Pilcrow

It's perhaps premature to be doing a concert summary that includes September. However, I've got just one brief note to make about a show in August that I haven't yet covered, and I've been to (technically) three shows so far this month and have little to say about them either, so I just want to do one summary post.

On Friday August 26, after the final Concert at the Mural, I went to Neumos to catch the final show by Sleepy Eyes of Death. Because I'd had my laptop with me at the Mural concert, I headed home first to drop that off. As a result, I missed the opening band Crypts entirely, and as I still needed to grab some pizza for dinner, I also caught just the last couple songs by Flexions. What I heard was kind of a '60s surf-space-lounge rock that I liked, so I'll have to be on the lookout for another chance to see Flexions. Sleepy Eyes of Death took a while to get set up, and then immediately after their first song they had technical difficulties that paused the show for another 15 or 20 minutes, which was unfortunate. Still, their epic space rock was worth the wait. They're the sort of band that recognizes even though lasers are now commonplace, we all still think they're cool. Listening to their music, I wondered, what if the Star Wars prequels had used this music? Or rather, what if you made a movie crossing the visual style of Tron: Legacy with the kind of epic space opera story that the Star Wars prequels were (ostensibly) reaching for (and didn't quite grasp)? Basically, someone should get Luc Besson to do that, and use the music of Sleepy Eyes of Death as the score. I've barely come to know of the band, but I know they'll be missed.

Last Friday September 9, I went over to Nectar to see Kinksi, opening for Sleepy Sun and White Hills. It's been over a year since I last saw Kinski, and they were good as always, though there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the performance. I didn't recognize some of the songs but I think they were older tunes I'm less familiar with rather than new ones. White Hills played hard rock, a bit psychedelic and a bit more metal in style; I thought they were fairly conventional, fairly good for what they do, but not really interesting to me. Sleepy Sun played roots/blues rock, like Black Angels or BRMC (or Seattle band the Purrs for that matter). They were also fairly good, more to my taste than White Hills, but again not as interesting as Kinski usually is to me. It was a decent evening of rock overall.

Last night, Tuesday September 13, I went back to Nectar to see Zuzuka Poderosa, an act I only knew as being highly recommended by DJ Chilly from KEXP. Opening were DJs Darwin, of Seattle band Mad Rad, and Chaach, who also DJed for Poderosa. This lineup, unfortunately, turned out to be not at all to my taste. Generally speaking, they all used hiphop-influenced bass beats with Latin music—Zuzuka Poderosa herself being a rapper championing a Brazilian style called baile funk or funk carioca—and while there's nothing wrong with that combination as such, I just found most of it to be too hard and heavy and loud for me. The DJs mixed in some other styles as well—Darwin for example dropped "Posse on Broadway" into the mix, while Chaach played some tracks by recently-deceased French DJ Mehdi as a tribute—but it just wasn't working for me. To be fair, I was also in a sour mood having nothing to do with the show. Still, I gave Poderosa about 15 minutes and then left, something so rare that I believe I can still count the instances using my fingers just once apiece. Although that sounds really damning, I want to emphasize again that it simply wasn't to my taste, and judging by the highly excited good-sized crowd of people dancing, Poderosa was doing a fine job for what she does.

On my way home, however, as I walked past the White Rabbit, I heard something much more interesting to my taste. The door person said the band, Uroboros, had just started their set, so I went in to check them out. The band featured a singer/guitarist (though her guitar sounded very low, I thought it might've been a six-string bass), a drummer, and another woman on backing vocals. They played bare-bones dark post-punk, with strong gothy vocals (versus ethereal floaty ones) and clean guitar lines with little distortion or other effects. Despite the tiny audience, they gamely played through a good set of songs and an encore of two which the singer said had never been played before by the drummer; the last one was supposed to be just the singer on acoustic guitar, but the drummer still improvised a bongo part on his tom that suited it well. I liked their set ever so much more than the Zuzuka Poderosa show, and it cheered me up immensely, so the evening was salvaged. Apparently Uroboros has been playing most shows with a fuller band lineup than just guitar and drums, so I'll have to look out for another opportunity to see them.

I'm behind in my concert reviews, so let me try to get this one out quickly. Back on Thursday June 23, I heard Ringo Deathstarr doing an in-studio performance at KEXP and liked them enough to go catch the show that night at Neumos. (Edit: Actually, their KEXP in-studio was on Wednesday June 22, and then they played the following night. You can hear the in-studio on KEXP's website.) Opening the show was Follow That Bird, and the headlining band was And You Will Know Know Us by the Trail of Dead (hereafter "Trail of Dead"), whom I knew by name but hadn't really heard their music before. I came in late enough that I missed most of Follow That Bird's set. But I liked what I heard of their last song, heavy dark-edged rock, and wished that I'd been on time. 

Ringo Deathstarr started out mostly shoegaze, but then they did one that was more '90s indie pop, still heavy, but with cute boy-girl vocals. They were a bit like the Raveonettes that way, just with a different era of pop. Later they had a song with a lovely ethereal guitar introduction, dreampop style. And another tune reminded me of Mistle Thrush's late work; I could totally imagine Valerie Forgione singing over it (not that Ringo Deathstarr's own singers were bad). They finished with yet another stylistic tweak, as Follow That Bird joined them for a raucous punk rock affair. I was definitely digging their music, my only complaint being that I wanted some of their songs to be longer, and I picked up their album, Colour Trip.

...Trail of Dead turned out to be pure hard rock, driven by rhythm guitar, lacking the intricate guitar solos often associated with the better-known branches of heavy metal. That's not to say that their music was simplistic, but I still wanted to describe it as old-school somehow—not particularly '70s-sounding, yet it had that kind of pure heaviness, and definitely a metal edge to it. They had a relatively small but ardent crowd rocking out to it, heads banging and arms flailing. It really was not my thing; the music was all right but didn't make me want to rock out the way most everyone else was. I do have to say the artwork for their latest album, Tao of the Dead, was fantastic and made me want a copy, but I couldn't justify picking up the LP just for that. 

I have a set of photos from this show up on Flickr; the Ringo Deathstarr ones are unfortunately on the dark side, but the Trail of Dead ones are fairly good.

On  Thursday May 12, I was at Neumos to staff a table for KEXP at a show featuring YACHT, with Light Asylum and Jeffrey Jerusalem opening. As always, my blog, my opinions, not the official views of KEXP. I've been a fan of YACHT since their album See Mystery Lights came out in 2009, and had been disappointed that due to them being scheduled up against LCD Soundsystem, I'd only caught their last song when they performed at the 2010 Sasquatch! Music Festival. So I'd been waiting for the opportunity to see them do a full show and jumped on this as soon as I could.

Jeffrey Jerusalem turned out to be the drummer for YACHT, doing a solo synthpop set. He had some fairly entertaining banter for the handful of people present at the start of his set, alluding to the room's emptiness, and graciously called out Neumos' lighting technician for doing a good job. His music was actually quite good, multi-layered downtempo crossed with disco-funk. It was very catchy, he had a good voice, and also played live percussion on a small set. I thought it was really enjoyable, a good opening, and knowing that he would be drumming for YACHT made me even more excited for their set. I tried to pick up his tour EP after the show but unfortunately it sold out; I'll be looking for more music from him, though.

Light Asylum in contrast to their name played rather dark synthrock—early Ministry-type darkwave, perhaps. Their drumming in particular was right out of the '80s with A Flock of Seagulls handclaps, or New Order's distinctive drum riff from "Blue Monday"—except the drumming was done live by one member of the duo, not by a drum machine. The music was mostly dancey or hard-edged, but they also played a moody slower one. I thought they were pretty good and enjoyed them quite a bit, and I did pick up their tour EP afterwards. 

YACHT are the core duo of Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans (both on vocals, with Bechtolt on synths and drumpads as well), joined by a backing trio on guitar, bass, and drums. They put on a very engaging high-energy set of electronic-influenced dance rock and pop. Evans wasted no time in getting down into audience during "Afterlife", which they played third; she proved to be a very dynamic and dramatic performer. The set mixed in new songs from their forthcoming album Shangri-La, such as the opposed "Dystopia" (slow) and "Utopia" (fast and catchy), with some from See Mystery Lights, such as the aforementioned "Afterlife" and "Summer Song". They also tossed in a disco cover of "Breakin' the Law" of all things. People in the audience were actually dancing, no mean feat to produce at a Seattle rock show—though to be fair some people did dance for the earlier bands too. They closed the main set with a singalong to "Psychic City (Voodoo City)" that had the whole audience bouncing, and played two new songs for the encore. The whole set felt short, maybe 45 minutes (though I didn't check and it may have been a bit longer), and I would've liked a couple more of the older songs. But the new songs sounded all right, particularly "Utopia", so I'm very much looking forward to the new album and hope to see them again soon.

I was able to get a fairly decent set of photos for all three bands, which you can see in the set on Flickr. 

I'm not particularly happy with how my photos from the Raveonettes' show came out. Although I have taken some fairly decent ones from the side of the stage at Neumos before, this time I think they're all too dark (for Tamaryn), too bright (for the Raveonettes), and mostly too blurry (both). However, I'm in the midst of trying to clean up a mess of a document for work and I need something quick to post, so a couple of these photos will have to do.

The Raveonettes:



Tamaryn:



I should have a review of this show (written with the assistance of my friend Gina) up on the KEXP Blog within the next couple days.

Rather than take a chance on posting photos while at tonight's Raveonettes show—I suspect it'll be hard to get anything really good—I'll post a few from last night's YACHT show instead. So here's YACHT:





Here's a neat shot of opener Jeffrey Jerusalem, who was also the drummer for YACHT:



And here's a neat shot of the middle band Light Asylum:

Okay, probably a good idea to get my remaining April concert reviews written before I get further into May, what with plans to see five shows in the next ten days or so. I was going to do a single summary post for the remaining three concerts, but the second of those, featuring Foals, is proving to need more time than I have left before midnight. So I'm just going to post the first review now, and will finish the others when I get home in a while (I'm at Bauhaus now) as tomorrow's post.

On Monday April 4, I staffed the KEXP table for the Dodos show at Neumos. The guitar-and-drums duo Reading Rainbow opened the show with a set of good pop-rock songs. Dodos have dropped the vibraphonist, which disappointed me as that was the element that particularly caught my attention when I first saw them in 2009. Instead, they've added a second guitarist, which gave them a harder-edged rock sound, but still very good. They also were able to get a full, loud volume while still being comfortable enough to forego earplugs. I didn't recognize many of the songs and figured most were from their new album. It was a good set overall, but not as exciting as that first time I saw them. (As usual, although I was attending as a KEXP volunteer, these opinions are solely my own.)

Although I was staffing the table for KEXP, I was able to run up to the front for a bit to grab some photos, and ended up with a decent set which you can see on Flickr. 

Sometimes KEXP sends me to a show to review. Sometimes I just go out to a show on my own and pitch it as a review after the fact. This time was one of the latter, as I decided last minute on Sunday March 20 to head over to Neumos to see Warpaint, with PVT and Family Band opening. The last-minute plan involved getting dinner with a friend at Oddfellows Cafe beforehand, with the result that we completely missed Family Band and walked in about 15 minutes into PVT's set. That was unfortunate not just for missing out on discovering what Family Band is like but also for missing out on the start of what proved to be an awesome set of music by PVT; still, at least we were in time for some of PVT. And then Warpaint did a phenomenal powerful set as well. Thus once again my two rules of show-going were proven true: it's always the right decision to go to the show, and it's always worthwhile to catch the opening act. You can read all about the show in my post on the KEXP Blog. 

Because I pitched the review after the fact, we did not have a professional photographer at the show, which means we had to make do with my iPhone photos for the review. Some of them are included there, you can see the full set on Flickr as well. I also recommend checking out these photos by Supply&Demand, which I considered requesting to use for KEXP but decided against when I realized they'd already posted the photos on their own blog.  

September 2010 was a very busy month for me, musically. I started the month by attending Bumbershoot 2010 all three days, doing scheduled shifts for KEXP on two of them  and just helping out a bit on the other. Not only did I take notes, but also I actually posted about each day as it happened, a rarity for my music blogging in the past couple years. You can read about Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at Bumbershoot in the linked posts, and see a few photos here on Flickr.

Last summer was the time of falling in love with the Redwood Plan. I'd seen at least part of a set they played at the Comet Tavern some time in 2009—actually no, I know it was on a lineup with Hotels, so it was probably in January 2010—but their performance at the Capitol Hill Block Party was the first time I'd seen a full set and I immediately became a big fan. Besides seeing them again at Bumbershoot, I went to the Crocodile on Thursday September 16 to see them yet a third time, performing with Jupe Jupe and Fading Collection (who officially dropped the "the" from their name). I didn't take very many notes at this show. Jupe Jupe had a New Romantics vibe and gave a solid performance. Fading Collection played some songs from their then-new EP Attakk, which didn't grab me strongly but sounded okay, and their older songs of course still sounded great. They finished with an unlikely cover of Prince's "When Doves Cry", featuring a pretty powerful duet between lead singer Sarah McGuinn and live-show backup singer Tavia Kachell. Finally, I wrote just one note about the Redwood Plan—undoubtedly because I was too busy rocking out and dancing—which was that my only complaint was that some of the vocals were getting lost. That seems surprising now, given that Lesli Wood is certainly a strong singer, but if I recall correctly she may have been rocking out too much at times to stay close enough to the mic. Regardless, it was a good show. Check out some photos from the show here on Flickr. 

I then finished the month with a solid week of shows, starting with the five days of Decibel Festival from Wednesday September 22 to Sunday September 26. Once again I had the pleasure of covering the festival for the KEXP Blog, and you can find links to all my posts there in my wrap-up post here on my journal. (My photos are linked there, too.)

The next day, Monday September 27, I was back at Neumos to see School of Seven Bells. I missed most of the set by opening band Active Child, but arrived in time to hear them do a good New Order cover (unfortunately I didn't note down which song) and their final song, which was also good enough to make me wish I'd been in time for their whole set. After five days at Decibel Festival, it felt very grounding to listen to School of Seven Bells' shoegaze-dreampop blend. I noted during their newer song "Bye Bye Bye" that the sound wasn't that great right up front by the stage, but I couldn't tell whether it was just due to my wearing earplugs or the speaker placement or some other factor. Still, it was great to see them again and I enjoyed the show very much. I stubbornly took a few photos, even though the lighting was terrible for my iPhone, and you can see them here on Flickr.

I had a choice of good shows for that Monday, but obviously could only attend one. Fortunately, I had a second chance at another: although I couldn't see Freezepop in Seattle that night, the next night I headed down to Portland to catch them at the Fez Ballroom, playing with Aerodrone and Ming & Ping. Judging by its looks, the Fez apparently really was an old ballroom converted over to a rock club, and I thought it was a pretty cool space, with big comfy chairs and sofas on the sides of the room. Aerodrone were a cute couple of young musicians who were probably born after New Wave ended, but were clearly going for that look. One played synths and they shared vocals on a short set of fairly lightweight sugary sexy dance/party tunes. They had a lot of enthusiasm, though sometimes it felt like they were trying a bit too hard; still, it was fun. Ming & Ping was easily the weirdest and most unexpectedly awesome act I saw all year. Ming was the lead singer, appearing live on stage; he was backed via video projection by "Ping", his supposed twin. Music was provided by a combination of pre-recorded original tracks and a live drummer, and two dancers completed the scene. All the performers were dressed in elaborate Chinese opera costumes, with the whole effect being kind of surreal. But it was crazy good! The music was very polished, and Ming (and Ping) was an excellent singer. I made sure to pick up their latest album, Ming & Ping, and I hope to see them again some time. Finally, Freezepop were on tour for the first time since the Duke's departure with their new four-member lineup, including original members Liz Enthusiasm and The Other Sean T. Drinkwater as well as Robert John "Bananas" Foster on drums and Christmas Disco-Marie Sagan on synths and backing vocals. The new lineup worked well, although I found it hard to hear Sagan's vocals. Continuing in the general theme of my recent archive summaries, I was much too busy dancing to the music of one of my favorite bands to take many notes; this time, I didn't even jot down the set list as they played, which I've done in the past. They did play a few new songs from their then-forthcoming album Imaginary Friends, which sounded good. For the finale they brought the other bands out onstage to help with a cover of Europe's hit "The Final Countdown", a song which frankly I've never liked and don't find any better even when Freezepop's playing it, but it was an effective way to bring down the house. Ming & Ping may have been the surprise discovery that by itself was worth the drive down to Portland, but I made the trek for Freezepop in the first place and I was very glad I did as—"Final Countdown" dislike notwithstanding—it was a great performance. I have lots of photos from this show, some of them are even fairly decent, and you can see them here on Flickr.

And then three weeks later I was in a serious car crash that means it'll be quite a while before I could do such a trek again, but that's another story.

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.

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.