Pilcrow

I went to four concerts in April 2010, but only took notes at the first one. On the afternoon of April 14th*, I caught Love Is All doing an in-studio at KEXP, and liked it enough to go check them out that evening at the High Dive. I missed the first opening band but caught the second, Princeton, a good indie-pop band that reminded me of the Ocean Blue without sounding particularly like them; my friend Ping, who was with me, later compared them to Jens Lekman, which seemed more apt. Love Is All had a very strong New Wave punk vibe, in fact sounding at times very much like classic punk band X-Ray Spex ("Oh Bondage Up Yours"), complete with an endearingly yappy-sounding female lead vocalist and a saxophonist. However, Love Is All were very playful and charming, not angry and rebellious, with song topics such as the drummer's messy apartment or seeing the king of Sweden visiting their hometown. I enjoyed them a lot, and was glad I'd gone to see them.

Also in April, I saw:

• The Professors, a local honky-tonk/country-rock band, playing a couple sets at the Boxcar Ale House in Magnolia (neighborhood of Seattle) on April 23rd—not my thing, but my friend Tony Sacco is drumming with them, and if you like that style you should check them out.
• Hotels and Erik Blood playing at the Sunset Tavern on April 25th—I missed the opening act, Erik Blood and Hotels were both great as always. Oh how could I forget, this was the band's last show with Max Wood on drums! A sad occasion, but they sent him off in style. I have a few photos of the band here on Flickr.
• Jazzsteppa at Neumos on April 27th—I don't remember who else was on the bill, it was an electronic dance music show, and it turned out that I shouldn't have gone because I was coming down with a cold and couldn't get into the show or enjoy the music.

I think I will put the May summary into a separate post, as I took more notes at those shows.

*I feel like I should mention that I also saw Charlotte Gainsbourg doing an in-studio at KEXP that day, and she sounded really good; however, her show was very much sold out.