Virtual Sound

Land of Pines, Special Explosion, Peeping Tomboys and Iji at the Vera Project

2013-05-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

Land of Pines put on an EP release show on May 4 and I signed up to steer well ahead of time. I've seen Land of Pines a few times, opening for STRFKR/Champagne Champagne (a pretty epic show) and at the CHBP on the Vera Stage in 2011 and at Reverb Fest later in 2011 as well. They're always fun to watch and listen to, so I signed up as soon as I saw they were doing the show. I bused to the Vera - the weather was nice and hot so I got a little warm lugging the tripod and cameras and laptop and dinner and all, but it was really nice getting some sun and working on that vitamin D deficiency.

We got a good crew of volunteers and they made it easy to steer - all the critical front door posts were filled, and so was concessions and roaming security, so I just had to check in periodically. I was able to get the whole show on video and take lots of pictures. First up is Iji. Iji is a local Seattle (or nearby) band that I never quite caught. They play local shows, they toured with Megabog and I saw Megabog, but not with Iji. Must have been a different tour. Anyway, I was happy I finally did manage to catch Iji. Guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, with a woman on drums. I'm not sure I'd point that out normally, but we did get a shout out form one of the bands noting that we had many great women performers playing, more than you tend to see at most rock shows.
Iji has a nice guitar driven sound with good dynamics, I enjoy the way the guitar rhythms play against the drums in this one, their final song:
The song has a nice sense of movement and development, pulling us along with it's instrumentals during the break and circling back through the lyrics, with the upper end into the falsetto drifting over lightly, slightly questioning and detached, perhaps. Nice use of song structure and tone to set a mood.

Peeping Tomboys were up next. Funny name, tomboys culturally are "girls who act like boys" and peepers are usually boys or men, so the using that name for an all girl band definitely opens up some thoughts on sexuality and sexual identity. While looking through my pictures from this show, I noticed that I have photos from Peeping Tomboys playing with Silicon Girls too (Silicon Girls was all men, so the gender identity stuff which was never an explicit topic as far as I noticed was in play there too) but that's another story. They have the same power trio lineup with the guitarist doing most of the vocals, bass and drums. Good mid range guitar sound, nicely built rhythm carrying interesting songs along and supporting the vocals. The drummer does a good job filling some of the transitions and solos too, they never have a weak or anemic sound, it's always working in the context of the song.
This one uses a descending chord progression and some fun backbeats and rhythms to build into a fun song:

Special Explosion had the penultimate slot.
Lead, rhythm and bass guitar with drums and two vocalists. The guitarist/vocalists did most of the vocals, with the bass player also contributing on occasion.
On thos one they get an angular, jangly opening into a fairly rich, complex instrumental bit before the vocals come in a bt over 90 seconds in. I love the droning sound of the vocals and the transition from the vocals back out to the jangling guitars, and the building leads coming across the vocals around 2:45 to 3:00, then the structure changes and you get some repeated almost paused tempos, the rhythm is quite complicated. I enjoy the song structure and really like the leads and the sense of anticipation as he builds that delay into his licks. Nice stuff. The second song starts about 5:25 in and has dual vocals, also worth checking out.

There are several more tracks from each of the bands on my YouTube channel like this video of Special Explosion closing out their set, so if any of these pique your interest, by all means check out their other tunes on YouTube.

Next up was Land of Pines, the headliners.
They roll with 2 guitars, bass, keyboards, and drums. They have a great sound, mixing elements from the different band members as needed, making great use of dynamics. Songs have bits where fewer instruments are playing, then the song intensifies and more instruments join in, with nice rhythm guitar hooks and the rhythm section chugging along until the final climactic breakdown.
Nice song, nice sound. It's good to see Land of Pines headlining a good loud show with some interesting attitudes and themes on display, here's to hearing the new stuff on the radio and more chances to see all of the bands again. Special Explosions in particular look poised to headline their own shows, and Land of Pines should be increasing their draw with some radio airplay and perhaps getting some larger venue gigs. These bands are all working hard and putting on good tight shows - Seattle has an embarrassment of riches with so many solid bands at every level.

Ser Punto Cero, Memento Mori and Diztorzion Paranormal at Cheves and Beer - with Mariachi!

2013-04-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

My daughters know the guitarist in Ser Punta Cero (which I mangled into Ser.0, oops), so I booked them for a Veracity show and enjoyed getting to see them play. I friended the band members on Facebook and heard they were playing a Spring show locally put on by the Seattle Latin Collective. I've seen some great videos of SLC shows posted by Omar Taboada (they are worth checking out) which made me want to check one out for myself, so I had the perfect opportunity.
Seattle's Latin music scene doesn't get much attention in the press, which is unfortunate. From the videos I've seen there are plenty of talented local Latin bands, and local live talent is one of my favorite things.
The first band up was Diztorzion Paranormal out of Yakima. They had 2 guitarists and a drummer, slightly unusual instrument combination, the vocalist tended to play low end parts on his guitar so he was almost playing bass parts. Fast, slightly thrashy rough rock and roll, nice stuff. The drummer is very active on this song, filling the low end nicely:
I enjoy good rock music, even when I don't understand the language - the emotion still comes through, and the backbeat makes you move.
One of the bands had to cancel, so they had a Mariachi band fill in. One of our friends at the table (they mostly spoke the language, I was the only mono-lingual person at the table) told me they were going to have Mariachi Karaoke and asked me if I was going to go up and sing. That made me laugh, and if I had known just how amazing the actual Mariachi Karaoke performers were going to be, I'd have laughed even harder.

The band had a deep catalog of fast intricate music, with horns and violins/fiddles and guitars and lots of vocals. Several members shared vocals, then they had guest vocalists from the audience sing songs too. This was the Karaoke aspect. The singers from the audience were all impressive, with powerful voices and a good command of vibrato.
Wonderful stuff, and they played a good solid set of moving, powerful songs.
The karaoke wrapped up and Ser Punto Cera took the stage for the headlining set.
Ser Punto Cera has a classic power trio lineup and gets a good guitar oriented sound, a little more on the spacey/droney side in this example:
On this one they drive the drone more to an interesting edgy, agitated sound.
For a dive bar rock and roll experience, this one stands out a bit. Notice in the Ser Punto Cera videos they have each of the 3 "home locations" for the musicians covered with bright lights that they switch on and off. They have a fairly careful placement of lights to enhance the stage performance, and they also put some effort into the look and are developing a more consistent sound. Perhaps consistent isn't quite the right word, since they change the sound from song to song. They're developing their own sound, which has an interesting range.

Good loud rock music and Mariachi Karaoke - the Seattle Latin Collective delivered a fun Spring experience, with the music in Spanish and the beer in two languages to start the Spring music season off right.

The Men, Dude York, CCR Headcleaner and Big Eyes at the Vera Project

2013-04-24T18:38:00.001-07:00

After attending the pop conference at the EMP Saturday morning and afternoon I headed over to the Vera Project and set the tripod up for the show. I was there pretty early so I got to listen to the sound checks and hang around a while, then Big Eyes took the stage right on time at 8:30. Big Eyes has a power trio lineup with the guitarist also singing. Good guitar oriented sound, nicely active high end from the drummer and a good solid low end from the bass, nice guitar riffs driving the songs along, good vocal hook too on the first song here. I also enjoyed the solo about 2:20 in, a good contained solo, old school sort of stuff that stays within the song structure and adds nicely to the song - tasty. Fun set, and we were just getting started.

Next up was CCR Heacleaner. In a musical context, when I see CCR I think of Credence Clearwater Revival. I can't say the music sounded like it was inspired by that CCR or anything along those lines. They had 3 guitars, bass and drums. They play songs with unconventional structures, sections of slower tempo building and ebbing, multiple vocals on occasion, and fairly complex song structures. They were working out some different sounding approaches, definitely doing and creating their own thing.

Up next was Dude York. I hadn't heard them before, but the bass player was in Natalie Portman's Shaved Head/Brite Futures so I'd seen her quite a few times and was looking forward to seeing her new band.
Dude York had a power trio lineup as well. The first song on this video has pretty aggressive, driving beat and a more angular sound than Big Eyes, the earlier power trio. They cranked out some edgy tunes, more from the punk side of the spectrum perhaps - powerful fast songs, not too long. I was happy to hear old friends in new sounding bands I've been seeing Dude York getting booked quite bit locally, so it looks like they're doing pretty well which is even better.

The Men took the stage for their headlining set. The had 3 guitars, an acoustic and two electric, along with the bass and drums. The acoustic guitar player also played keyboards on occasion.

I like the way the meld the guitars together in this one. Nice beat and prominent guitar placement in the turnarounds, good vocals that are easy to pick out, nice song structure. Interesting music, fairly uptempo, I even enjoy the "la la la la-la la" bit towards the end of the song. Goof stuff!

The transition from song to song is also reasonably brisk, so they packed quite a bit of music into a moderate sized set. I didn't get to stay to the end of their set, since I had to catch the bus (which got stuck in traffic so I missed the transfer and got stuck downtown, but that's a different story). I enjoyed what I saw, and it was nice seeing Claire's new gig in Dude York and hearing 4 bands that are new to me that all are doing interesting things is always fun.

Defunked, Marina Beat and Junk Drawer at the Vera Project

2013-04-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

I signed up to steer the Defunked show at the Vera Project without knowing anything about the bands, pretty much par for the course for me. We had a small volunteer crew but we handled things well enough and Junk Drawer took to the stage to open things up. I enjoyed their set quite a bit. They had guitar, bass, keyboards, drum, and vocals, a nice sound and a good group vibe.

Here's a nice number they did: The lead singer said something like "if you don't like this song's genre, just hang on a minute and it'll change with the next song" which was amusing. I got a chance to talk to her a bit between acts and she told me the different interests of the members of the band drove that wide selection of genres - the punk bass player, classic rock guitarist, jazz keyboardist - I'm misquoting her to some degree, I ought to take notes since I know I'm going to be blogging about it. I also thought from her shout-out to Riverside and the headliners that her band was from Riverside, it was more along the lines of several members were from there sometime back, they're a local northwest band.

Next up was Marina Beat

Marina Beat has dual guitars (strats), bass and drums, and a nice fast upbeat rock sound:

They played several songs I liked, this one is "Hey Josephine"

Two talented bands already, and the headliners perform with a horn section - I love horn sections!
Defunked took the stage, and they filled it. The horn section with two saxophones and a trumpet along with 2 guitars (1 Strat style and 1 Les Paul style), bass and guitar. They play fast loud rock and roll with a punchy horn section and plenty of noise and pounding to make you want to bounce around and work up a sweat. Nice stuff with that kick-in-the-rear beat that makes you want to move in time with it. Fun rhythm changes, ska sounding guitars, it opens a bit more punk, moves more ska in the middle, then back to that punk fast thrashy beat.

I like the breakdown that leads into this one, and the different paces that rise up, giving it a back and forth feeling. It switches back out to that slower feeling beat, more tentative or pent up, then back to the main beat - and the second horn breakdown around 2:00 in is pretty killer. They also just nail the ending, fun song done extremely well. I like this stuff!

Fun show with three talented bands, I hope these bands are able to connect with the kind of solid fan base they deserve, the music they cranked out was fun and makes you want to bring others to hear it. At it's best, it demands to be danced to, and I just love a good funky band that plays fun music that irresistibly gets you moving.

Internet Memes: Brony

2013-04-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

My son turned me on to "My Little Ponies" and the Brony movement. The "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" cartoons are watched without irony and the music is listened to obsessively. In addition to the cartoons, there is a whole universe of media - similar to fan fiction, but with music and storyboards and the occasional animated bit. Ben listens to a wide variety of musicians doing an odd assortment of styles - with plenty of dubstep, for some reason.

While attending last month's Steering committee meeting at the Vera Project, Beth mentioned they had a Brony show coming up. I checked with Ben and signed us up for the show. Music about rainbow colored horses with tatooed buts and occasional wings or horns, couldn't be much odder than the wizard rock show we saw.

The show was put on by the Everfree Northwest folk. They run a yearly convention for My Little Pony fans and use this event to build some excitement and sell some convention tickets. I enjoy the brightly colored hair and horse ears.

The show kicked off with Tarby, who played guitar and sang with a saxophone player accompanying him.

Interesting sound, I managed to get a bit of video of the performance here:

Next up we had Maestro Scherzo playing something in the alto sax or oboe range, a reed instrument, anyway. Definitely getting plenty of reed instruments!

Speaking of plenty of reed instruments, the Cutie Marks and Donn Devore (I'm torn, the show schedule said Don DeVore, but a YouTube video said Donn DeVore) set had one too.

I enjoy the beat and the sound in this one:

The final act was DJ Everfree. He had some fun laser effects; I didn't video tape his set but I took some pictures.

The audience also put on a show with the wigs, t-shirts, and lots of pony ears sticking out on top of everybody's hair. It was somewhat odd and silly, but earnest and non-ironic, and actually quite fun and different. Just like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the Brony movement in general, kind of hard for an old fossil like me to process. My 15 year old who is bigger than me and needs to shave watches juvenile cartoons and appreciates their message, and then he listens to Brony music. Rainbow colored cartoons. With ponies and unicorns and some have wings and many have magic. Then lots of 8 bit music and dubstep and pop and disco all about ponies. The Vera show didn't cover all of those genres, but it gave us some fun music and songs about ponies and friendship and magic. Totally new genre for me, which is all good as far as I'm concerned.

Live Music at the Lake Trail Tap Room

2013-04-01T09:08:00.001-07:00

I've wandered past the Lake Trail Tap Room several times in the last year, even went in to the yard and checked it out a little, but I only stuck my head into the bar and didn't order anything. I knew they had live music - I ended up Facebook friending Jeremy Serwer, a local singer/guitarist I saw at the Musiquarium Lounge last year, and later he mentioned playing there.

I just thought he played outdoors in the yard. This week I figured out that I was wrong. The weather was nice and Heather wanted to get out of the house, so we took a walk down to the Burke-Gilman trail. We usually go West, towards Lake Washington, but this time we went East a little to the Lake Trail Tap Room and walked in and checked it out more thoroughly. We ordered a nice local microbrew while we were at it. It looked like they were serving tasty pulled pork sandwiches too, but I stuck with the beer.

While we got a table in the small tap room and sipped the beer, a few people came out of a door on the opposite - interior - side of the tap room. I realized that there was a further public space, and the familiar Pink Floyd music I was hearing was being played live. Heather and I picked up the beer and walked into the music area - I had no idea it even existed! It's still a little cool in early Spring, and we noticed a wood stove in the corner that was pumping out some heat and took seats near it. I hadn't come prepared to see live music, so I only got fairly lousy cell phone pictures.

I didn't catch who the performer was, but we had a nice discussion about Pink Floyd - it's the 40th anniversary of "Dark Side of the Moon" and that was a seminal album for me as an adolescent. It also had ridiculous staying power, never dropping off the charts well into my adulthood over a decade later. I mentioned seeing Floyd back in the old Kingdome on the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour and again on the Division Bell tour, he mentioned seeing Nick Mason getting interviewed, and we both silently acknowledged just how important that band was to us. He played Breath, The Dark Side of the Moon, and others, and it was quite pleasant listening to the theme songs of my adolescence and drinking a potent hoppy local microbrew with the wood burning stove warming up my backside.

I'll definitely have to catch some more shows there, and next time be prepared with cameras and take notes on who's playing and such. According to their web site the tap room has free live music every Friday and Saturday. I always figured it was less frequent, and I had no idea it was an indoor venue. I should see more shows now that I realize I'm a 5 minute walk from free show every Friday and Saturday night. Pretty cool. I recommend you check the Trailside Tap Room out, they allow dogs and kids in the yard and the performance area (not the bar), they have outdoor fire pits once it gets dark, good food and nice drinks, and they are right on the Burke-Gilman trail if you are a biking enthusiast.

Don't Talk to the Cops, Punishment and Everybody Weekend at Heartland

2013-03-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

Carina and I loved Don't Talk to the Cops the first time we saw them during Reverb Fest in 2011, so we kept an eye out for them. We got to see them again at Bumbershoot and Ground Zero and the Vera Project too, and every show was a hot dance filled energetic set.

We saw they were playing Heartland (a new venue to me) with some bands that were also new to me and decided to go. In the end Carina dropped out, so Heather and I went to the show.

Heartland is a mildly small space on Roosevelt in the U-District, just North of 53rd. The "stage" is the far end of the room from the entrance, it's not raised or anything. They have some lights up pointing at it, and a sound system too, which worked fine for the crowd of perhaps 40 or 50 that came to see the show.

First up was Everybody Weekend. We were a little late getting in, so we weren't too close to the performer.

Everybody Weekend did an intense set of short, emotional tunes. The intensity pulled me out of the dancing some, getting me into more of a spectator mode as I listened to the lyrics. EW wrote complex unexpected lyrics that reward attention. Interesting opening, nice fit for the venue and the evening.

Next up was Punishment.

Similar to Everybody Weekend in that he sang against pre-sequenced or recorded material, he also sang with some emotional intensity. The crowd enjoyed the beat, dancing and moving some, and his voice carried the song well in this video:

On occasion the performance was low-affect, including a bit where Punishment sang from behind the cloth backdrop, but he milked even those odd bits of "he's not there" performance for an additional odd impact. All in all I enjoyed the opening acts and was curious to hear more from both of them if I ever get the chance, and I was nicely warmed up for Don't Talk to the Cops.

Classic hot loud Don't Talk to the Cops, simple loud fun beats with Emecks and Djblesone dancing and singing and rapping and El Mizell rapping and hyping and dancing and the crowd dancing all over and sweating and yelling and having a good time.
Good stuff off their two albums, like this one off of "Let's Quit" They also introduced at least one joint about eighties butt they said would be on their upcoming third release. Kelly Lebrock! DTTTC got a dance circle going with a couple of BBoys for a song about BBoys, so that went well too. DTTTC shows are dance shows. Emecks and DJ Blesone always dance their butts off in some synchronized and choreographed moves, El Mizell works it hard, and the audience always ends up dancing all over to the fun beats and chanting repeating lyrics.

Good fun classic Don't Talk to the Cops show, automatic immediate cure for seasonal afflictive disorder: it may be gloomy out and you can't recall what sunlight really feels like, but you can't stop smiling as you leave the show, wiping the sweat off your brow and letting the rain wash the salt down your cheeks.

DTTTC always puts on a dance party every time they play, and you always leave dance partys happy,.

2013 Vera Gala

2013-02-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

The Vera Project held its annual fundraising gala and auction on Saturday, February 23 in 2013. I volunteered to help with the event this year, so I arrived early to setup, just before 1 on a surprisingly nice Seattle afternoon.
The Triple Door donates the venue, staff, and dinner for the guests. Between the Musicqarium Lounge and the Triple Door Main Stage, it's a wonderful venue and they are incredibly generous to donate so much to the Vera Project.

We held the silent auction as the guests arrived, with appetizers (the shrimp toast was great) and free drinks made with donated hard liquor from Oola. After closing the auction out and finishing the initial portion of the evening in the MusicQarium we encouraged the guest to move to the Main Stage auditorium. The Triple Door venue is dedicated to table seating with views of the show. The house lights are down and the stage lights are up in this photo so the tables are a little hard to see, but the whole auditorium is filled with scalloped tables like this with additional counter seating tucked in here and there. That's John Roderick taking the stage as our Master of Ceremonies. You can see some of the seat layout better in this photo: Roderick was great, riffing on the Vera Project and Seattle's variant on "learning it on the hard streets." When there wasn't a safe venue like the Vera Project around to help you channel your creative energies into useful activities, you went and hung out on the Ave in the U-District. I suppose that makes it the mean street of Seattle, singular. I grew up there before the Vera Project too.

The Grizzled Mighty performed on the Main Stage with a drummer and a guitarist/vocalist. Small group but they pumped out the volume and noise so it's all good. The Grizzled Mighty crank up the guitar and drums and make a great loud racket, grinding and crashing away. Fun loud music!
The auction went well and Andrienne Pilapil's speech about her Vera family was quite powerful and moving. I've known Andrienne for over a year - she took over as the Veracity chair after me - but I learned more about her from this talk than I had in a year of booking shows with her. She got very personal and shared details of her emotional life and the impact was palpable to the 400 guests, staff and volunteers in the venue.

We also got a surprise bit from the mayor as a bonus. Perhaps he was inspired by Roderick and Andrienne, he was mildly funny and interesting. Roderick was having some fun with smartphones while the mayor was talking so he probably got some amusing tweets out.

While the Main Stage events kept the crowd in the auditorium we broke down the silent auction remains, got the paperwork sorted and forwarded and put things in place for the After Party.

The Physics played the After Party back up in the MusicQuarium lounge. Fun hip hop with two lead vocals (and a guest on one cut) plus a couple backing vocalists and a guitar. This picture of their sound check shows most of them, except the guitarist is obscured: The guitarist is more visible in this one: The Physics have a great sound and flow, and the multiple vocalist and live guitar in the mix keep the songs moving and evolving. The sound is mildly lousy since my camera ended up just about in the speaker, but you can get an idea what it was like. The live sound was actually quite good, the problem is with my camera's ability to record it.
I enjoyed the Physics, dancing and bouncing a bit to their numbers as the night wound down.
My feet were pretty sore from going up and down the stairs repeatedly, not to mention standing for 11 hours, but it felt nice to be part of a successful team putting on a great event. Anne O'Dowd and Kristina Goetz and Tristan Carasino and Andrienne Pilapil and the whole Vera crew and John Roderick and the bands and the Triple Door staff put on a killer event. There were many generous sponsors and the guests were more than generous, enthusiastically bidding the Macklemore Thrift Shop shopping trip to around $7,000 and donating generously to help a cause that means a lot to me and many youth around the greater Seattle area and beyond. I'm thankful that so many people support the Vera Project so enthusiastically, and that we can have so much fun building on our successes and funding another great year at the Vera Project.

Damien Jurado and Naomi Wachira at a Seattle Living Room Show

2013-01-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

I went to my first "Seattle Living Room Shows" event to see Damien Jurado and Naomi Wachira. Damien Jurado has been a local fixture for a while, but somehow I had never managed to see him until last Summer at Bumbershoot, where he totally blew me away. He writes powerful, often bleak songs that just totally hit home with me, and I was looking forward to seeing him in a more intimate setting.

The process of seeing the show is a little secretive - you sign up electronically, then a bit later they give you the details. We got there within a few minutes of the doors opening and already more than half the seats had been claimed, but we got reasonable seats together. That was kind of important because Heather was on crutches, so there's one tip: come quite early if you want to get seats at a Seattle Living Room Show!

It wasn't actually in someone's house, it was in a space near the Seahawk's stadium that I think is a gallery, but it was the intimate setting I was hoping for.

The crowd is seated in front of and to the right of the performers, with around 40 seats, and another 30 or 40 watch while standing behind the seats. The technical crew (audio and video, more on the video later) took the left side space. A small table was laid out with free snacks, bread with a spinach spread and chips, salsa, and multilayer dip (beans, cheese, sour cream, onions, a few peppers) to munch on, and a paid bar with beer, wine and hard liquor.

They had a single bathroom which also made it feel like a house show - standing in line to get into the bathroom took a few minutes.

The show was a benefit for the Melodic Caring Project, and they streamed it live to several hospitalized kids and teens.

Both Naomi Wachira and Damien Jurado have kids, and you could tell they took the charity to heart. They spoke to the kids during the show, and they both got choked up doing it. Having your own kids, the thought of kids being deathly ill hits too close to home for comfort. That's OK, the world is full of things that are not comforting, and too often our culture stays in denial on the subject. It's important to acknowledge how tough things are for some, even if it makes me cry in sympathy.

Naomi Wachira took the stage first, she's bee n in Seattle for some time and is originally from Kenya. She told us that she was going back home in the next couple days and would get to see her child, who is being raised by her grandparents. It was interesting how personal the stage chatter was, I think that was the influence of the charity and knowing that kids in an extremely tough situation were watching.

Some of her songs were personal, about lessons learned, songs of strength and self determination like this one:

She had some tasty backing vocals on this and some of the songs, the backing vocals were from another band, but I promptly forgot the name of the band. Sorry about that, I'll edit this and add the name back in if I ever track it down.

Simple, heartfelt, fairly stripped down with guitar and vocal and tasty backing vocals, very nice for the intimate setting.

She finished up with "African Girl" which is also the title track on the CD they had on the merch table. A beautiful song that looks back on her roots and her life, a song of faith and identity. I like how it frames things and lays out what matters to her. Lovely voice, complex lyrics that avoid the endless repetition so common in most modern music, definitely packed full of more ideas in one song than most bands manage to get in a full album. Great match for Damien Jurado, who has similarly dense and meaningful, if challenging, songs.

Damien Jurado took the stage for his headline set next. Jurado is an interesting performer; when I saw him at Bumbershoot he really didn't have much in the way of patter. He often looked down while singing and playing, or looked straight out, above the heads of the audience. He doesn't get much if any eye contact - I can't tell off hand if he doesn't like it, or just isn't concerned, but either way it makes for a slightly introverted yet powerful experience.

As Damien sat down he laid out various sheets of paper on a seat near him and mostly looked at them while playing.

After his first song he said "I'm not going to do these songs, I'm tired of them" and he shuffled through and skipped down the stack to some new songs. He told us he was working on a new album, and that he was going to do new songs. As a result I didn't recognize most of the set, but that's OK since the songs were consistently excellent
I noticed that Damien also was talking a bit between songs, which was a new experience for me. He mentioned his two kids, and told us the story of how "Museum Of Flight" came to be. It was a very personal story involving his adolescent child, and once he told us the story he said "I never explain my songs, so now you're the only group who knows where it came from" or something like that. I think the fact that he had an audience of terribly sick children watching streaming video of the performance was what pushed him into opening up. The audience is there to hear his songs, but those kids deserved more communication from him, somehow, and I really respect that artistic choice.

He continued opening up in ways I suspect he never had before on stage. If you notice in the first picture of him above, his shoes are off. He mentioned that, saying something like "this is a living room show, so I'm getting comfortable like I would in my own living room." Then he paused, and said "Well, if it was my living room, I'd be in my long underwear, which I'm wearing under my pants." After that it didn't take much encouragement before he ended up - after saying "this is entirely age appropriate, I'm not stripping!" which he emphasized by repeating - then he took his pants off. As you can see in the intro to this song, he riffed on that and turned it into a wonderful moment of solidarity with the kids watching from their hospital rooms.

If you look closely, you can see that sure enough, he's playing in his long underwear.

Here's a picture so you can see it more clearly:

As he wound down his set and got to the final two numbers, he gave a sweet testimonial that made us all choke up and made me cry. I caught it on video here:
The other thing I notice about it: he never looks at directly at the audience as far as I can tell, but he insisted on tracking down which camera was operating and looked directly at it, directly at the kids in the hospital watching the show, and spoke to them, thanking them and expressing his love. Mortality hitting the young is one of the toughest things there is to process, and something we strenuously avoid talking about. I feel uniquely privileged to have been there for this, to have experienced the love and pain and emotion in a simple 40 minute set with Damien Jurado opening up on stage in a way I've never seen before, and I suspect in a way he never has before. Wonderful dedication, a compelling example of a show dedicated to those who weren't there, who were watching from their hospital beds.

As if that wasn't enough crying and snuffling, he topped that with his final song, "Cloudy Shoes."

The chorus breaks my heart and makes me cry, even now just listening to the video:
"One day you will be taller, taller than the sky,
Til that day, you will be, here with us, below.

Such a beautiful heart-breakingly appropriate song for this benefit show, and a perfect downbeat ending for a "depressive songwriter" (to use Damien's term) to end the show on.

Eternal Fair at the Anchor Pub

2013-01-19T21:21:00.000-08:00

I won free tickets to see Motopony, Hot Bodies In Motion and Eternal Fair at the Anchor Pub up in Everett. I'd been to the pub before a few years back, and I'd seen and enjoyed both Motopony and Hot Bodies in Motion too, so I was looking forward to it. Eternal Fair was new to me, and that's a bonus, I like seeing new (to me, anyway) bands.

The blurb for the show said it was at 8, but I was somewhat suspicious, frequently that means "doors open at 8, bands are at 9" but we hustled up to get there close to 8 anyway. If nothing else, we could stake out one of the tables up near the band so at least we'd have seats.

While I was right about the timing - at 8 they were just beginning to set things up -the area up near the band no longer had any tables or chairs, so there were only a few seats to be had, and each time we went to claim a seat somebody sitting near by would always say "We're reserving that seat for a friend who isn't here yet."

While I understand that, it's annoying not being able to sit down so that somebody else who may or may not even show up has seats and doesn't need to come early. So we stood around for an hour - and I was already a bit sore from sitting on a bench seat in a bar for many hours the night before. The result of all that was that I had to bail after seeing a little bit of the first band, so I ended up missing Motopony and Hot Bodies in Motion. Dang!

Anyway, I can't complain too much, it was free and sitting at a show isn't really the point.

I did get to see Eternal Fair, and that was interesting. They had a traditional power trio lineup with a guitar, bass and drums, and had a nice distorted guitar oriented sound that I enjoy.

The vocalist had an interesting way of ending phrases with a little additional vowel sound on a rising inflection, it caught my attention and he used the technique repeatedly. It fit into the rhythm well and grew on me as they cranked out their interesting rocking tunes. They also had all three members with microphones and did a nice job both with backing vocals and three part harmonies on occasion - I love vocal harmonies and complex (or even simple) multi-part vocal arrangements, and most bands don't bother nowadays, so props to Eternal Fair for getting 3 good vocal parts out of a band with 3 members. Nice!

I ended up recording a couple of songs in a single take before bailing, so this is what I got for the music at the Anchor:

I'm complaining more than I should, I like the venue and if I'd known I wasn't get a table or chair (or just didn't try) I could've shown up around 9 and avoided all the standing around waiting for the show to begin which would've saved my back some pain. Once the music starts I don't notice the pain as much anyway.

I also like the bands that were playing, and Jet City Radio (who gave me the free tickets) was sponsoring the event along with an Everett city music initiative, so overall I really have to come down on the side of supporting the whole thing. Adra Boo (vocalist in Fly Moon Royalty, a local favorite) was in attendance, and I think Marco Collins was too, so there was all kinds of things to like and interesting people to talk to.

More shows with fun local bands in venues all around the region is a good thing, and Jet City Radio (which isn't a radio station in the traditional sense, it's a streaming internet service) is also pretty cool. I'll keep an eye out for more of these, and next time try to make sure I'm in better shape to start with, and also plan/time things better so I can get all of the fun out of the evening that's available, rather than wimping out and heading home early.

I'm not terribly well educated on venues in Everett, I don't get up there all that often, but I do like the Anchor, and I also enjoy seeing Ryan Laplante do regular gigs at the Balefire. I'm glad to see Everett's live music scene getting promoted and good crowds turning out, the more venues in the region the better the bands do and the larger the audience, all good things.

Thanks to Jet City Radio for the free tickets, and the city of Everett for it's music initiative. Nice stuff!

Missing Yo La Tengo, Seeing Funk Til Death

2013-01-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

My daughter is back in town from Mexico and we wanted to go see some live music. We decided to catch Yo La Tengo at the last in-store performance at Easy Street Records on lower Queen Anne before it closed, but that didn't work out. We weren't early enough to get inside, and didn't feel like hanging out with the crowd on the sidewalk watching through the fogged up windows.
We grabbed a Seattle Weekly and a Stranger and looked through the music listings to see if there was a free alternative and noticed that Funky To Death was doing a free show at the Seamonster Lounge in Wallingford. My daughter has a friend that lives nearby she hadn't seen in a while, so we invited them over and got a nice table in the lounge an hour before the music started.

This was a new venue for me and it's pretty nice. In keeping with the Seamonster theme, they have a mild variety of sushi on the menu, and also inexpensive cups of miso soup which is nice on a cold January Seattle evening; I can't vouch for the sushi, but it looked good when other nearby tables had it. The venue is a little small with an odd layout for the band, but our table in front by the window was a nice place to watch the foot traffic go by and catch up with each other.

The foot traffic was light due to the cold weather, everybody was bundled and nobody was lingering; getting one of the front window tables during the Summer would probably be even better for people watching.

The band loaded some equipment in, setup and did their sound check, then started playing.
It was a fairly large band with guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and a horn section - a trombone, saxophone, and a flute. A flute is a woodwind, not a horn, so I may have the wrong term for it, but it added that punch and funk to the music the way a good horn section does so I'll go with that.

The performance space is long and narrow, and the audience ends up kinds of intermixed with the band. This leads to a cool intimate vibe, you're right in the middle of the performance, but it also makes for poor sight lines when it comes to pictures.
This view from the back of the venue shows off the drums and the guitar and bass, with the horns and flute mostly visible, but the keyboard player is obscured. It was interesting watching from next to the drummer, he did some fast cymbal footwork/drum stick stuff I'd never seen up close before that sounded cool, and as they jammed along he would occasionally hold up one of more fingers for a measure, I think he was signalling chord changes but I'm not sure. If that was chord or key changes, and they were messing with it on the fly then I'm impressed, you'd have to be very practiced and aware to change things around that dynamically in the middle of a song. They also did a fair amount of improv, with the first song (which I didn't get recorded, dang) including trombone, sax, flute, guitar and keyboard solos. It probably also had drum and bass solos too - basically a solo for each musician - but I lost track by the end of the song.

The reverse view misses the keyboard player too, so I don't think I ended up with a picture of her. Anyway, here's the reverse view:

They played a set of fun, tight, bouncy funk with lots of old classics and some interesting choices. The band was totally together even as the improvised and messed around, giving it both an improvisational feel and at the same time a highly polished together vibe that I liked.

I only recorded one song, then it started getting much more crowded.

Here's a view from our table back to where the band was playing, I'll use the flash photo - colors aren't as good, but you can see the crowd better:
They did several other interesting things including something by Common and a Michael Jackson tune - the keyboard player did a great Michael vocal.
The other thing I enjoyed was that a different voice was singing a song and somebody pointed out it was the bartender, who had a microphone behind the bar and was singing lead vocals for a song or two.
Somebody in the crowd explained that he was the owner of the venue, and that he was in a different band with several of the members of Funky Til Death. It also looks like Funky To Death is a house band, playing the Seamonster at least monthly and probably more frequently.

The locals have obviously figured out that the house band with no cover is a great way to spend a Friday evening in Wallingford, and I have to agree. Keep an eye out for them, they were a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure the'll be back regularly.

January Veracity with Tangerine, Thee Samedi, Kathy and Rebel

2013-01-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

Another interesting Veracity show last night at the Vera Project. The order of the bands got switched a little due to a late arrival, but the show went off smoothly.

Kathy was the final act confirmed for the show, they roll with a guitarist/vocalist and a drummer. The vocals are mostly incidental in most of their songs. The guitarist plays facing sideways, so the drummer is in his field of view. The guitar is prominent, a bit distorted with plenty of echo and sustain. The first song builds slowly from the guitar, adding the drums in after a few measures. The vocals are quiet, a minor addition to the song.
Interesting approach, the guitar probably could have been louder but I always enjoy listening to distorted guitars and pounding drums. The transitions as the drums kick in for a while, then stop again for a few measures, then back in again provide some contrast as they work through the song progression.

Next up was Rebel, a hip hop performer working over recorded beats. This one is a Seattle song that talks about needing sunny days and rain.
The third act was Thee Samedi.
The front man definitely carried on the traditional over the top rock extroverted front-man role. Above and beyond the music and the singing, he put on a performance for us. The band's instruments are the classic power trio guitar, bass and drums setup, and it worked well with the band crunching out angular punky sounded thrashy music and the vocalist sneering and writhing, stripped down to his pants - no shirt no shoes, obnoxious service, classic punk approach.
Eventually he added some colorful touches with the help of the audience and started writhing on the ground while singing.
You should've been there, it was a pretty classic performance. We had 3 or 4 older adults watching them from the catwalk above and I couldn't help wondering if the lady taking pictures with her cell phone was his mom. Definitely a fearless performance!

The final act was Tangerine, who varied their instruments a bit from song to song. They always used the bass and drums, performing some songs with 2 guitars, some with 1 guitar, and some with a guitar and keyboard. All of the musicians added backing vocals, with most songs have choruses with "wooh-ahh" style group backing vocals. I enjoy the vocal complexity and the more complex arrangements, I miss this a bit. It seems like it used to be a more common approach but few bands use it recently, so I definitely give Tangerine props for it. It takes some effort to work out parts and practice and discipline for the musicians to play their music and come in together on pitch effectively. Nice song structures, well rehearsed coherent sound, definitely enjoyed the set.

Fun Veracity show with quite a variety of bands and sounds, and the attendance was quite good too with around 50 people in enjoying the show. Andrienne has been doing a great job getting shows together and getting a crowd to show up to see them. Thanks, Andrienne, and thanks to the performers for a fun show!

Advent and Christmas Music

2012-12-23T10:45:00.000-08:00

As a Catholic who occasionally sings in the choir, Advent and Christmas are almost as important as Lent and Easter, and the music is better too!

Advent is a sober, quiet time in many ways. The modern focus on getting ready is mostly about getting presents bought, wrapped and shipped, and binges on candy, baked goods, booze, and a good ham.

Advent helps remind me to prepare spiritually, too. In modern America we tend to ignore the spirit, and our lives suffer for it. Fasting, taking time to pray and seek absolution, finding opportunities to volunteer, dropping some of our burden of sin and the elements of this world as we focus on the things that feed our spirit - it all serves to clarify what really matters and to helps us prepare to be the best person we're able to be.

During the Advent season we sing a cappella in the church choir, and songs like "O Come Emmanuel" are lovely. Careful 4 part harmonies, slow stately phrasing, the sound blending and echoing off the walls of the church in the dimness as mass proceeds, it instantly changes my state of mind, pulling me out of my day to day concerns and helping me not just think penitent thoughts, but actually feel sorry for my failings and sins and errors - and I've got plenty. This version is nice, although there's no harmonies.
The vows to do better, to sin no more, are more powerful in that emotionally connected state, and it helps me do a slightly better job living up to my expectations. Like all imperfect humans, I'll miss, but I know I can be forgiven and I have to keep trying and striving to do as well as I can. Anything that helps is appreciated!

We light an additional candle at each of the 4 Advent masses, and the one purple candle is lit for the first time on "Gaudette" Sunday. We sing "Gaudette" at that Advent mass, and that's always fun.
This is a barbershop version, well done with good dynamics, limited to 4 parts and can't quite wail like a full choir but you get the idea.

Advent and Christmas are a bit intense in the St. Marks choir, with pre-mass songs and songs during mass and the recessionals at the end, different songs each week, many in 4 part (and occasionally more) harmony, all a cappella for 4 weeks so errors are very noticeable.

At the same time we have some major long complex numbers to nail down for Christmas mass, which is done with musical instruments - brass. With the Church filled to overflowing and communion taking way longer than normal and instruments added to the mix, we'll be doing 400 year old songs in foreign languages in 4 part harmonies - and loving it. I have many favorites, like "Joy to the World" with brass and hand bells, and more obscure ones like "Wonderful Peace"

It's appreciated if you can sing Midnight mass and one or more of the morning masses so that there's enough voices to pull it all off.

Christmas lasts for 12 days, so we get to sing the joyful Christmas carols beyond Christmas day, too! The joyful carols tend to be the hardest on my throat, they're always forte or louder and the air is filled with smoke from the incense in the censors, and with the pre- and during and post-mass singing we end up singing for well over an hour for each mass. By the end my throat is pretty sore, but it's a good sore.

If I'm lucky I'll also get to sing carols and maybe fake it on the guitar with some family and friends sometime over the holidays, too. I think our culture has largely forgotten how fun it is to get together and perform music, and we've lost something that most don't even notice is missing.

Christmas is the one time of the year when it's not that hard to get people to sing together, and I can pull out the guitar and ask people to sing with me and they don't look at me weird. I appreciate that, and I've always associated Christmas and it's joys with music.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Joyous New Year! May your life be filled with love, family, friends, music, light, health and joy all year.

Lavender Diamond and Shelby Earl at the Sunset Tavern

2012-12-13T22:00:00.000-08:00

I've been a fan of Shelby Earl since seeing her at West Seattle Summer Fest in 2010, and she sounded great at an early afternoon set at Bumbershoot that I caught for a little bit, so I was looking forward to seeing he in a nice small scale setting at the Sunset Tavern.

Shelby opened for Lavender Diamond, an unknown band for me. Jaime posted about Lavender Diamond on Facebook and was looking forward to seeing her, and Jaime's recommendations have always been solid.

I got there early, took a seat with a good location in the bar and had a beer. The location gave me a good intimate view of the stage. Shelby and her band came out, fairly classic lineup with Shelby singing leads and playing acoustic guitar, a hollow body electric, a stand-up bass, and a drum kit. They had a back-up vocalist who occasionally sang some leads, and the hollow body electric guitarist and bass player also added tasty backing vocals on occasion. Shelby has some great songs, "Under Evergreen" is already a favorite after a few listens:

She does some down-tempo romantic, sad songs that make my heart ache at the same time as they put a smile on my face, songs like "Everyone Belongs to Someone:"

Shelby and the band were very on, I loved pretty much everything they did. This Tori Amos cover was sweet:

Lavender Diamond was new to me, she performed with a small group that played a pretty stripped down music and added an occasional tasty backing vocal. Once the music starts her vocals are the focus. Another example of a fairly slow tempo, unusually slow for modern music, but wonderfully apt for this beautiful, soaring song. As she hits some of the higher notes with those clear clean vowels, just nailing the note no matter where it is - I get goose bumps. I love that - her performance is disarming, communicating directly to my emotions, making it hard to remember to keep the camera framing her properly as I lose myself in aching beauty.

Her patter brings the mood back to Earth, she's a bit of a nut, but so am I and she's mostly my kind of nut. The stuff about holograms is classic, she's on to a solid metaphor: each bit of the hologram encodes part of the whole, so if you remove a bit of the hologram, no single object or detail drops out, instead the overall detail diminishes a bit. The patter is fun if a little scattered, and the songs are wonderful.

She has an amazing voice with a great range and precise control of pitch, tone, and volume. Her microphone control is also impressive as she smoothly moves back away and turns a little while cranking intensity up, wailing away without overwhelming the mic or the sound system, then moves back in for a quieter breathier section, carefully keeping her voice balanced in the mix without overly "playing to the mic" - check the bit around 4:20, for example. Lavender Diamond petty much relies on the frontwoman's voice and personality: she's the show, the other musician's are her backing group. From where I sat and stood, that works well. Lavender Diamond takes a powerful voice used beautifully and expressively and showcases it in quiet yet emotional songs that sneak up on you and get inside your heart. She takes you on an emotional spiritual journey for 4 minutes or so, then brings you back to what passes for Earth in the Northwest with patter about holograms and rain from hotel windows and creative blockakge, followed by another 4+ minute song soaring off into the ether...
Somehow her songs mend my heart on a level that I hadn't even noticed was hurting.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band and Fresh Espresso at the Vera Project

2012-12-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

Marshall has been a member at the Vera Project for a few years, running lights at shows and hanging out with the rest of us volunteers and having fun. Marshal is in high school and enjoys socializing and pretty much always seems to be happy, great kid to hang out with at a show. After knowing him for a year and a half and working with him at any number of shows, he casually mentioned to me that he was in a band.

"Which band?" was the obvious question. "Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band" he replied.

Wow - that's the cool local band I've read about - hadn't managed to see them yet - and they have the complex back story involving Benjamin Verdoes and Marshal Verdoes, adoptive brothers...

I realized he was that Marshal - oh! I had no idea. I'd always wanted to see Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, now I wanted to see them more than ever.
Seeing Marshall pounding on the drums at a hip hop show whetted my appetite. Marshall joined the DJ and drummed live along with some pre-recorded bits, and the Dj's set got much better while he was playing.

Finally on a Saturday a while back I got a chance to catch the Mt. St Helens Vietnam Band with Fresh Espresso and guests at the Nova Benefit show at the Vera Project. I've seen Fresh Espresso a few times, at a Capitol Hill Block Party After-Party and so on, and P-Smoov is familiar to me for some other stuff as well.
Fresh Espresso does good, fast catchy hip hop music, in this case with a live drummer.
They have a good time rapping, trading leads back and forth, syncing up for some harmony work or at least a little emphasis. Nice sound, Bosanova is pretty cool.
I enjoy the music and the message, Fresh Espresso is a reliably upbeat fun party act.
I also got some footage that I think is "Can the Boy Tell Time" which features Marshall on drums too:
I think "Can the Boy Tell Time" was before Fresh Espresso, but the videos ended up in 1) Fresh Espresso then 2) Can the Boy Tell Time then 3) Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band order on YouTube for some reason. Most likely I was switching cameras and the order taken off the cameras differs from the order recorded onto the cameras, if that makes any sense.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band came out for the headline set with a typical rock and roll lineup, 2 guitars, bass, keyboards and drums.
Nice sound, I like the way they build this song up from a simple beginning to a nice full song with some complexity and tight control of dynamics and intensity.
They played a nice selection of good, catchy songs. I like the guitar riff that starts about :45 into this one, it's jangly and kinda pulls you along Then when they drop it the feel changes and moves away, circling back eventually, I love the sense of movement and progression. I also enjoy guitar oriented rock, so this is pretty much right up my alley, and parked in my driveway up on blocks, I suppose - almost too comfortable a fit.

The band put on a great show and kept a large benefit crowd happy and entertained, and I'm very happy I finally got to see Mt. St. Helens Vietnam band and found out what all the fuss was about.

It turns out they have an embeddable link for their CD, so here's some of their music if you're looking to pick up a CD.

Kids Music In Shopping Malls and Odds and Ends

2012-11-22T23:05:00.000-08:00

Chris Ballew performs kids music as Caspar Babypants and I've seen him a few times at Bumbershoot and so on. Ballew is a great performer and the kids love him so I always enjoy it when I get a chance to see him. I friended him on Facebook and noticed that he was doing a free show at Northgate Mall so I ran by and filmed a bit. The crowd was full of kids and they loved the show. Chris was on as usual, engaging kids and playing his signature odd funny songs.

I enjoy the odd free show, it's nice! Caspar Babypant's CD can be purchased on-line if you're interested, here's an ad for that:

One odd thing happened when I went to upload the videos from Caspar Babypants/Chris Ballew: there were extra videos. The videos are from bands I sort of remember, but not really. No idea who the bands are, but there are an assortment of interesting bits.

This one is from the Tractor Tavern, so there's a good chance it was from Reverb, no idea who it is.The band has a good sound but the camera's mic isn't quite up to the volume level so it distorts a bit. It sounded better live.

Another good band, this time I don't even know what the venue is: Because these last two videos got uploaded one after the other on YouTube there's a mild chance they are both from Reverb Fest.

I also found a bit of Don't Talk to the Cops This is from a show that I wrote about a while back as one of the ones I didn't write about, if that makes any sense.

Two other bits from an unknown Vera Project performance that I can't identify, I think this short bit is the setup for the song: Followed by this heavy/hard core song:

It's odd how lack of attention leads to videos piling up and I can't quite recall the details. I still have interesting videos, but without artist names they don't get as many views. I'll have to pay a little more attention, and if anyone recognizes these bands please let me know. Thanks!

November Veracity

2012-11-22T22:18:00.001-08:00

I managed to make it to most of November's Veracity. I didn't book the bands - Andrienne does that, and she does it well. I base my band identifications on the order posted in the show event in Facebook, so if I get the bands mis-identified please let me know.
Leadership By Assault led it off with a brief sound check - vocals were a bit low, they brought them up nicely for the actual set which starts just over 1:00 in. Good beat, good dynamics, nice sound, nice songs, fun opening set.
Next was Creech: More piano oriented, nice song with a fun groove around 1:10 in, interesting transition around 1:50. Nice stuff.
Clubscouts played next: Interesting vocal, teeters from melodic to more punk/shouted, back and forth quite a bit. The sound works well, the song that starts a bit after 1:40 has some nice structure and transitions, building and throbbing, then softening, then bouncing back again.
The final band I recorded was Trees and Stars. I think there was one more band - the headliners - but I wasn't able to stay past Trees and Stars. I did get several songs by them before I left, so I got a fair bit of Trees and Stars, anyway. Attendance was great, over 50, and the number of bands (5) was ambitious. Very nice show with talented bands and lots of music. Another great Veracity in the books!

Silicon Girls last show ever at the Vera Project

2012-11-22T16:13:00.001-08:00

Silicon Girl's Last Show Ever had Marvelous Good Fortune opening for them: Synth, guitar, bass and drums, good mid tempo rock sound.
I saw Silicon Girls with Kimya Dawson At the All Ages Movement Project show in January 2011 and also saw them open for Titus Andronicus in April 2011.
I got to know Nikolas, their guitarist, I think he ended up tabling for AMP at Sasquatch when I was there for the Vera Project in 2011 so we hung out and visited a bit. Nice kid, he had some good stories to tell and I followed him on the usual social networks. I saw they were playing their final show and made plans to record it.
I recorded quit a bit of footage. Here the girls have us pretend it's their big climax: There's a bit over 40 minutes of Silicon Girls footage from this show on my YouTube channel if you want to track down a good chunk of the performance. It was a fun, angular, loud show. It was good to see the Silicon Girls go out loud and obnoxious, occasionally thrashy and disjointed, sometimes melodic and always interesting, just like they came in.

Robyn Hitchcock at Cyclops

2012-11-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

A relative who's into music FB-friended Robyn Hitchcock & tipped me off that he was doing an impromptu show at the Cyclops in late October. He played the Triple Door late last week and I think Marco Collins interviewed Hitchcock and Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5, used to tour w/REM) on Jet City Stream, so he'd been in town for a few days.

Dana and I were happy to get a chance to see him in such an intimate venue. We joined our distant cousin and got to Cyclops early, taking a table next to Hitchcock and a group of recognizable Seattle rock luminaries. Scott McCaughey and Kurt Bloch were talking with Hitchcock, guitars were out and tuned. We got drinks and appetizers - the hummus was very good - and settled in to wait for the show.
Thinking back, (begin flashback) I saw Hitchcock in 2004 at Bumbershoot with McCaughey singing and playing guitar and Sean Nelson doing vocals. I use the term "saw" loosely, we were in nose bleed territory in the McCaw Opera house, and they were a tiny brightly lit distant tableau of 2 or 3 people, most of them with guitars, down in front on the stage. I'm quite near-sighted so I saw very little detail. It didn't matter, I was won over by sound alone. The music was well written, the lyrics witty and complex, Hitchcock's slightly nasal voice and dry British humor totally winning the crowd over. I cringed at some of the lyrics - "viva Tacoma, viva Seattle, viva viva Sea-Tac, they got the best coffee, computers, and smack." Unfortunately it's true on some level, which is why it makes me cringe. From a musical context it felt like an indirect/unnamed Cobain reference, and with my career in software and life long caffeine addiction it resonates in various ways. Irony that hits you like a crowbar, with romping acoustic guitars twanging and ringing away, fast chord changes and odd song subjects. Nice! An instant musical crush, with no idea what he looked like. (end flashback)
The Cyclops show was the opposite scale, intimate and small.
Musically Hitchcock wasn't quite so snarky, at least he didn't do the Viva song. What he did do was a surprisingly large and varied selection of classics from his own and other band's material. My video recorder ran out of juice with an hour recorded, and I'd swear they played and talked for another hour and a half with only a short break.
They did an odd bit where they had a list of 34 or so songs and asked for a number, then they'd do that song. As far as I can tell there was no way to know what it meant, so I asked for and heard 23. It was great, no idea what it's name was though.
They did some great mildly obscure Beatles tunes - "One After 909" was good and "I've Got A Feeling" was unexpected and rocked the room, they were on all night. They occasionally got a little shambolic feeling - like they were working out some bits as they played, without having rehearsed all of the different things they were playing. Their shambolic key changes on the fly and "stealing" the chords by watching each other's left hands came off like nobodies business, these guys have been doing it and doing it well for a ridiculously long time. They threw in all kinds of fun curve balls and off beat bits like "Walk Right In" - you know, "Sit yourself down..." - hooking into it with a fun guitar riff by Kurt Bloch. I loved the Kinks numbers: So Tired with the harmonies working, that flowing background "So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for you" with 3 part harmony and the crowd singing along. I may have kind of ruined some of the audio by singing too loudly, sorry about that. The transitions and chord sequences as the familiar verses and choruses roll out, wonderful songs done well. "Waterloo Sunset" was heartbreaking in the way the lyric circles back to the sunset and the emotion so perfectly counters the references to paradise with loneliness, chill and fear. Haunting song done breathtakingly well, and they kept on playing.
Some Soft Boys stuff, some stuff I didn't recognize, Bowie got some attention with "Jean Genie" and Ziggy Stardust's track #2, Soul Love

The cover of the Byrds' "8 Miles High" was excellent with good vocal harmonies:

I got a large number of good songs recorded, and missed recording an even greater number, definitely a special insider show.

Hitchcock talked a bit about playing as the house band at the "2 Bells" in Belltown, calling the Cyclops show a tryout of the new venue. We got to hang out and visit with the band before the show, between sets and at the end. I told McCaughey I'd seen the Young Fresh Fellows at Bumbershoot in 1977 - the earliest Bumbershoot I ever went to - and he pointed out that I had the date wrong, since they didn't form until 1981. I've conflated the first Bumbershoot I saw with a later one that the Fellows played out, odd how your memory plays tricks on you like that. That plasticity (and in my case, occasional vacuum) of memory is why I write this blog, so that I can keep the details straight as the memories fade.

October Veracity

2012-10-11T20:55:00.001-07:00

Made it over to the Vera Project for a vegan burrito and a bit of music, first up was HOCKEYxFIGHT with a fast hard core sound
I got a couple of short videos, all their songs were short which can happen with hardcore music.

We also saw a bit of Jay Johnson playing some solo acoustic guitar rock.
Fun fast guitar oriented music, very nice.

We were unable to catch the headlining acts, so we only got these first two acts recorded. It's nice to see a good crowd and a well run show, Adrienne is putting on great Veracity shows, the committee is in good hands!

Reverb Fest 2012

2012-10-07T20:36:00.002-07:00

Attended my second annual Reverb Fest in Ballard on Saturday. Got videos of 14 acts out of 60 or so. There were some bands at Reverb that I had seen before like Kithkin, but I missed most of them. 13 of the 14 bands were "new to me" and Sweetwater was the only band we saw that I had seen before. I like that, I got to see a pile of new bands and they were all fun to watch and worth seeing in one way and another.

We started out with Gold Records at the 2 Bit Saloon, it was fun and loud, and the guitarist did some interesting keyboard work too.

Country Lips played a Spanish language tune dedicated to Mexico, catchy and bouncy, nice stuff.

Cristina Bautista carries lead vocals and fronts the band in her new self named outfit. Last time I saw her was with Visqueen, glad to see her putting on a show.

So Pitted at the Eagle was scruffy, loud and fast. Great fun! The guitarist and drummer swapped instruments for their final number.

Sweetwater is a favorite, I like the sound of the vocals and the guitar oriented rock, a solid performance that went over well with the audience.

Whitney Ballen did her beautiful gentle vocal music, I wish the ambient noise were lower. In other words the dude next to me that kept talking - I wish he'd been on the other side of the room. The music was gorgeous mostly due to the emotive voice with a pretty backing guitar part, very nice set.

Cosmic Panther Land Band was great, forging an instant classic - "I feel like going back to the Panther Land" - tight competent well written music with a sense of humor.

OC Notes did a set at the Hilliard Brewery that was interesting. OC Notes got that good hip hop club feel going, more of a dancing focus.

Shivering Denizens put on a muscular set of bluegrassy, hillbilly, rootsie music that was well done, with most songs short and obnoxious the way Rock and Roll was meant to be. There was even a bit of yodeling.

Juli C at the Hilliard Brewery put on an energetic set. Her lyrics were interesting and her flow worked well both solo and with a co-vocalist as she worked through her set and brought a couple of collaborators up. The DJ with Juli C did the best live scratching I've ever heard which added a fun element to the performance.

Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown played an old school thumping warbling rock with towering simple short guitar riffs, nice stuff.

Naomi Punk had a heavy grinding sound that I quite enjoyed, the distorted vocals lay over that in an interesting combination, well written with complex internal rhythms, I really enjoy this song:

Side Saddle played with the visuals - blond and brunette brides fronting the band, their duet on "When Will I Be Loved" was great: They ranged from pop to country with authority

We finshed up with Mid Day Veil, and I like it! Good spooky sound, By this time the beer was catching up with me, and while I might get the camera turned on I wasn't paying much attention to the camera after that. The sound is still fine, at least.

We finally staggerred out (well, I staggered, Carina was the designated driver so she wasn't staggering) shortly before midnight and headed home, tired, drunk and happy. Another successful Reverb atttended, another 13 new local bands discovered. I knew Whitney Ballen and Juli C before I saw them perform at Reverb so it was cool finally getting to see them live, and seeing Sweetwater again was cool.

Shows I Didn't Blog, with Videos

2012-10-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

In 2010 I saw more than 100 bands, but unless I was holding a Bumbershoot schedule I'd have a hard time remembering more than ten of them. For my News Year's Resolution I vowed to record videos and blog about each show, including videos of each band.

It works well as an artificial memory. Search on VirtualSoundNW and the band name, and if I saw them when I was blogging then the blog shows up. Not only did I see them, here's my notes and some video.

I managed to pull off the blogging in 2011, but I knew that eventually I wouldn't be able to keep up. I continued blogging well into 2012, but I've finally hit the wall.

I filmed Knowmads at the Vera in August and was one of a thin staff of volunteers so I just set the video up on the tripod, turned it on, and went to work steering the volunteers. This usually works out fine except that you end up with one big hour long video. Usually I'll go through that and break it up into individual songs. It's time consuming, but it makes the songs available.

When I went to turn off the video camera I noticed it had been bumped and was filming to the side of the stage. Doh! The audio is fine, but the video is lame, half of the stage activity is not visible. I posted the video as one solid 40 minute video and never blogged about it.

In early September we went to Bumbershoot and I got a pile off videos - 85 total, over the three day weekend. I uploaded them all and started figuring out who was on each, laeling and tagging and categorizing them. That was taking a long time, so after I got the first days shows figured out I started the blog for the first day and got that posted.

As I worked through the videos for the next few days, I assembled a blog post that just named the band and included a link to the video. Once I had all the videos for a day sorted in the order I saw them I added text describing the band and it's music, and anything about the experience that caught my attention.

I'm running out of gas and I barely finished Sunday. This blog finally got me motivated enough to get the last bits of that written and posted, but that still leaves Monday, where all I have is band names and videos, no text. I'm burnt out so it's not getting done, and that blocks the blogs for events after Bumbershoot. Maybe I'll get back to it, but for now I'm just posting the Monday video list as a guide to the videos, with no blogging.

That still leaves me backed up, I saw X-15 at one of the Seattle Center Fiftieth Anniversary shows, and Deerhoof, and Don't Talk to the Cops twice, once with Kung Foo Grip, and Reverb.

In order to get caught back up some more, I'm going to throw in the shows I haven't blogged before Reverb here, so the "Shows I Didn't Blog" blog (this post) will have the blog posts for most of the shows I didn't blog.

After Bumbershoot I got to see X-15 with Heather and Greg. I saw was into them when I was a young adult, so it was fun to get a chance to see them after all of this time. "Vaporized was always a favorite: The vocalist looked younger than the other band members, but he had talked about challenges going on with his throat, I hope he does OK. He sounded roughly like he did way back in the day, with that odd voice bouncing around, sounding like nobody else I've heard. One of the defining sounds of my experience in the eighties.

I went to Hawaii for 8 days with my daughters and managed to catch a performance by Mike Love at the Hilo Town Tavern while I was there:

I caught a little bit of Ryan Laplante at Balefire too: Rootsy stuff, I enjoy Ryan's playing.

Deerhoof put on a great show at the Vera Project I enjoy their sound, it's well developed and all their own. Visually they were rewarding in various ways - they had tassels on their outfits, different colors, fun to look at!

I also saw Don't Talk to the Cops twice, at the Vera Project and at Redmond's Old Firehouse. This is their Ronnie Voice guest bit, more or less Mash Hall I think. We saw a couple of the opening acts at the Firehouse, starting with Iska Dhaaf Twangy, angular, the doubled vocals are interesting, the transitions into and out of the faster bit, nice song.
Wimp played next. Fun fast and thrashy, good stuff.

Kung Foo Grip was next up, suffering from my traditional "good shows get crummy videos" rule: I really like Kung Foo Grip so I end up bouncing around and the video is pretty shaky. I'd say sorry, but I had too much fun dancing to really mean it.

Don't Talk to the Cops headlining set was great, djblesOne and emecks danced up a storm and El Mizel bounced around and they had the audience moving and sweating. Carina was dancing and enjoying it even more than I did, she loves a good hip hop vibe in a group with everyone dancing - who doesn't!

That gets me almost caught up, but last night was Reverb Fest so I'm behind by another twenty videos. Good problem to have!

Monday at Bumbershoot: Videos

2012-10-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged about Monday at Bumbershoot, but here's a quick guide to the videos I recorded.

Seapony

Ghosts I've Met

Jefferson Rose Band

Reignwolf

Debo Band

Super Geek League

Vaselines

Passion Pit

Rebirth Brass Band

Sunday at Bumbershoot

2012-10-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday was another Beautiful day in Seattle and we headed down to Bumbershoot for a day filled with music. First up was Eighteen Individual Eyes playing good mid-tempo guitar oriented rock. Interesting name, no idea what it means. I like the haunting vocals, the way they fit in with the slightly droning guitar sound is nice. They also have a good control of the dynamics, with the instruments pausing here and their while the vocals play off that. Excellent song structure.

Next was Gold Leaves, this one has a beautiful ease about it: The acoustic guitar and quiet synthesizers along with the occasional vocal harmonies give it a wonderful feel. The guitarist on the left is sitting at a pedal steel guitar - an instrument I associate more with country music, but I wouldn't particularly call this country. I've never been that good at figuring out or assigning genres anyway. I like how the instruments blend and the vocals and harmonies all add to a quietly emotional yet stately song. The song I video taped was over 7 minutes long (and I probably missed a little at the start), but it doesn't overstay it's welcome at all; it develops changes and grows, gaining some intensity with the drum solo and the instruments fading into a simpler pattern, very nice.

Next was the Ty Curtis Band with a good chunky guitar oriented rock approach. I've always loved electric guitar and they put some good guitar playing front and center, but don't overwhelm the music or the song with it. I like the way the guitar moves up front, then moves back for the verses, then comes back up front. Good beat, tight band, nice approach. The extended guitar solo around 2:45 in was also quite tasty. So far the early afternoon bands were putting on great shows in the bright sunlight.

Next was Theoretics, a Seattle based "live hip hop" band. Live hip hop refers to using a live band rather than tapes or sequenced music, and I'm a fan of the approach - in case you can't tell, I love live music. The introduce the band and then play "Go" which is a great song. The band is pretty large so I mostly manage to cut the keyboard player out of the video, sorry about that. They had a guest vocals by Camila Recchio a few songs later, she sings beautifully but I didn't manage to get video of that song. Camila also did guest vocals with Knowmads a bit later in the day so you can at least check her out in that video.

The only time I went in to the main stage at the Key Arena all weekend was to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. I don't like the "reserved" feel - chairs to sit in, no crowding, nobody really moves much. Personally I like it when there's a crowd, I like it better still when the crowd is into it and the band feeds of that, and best when a mosh pit gets going, but Bumbershoot always has it in for mosh pits. Signs outside the Exhibition Hall (where the more punk bands usually play) explicitly say moshing and crowd surfing is not allowed. Anyway, back to Sharon Jones She's got a great band, tight arrangements, great vocals, very nice set. On the other hand, the seating and lack of crowd intensity led me to head back out to the smaller stages petty quickly.

Back outside at the Sub Pop stage Niki & the Dove were playing spacey slow atmospheric music Different, nice vocals and one dude providing interesting backup sounds between the keys and some sequenced or perhaps recorded instrumentals.

Next over to the TuneIn stage for Eldridge Gravy & The Court Supreme I enjoy the patter - "reminds me of a time in 1926" indeed, even I'm not that old, but it set the stage for the song. I love the horn section and the wailing backing vocals. I ended up recording more than 9 minutes of the performance, I definitely enjoyed their sound. Interesting hat stuff going on with Eldridge, several other bands had hats happening too, seemed like a minor Bumbershoot theme. All the rest of the band had dark glasses too - it might have been a thematic decision, or perhaps just a reaction to playing in the middle of a bright Seattle late Summer day.

Heading back to the Exhibition Hall we stopped for a moment at the YR booth to watch a bit of Deep Sea Diver The Vera Project organized several teens to host these and ask bands a few questions between songs, a nice experience for a bunch of kids I really like, thumbs up to Toyota for sponsoring it, the Vera Project for organizing it, and the kids for getting up on stage and interviewing the bands.

On to the Exhibition Hall for Barcelona I like the songs, the sound was good although my Flip had some problems with the volume so it doesn't sound as good in the video as it did live. I like the way the song loops back to the line "I don't wanna know" and then the guitar echoes the phrase, tasty. I saw a little bit of Barcelona at a previous Bumbershoot, I liked what I heard but I didn't know much about them. Turns out they're local, and I really enjoy their sound - and that's about all I know; that's petty much all I need to know.

After several well done songs by Barcelona we headed over to the Promenade stage for the Knowmads set, with Camilla Recchio (who was also with Theoretics) adding some vocals. The crowd was larger and active, so the video is from a bit further back. I've seen quite a few Knowmads shows but this was the first time I've seen them with a full band - they had a guitar, bass and drums as well as lead vocals by Camila and I really enjoyed it. The way they use "People Get Ready" with Camila's vocals soaring to intro the song and then return to it repeatedly gives the song a great structure; I've always liked that spiritual so it really worked well for me, one of the best Knowmads performances I've ever seen.

Back to the Sub Pop stage for The Jezabels, a four piece band out of Australia Interesting sound, the song I've posted ranges from a nice grove to a sort of operatic peak based on the lead vocalist's ability to really soar and nail the high notes with a lot of power, very nice effect. Good variety of sound within just the one song, another rewarding set in a day full of them.

Yelawolf was next on the TuneIn stage This is the more traditional hip hop experience, a dude rapping with a DJ running some electronic equipment behind them. Nice flow, fast lyrics with a rapid beat on occasion.

Headed up to the Starbucks stage (the Mural Amphitheater) to see the Harmonica House Party with Lee Oskar and Magic Dick Nice harmonica workout, I enjoy how expressive the harmonica is when played well, and the rhythm fills in nicely.

Next we headed back into the Exhibition Hall to catch Civil Twilight For some reason the high end is too bright in this video; it didn't sound that way live, but I had hearing protection in so who knows what it sounded like unprotected. I enjoyed the song, the way it builds and the backing vocals feeding in, this was better live than the video makes it sound (too much hiss, rats).

The Young Evils played a nice set of their guitar oriented distorted rock with Mackenzie Mercer's vocals hovering over them on this one: More dark glasses - a good bright Seattle summer day can be pretty dazzling, and it's nice when Bumbershoot gets some good weather. I think the bands aren't used to playing outdoors in the sunlight though, especially local bands like the Young Evils. Most of the year we don't get much bright sunlight, and most opportunities to play are indoors in a bar or club. The Young Evils made the most of their opportunity in spite of the sun.

Next the Fruit Bats played a nice set of upbeat songs on the Sub Pop stage:
I've seen Fuit Bats before and they always put on a fun show.
I have to admit my comments are getting shorter as I work through the videos I recorded, I saw so many bands that I'm running out of interesting things to say about them. There are lots of great bands to see, but after seeing 60 in 3 days it's hard to think of something original and interesting to say about each. It's a good problem to have though, too many good bands and not enough imagination to comment usefully...

Next was the The Dirtbombs on the TuneIn stage, I think I filmed this one from the beer garden. I'd never heard the Dirt Bombs before and found them instantly likable, fun beat with a good guitar sound, I enjoy the bit about 2 minutes in where the music drops out, giving the vocals an additional punch.

Next AM and Shawn Lee played an interesting set on the Promenade set. The guitar sounds they incorporated into this song were more varied, swapping back and forth between a slightly muddled echoing rhythm to a more ringing lead approach which sets off the vocals nicely. The rhythm section also provides some great emphasis and transitions and they get the audience participation going a couple minutes in, nice effective set:
I think this one ended up black and white because I used my digital camera and it's settings were wonky. It still works pretty well.

Back inside the Exhibition Hall for The Promise Ring. I know very little about them but I enjoyed their set. Classic dual guitar, bass and drum lineup rocking out on a midtempo rock song, nice stuff.

Mudhoney is a local legend that I missed in the nineties when they played Pioneer Square venue like the Buffalo regularl, I was busy raising babies and toddlers back then so I didn't get out much. I was glad to finally get a chance to see them live! I don't know their catalog, when I searched for "I Like It Small" I found some recent performances and nothing else, so I suspect this may be a new song but I don't really know. I like it, it plays against the traditional simplistic excess in most modern songs. I thought I recorded at least one more by Mudhoney, and I saw them do "Touch Me/I'm Sick" which is one of their legendary tunes, but somehow I didn't manage to get a copy to YouTube. Rats!
This is definitely one of the "bucket list" local bands that I had regretted missing back in the day, I'm glad I got to see them and that they still put on a powerful fun show.

Lee Fields and the Expressions played a good old school love song, great horn section and tight arrangements. I love the staccato lyric over the punchy horn section late in the first minute, the way the transitionin and out of that is nice.

Deep Sea Diver had a great sound. I filed this with my digital point and shoot camera. Somehow it ended up in an odd color mode where it's almost black and white, at least the sound is serviceable. Nice classic reference - Psalm 23 has always been a favorite of mine. I definitely want to see Deep Sea Diver again.

I only got a short bit of Blitzen Trapper, sound is a little ragged in the video, it was quite impressive live. The music sounds like it's from some lost twentieth century decade, I can't quite tell which. Blitzen Trapper Enjoyed this, yet another band that I want to see again.

Keane

We finished up with Wanda Jackson at the Mural Amphitheater. Wanda embodies an amazing accumulation of rock and roll history. She was one of the first in so many categories and she has great stories. She was in the studio with Elvis Pesley, and she's coy about it but she may've been into more of his business than that. I saw her and 2003 at Bumbershoot on the same stage. In 2003 she played some guitar and sang, this year she stuck to the vocals, allowing the Dusty 45's to handle the instrumental parts. The Dusty 45s are great - the flaming trumpet bit is awesome all by itself, and the show they put on with Wanda was killer, filled with classics and obscurities, covers and overseas number 1 hits - from Japan.
After a few songs where the energy was moderate, lower than last time, she brought things down for a moment and spoke of her conversion experience and sang "I Saw the Light." A noticeable portion of the audience, probably more than 20%, walked out. it felt disrespectful, they were getting into it until she started speaking of her spirituality, it felt like they wanted a novelty act, not an actual complex person with their own attitudes and beliefs.
Their loss, Wanda singing spirituals is a wonderful thing and it visibly amped her up. As she finished "I Saw the Light" with an intense climax, drawing out the final repetition of the title phrase as the band crescendod I realized that she needed a song like this that spoke to her heart, or I should say from her heart. She took a moment to thank us for allowing her the opportunity to talk to us and her graciousness made me feel like the idiots who bailed on the performance could be forgiven, she didn't mind the disrepect. From then on her intensity increased and the packed in crowd enjoyed classic timeless rock and roll.

Saturday at Bumbershoot

2012-09-04T15:14:00.001-07:00

Saturday was a beautiful day in Seattle and a great day to listen to lots of bands at the Seattle Center. Dana and Ben went with me and we got there early enough to catch the early acts. First up was Lights From Space, a local band that I've read interesting things about their influences include some of my favorites from the sixtes like the Beattles and the Kinks. Tough list to live up to, but they were fun and interesting live. Good rhythms, catchy tune, nicely done full sound for a trio.

Next we scored tickets for Serra Cahoone's KEXP indoor set. It's always easier early in the day since the crowds haven't picked up yet. The sound was awesome and the performance was excellent and the audience was very attentive. I like Sera's expressive voice and the tasty backing vocals kicking in, and the pedal steel guitar is wonderful. Talented performer in a setting that really showed her favorably, very nice.

Next up was TacocaT at the Sub Pop stage. I enjoy TacocaT's upbeat slightly punky sound, and they're always fun to watch; with the sunlight and bubbles they were even better!

Back over to the TuneIn stage for Don't Talk to the Cops We saw them last fall at Reverb Fest and they were an immediate favorite, and they haven't lost a step. Great fun upbeat show, just as good out in the sun as in a club - or maybe even better!

Next into the concrete box - the Exhibition Hall - for Spittin' Cobras. The sound in the Exhibition Hall can be pretty tough, but if you put in hearing protection and get close it's not bad - the echoes are drowned out by the loud music from a band like Spittin' Cobras. Unfortunately the heavy bass tends to overwhelm my Flip's microphone, so the audio isn't great, which is totally a problem with my equipment, the live sound was actually quite good - and heavy! They ended up with "Criminal Mastermind" as their final song and I quite enjoyed it. Good loud thundering sound, wish my equipment had done a better job though.

Next up was Polecat at the new Promenade stage. The venue was nice - the Promenade between the Opera House and the Exhibition Hall, and the band was excellent. A classic old country sound with a fiddle and a couple of guitars, upright bass and drums and a good dual vocal approach. I grew up listening to a wide variety of my Dad's music and this sounded very familiar - and I mean that as a definite compliment. Good old time sounding music with solos as the vocalist calls out the musicians, this sort of a performance from 60 or 70 years ago was one of the contributing streams that led to modern rock music, and decades later Polecat gave an excellent example of some of the roots of modern rock and roll.

Next was Unnatural Helpers at the Sub Pop stage Another wonderful band that I thought I'd never heard before - but I was wrong! I saw them at Bumbershoot in 2010 and they were memorable enough for me to mention in an old blog. The drummer sings - and sings well - and I love the fast rock sound. As I play the video back my son is humming along within a single repeat while he's reading and not really paying any attention - definitely a catchy hook, fun and fast and well executed.
Seven great bands well worth seeing in the first 3 hours - I was enjoying myself but not pacing myself too well, there were just too many good bands. Hmm, is that a real problem?

Next was Skerik's Bandalabra at the Starbicks stage. Another good show, this band had very talented musicians - the saxophone in particular blew me away (heh heh, but seriously). I actually ran into the sax player later at the Promenade stage watching other bands so I made a point of telling him how much I had enjoyed the show and he seemed to appreciate the compliment. I'm often a little too shy to say anything.

Next up was JC Brown and the Uptown Sound at the TuneIn stage Another excellent performance, JC's vocals are powerful and he's a very charismatic performer, and the band was tight and funky. They play around with timing and vary the beat, and jump in and out of changes as they go, very cool stuff.

Too much good music combined with my lack of pacing caught up with me so I ended up taking a break and not seeing any bands for a while. I'm a little annoyed at myself - I missed Black Breath, Cosmetics, Gotye, Serah Cahoone (at least I caught her KEXP set, so I didn't miss her completely) and Ayron Jones and the Way. Sigh, oh well I've never caught every act on any given day, and if I really tried I'd probably get so burned out that I wouldn't enjoy it all that much. Enough whining, back to music!

After a break and some food we checked out King Khan & the Shrines Good performance, nice horn section and fun visuals, it got me back in the mood to see more of the acts and I needed the energy.

Next was Prong in the Exhibition Hall The sound is rough; heavy metal bands in the Exhibition Hall are always a bit loud for my equipment. Too bad, they were another loud fun loud raucous band and I enjoyed it.

Next was the Barr Brothers at the Promenade stage I love the vocals and the lyrics, and the way music feeds into the song's progression. Enjoyed the show, makes me want to see more of them. I also want to dig through their lyrics more carefully, I like the contrasts and images.
My FLip was out of storage so I switched to my other Flip and got some more footage of the Barr Brothes, nice stuff:

Next it was back to the Sub Pop stage for THEESatisfaction, this one is Bisexual: They have a style of hip-hop different from any other I'm familiar with. I'm not well educated when it comes to hip hop so that doesn't mean too much, but I love the approach, the way the vocals play off each other, the dance moves, and the lyrics are creative and fascinating. Bisexual in particular is quite witty and interesting. I got some more footage including Deeper here: Again, the lyrics are witty and fascinating - "My melanin is relevant."

Next was "The Heavy" on the TuneIn stage, this one's "The Big Bad Wolf": I like the saxophone and the audience participation, they made us work! Fun stuff.

Over to the Promenade stage to listen to Western Haunts Amusing chatter and a very nice sound, I like the vocals in particular and the way the rhythm drives the song around 1:16 in.

EYEHATEGOD played the Exhibition Hall Loud heavy metal show, pretty good "clean" sound for a distorted heavy metal show, if that makes any sense - you can here the different instruments and track the beat and even hear the almost screamed vocals pretty well.

Oberhoffer played the Sub Pop stage They play fun upbeat music with some interesting lyrics: I'm pretty sure the "first time playing on this coast" comment was tongue in cheek, they played the Sunset last April and they've almost certainly played LA and so on.

Alela Diane played a nice solo acoustic set on the Promenade stage Nicely evocative song, beautiful performance. I bit of a caveat: I've never seen Alela Diane before, so I'm assuming that's who this is based on the Bumbershoot schedule; if there was a substitution then I could be completely wrong on the singer's name. Hopefuly I'm right, but feel free to comment or send me a message if I misidentify anything. Whether it's Alela Diane or not, she has a beautiful voice and played some gorgeous songs for us.

Next was City and Colour playing some nice tunes at the TuneIn stage You may notice that as the day progresses the videos are taken from further back and to the side - the crowds were picking up, and I was zipping around from one act to another, so unless I wanted to be pretty pushy I ended up with a somewhat poorer spot to record from. That's OK, the sound was generally pretty good and I enjoyed City and Colour even though I wasn't front and center.

Next I caught Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit on the Starbucks stage, this is "Codeine:" Wonderful composition, I love the way the phrases bookend the sections - "one thing I can't stand" and "one thing I can't take" - lovely, definitely sticks in my head. Sad song of loss, it sort of sneaks into your heart, it takes a while to reveal the depth of the loss and what the song is really about, quite effective.

Next was the Helio Sequence on the Sub Pop stage: I often end up with a fragment of a song to start with - the song already playing when I work my way into the crowd. I used to wait until the next song, but a few times when I did that I missed the last song, so now I usually just go ahead and record the song from the middle just in case. This was nice enough that I went ahead and posted it, then recorded another song too: Wonderful sound, quite full for a two piece band, and the songs are powerful.

Back to the Promenade stage to catch Damien Jurado do a powerful version of Nothing is the News: References to ghosts, doors being closed, standing outside, walk upon the clouds in my eyes, the song builds a powerful sense of isolation and alienation, and I love the way the instruments build into the song's emotion. The spacey synthesized accents (some sort of sound like a theremin, others waver in pitch rapidly) also add to the disjoint sense of the song. Wonderful song!
I got Maraqopa on video as well Jurado writes phenomenal songs and listening to them performed live is wonderful.

There were still many interesting acts I'd like to see Saturday night - Pezzner, The Jayhawks, M. Ward and more - but I was out of energy and still had two more days to make it through. Jurado was a great act to end the day on, though.
I'm going to have to be a bit smarter the next couple of days, take painkillers in the early evening, watch the alcohol intake, or probably both; I always regret missing acts at Bumbershoot.