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 wanted to go out dancing this evening. The Sweatbox crew have a monthly residency at the Baltic Room called "Off the Deep End", and apparently it's free. Instead, I'm not even half a block away at Bauhaus, doing some editing work. I don't really mind—it's good to have work to do, of course, and I already have plans to go see Hotels tomorrow night at the Sunset Tavern. The work is also lighter than I expected, enough that I'm thinking about dropping by anyhow, though I don't really want to be there with my computer in my backpack and have to worry about that. But I'm even thinking that it might've been fun just to go lounge there—if I could find a free couch and table upstairs—to do my work, skipping the dancing. I know I'd like the background music (although it might be a bit loud for concentrating on work), and I've often thought it'd be nice to go out to a bar or lounge in the evenings to do work, rather than to a coffee shop.

I have a few reservations about that idea. One is that the place has to have a good atmosphere for working. That shouldn't be too hard—Bauhaus Coffee for example is always playing loud music and has a lot of people coming and going or passing by, so there are plenty of distractions and yet I'm able to work here. However, at the coffee shops people are generally there to work or at least socialize amongst their own group; I think at a bar I'd be slightly more likely to have random people attempt to start a conversation with me. Another reservation is that at most coffee shops, I can get a hot chocolate and a snack and be good for a few hours without feeling obliged to get anything else—if I'm there a really long time I might get a second drink or snack, but generally it's okay as long as I've got something. At a bar, I'd feel more obliged to get an alcoholic drink because soda is negligible, cheap snack food generally is not an option (or else it's some kind of appetizer I don't really want or won't finish), and I don't (yet) feel comfortable with the idea that I could just hang out there for a few hours working while having had just one drink (if alcoholic). A third reservation is more practical: my laptop battery power is limited, particularly if I'm doing work (which means I'm running Windows at the same time, which I believe is a greater power drain than just running the Mac OS by itself as usual), and bars don't usually seem to have readily-accessible power outlets. A final reservation would be finding a place with free WiFi access, as I actually do often need Internet access in order to do my work (and not just to have distractions for taking a break from work). 

i know all of those reservations can be easily overcome, and I know some people do go out and do work in bars. I just haven't felt strongly enough to try stepping into some places and seeing if I can work there. I have been thinking about trying the recently-opened White Rabbit in Fremont, because they do advertise that they have free WiFi and because they're right near my home so it's an easy walk. Plus, I've been there once already for a show, so I have a general idea of the seating availability and comfort level. (And they're actually billing themselves as a "comfortable cafe" during the afternoon for hanging out.) But I know they also do live music in the evenings, and that's the kind of busy noisy atmosphere that won't work. A more lounge-like place such as the Baltic Room, with DJs spinning rather than a live band, would be better; but the Baltic Room also probably won't be a good option as it's a dance club more than a lounge. I should ask around for suggestions, but I'm not even sure who I could ask—as I said, I know some people will go out to a pub or bar to do work, but my feeling is that it isn't that common. But then how would I know, as I'm not doing it myself.

Recently when I was out with my computer headed home from a coffee shop and thinking about how I still had work to do and didn't particularly feel like staying in at home yet, it occurred to me that part of my objection is just the idea or image of lugging my backpack in to a bar and hefting out the laptop. I realized that if I had an iPad, I would feel a lot more casual and relaxed about bringing that in to a bar and hanging out. I probably couldn't do that for work—I've made a point of having Windows installed on my laptop and using the Windows version of Microsoft Office when doing my work, just to be certain that what I'm looking at will be the same as what my clients have seen and will see. But still, I suddenly had a stronger interest in getting an iPad than I have so far. Right now there's no way I can justify the expense, but down the road if I can get things together, I'd like to make that happen.