Jaunted

We headed upstairs stopping briefly for pictures in front of the massive guitar tower before walking through the Jimi Hendrix: An Evolution of Sound exhibition which will be at the museum for another two years. Here you learn about Jimi's childhood in Seattle (we did not know he was born here) and his road to fame. You can peek at the guitars he used throughout his life and read a few pages from his diary all the while listening to his songs overhead.

Nearby is a history of the guitar in the Guitar Gallery where you can check out Kurt Cobain's Fender Mustang that he used in the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" movie. Speaking of Kurt Cobain, wandering through the Northwest Passage will teach you everything you wanted to know about the Northwest music scene.

Warning: for anyone who came of age during the grunge scene, this will make you feel old. Seeing an L7 concert poster behind a wall of glass along with the movie poster for Singles nearly made us cry. We can't imagine how people who remember Jimi Hendrix must feel!

On the third floor of the EMP is a very cool Sound Lab where you can qet quick tutorials on instruments, record your own CD and even learn how to DJ. We tried to play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the guitar and failed. But fortunately, it's not like RockBand where if you don't get the chords right the game is over. It just sounds really bad, that's all.

The best thing about the EMP is that its very doable within a short amount of time since the museum is small and there's not a whole lot to check out. And if you master the guitar in the Sound Lab, then that $15 ticket was probably worth it.

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