English Beat

The English Beat keeps touring so I keep going to see them, apparently.  Always awesome!  Such great tunes and it was nice to see them mix up the playlist.  The Showbox at the Market in Seattle is a great venue where you can get up close and personal with the band.  I was there, front and center.  The place was packed and it was obvious that everyone had a good time.

Natalie Wouldn’t

I got to see Natalie Wouldn’t, a local ska band, again last night at Darrell’s Tavern in Shoreline.  So fun!  Had a great time.  If you live in the area and haven’t seen them yet, you need to.

Capitol Hill Block Party 2011

I was able to go to the Capitol Hill Block Party on Fri and Sat of the 3 day event.  It was a good time as usual but also as usual it was tough to choose which bands to see and which ones to miss.  For those not familiar with this event, they have bands playing at different stages overlapping each other, and some of us like more than one type of music, although I think their intent was to try to group the genres together.  The weather was perfect however and it seemed like most of Seattle was there.  One of the highlights of Friday, other than the good bands, was getting to see Gumby.  I don’t know what someone is doing still running around promoting this old character, but anyhow, he was there running around.  We just thought it was funny that he appeared above us from a building window as a show on the main stage was going on.  I was able to get a pic or two of that just because it was so random.

Here is who I was able to see and what I thought of them:

Friday:

Fresh Espresso: this band was pretty cool but I admit I’m not the ultimate rap fan, so it wasn’t my favorite performance.

Kurt Vile and the Violators: very cool rock from a guy who you could hardly see because of his long hair.

Woods: fun folksy rock band unbelievably not from the northwest.  But of course they knew where some of their big fans would be.

Ra Ra Riot: just a really nice sounding band.

The Head and the Heart: these guys have been around a while but its cool to see they are starting to get more radio play and become better known.  More fun folksy rock from the northwest.

Ghostland Observatory: I had heard some great things about this band, but I admit I didn’t know what to expect.  It’s just two guys.  One wearing a cape with the Texas flag on it playing all kinds of electronics and occasionally the drums, and the other a long haired guy who plays guitar and sings with a voice like Jimmy Page.  Their music was totally cool and their energy was great.  Their show was lit up by all kinds of lasers which just added to the coolness of the show.  I am officially a fan now.

 

Saturday:

Champagne Champagne: another local rap band.  Not bad, but again, not really my thing so I admit I’m a poor judge on this one.

Fences: a nice sounding rock band.  Recommended.

Lovesick Empire: this band had a great sound.  The female lead singer’s voice reminded me of PJ Harvey.

Eleanor Friedberger: this was a one gal band, at least in this performance.  Nice folksy music.

Telekinesis: fun rock n roll by a band led by a drummer.  That was cool to see.

The Lumineers: more folksy rock but a really fun band to watch live.  They know how to get the audience involved with their music to make it a little more fun than just watching.

Ravenna Woods: very cool rock n roll, also a bit folksy, but not as much as some of the bands I saw.

Austra: very melodic dance music from a girl with a beautiful voice and her backup singers providing nice harmonies.

Cold Cave: I would call this an electronic band hearkening back to Depeche Mode or other such bands of the 80s.  They had a good sound but their look was a bit funny to me.  The two main guys wore their leather jackets the entire set and you could tell they were really hot but wouldn’t take them off.  I guess they didn’t want to blow their image.  It was kind of funny to me that they would even bother wearing them on stage in a summer show.  Even though the show was inside, the doors were open, so only fans were there to keep the place from being unbearable.

The Young Evils: this was another fun folksy rock band that sounded great.  Their lead guitarist turned 30 that day apparently, so it was fun getting a chance to be a part of that.  They secretly passed out little handheld pictures of his face for the audience to hold up as we sang happy birthday to him.

Ononos: this band was quite the spectacle.  It is basically electronic, but the lead singer comes out in a full body suit so that you can’t see his face and dressed in a crazy sparkly outfit (check out the pictures as you have to see it; I know my description doesn’t quite cut it).  Anyhow, it was the strangest performance I saw the whole time, but they really surprised me with some cool rhythms. Everyone seemed to be won over by the end.

Sadly not all the photos I took from my phone turned out.  Sometimes I was just too far away from the stage and other times it was just too dark or too many lights were aimed right at the audience.  Oh well, I guess you should have been there yourself.  Maybe next year.

Capitol Hill Block Party 7/22/2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Capitol Hill Block Party 7/23/2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Capitol Hill Block Party

Had a great time at the Capitol Hill Block Party on Saturday.  The sun was out and the place was packed.  Got to see quite a few bands that I personally had never heard of before, which is one of the main reasons I go.  It was a lot of fun.  Here is who I saw (be sure to check them out):

Head and the Heart – cool, young local band.  They play folky rock with beautiful melodies.
Cold lake – good old style punk band with nice riffs (also local)
Obits – good solid indie rock band from NY
The Drowning Men – from San Diego.  Very good indie rock. 

THEESatisfaction – very talented female rappers

!!! – funky drum/bass rhythms from NY
Past Lives – really good indie rock from Seattle
Night Marchers – from San Diego.  Really high energy rock n roll.

Sorry, no photos.  My cell phone camera just doesn’t quite do justice to the experience.

Hanzel und Gretyl

Last week I went to see Hanzel und Gretyl, a cool industrial band from Germany.  If you have never heard of them and you like this type of music, be sure to check them out.  I also saw them the last time they were in Seattle.  It was a really fun show.  I love their costumes and Hanzel really gets into the performance.  He gets right in your face with his guitar and even tried to crowd surf a few times.  The first time they basically dropped him on the stage and nearly hurt him, and made him lose his wireless connector for his guitar several times.  Anyhow, it was fun to see them closer up this time and of course it was great to see them again after so long.  Unfortunately none of my photos came out this time – they were all too blury. 😦   

Flyleaf

I took my youngest daughter Brona, now 13, to see Flyleaf last night.  I probably wouldn’t have gone to this show without her since although I like their music in general, I wasn’t a rabid fan.  But I am glad I went afterall as the band was really good in person.  I sort of expected a band that was more gimicky with less raw talent, but they really impressed me with their performance.  The band apparently doesn’t regularly do encores, even though it seems to be the norm for other bands, and so they actually didn’t do one, well at least not as a full band.  The lead singer just came out with one of the guitarists and performed a single acoustic song, I think as a bit of an apology for not warning us about not having an encore, and it was great.  She was also a bit emotional which seemed like she genuinely felt the emotions from her song.  It seems the crowd was convinced at least that it was real and went wild.     

 

PIL

Oh man, I finally got to see PIL in concert last night.  That’s Public Image Limited for those of you who don’t know what the Sex Pistol’s lead singer, John Lydon, was working on after the breakup in the late 70s.  It was very cool!  I know, it’s sad that there are so many bands I never got to see while I was in college because I was so poor. 😦  Ah well, I’ve been making up for that as much as I can lately.  PIL did not have an opening band so we all stood around for a few hours waiting for them to take the stage, but then they did at least play all their big hits and for quite a while.  They sounded great and Johnny was really enjoying himself with the crowd.   

The Killers

This is a make-up post for an event that happened a little while ago, but which I didn’t get around to writing about it until now.  The first week of March, I attended the annual Omniture conference in SLC, UT for work.  They often have some great, entertaining, surprise guest to make the conference more fun.  This year, they completely surprised us by bringing in The Killers to play for us one night.  No one could believe that they had secured this band to play for us and just about everyone was excited about it.  Of course everyone was supposed to keep it somewhat quiet since we weren’t supposed to try to squeeze in any friends we might have brought with us or knew in the area, but I know some tried.  Anyhow, The Killers were playing for us at a really nice and huge venue which Omniture bused us to, and of course I can’t recall the name.  The concert was awesome!  I was able to get right up front and center to view the show and had a great time.  I don’t think the band expected a corporate gig to be very exciting, but in the end I think they were really blown away by the energy of the crowd that night.  It was very cool.  The Killers really put on a great show and I was reminded how many songs had been played on the radio as I had heard almost all of them and I hadn’t bought any of their albums, just downloaded individual songs that I liked over time.  Well, it was a very cool concert that was both a big surprise and pretty much paid for by my work.  Thanks Cobalt and Omniture! 🙂

Metric Concert

Got to see Metric last night at the Showbox Sodo.  I don’t why I’ve heard bad things about that venue because I actually liked it.  It was very spacious and held lots of people, although that can be a downside.  Anyhow, Metric rocked!  It was really, really good.  They mostly played their new material but also some of their past hits and the crowd was large and really into it, which meant it was a good time.  One of the opening bands, Nico Vega, was also really good.  They had just a singer, guitarist and a drummer, but they were amazing and really had a great sound.  The lead singer, a very energetic woman, was pretty out there, but was very cool and had a great voice.  The second opening band wasn’t bad either but had a very different sound, kind of big bandish, but not too swingy.  Of course I didn’t catch their name, so I guess I won’t be talking much more about them.  I took my daughter Brona with me to the show as we are both fans of Metric, and we had a lot of fun.  We were close enough to the stage to get a decent view, but not really close enough for a great cell phone photo, so unfortunately I didn’t get any.

The Editors

I went to see the Editors at the Showbox last Friday and had a great time.  The opening bands weren’t bad but not cool enough to write about.  The Editors however gave a great performance.  The lead singer has an interesting stage presence but they rocked, so I let it go.  I hadn’t heard much of their latest album until this concert, but the new stuff was pretty good.  It was just different from their last album.  They are little more mellow, moody and electronic now, but the songs had feeling and rhythm, so it was good.