Concerts at the Mural 2011 summary

2011-09-10 23:56
Once again this year, I volunteered for the Concerts at the Mural, sponsored by KEXP and Seattle Center. These were held each Friday evening in August 2011, with a KEXP DJ spinning tunes starting at 5 pm and live music from 6 pm to about 9 pm. The KEXP BBQ was also part of the series, held Saturday August 6 from about 1 pm to 9 pm.

Also once again this year, I took very few notes on the bands, this time as a deliberate choice because I felt the brief summary post I did for last year worked fairly well. Also, I spent a lot more time running around because my volunteer role changed. I was responsible for taking photos and posting them to the Facebook and Twitter accounts of KEXP, both as the bands were setting up and as they started performing, to help drive awareness of and interest in the events. It was pretty fun to do that. By coincidence, the one Friday that I was not responsible for taking photos and posting them (August 12), my iPhone camera failed—apparently either the lens cover finally got too scratched up, or else some dust or moisture somehow got trapped inside, so all of my photos came out hazy and darker than they should (with light areas being too bright and fuzzy by comparison). Fortunately, I was able to borrow my friend Gina's camera for the last two Fridays, which actually helped me get some better photos than I would have otherwise, as her camera included zoom, flash, and night photo functions, unlike the iPhone.

As I did for 2010, I'll list out the concerts with the artists in bulleted lists below, and include links to my photosets next to the date.

Friday August 5 (photos)
  • Black Whales—Okay folk rock, not really into them, but I did get a copy of their CD, maybe they'll grow on me.
  • Hey Marseilles—Same general category of folk rock but richer band sound, more like Annuals; pretty good, I liked them.
  • The Maldives—Country rock, not really my thing, but good band with two drummers.
Saturday August 6: 9th Annual KEXP BBQ (photos)
  • Mad Rad—Are pretty rad! I had already taken note of some of their recent songs, but seeing them perform live won me over. Good tunes, the music seemed to be all original rather than sample-based, the synth/keyboard player and the drummer (Trent Moorman, naturally) were great, all three rappers were good to hear too.
  • Virgin Islands—Hard rock, not metal but not quite to my taste, not bad though.
  • School of Rock—One set of kids did a very credible cover of "Barracuda"—I had my doubts the singer could pull it off, but she did—and all of the kids were fairly good overall. I wondered how they decided what songs to cover.
  • Capsula—Heavy hard-driving rock, I liked them; the female bassist sounded like Kim Gordon when she sang. These guys and Mad Rad were probably the best of the day.
  • Rainbow Arabia—Funky worldbeat electronic dance music.
  • Fool's Gold—"Oh these guys" (the song "Nadine"), Paul Simon / Vampire Weekend worldbeat pop; not bad, not really exciting to me.
Friday August 12 (photos, such as they are)
  • Math & Physics Club—Pleasant indie-pop, like Belle & Sebastian; good for a summer's afternoon.
  • Gold Leaves—Fleet-Foxy folk rock, pleasant but unremarkable, mostly lacking the choral aspect of Fleet Foxes.
  • Seapony—Still really good, but felt a bit light to headline a larger outdoor show like this; I'm interested to see where they go.
Friday August 19 (photos)
  • Whalebones—"Oh these guys"; dark rock, hints of Sixties a la Raveonettes, also a bit Southern rock; sounded pretty good. I probably need to pay more attention to them.
  • My Goodness—Bluesy hard rock (White Stripes, Zeppelin); also "oh these guys" except I recognized more than one, so again I should keep them in mind.
  • Black Mountain—Really good set, variety of songs from albums, including "Don't Run Our Hearts Around" (one of my favorites); I still haven't bothered to get the newer albums but whenever I see them live I wonder why not; really good rock for a summer's twilight.
Friday August 26 (photos)
  • Drew Grow & the Pastors' Wives—I didn't take any notes on the first three bands! They were all in the overlap of folk-rock / art-rock / post-rock to some degree. I want to say that Drew Grow was more on the folk-rock side. They were all likeable.
  • Pickwick—These guys were the most toward the prog/art-rock side of things, and possibly whom I liked the most.
  • Ravenna Woods—You'd think I'd remember these guys better, since I got to see them again the following night playing in a garage at a private party to about 30-40 people. Nope, I just know they were likeable in the folky/prog-rock way.
  • Shane Tutmarc—Unlike others, very country / country-rock, also a bit soulful at times.
I'd say Mad Rad were the surprise of the series, as I hadn't expected to discover I'm a fan, and Capsula were probably the best new discovery. There weren't any bands I was really excited to see, although I did look forward to seeing both Seapony and Black Mountain, but it was still a good series overall.
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Black Mountain at dusk

2011-08-19 23:56



Hey, look! It's a pretty good quality photo considering it was taken after 8:30 pm, in the deepening twilight! Amazing what a proper camera with a "night photo" setting can do! Okay, so the band's too dark, but that's just because there aren't any stage lights, it's not the camera's fault.


That's Black Mountain onstage at the Mural Amphitheatre, performing for the Concert at the Mural sponsored by KEXP and Seattle Center. Photo by me, taken using a Canon PowerStat SD1000 Digital Elph camera that I borrowed from Gina for this week and next week's concert shoots.


Glad that I figured out how to get the night shot setting this week, as next week's show will only get darker earlier.


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Archive concerts summary: November & December 2010

2011-03-15 23:26
The car crash in mid-October didn't keep me down for long; not quite a month later, I was at Chop Suey on Saturday November 13 to see the Bran Flakes, a wacky performance-art band, with Velella Velella and Dat'r. For some reason I actually wrote that review in a timely manner and posted it right away; you can read it in the archives here on my blog. One thing I didn't emphasize enough in that review was that Velella Velella were quite good and I'd like to see them again.

On Monday November 29, I went to the Showbox at the Market to see the Black Angels, with Black Mountain opening. Black Mountain do the early '70s heavy psychedelic rock really well, and it helps them stand out when so many bands seem to look a decade later for inspiration. It now seems inevitable that they'd grow to this level, as their sound filled the Showbox, and although they were the opening band, the place was filled for them. They played a mix of older and newer songs, storming through "Don't Drag My Heart Around" to finish. I'd never thought of the Black Angels as '70s style heavy/dark rock, but they actually fit in very well with Black Mountain. They maintained a cavernous echoy sound even when the guitars or keyboards were grumbling or shimmering beneath. One song, "Telephone", jumped out for its strong '60s sound, making me wonder if it was a cover. (It's not.) They concluded with "Manipulation" and "Empire", both from their debut album Passover. It was a really solid show, with good performances by both bands and a generous use of time at about 75 and 90 minute sets.

For some reason I insisted on taking photos, even though I was far from the stage, so there's a small set here on Flickr.

December is always a tough month for catching shows, with so much going on including my annual trip home for Christmas. This year however I was able to end in style by going to the Crocodile on New Year's Eve to see Head Like a Kite with Fresh Espresso headlining. I can't do a proper review of this show, as I didn't take any notes and I didn't see the whole thing: I missed the opener, which the Crocodile's website tells me was Concours d'Elegance, and I missed about half of Fresh Espresso's set because I was out in the alley watching the Space Needle fireworks with a couple friends. I will say that I found Head Like a Kite surprisingly on the subdued side, not quite the crazy dance party with people in costumes that I expected from past shows, but my guess is that was due to them not being the headlining act. They were still great to hear, though. What I saw of Fresh Espresso was fun, too, although their rap style still isn't quite to my taste. In any case it was definitely one of the best birthdays/New Year's Eves I've spent in Seattle.

And hey, that's 2010! Now I just have a few more reviews to write in order to catch up to the present.
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Black Mountain at the (Market) Showbox

2010-11-29 21:52


Rocking and grooving like it's 1973.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

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March 2009 concert 2: Black Mountain at Neumos

2009-04-18 23:19
On Friday March 27, I manned the KEXP information table at Neumos for Black Mountain, with opening act The Sadies. As usual, the standard disclaimer applies: although I am a volunteer for KEXP, the opinions expressed in this review and all other posts on this blog are solely mine and do not represent the official views of KEXP.

The Sadies are a rockabilly quartet on guitar and fiddle, guitar, bass viol, and drums, with both guitarists handling vocals. Their set generally alternated between quick surf-rock instrumentals and slightly slower country-rock songs with vocals. They played the first several songs nonstop, but later talked and joked with the audience a bit. About halfway through, they brought out the fiddle for a few more traditional country/folk style songs, before ramping back up to the end. Although I'm generally not too interested in a strong country sound, I did enjoy their set very much. 

The club was packed when Black Mountain began their set, coming out one at a time to join the keyboardist in an extended space-rock jam. The quintet (including vocals, guitar/vocals, guitar, keyboard, and drums), have a classic heavy progressive blues-rock sound, in the style of Led Zeppelin or Blue Öyster Cult. Their heavy grooves and moody tones were matched by the dim red and blue stage lighting. This set mostly featured slow songs that were unfamiliar to me, either from last year's release In The Future or else new ones. They did sound good, but none were compelling enough to make me feel I'm missing out by not yet owning that album. I did enjoy the set closer, "Stormy High", which is from that album and which picked up the tempo and mood a bit. The encore also started slow but broke into a fast driving section, before returning to the slow, keyboard-heavy space-rock jam that ended up feeling a bit indulgent, denying the audience the rock-out finale they were clearly ready for. The whole set was unsatisfying in the end; I know Black Mountain can do better, and I hope to see them do so.

Neumos was so packed that I couldn't get anywhere near the stage during Black Mountain, so I have just a few poor photos of them, but a few more decent ones of the Sadies from the side of the stage; these can be seen starting here in Flickr.
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February and March concerts: Mates of State at Chop Suey, Kinski at The Crocodile

2005-03-19 23:35
February's concert was Mates of State, Aqueduct, and Smoosh, at Chop Suey. I knew at least one track by Mates of State and I'd been wondering what their other stuff was like. I had no idea they were so popular however; when I arrived at 6:30 there was already a long line to get in (doors at 7), and by the time I finally got into the building, I'd completely missed Smoosh's set and Aqueduct was just about to start. That was too bad as I'd been looking forward to hearing Smoosh live.

The venue was completely packed but I managed to find a decent spot to stand at the back with an okay view of the stage. Aqueduct, sadly, was blah. Mediocre alterna-pop, and the singer sounded to me just like the singer of the Long Winters, another mediocre alterna-pop local band. I was somewhat amused that their last song was the expletive-laden "Damn It's Good To Be A Gangster" - it seemed a poor choice for an all-ages show with the 10-and-12-year-old Smoosh as the opening act. Mates of State I did enjoy. They're a husband-and-wife duo on drums and keyboards respectively, with a lot of harmonized singing. I did not end up buying a CD though.

March's concert was Kinski, Oneida, and Black Mountain at the Crocodile Cafe. This turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable show, and once again demonstrated that showing up for the opening act is always a good idea, because I never know when I'll discover a good new band I'd never heard of before.

Black Mountain is a five-piece out of Vancouver BC, with a guitarist/lead singer, female backup/sometimes lead singer, bassist, keyboardist, and drummer. This band seemed to have been transported directly from the early 70s - the guitarist even had that shaggy hair/beard look. There was a little funk influence in one song, but mostly it was straight-up classic guitar rock, in that style between blues and progressive. Their record label cites Zeppelin, the Velvet Underground, and Meat Loaf among the influences, and it's accurate, but here's the thing: Black Mountain sounds like themselves. That is to say, they're not just copying their influences, they have their own original take on the classic rock sound. And they were really good at it.

From the early 70s, the show jumped to the early 80s with Oneida. A three-piece on keyboards, guitar/bass, and drums, they had the look and sound of nerds for whom Devo and hardcore punk were divine revelations. Most of their songs were fast, loud, and raucous, with unintelligible vocals shouted or mumbled by the guitarist or keyboardist. The drummer also sang three songs, and his songs were slower and more like straight-up hard rock - and less enjoyable for me, as it happened. One thing the band did was announce before each song some variation of, "this next song was written by a band called Oneida out of Brooklyn NY; we're Oneida." It actually got more amusing each time, and late in their set when they paused and didn't actually make that announcement, I helpfully called out, "who's this song by?" They replied, "all the songs tonight tend to be by a band called Oneida."

Finally, the show concluded with the art rock of Kinski. It would be neat to complete the pattern and say their style was that of the early 90s, but that's not really the case; at least, not the early 90s of grunge and Nirvana. Rather, Kinski follows in the traditions touched on by Black Mountain and Oneida: classic driving guitar rock; lengthy instrumental prog rock; loud, chaotic, experimental rock. Don't let "art rock" or "prog(ressive) rock" fool you, either: Kinski are ferocious and overwhelming, not trippy and self-indulgent. This was my second time seeing Kinski, and I was just as impressed by their powerful sound as the first time. I need to buy more of their CDs; I highly recommend Airs Above Your Station, their last full-length album from 2003, and I'm looking forward to their new album due out this summer.
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