Pilcrow

Okay, I've got about an hour, let's knock out another concert review. [Due to connection problems at Bauhaus, I ended up not getting to post this before midnight on Tuesday as I should've been able to. I'm tempted to backdate it, but I think I'll just let it go as Wednesday's post.]

I started out April right by going to see Hotels at the High Dive on Saturday April 2, with Ghost Town Riot and Strong Like Woman. The opening acts were both new to me.

Ghost Town Riot were a straight-up Seattle '90s-rock band, along the lines of Minus the Bear and Soundgarden. I know it's arrogant to say, but I thought they had a surprisingly good crowd for an opening band I've never heard of. Just a good reminder that there's lots going on in Seattle that I don't know about. Ghost Town Riot played basically guitar-driven rock though they had some prominent keyboard parts too. They played a mix of songs with vocals and just instrumentals, and surprised me with a reggae dub beat in one song, an interesting choice I wasn't expecting. Overall, I thought they were good without grabbing me, as is the case with much of that style of rock, but the instrumentals and the reggae dub suggest they're a band worth keeping an eye on.

Strong Like Woman were the real surprise of the evening, as it turned out. They mostly performed as a trio, with an occasional extra vocalist, and used prerecorded electronic music (played off a laptop), live vocals, and multiple drums. They began with a solemn opening instrumental, with the main trio, dressed in robes, standing in a circle ritualistically. They promptly dispelled the gothy imagery by breaking into a raucous electropop song with a chorus apparently inspired by the theme to the PBS kids' science-and-math show 3-2-1 Contact. And from that, they removed their robes to reveal marching band jackets beneath, suggesting the band came from crossing drum corps nerds with New Wave dance pop. Their songs sounded kind of throwaway, but their performance was highly entertaining, and the live drumming and vocals were actually good. Between the solemn opening, the drums, and the electropop, they reminded me of such bands as Yacht, Big Pig, Ming & Ping, and even Freezepop. They closed their set with a theme song—always a bonus in my opinion—and the whole band jumped down into audience to dance before bringing a few friends back on stage to finish. The band said this was their first show in Seattle—and they're from Seattle, so I'm a little unclear on whether it was actually their first public show ever—and with such a start, I can see them going far.

Speaking of bands going far, Hotels were in the midst of an online competition, Billboard's "Battle of the Bands", in which three bands in each of six regions of the U.S. were up for popular vote for a couple weeks. The six regional winners would go play a showdown concert in May in Las Vegas, and the victor at the concert would appear in the Billboard Music Awards show. Of course I've been a huge fan of the band ever since discovering them, but still, I felt their performance this night ably demonstrated why they deserved to win a shot at the big time. Somehow the set felt really strong, even more so than usual, possibly even more solid than their CD release show just back in February. They just have a killer blend of energy, enthusiasm, and talent behind their songs that can be both cinematic and intimate, joyful and wistful and morose, and always danceable. And just over a week later, it turned out that a lot of other people agree with me, as Hotels won the preliminary voting round and will be headed to Las Vegas for the showdown. Hopefully 2011 will be the year Hotels break out to the widespread recognition they deserve. 

I was much too busy dancing to take more than a couple photos of Hotels, but I have several of the other two bands. You can see them all in my set on Flickr.

Hotels are also closing out April with a show at the Sunset Tavern on Friday April 29, with Yuni in Taxco headlining and Blue Skies for Black Hearts opening. Come see what I've been raving about all this time and cheer them on as they head to Las Vegas for the Billboard Battle of the Bands!

In January, I started making some effort again to take notes on concerts. Well, I at least made sure to jot down band names, but my notes are still pretty sketchy.

I did take good notes for two shows, because I reviewed them for the KEXP Blog. First, I started off the year right on January 6th with a great local lineup at Neumos featuring Beehive, Noddy, CMYK, and Library Science. I wrote briefly about that show here on my blog, and you can read the full review here on the KEXP Blog. Then, on January 20th, I went to the Triple Door to see Asobi Seksu with Anomie Belle opening; again, I have a brief post here on my blog, and the full review here on the KEXP Blog.

I also took decent notes on January 16th, when I was at the Vera Project to see YouTube-video ukelele sensation Julia Nunes. In fact, having just written out a long paragraph about the show, I believe I'll just post it as a separate review tomorrow, when I'm going to be busy and may not have time to write. For the impatient: Julia Nunes is very good, check her out.

I went to see Hotels twice in January. The first time was on January 9th at the Comet Tavern, playing a show with Romance and at least one other band that I might've missed but in any case didn't even get their name down. I don't have any notes from that show; I know I liked Romance the first time I saw them, so I'm sure it was a pretty good show. (Edit: Come to think of it, the other band was probably the Redwood Plan, as I know I saw them do part of a set on a bill including Hotels at the Comet Tavern, and I didn't stay for the whole set only because I got a ride home with a friend.)

Then on January 21st, I went to the High Dive to see Hotels again, this time in between Gabriel Mintz opening and Pillow Army headlining. Gabriel Mintz played with Trent Moorman on drums, and had a kind of southern art rock sound which I thought was pretty cool. I have no notes about Hotels, of course; probably too busy dancing. I'd also seen Pillow Army once before and liked them, but thought they needed some more development; now, having added a bass player and a second guitar/flute/backing vocalist, I felt they had clearly built on the promise they'd shown before and were becoming a band to watch. 

So, full Julia Nunes review to be posted tomorrow, and if I have time I'll do the February concert summary too, as I only have proper notes on one of the three shows I saw. I'll probably roll the March concert summary into that, too, as I have only one other show that month besides the Alabaster one that I already reviewed. Otherwise, February and March will probably be covered on Monday. It'd be nice to catch up on 2010 before the year ends, but I may be too busy this week and also I should be able to get some good standalone reviews, as I did get better about taking notes.

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.

Two Saturdays ago, on April 5, I went to the High Dive for a concert and live broadcast of KEXP's local music show Audioasis. KEXP has been doing these broadcasts at the High Dive on the first Saturday of each month for just over a year now, and the proceeds of each show are donated to a local charity, in this case the Seattle Public Library Foundation. The performances of two bands are broadcast live on the air during the normal hours (6-9 PM PST) of Audioasis, and then a few bands perform after the broadcast. For this show, Mono In VCF and The Dimes were featured on the air, followed by The Transmissionary Six, A Gun That Shoots Knives, Cancer Rising, and finally an encore performance by Mono In VCF.

Since first seeing Mono In VCF live at the Triple Door in February, I had been wondering how the band would sound in a small club, and whether they would use the full seven-member lineup or just the core quartet. The answers in short are, they did use the full septet, and they sounded almost as gorgeous as before. Some nuances were lost occasionally in the general volume even in the early set, before the levels were turned up for the later acts, but still it seemed fairly well-balanced for a large band in a small club. One detail I noticed in this performance, one of the guitarists actually used the head of his guitar to play a keyboard part simultaneously during the song "Spider Rotation", which I thought was pretty neat.

The Dimes played a mix of upbeat indie-pop and slower folky songs. They sounded something like early R.E.M. or perhaps The Decemberists, mixing in some mandolin and melodica to their basic lineup of three guitars, bass, and drums. I half-jokingly remarked to a friend at the show, "they sound like a Portland band," as indeed they are from Portland. They decorated the stage some, adding in an old TV and floor lamp and many candles, creating a living-room feel for their set. Although the band were all decent players and the music was appealing, they didn't really catch on with me, but I can see them getting popular.

The Transmissionary Six, belying their name, appeared as a quintet at this show, including lead singer Terri Moeller and musicians on bass and backing vocals, guitar/pedal steel guitar/backing vocals, guitar, and drums. (Their MySpace page suggests up to nine people are regular band members, with a bunch more occasional members.) They had an even stronger folk element to their sound than The Dimes, almost being country-rock. They reminded me of the Cowboy Junkies, and Moeller has a similar nice low voice. Their songs were more on the midtempo moody side than rocking out.
They had a good sound, and although I wasn't compelled to seek out a CD, I'd like to hear them again and they may grow on me.

As A Gun That Shoots Knives were setting up the stage for their set, something told me I'd better put in my earplugs. Perhaps it was the wacky costumes they wore, or the large gong they set up, but I guessed that this was not to be another moody folk-rock band. Sure enough, the quartet (vocals/keyboard/gong, guitar/backing vocals, bass/backing vocals, drums) seemed to be a noisy punk band at first, but proved to be something more. Their songs were more melodic than the typical fierce-young-guy punk band, with vocals that were (more or less) sung rather than growled or hoarsely screamed. The music had an early eighties vibe to it, hinting at the reggae-influenced punk of The Clash and The Police, and varied from upbeat to fast and thrashing. Their song topics included literacy (apropos for the benefit), karate dojo, sushi, birthdays, an exhortation to "stay in school motherfucker", and a faux-metal tribute to the Balrog of Moria (yes, really - and it was AWESOME). The lead singer was very engaging, at one point asking the audience proudly, "Do you like the gong? We rented it for the weekend!" A Gun That Shoots Knives was highly entertaining both to watch and to hear, and I'll be looking for them in the future.

Cancer Rising, in short, were not my thing. A hiphop trio including two rappers and a turntablist, they seemed to me the most out of place in the evening's lineup, although in fairness the whole lineup was pretty disparate and A Gun That Shoots Knives was just as strong a contrast to the previous bands. I did recognize at least one song that I knew from KEXP airplay and found it reasonably enjoyable, though unfortunately I don't now remember what it was. I thought the DJ made good use of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Phenomena" for one rap, but otherwise I didn't notice anything remarkable (which I think says more about my listening than his actual skills). For the most part though, I found them abrasive and didn't care for the set.

Finally, Mono In VCF closed the evening with a second set, featuring a different order and more songs. Both of their sets included a new song, which was great to hear. In this set they had a weird break in middle, that seemed like it might be technical difficulties. Then they began an instrumental, and then to my surprise brought out Cancer Rising to rap over it. I didn't think that blended well at all, but I have to give both groups props for giving it a try. There seemed to be a lot more people talking rather than listening during this set, but it was the end of the evening, and perhaps the juxtaposition of Cancer Rising and Mono In VCF made for a weird mix in the audience. In the early set, the band had an almost Cocteau Twins sound for the song "Chanteuse"; for the late set's last song, "Cinch Ring" (if I recall correctly), the higher volume levels produced a lot of shoegazer-style feedback. It was totally worthwhile to stay through the whole evening - including Cancer Rising's set that I didn't care for - to hear Mono In VCF twice, and I can only see my love for the band growing.

I ended up not getting many good photos, as for the most part I was not near the stage. I did upload 11 photos, starting here.

I should probably add a disclaimer: although I am a volunteer at KEXP, the opinions expressed in this review (and all others on my blog, for that matter) are solely my own and do not represent or reflect the views of KEXP.

Last Saturday was the long-awaited CD release party for Beehive's new album, Pretty Little Thieves. The show, at High Dive, included Theory in Motion as the opening act and The Fading Collection as the closing act, and also Dezignated Pete as the between-set DJ. I don't usually review between-set DJs, but it's worth noting he spun an enjoyable set of music with some really interesting live mixing of well-known electronic music; he'd be worth going to hear as a featured artist in his own right.

Theory in Motion are an electronic duo, featuring turntable, synth drum, computer, keyboard, and more electronics. Both members also provided vocals, the main vocalist tending to rap while the other usually sang. Their continuous set varied in style from hard-edged techno to groovy dance music, with beats that begged for dancing but a complex sound that rewarded simply listening as well. As the opening act this night, they suffered the smallest audience with just a few people standing toward the front to listen, but on another night they could easily fill the floor with dancing bodies, I'm sure. I'll be keeping an eye out for them in the concert calendar.

Beehive are the duo of Alethea Eichhorn (aka Butterfly Beats) on laptop, keyboards, and vocals, and David Miller on electric and slide guitars, bass, and vocals. Together they make a heady mix of rock and breakbeat electronica. I'd been anticipating this show since their short set in January, and I was not disappointed. I discovered at this show just how strongly their music stays with me: it wasn't until I saw the track listing of their new album that I realized I didn't yet actually own some of the songs I recognized at the show as "old favorites," including "Small Face" and "Better Than Lies." Other songs in the set included "Outta Here One Day," previously released on last year's EP Operation Artichoke, and "Fear" and "Joseph and Mary" from their first release, Cycle A. As in previous shows, Beehive's delight in music shone through their performance, and their infectious enthusiasm got the crowd bopping along and inspired some amazing dancing. I'm almost sad to think that it'll be a while before they start introducing new songs again, but for now I'll take joy in the great music they're already playing.

The Fading Collection are Sarah McCulloch on vocals and guitar and Matt Frickelton on bass and programming, with Jeremy Hill on drums and samples and Tavia Wormstedt on backing vocals. I first saw them last year at the same show when I first saw Beehive - and incidentally the first show I attended at High Dive. At the time I described their goth/industrial-influenced electronic rock as "more for listening than dancing," and although I still would not describe their music as dance music, there was plenty of dancing going on at this show. Despite the late hour, most of the evening's small crowd stayed through the set and called for the band to continue even when they seemed ready to finish. In fact, the band seemed a little unprepared to play as long as they did, which made for a slightly awkward end to the evening rather than an exciting climax. I enjoyed their set even more than I did last time, and yet I still feel like they could set the place on fire, but don't quite. I hope to be there when they do.

---

I listed several possible shows for June at the end of my previous review, including The Fading Collection opening for Sky Cries Mary at Neumos on the 15th. I still haven't decided whether to try catching that as well as Kinski's live accompaniement to the 1927 film Berlin: Symphony of a City at the Triple Door the same night, or just picking one show. I haven't seen Kinski in almost a year, and it'll be cool to hear what they do in a film score context, but I've never seen Sky Cries Mary and I'd like to. Meanwhile, I found out today that Tara Jane ONeil is playing Sunday June 17 at Gallery 1412, with Jana Hunter. TJO shows are obligatory, so whatever else I might see in June, I'll certainly be there.

Last Friday morning on my way to work, I heard a band called The Airborne Toxic Event playing live on KEXP. I'd never heard of them before, but they sounded pretty good, and they were pretty entertaining while talking to the DJ. They were playing that night at High Dive with three other bands I didn't know: The Heavy Hearts, PartMan PartHorse, and Nazca Lines. After the Sing-Sing debacle made my prospects for a February show look dim, I had been thinking that I should just pick a show that weekend and take my chances, so I decided to go through with it and attend this one. I ended up quite pleased with my decision.

I arrived partway through the opening set by Nazca Lines. The band consists of five young guys on vocals, two guitars, bass, and drums. Like many of these bands I've seen, Nazca Lines seemed to be about making some noise and raising some hell. The vocals ran the gamut from shouting to screaming, while the music thrashed about without a lot of structure. This is not necessarily a bad thing; there's certainly a place for angry young punk-ish rock, it's just not something that generally appeals to me, and that was the case here. The band didn't sound much different from others of their type that I've heard, and I was thinking that I wouldn't have anything to say about them. But then their vocalist introduced their last song by saying it was based on a book by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, which made me reassess them a bit; clearly there was more going on than I was hearing. However, with the shouty vocals, I just couldn't care to pay attention enough to figure out what the song was about. So, they're not my style, but they may yet develop into something interesting.

The evening started looking up for me with PartMan PartHorse, a quartet including vocals, guitar, bass, and drums, with the vocalist and the bassist each playing keyboard on some songs. The vocals were still more shouted than sung, but the songs were more melodic and structured, easier to bop along to. Much of the lyrics seemed to be about sex and relationships, but at least one song that might've been their theme involved shouted declarations of being an equestrian and a horse. The band also showed an edge of social concern: Camel cigarettes were obviously sponsoring the evening, and had a rep wandering through the crowd; in reaction, the vocalist removed his shirt and wrote "Camel Sucks" across his torso. (Their MySpace page currently features an anti-smoking screed for their bio.) Overall, the band sounded tighter than Nazca Lines and I found them more enjoyable.

The Heavy Hearts are another quartet of two guitars, bass, and drums, with lead vocals from the male guitarist and backing vocals from the female guitarist, who also switched instruments with the bassist for a few songs. The Heavy Hearts continued the two progressing traits of the evening: their vocalist sang more than he shouted, and the songs were more melodic and traditionally structured than the previous two bands. However, they also lived up to the first part of their name, having the heaviest, densest sound of the night. They weren't heavy metal though, just full-tilt full-volume rock, and they sounded great. I'd had a long and somewhat annoying day at work, and this was just the right kind of aggressive rock that I could get into and work out my frustration.

The Airborne Toxic Event are a new quintet, formed by singer/guitarist Mikel Jollett and drummer Daren Taylor, with Noah Harmon on bass, Steven Chen on guitar, and Anna Bulbrook on viola, keyboard and tambourine. The 'Event were unlike the other bands that evening; they looked rather like European hipsters, dressed all in black, but their sound was pure American pop rock. This band had a lead singer, not just a vocalist, and their sound was engaging rather than aggressive. As much as I'd enjoyed the stomping sound of The Heavy Hearts, I found myself truly delighted with the upbeat bop of the 'Event. While the previous band let me turn frustration into fun, this band reminded me to let go and enjoy life. For a band that's only been together a few months at this point, they were very professional and very, well, together. I picked up their three-song self-titled EP; it's not much to go on, but I'll be looking forward to hearing a lot more from them.