How about the live music scene? Is a lot of that stuff downtown?
There are some venues downtown - Showbox @ the market, showbox @ sodo, triple door. I personally think the best place to catch local acts is Nuemos in Capitol hill. There are great hole in the wall type venues all over the various neighborhoods - I like the Coner Byrne in Ballard. Again, cant' stress enough to try to get out of downtown and enjoy the neighborhoods, you'll actually get some real culture that way.