Pilcrow

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Mad Rad rock the stage to open the 2011 KEXP BBQ at Seattle Center.

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• Gabriel Mintz—He's really good, and I noted I "should pay more attention"; also, Trent Moorman drummed for him, prompting me to wonder whether there's any band in Seattle he's not drumming with.
• Grand Hallway—That week's "oh yeah, these guys" band; good stuff, also noted I should pay more attention to them.
• Elliott Brood—Didn't care so much for their folk rock at first, but warmed up to them and they had some good clap-along songs. 

• State of the Artist—A hiphop group, apparently I thought their style was alright, but I don't remember what they sound like.
• Noddy—His new songs were great, made me wonder why I didn't yet have his first album; and I caught a photo of him levitating in the air suspended by his music.
• Brite Futures (formerly Natalie Portman's Shaved Head)—A fun pop band that still gets to be too shrill for me after a while, but their new name seems rather apropos.

• Victor Shade—A solo rapper who looked like an indie rock hipster. No real opinion on his music.
• Dinosaur Feathers—Sunny pop, good harmonies, "oh these guys".
• The Joy Formidable—Very good dark indie rock.
• The Lonely Forest—Sounded like the Long Winters and a dozen other bands.
• Suckers—Pretty good talented multi-instrumentalists; the lead singer had a crazy high clear falsetto. I recognized a couple of their songs too.
• Quasi—Embarrassingly, I spent a while before the BBQ wondering why they were headlining, only to realize that (a) duh, they're kind of a big deal in their own right, not just because they include Janet Weiss, formerly of Sleater-Kinney, on drums, and (b) I knew several of their songs already. Solid post-punk indie rock.

• Tea Cozies—All my notes say is "bratty rock", but I'm pretty sure that was a good thing.
• Head Like a Kite—Way too busy dancing in the crowd to take notes for this, but not too busy to take a bunch of photos.
• Say Hi—Umm, they played. I guess I thought they were okay, I really don't remember.

• Yuni in Taxco—Oh heck, totally forgot I'd seen them here, when I saw them again this past January (which I haven't written about yet). I don't remember what I thought at the time, but I definitely liked them in January.
• The Head and the Heart—Don't remember anything about them.
• Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band—Any set that begins with a dozen musicians onstage playing drums can't be that bad, and in fact they were pretty entertaining. Good conclusion to the series.

Dave Einmo

Guest guitarist Graig Markel

Trent Moorman in back on drums, with Barb Trentalange on guest vocals

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Gabriel Mintz playing the KEXP Concerts at the Mural series at Seattle Center.

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