New Music Mecca Wows Seattle

The occasion was last weekend's grand opening of the Experience Music Project, a $240 million public showcase tracing the roots and branches of rock and roll. Even the city's notoriously changeable weather cooperated to make the three-day celebration an unqualified success.

The opening was feted by a weekend of ticketed and free concerts that brought together what may have been the broadest selection of modern musical artists since the original Monterey Pop Festival.

Thousands of people came to Seattle Center, EMP's home and the one-time site of the Seattle World's Fair, for free shows featuring Patti Smith, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men, Junior Cadillac, Pearl Django, the Murder City Devils, Maktub, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Taj Mahal, among others. In one moment of retro-rock history, Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding joined R-and-B legend Bo Diddley's band on stage for a rendition of "Oh Paula."

Ticketed concerts were held in three other venues on the site, with stars ranging from jazz musicians Larry Coryell, Bill Frisell, and Rickie Lee Jones to Metallica, Eminem, Dr. Dre, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Saturday night brought Beck, Alanis Morissette, the Eurythmics, Matchbox 20, and No Doubt to the Memorial Coliseum stage.

Inside, the public was given its first view behind the multi-hued steel and concrete curtain of the 140,000-square-foot palace -- an extravagant blend of historical artifacts, interactive sound, and music labs, and an educational theme-park style thrill ride called the Artist's Journey.

Morada Peterson, a summer employee directing the first-day crowds, described the experience as "better than Disneyland."

"I think Paul Allen is a great man for putting this thing together," she said, referring to the planned summer arts camp and educational programs, as well as the museum itself.

Central to making the museum experience comprehensible is the innovative Museum Exhibit Guide. The wearable computer device is as far advanced over the prerecorded cassettes available at many traditional museums as the Space Shuttle is to a '57 Chevy.