A new West Seattle based arts coalition called The West held an exclusive, invitation only event at the West Seattle Eagles club on Saturday Feb. 18 to get their new organization a memorable birth.

Formed by a variety of West Seattle businesspeople and organizers The West aims to be the prime mover behind art events of all kinds, and all sizes. Among the organizers and members of the core group are Oliver Little of The Workshop (the people who handle Summerfest every year), Lora Swift of Hotwire Coffeehouse and Swift Media Services, Brent Amacher of State Farm Insurance and his band Brent Amaker and the Rodeo, Jeff Gilbert of Feedback Lounge, Cary Kemp of Pizzeria 22, Ben Jenkins of Shadowland, Matt Vaughn of Easy Street Records Jessie Summa-Kusiak of the Skylark Cafe and others.

Little said, "What we're hoping to do is eventually be able to do bigger shows, the size of something like West Seattle Summerfest. Ultimately what we want to do is just be able to have enough money to be able to present art and help other people present art. Maybe we can bring in the music or cover other aspects of their events so it's easier on them. They can focus on messaging or what their missions are. It's easy for us to do pieces of this as a group because we all pitch it to make it happen, whereas a small community group might not be able to afford that. What I bring to the table is the event organization. Since I've been doing Summerfest a lot of us have been talking about this. Wouldn't it be great if we could do bigger more kick-ass events?"

They are planning their next event, currently set for the night before April Fools Day (Saturday March, 31). That event will be more about art and "less about live rock music," Little said, " but for tonight we wanted to get out of the gate strong and I think this is going to blow some people's minds."

The West is essentially a non-profit organization though the formal paperwork has not yet been completed.

The Saturday event featured a hosted bar, bound to get people in a good mood, and three bands, kept secret until people actually entered the room. They were Jordan Cook, a Canadian musician with his band Reignwolf who played an powerful set of blues infused rock, climbing on top of speakers and starting out as a one man band, hammering a bass drum with a foot pedal and delivering searing guitar riffs and vocals that reminded some in the crowd of Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame.

Up next was a band called My Goodness that was actually headlining later at The Tractor Tavern in Ballard but played at The West party first. The two member band, Joel Schneider-Guitar,Vocals and Ethan Jacobsen-Drums played progressive, and high powered rock that energized the crowd.

Last on the bill was Brent Amaker and The Rodeo (led by Brent Amacher, note the spelling difference in his name) who played a hip blend of western infused rock and country music with their own unique twist.

Organizer and founder Lora Swift (Hotwire Coffeehouse) said, "We've been talking about the fact that there's a lot of cool people in West Seattle that individually do really cool stuff. What could we do if we all got together? This is what happens when we decided to put a bunch of cool people together. We're starting out with a big splash. We invited people to this first event who we thought were the movers and shakers in West Seattle. Who knows what we're capable of? We're The West."

Even King County Executive Dow Constantine showed up for the party and had a great time. "I think this is great and efforts like this that support the arts can really make a difference in helping local businesses," he said.

You can join The West on Facebook here.