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In a small, private Belltown event space, members of Seattle band St. Paul de Vence begin tuning a trumpet and strumming a banjo. As the audience settles in on this winter evening, there’s electricity in the air—a sense that something exciting is afoot, and the people here are lucky witnesses. Everyone is on “the list,” an open-to-all email sign-up for Seattle Living Room Shows (seattlelivingroomshows.com), the live music series that takes place in small venues and private homes once or twice each month. Tickets are limited, and as soon as the show announcement is emailed, they sell out fast. It’s the brainchild of local siblings Carrie and Kristen Watt, who also run Seattle Secret Shows (seattlesecretshows.com), a similar email-invitation-only concept, for which the musicians aren’t announced until you arrive at the venue.

“Being music lovers ourselves, we saw a need for a listening-room environment,” says Carrie, who emphasizes that these shows are free of bar chatter. “We wanted to create a community of like-minded people to really enjoy music in its purest form.” The duo has been curating living-room shows since 2008, in places such as Caffe Vita’s private loft space, Crown Hill Center (a former elementary school) and The Trek (a retired ferry on Lake Union).

The secret shows began in 2013, and performers have included local favorites Allen Stone, Damien Jurado and Dave Bazan. But it’s the community feeling that keeps the Watts motivated, Kristen explains. “It brings us so much joy seeing how what we have created has made an impact on so many lives, ourselves included.”