Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Is the Moore Theater Haunted?

Recently, at a show at Seattle's Moore Theater, the boyfriend and I were discussing whether the theater could actually be haunted, as it is often said to be. He thinks no. I think I'm not sure.

Here's what I've experienced. In 2004, I attended an Iron and Wine show with my good friend Mike. Our seats were general admission for the top balcony. We were running late, and by the time we arrived, Iron and Wine had just started their set. It was already dark in the theater, and the ushers were unwilling to help us find a seat in the mass of people. The rows at The Moore are steep, and the seats are packed in tightly. It's not the kind of place where you want to go wandering around in the dark. So, we decided to just stand along the wall at the front of the top balcony and watch the show from there.

The theater crescendos in a dome shape that is punctuated with several statues of women, almost Grecian looking. Midway through the show, one of the faces of the women began to look populated to me—that's the only way I can think to describe it. Then, after a few minutes, the face seemed less like that of a Grecian lady and more like a crusty sailor, with a beard and hardened features. It wasn't so much like the statue transformed as it gave off that impression. I elbowed Mike to ask him if he was seeing what I was seeing, without telling him what I was seeing, and he said, very deadpan, "Yes."

The "populated" statue just looked at us for the rest of the show. It wasn't frightening. In fact, I don't even remember having any particular emotion about it, except maybe curiosity. After the show, we compared notes, and it seemed like we had indeed had the same experience.

This could have been a shared hallucination based on the play of light, stress, you name it. We could have both imagined it. There are all sorts of ways to poke holes in our experience. And I'm not saying I stand behind it 100%. I'm just sharing what happened.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always thought it interesting that we both saw the same thing and experienced, basically, the same reaction to it. I think your saying that my response was "deadpan" is pretty accurate. I wasn't worked up or nervous about what I was seeing. I was mostly just curious.

Jessica Knapp said...

I do like to be accurate :)

Shai W. Thanatos said...

i can't be flippant about an event i had no part in, nor really have a reference for, but i think i would tend to go with the explanation that was explained in a way that took less stretching and more extraordinary means.

Jessica Knapp said...

Shai Hulud, I understand exactly what you mean. That's probably just how I'd feel as an outsider to something like this.

I don't know if anyone watched that Ghost Hunters clip, but one thing I always notice about technology used to hunt ghosts—I never understand the terminology. It's like they're just making up scientistic words. "The ecto-proton-grams were off the charts in that room." And then they talk about light beams. I never find shows like that convincing, or unconvincing for that matter. They're just too far out in left field.

Anonymous said...

I and a friend were hired to watch the equipment (already setup on stage) overnight before a large gig by a prominent Seattle rock band back in the 90's.

We brought sleeping bags, etc. for the stay, but never had a chance to sleep - constant foot steps, running, walking and shuffling - as well as a door (in the orchestra pit area) being opened/closed only to run quickly to the door and it being locked.

No other people in the Moore but us....believe what you want.