in Seattle Times lists Child as playing from Feb 19-20 and Feb 23-27.)

March 1982

2-4 - Section 8

5-6 - The Enemy, Section 8

9-11 - The Denny Regrade

12-13 - Minkler Brothers

16-18 - Crosstown Rivals

18-19 - Brando Bogart, The Features

20 - Moving Parts, The Features

23 - “Following repeated complaints from area residents about noise, the Athens restaurant is phasing out rock & roll, according to owner Nick Athan. Last February, promoter Steve Pritchard quit booking the room because he ‘didn’t want to go to jail for rock & roll.’ . [Athan said] ‘Starting next month I’m going to have musicians that don’t make noise. They’ll be comedy musicians. No new wave or punk rockers.” - Seattle P.I.

25- Beat Pagodas

26 - Beat Pagodas, Red Mask

27 - Robyrt DeLong & The Pushbuttons, Section 8

28 - Robyrt DeLong & The Pushbuttons

On April 2, sportscaster Wayne Cody opened his Komedy Store at the Athens, featuring several comics and a dixieland band. The comedy format stayed until August 1982, when the club resumed hosting live music shows.

August 1982

20-21 - Young Executives, Next Exit, Life In General

December 1982

10-12 - From Seattle Times: “Reopens this weekend with rock by the Kinetics and Section 8”

15 - Grand Opening w. Shyanne

16 - Big Fun

17-18 - The Original Kingsmen

25-26 - The Want

31 - Scott Roseburg Band, Ronnie Lee & The Zippers

1983

January 1983

7-8 - Big Fun, Harvard Surf Club

14-15 - The Convertibles

19-23 - Baby Knockors, Beat Pagodas

28-29 - Shyanne

February 1983 

2 - Big Fun (live broadcast on KYYX)

3-5 - Strypes

9 - Student Nurse

10 - Wet Picnic

11-12 - Young Executives

16-19 - Big Fun

24-26 - Those Guys

March 1983

4 - The Shreds

5 - The Snap

In April of 1983, the Athens was renamed Acropolis and hosted live Greek music in addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

In September of 1983, it became Nick’s Restaurant, which hosted live blues music as well as burlesque and bellydancing.

In December of 1983 it was renamed once again, this time to Zorba’s Room, “featuring the best of New York’s musicians, such as Famous, Mikros Tsiganos Dimitriu, and Gregory Geordiadis with Buzuki.” The ‘famous belly dancing’ stayed on, but it was all over by 1984. 

According to the “Vanishing Seattle” Facebook page, “In 1985 a permit was filed by a company called Uniview for a ‘live adult entertainment’ center w/video booths, which was opposed by Denny Regrade Association & the nuns at St. Paul Catholic Book & Film Center down the block, who wanted ‘porno houses’ to stay on 1st Ave. The building stayed empty until The Crocodile Cafe opened on April 30, 1991 w/Love Battery & The Posies.”