By Macey Wurm
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
The kids can finally rock on, after School of Rock West Seattle‘s grand reopening this afternoon. The afternoon celebration included live music, free lessons, and free tours.
The school’s facility at 41st SW and SW Alaska was forced to close temporarily in late October due to water damage from a leak in the upstairs CVS store’s pipes. Half of the school was destroyed, resulting in a complete demolition and rebuild of the affected areas, according to owner Phil Gustavson.
School of Rock was one of six businesses in Jefferson Square reported being affected by the leak, all of which had to close to some degree.
But the school’s closure didn’t stop students from continuing their practice. Though the organization didn’t take on new students during the closure – and had to halt private lessons – previously existing bands transitioned to online lesson tools allowing them to continue to prepare for upcoming concerts. The back half of the Jefferson Square facility had minimal damage, so it was accessible to bands for in-person rehearsals.
Most recently, the bands have played at Jazz Bones in Tacoma, and have upcoming concerts planned on April 25 at the Clock-Out Lounge, and May 17 at the West Seattle 5K on Alki.
“Our school is all about performance.” Gustavson said. “It really gives the kids something fun to work with that’s engaging… We are building a community, we’re having fun, we’re playing together.”
This was apparent at the grand re-opening, the main event being the school’s house band opening up their rehearsal space to all attendees. The house band is the only audition-based program at the school, and primarily consists of kids who want to be ambassadors – playing extra concerts and bringing more people into the program. Gustavson told WSB that the day was a success, with the teachers brought in for free walk-in trial lessons completely booked. The school is “ready for students, and looking forward to getting back to serving the community,” he said.
Next door, Dream Dinners West Seattle suffered major flooding damage too, and was able to reopen last month, as reported here.