Pilcrow

Dancing on the Valentine is an annual concert benefit for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society produced by Jenny George, herself a survivor of leukemia. George's birthday is February 14, and the music of Duran Duran in particular helped her a lot during her battle with leukemia, hence the title (from the lyrics of "The Reflex") and timing of the event. Each year George picks a theme for the event, the first year's being a tribute to Duran Duran (of course) and last year's being David Bowie, and invites several bands to play cover songs on that theme. I learned about the event last year because Hotels was playing at the show, and I enjoyed it so much that I planned to attend this year's for its own sake, before I knew who would be on the lineup or what the theme was. 

This year's theme was a tribute to Depeche Mode. I've never been a huge Depeche Mode fan—in fact it really wasn't until Violator came out in 1990 that I really started to like some of their songs, both from that album and some earlier ones—but I knew this would still be great. The lineup included three of my favorite Seattle bands or artists: Hotels, The Animals at Night (with Brent Amaker on guest vocals for a song), and Lesli Wood of the Redwood Plan (appearing instead with Jupe Jupe as her backing band). Also on the bill were Legion Within and Exohxo—two bands that also played last year's event—and SHiPS (sic), Black Swedes, and Sean Nelson (formerly of Harvey Danger) with Phil Peterson (on e-bass). A burlesque dancer was also supposed to appear along with the Animals at Night, but for some reason that never happened.

I arrived a bit late and missed Black Swedes, but saw the rest of the show. I didn't take any detailed notes, partly because I just wanted to enjoy the show and partly because, as a tribute concert, it's not the same as seeing a regular performance by the bands. However, I do want to mention some highlights. Exohxo did great versions of "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Just Can't Get Enough". Lesli Wood and Jupe Jupe did a pretty hard-rocking version of "Everything Counts". (Lesli Wood also did a fine solo cover of "Somebody", though for personal reasons I still hate that song.) I made a point of not asking the boys in Hotels ahead of time what songs they were going to cover, but there were a few in particular I was hoping for. I almost cried with excited glee when, as they were prepping their third song, they played the distinctive final notes of "Policy of Truth", which is probably my favorite Depeche Mode song, and sure enough they did a fantastic cover of it. They also did great with "Shake the Disease" and "World in My Eyes"; I didn't recognize the last song they did, but only because I don't know Depeche Mode that well, not because it was a bad version. Legion Within jokingly introduced their last song as an obscure B-side, but actually played "Enjoy the Silence", sounding rather like Peter Murphy covering it. The Animals at Night opened with "Behind the Wheel", and closed with an amazing version of "Personal Jesus" featuring Brent Amaker toting a Bible (with porno-mag photos hidden inside) and doing his best revival preacher vocals. 

Speaking of Brent Amaker, I'm confident this is the best photo I took all night:



However, I'm not too surprised that so far, this photo of Legion Within, which includes their gorgeous female cellist/backing vocalist (who may have been a guest performer, I'm unclear on that), is proving to be the most popular:



I posted another couple good photos yesterday, and you can see the rest in my Dancing on the Valentine VI: Strangelove set on Flickr.

I might as well keep going with quick summary reviews of the other concerts I saw at the end of the summer of 2009.

In August 2009, besides the KEXP Concerts at the Mural and BBQ, which I wrote about in the previous post, I also went to see the Animals at Night, Emilíana Torrini, and Bat for Lashes. I've already posted reviews of the latter two shows, but haven't yet covered the first one. That show was held on August 1 at the High Dive, and actually featured Elba headlining, with Another Perfect Crime, the Animals at Night, and Skeletons with Flesh on Them. I came in more than halfway through Skeletons' set, but caught them doing a good cover of the Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man", and thought they had a really solid closing song too. The Animals at Night had an additional guest vocalist at this show, which I thought helped to fill out their sound, and overall it seemed to be a more downtempo and soulful set of songs than the last time I'd seen them in February. Another Perfect Crime were an indie post-punk trio who had a good strong sound that I liked. Finally, Elba didn't grab me so much, though they were all right; I thought their vocals weren't very good, not tuneful although they were trying, but they were pretty melodic and they did have serious drum chops. I have a set of photos from this show here on Flickr.

It's funny to read my notes now; for example, I don't remember anything about Elba so I'm not quite sure what I meant by "serious drum chops," though I have some idea. So that calls into question the point or value of bothering with this sort of summary post. But I never know when I may see some of these bands again, and it's good to have some record of that, if only so I can later say "I have no idea what I was thinking, these guys are great/terrible." 

In September 2009, besides covering Decibel Festival for KEXP, I went to one day at Bumbershoot and two shows, Freezepop at El Corazón and Kinski's tenth-anniversary show at Chop Suey. I don't recall anything in particular exciting me about Bumbershoot last year except that Hotels were playing, and I was able to get a volunteer shift for KEXP on Saturday that allowed me to also see their set in the EMP SkyChurch. They rocked it of course and had a cool visual display up on the digital wall. (I have some photos here on Flickr.) That night after my shift, I saw De La Soul but never really got into their set, not recognizing the old songs I knew and not caring about the newer ones or the constant crowd-rallying. 

Freezepop were also in town that Labor Day weekend, once again playing at PAX, and fortunately for me their non-PAX local show was on Sunday night, allowing me to go. Once again, their booker overstacked the show with five bands including Freezepop; in 2008 I figured this was intended to counteract the drain of Bumbershoot, but I now wonder if it was due to the show being all-ages. Unlike the diverse 2008 show, this one leaned mostly toward synth-rock, which at least fit better with Freezepop. Opening band Ocean of Algebra was fairly straightforward hard-edged rock, and I thought they were kind of catchy. Blunderbear came across as rather blundering, and spent too much time talking instead of playing. Ambulance for Angeles had actually played the 2008 show as well, and at that time I thought they needed more development; I guess they didn't develop that much, as this time I thought their midtempo croony synthpop was something like a third-rate Animals at Night. Anamanaguchi played raucous 8-bit synthrock instrumentals, with synths provided by a hacked Nintendo game system, and were surprisingly heavy, as though these clean-cut skinny geeks were secretly metalheads (which indeed is sometimes the case). Surprisingly, they finished with a cover of Weezer's "Buddy Holly", including singing the vocals. Finally, Freezepop overcame persistent microphone troubles to deliver a freeform set that felt a bit loose and ragged at times, but was still a hugely fun send-off for the Duke, who was performing for the last time with the band. I was very excited that they included a dance remix of "Tenisu No Boifurendo", one of my favorites, which they rarely play live. They also did "Plastic Stars", the Duke's favorite of their own songs, as an unplanned encore—so unplanned that the house lights and music had been turned on, but the audience chants of "Freezepop!" couldn't be denied. I have a set of photos from this show here on Flickr. 

I actually have decent notes for Kinski's tenth-anniversary show, and as I wrote out the summary it got long enough that I decided to put it into its own post, since this one became fairly long.

Last night I went to Neumos, intending to see Point Juncture WA, an up-and-coming band whose singles I've been loving to hear on KEXP the past few months. It wasn't until I'd already paid and started to walk in that I realized something was amiss with the list of start times I'd glanced at as I was paying, and I looked again to see that they weren't on the list. That's when I realized of course, they couldn't make it tonight because regional flooding had cut off Seattle from Portland, their home. Still, following my first principle that it's always the right decision to go to the show, I chose to stay and check out the other bands: Black Daisy, The Animals at Night, and the headliners Hazelwood Motel.

Black Daisy, the last-minute fill-in for Point Juncture WA, turned out to be a comedy-musical duo both on guitars and vocals, in the vein of Flight of the Conchords. They also had a bassist, but he seemed to be more of a guest performer for the show than part of the regular act. Beats were provided by a drum machine, which I realized after a bit was actually just an iPod. The two main members were dressed in an '80s tough-guy-rocker style of ripped denim and t-shirts, one with a ragged scarf, and both wore cheesy big wigs of the appropriate messy tough-guy hair. They played a set of silly songs about sex and relationships, featuring a variety of styles from hair-metal rockers to faux-country pop. My problem with this kind of act is that they're parodying styles of music, fashion, and performance that are already laughably bad, so the parody is mildly amusing but it's still inherently bad with little repeat value. (In contrast, Flight of the Conchords take good source material and make pastiches that are silly and goofy but also loving homages, giving their songs a more lasting quality.) That said, they did make me laugh out loud at least once, and they finished with an amusingly heavy and actually quite good cover of Hall & Oates' "Maneater", so I did enjoy the set but I think they'll need further development to have any staying power.

The Animals at Night are a duo on keyboard/guitar/electronics/vocals and drums. Although I've seen them described by several sources as downtempo electronica and trip-hop, at this show they played very groovy dance music with strong flavors of soul, funk, and R&B: much closer to Maktub than Massive Attack. Indeed, although leader Graig Markel in appearance is sort of the anti-Reggie Watts, he and Joe Patterson laid down a set of grooves that suggested a pairing with Maktub would be a great evening. Markel also rocked out pretty strongly on guitar and vocals in several songs, again in contrast to the downtempo label. As a duo, the group did make extensive use of sampled parts, and I reflected at one point how it might be nicer to hear the bass part live rather than recorded, for example. Still, they had a good sound and were quite enjoyable, and they should be a strong new addition to the Seattle scene.

Hazelwood Motel are the trio of Ed Vierda (guitar, vocals), Megan Pickerel (keyboard, vocals), and Patrick Smail (drums, backing vocals). They played a set of indie pop that started out mostly on the country side but pulled in some rock toward the end. Most of their songs were slow to midtempo, quiet, introspective affairs, with bittersweet vocals and a mournful spirit. This sort of indie-country-pop isn't really my thing, so at first I felt they sounded fine but just not very interesting to me. But then about halfway through the set they started a song with a stronger rock beat, and as it moved toward the chorus I recognized from an insistent guitar riff that I'd heard it on KEXP and liked it, the single "Break Myself in Two". As they continued to mix a few other songs on the rock side into the set, such as an upbeat one possibly titled "Watching My World Tonight", I decided that I did like the band after all. There was a funny pause at the end of the set, as they said they had nothing for an encore but didn't actually leave the stage, and after a couple minutes of calls for just one song Pickerel apologetically said they hadn't practiced recently (due to the snow shutting down travel in Seattle) and weren't prepared with anything else. However, the remaining audience would have none of that and finally the band gave in and played an encore, which sounded just fine to me. Although clearly I'd prefer a more even mix of rock-based tunes to quiet sad country songs, there's no question Hazelwood Motel are skilled songwriters and musicians, and I'll be keeping an ear out for more from them.

This was a small and well-lit show for Neumos, which means I was able to get some fairly good photos of all three acts, starting here in Flickr.

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There are several shows coming up at the end of the month that are worth catching. These include Kinski at Neumos on Thursday the 29th, KJ Sawka doing an album release show at Nectar Lounge on Friday the 30th, and Supreme Beings of Leisure at Chop Suey on Saturday the 31st. (Weird, I just realized I haven't been to Chop Suey in over a year.) It turns out Hotels are also playing on Thursday the 29th at the High Dive, creating a little dilemma for me: I haven't been to the High Dive in a while and like seeing shows there (not to mention, it's Hotels), but I also haven't seen Kinski in over a year, not since their last CD release show in fact, and rumor has it they're also working on new material for their next release. What I do know for certain is that next month I'll be at the Sunset Tavern on Friday Feb 20 for what's sure to be an amazing double-release show with both Hotels and Point Juncture WA, and I cannot wait for that!