Pilcrow

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.

I am seriously behind in my music blogging! A month ago, on Saturday August 30, I went to El Corazón to see Freezepop. On the bill were no less than five bands including Freezepop, an unusually large number for such a show, and they turned out to be a very diverse bunch. My best guess was that the club figured with Bumbershoot going on, they'd throw as many different bands as possible onto the bill and someone would show up for something. I don't believe this served the bands very well, and I think that a smaller assortment of bands with more similar styles would've made for a stronger show and better attendance, but then I've never booked club shows before and it's possible with Bumbershoot also happening nothing would've made a difference. Also on the bill was The Fading Collection, Blue Light Curtain, Ambulance for Angeles, and Cursed Lullaby.

I don't have much to say for Cursed Lullaby, a female-fronted quartet that might as well be named "Metal Band™". They had adequate musical proficiency but were completely unoriginal. My friends dubbed it "angry kitten rock" and commented that they wanted to take the singer home, cuddle her, and tell her everything would be okay. I could see them appealing to teenagers but I can't imagine how anyone past their early 20s could take them seriously. If you like goth-tinged metal though, these guys are the stereotype of it so you might dig them.

Ambulance for Angeles are a duo on synths/vocals and synths/guitar/backing vocals. They played angsty midtempo electronic pop that was very earnest-sounding in that early-twenties way. I liked that they bridged the space between songs with moody bass throbs. I enjoyed them more than Cursed Lullaby and they have some potential, but I feel they need to develop some more.

Blue Light Curtain are a trio including guitar and vocals, synths/drum machine and vocals, and drums. They were perhaps the oddest band in the lineup but I liked them the most of the three I didn't know. Their music was a heavy shoegazer style, though lacking most of the guitar shimmer and feedback often present in shoegaze; in a sense they were goth without being goth. All of their songs were sort of extended chants, with some repeated verses but no actual verse/chorus structure. They introduced one song as being inspired by Twin Peaks, and that seemed to describe their sound well, weirdly ominous - I thought of it as "music to watch stormclouds roll by". Most of the songs had about the same medium tempo and I felt they could've used a little more variation, but then toward the end they played a song that was a little more upbeat, less ominous, more rocking. I enjoyed their set quite a bit and will be looking for them at other shows in the future.

The Fading Collection are often billed as an electronic band, but as they played their first heavy rock songs I was suddenly struck by their resemblance to the opening metal band - similar powerful and soaring female vocals, similar crunchy guitar riffs, although not quite as heavy. It was only as they got into their set and started bringing out the dancier songs, with more overt electronic instrumentation and samples, that they distinguished themselves from the goth metal sound. Even then, I found that I wasn't getting into the music as much as I expected; despite their enthusiastic playing, they just weren't quite bringing it. This has been my experience the previous two times I've seen them, and I'm reluctantly concluding that they may be a better studio band than they are live, but still they're not actually bad live and I can always listen to the albums.

I was much too busy bopping and singing along to Freezepop to do more than jot down a couple quick notes; needless to say, they were awesome and I had a blast. They had a fourth player this time, named Seth, on electronic drumpads, and the addition of a live percussionist freed up The Duke to play more keytar and less sequencer, as well as allowing Sean to rock out on electric guitar for Freezepop's two big Guitar Hero hits, "Brainpower" and "Get Ready 2 Rokk". Still, the QY-70 was not forgotten, and got its turn for a bow during the classic "Freezepop Forever". In fact, the show was quite heavy on the old school songs, including "Harebrained Scheme", "Science Genius Girl", "Chess King", "Summer Boy", and "Plastic Stars". But newer songs were represented too, building to the awe-inspiring "Less Talk More Rokk". Once again, despite playing late at night the day after their big show at PAX and only two days after arriving from the East Coast, Freezepop put on a fantastic fun show full of energy and (no pun intended) enthusiasm, and I've seldom seen another band match their consistency. My only regret is that one of my favorite Freezepop songs, "Tenisu No Boifurendo", isn't well-suited to these hyper shows, though perhaps they could try something like the Kodomo remix version...

As I've noted in the past, El Corazón is not friendly to my iPhone's camera, so my pictures are all kinda crappy. Still, I have a few of Blue Light Curtain, just a couple of The Fading Collection, and several of Freezepop.

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Still to do, reviews of Hotels at Nectar, TV on the Radio at the Showbox SoDo, Balkan Beat Box at Neumos, Goldfrapp also at the Showbox SoDo, and KJ Sawka at Nectar. Boy I've seen a lot lately. Looking ahead, I'm considering The Trucks and A Gun That Shoots Knives at Chop Suey on Saturday the 11th, and Fleet Foxes at The Moore Theatre on Sunday the 19th. Plus, the lovely and talented Sarah Vowell is doing a reading at the Town Hall on Monday the 13th, I need to get down to Elliott Bay Books and pick up a ticket!

Last night I went to El Corazón to see Halou, with Mexican Institute of Sound, Beehive, and Miss Solar System. The show had a couple scheduling peculiarities. Both Beehive and Miss Solar System were brought in as substitutes for Zoe Keating (formerly of Rasputina); fitting in two artists in place of one meant they each had a shorter than normal set, no more than half an hour. The other peculiarity was that the headliners, Halou, were bumped up a slot, leaving Mexican Institute of Sound to close out the evening.

Miss Solar System are an electronic trio, but appeared as a duo as their vocalist was ill. Although one member is described on their website as a multi-instrumentalist, no traditional instruments were in evidence; the sound was made solely with synthesizers, samplers, mixers, and other electronic gear. As might be expected, they played a groovy mix of drum 'n bass, breakbeat, house and downtempo. They had a good sound that warmed me up from the bitter chill outside and had me tapping my toes, but it was missing something to make them really stand out from the other good electronic artists I've seen in the past. I suspect that missing something was their vocalist, and I look forward to seeing the full band in the future and learning whether I'm right.

Beehive continue to be one of my favorite Seattle bands. The duo are Butterfly Beats on keyboards and laptop, and David Miller on guitar and slide guitar, with both sharing vocals. They played a high-energy blend of breakbeat and rock that practically demands dancing, though to my surprise no one did; perhaps the audience was still chilled from the cold, or it just isn't the kind of club where that happens. Just like when I saw them last March, they were in high spirits and clearly delighted to be on stage. They debuted the title track to their upcoming album, Pretty Little Thieves, which sounded good despite some technical problems at the start. I had hoped there might be another one or two new songs, but I'll just have to be patient until this coming March, which is when they said they expect to have their CD release party.

Halou are a trio, featuring Rebecca Coseboom on vocals, Ryan Coseboom on guitar, keyboard and synth, and Count on acoustic/electronic drums and occasional guitar. They had an additional musician on acoustic bass viol and bass guitar. Although they are generally considered to be an electronic band, I found their sound to be much closer to ethereal rock, made for listening and absorbing rather than feeling and dancing. Still, the sound shifted easily between the ethereal and the electronic, with acoustic bass on some of the crunchier songs and electronic drums on some of the more ethereal ones. Rebecca used three different microphones throughout the set to get different vocal effects, something I haven't seen before and rather liked. Strange video loops played on a screen behind the band during some of the tracks, adding to the moodiness of the music; in contrast, Rebecca frequently had a huge grin on her expressive face, betraying how much she was enjoying the set. I too had a big grin on my face, as I've been meaning to see Halou for a few years now (and I'm sure I've missed a couple shows here in Seattle already), and now that I'd finally made it, they lived up to my expectations. I picked up their latest full-length, Wholeness & Separation, which came out last year, along with two EPs, Albatross and Separation. Those will be on my iPod for a while, no doubt.

Mexican Institute of Sound is officially the one-man project of Camilo Lara (DJ Pata Pata), but he appeared with an additional musician for the show - presumably Oliver Castro, who is also listed as a band member on their MySpace page. Like opening act Miss Solar System, MIS had a couple banks of electronic gear and no traditional instruments, not even keyboard. However, their sound drew upon a mix of lounge, dub, cha-cha, and other Latin American dance music. Mix is the key word here, as the two artists created an ever-changing stream of music with lots of samples and electronic effects. Lara threw repeated wordless vocals - "hey!" and "ah!" and "ok!" - on top of the music, often sampling himself and mixing it right back in. As the final band of the evening, they suffered with the usual sparse audience, but they showed no lack of energy or enthusiam. MIS would be a good band to see at a club packed with people who came out to dance, and I'd like to see that happen sometime. But the music was also good just for listening, and I may have to pick up their CD, Méjico Máxico, as I currently have nothing like it.