Smoke Wreck Kings at the Blue Moon tavern 2-13-2011

I saw Boyce Avenue at the Vera Project on Saturday Feb. 12, and Marcus King was volunteering, helping run the show. I visited with him for a bit, talking about favorite shows and so on, and he told me that his band was playing the Blue Moon the next night. He also told me that he recognized my wife when she picked me up after a show at the Vera project. Apparently he works at the Seattle Floral Supply Syndicate where my wife picks up flowers and vases and so on. Small world!

I looked up the Blue Moon show early on Sunday and discovered that Sunday shows at the Blue Moon are free. Free shows - now they're talking my language!

Sundays are my day to cook for the kids and I was making pizza from scratch, so it was a little hectic, but Dana and I got out roughly on schedule and headed down to the U District. Unfortunately in my haste I forgot to grab my digital camera and Flip video recorder. Dang!

We got there a bit before 8 and listened to the Lost River String Band finish the last few bluegrass songs in their set. I have a soft spot for bluegrass, I grew up listening to my dad playing it on the stereo, he was a big fan. Pretty much every Friday night at the end of another hard week of work dad would sack out on the couch listening to the KRAB live bluegrass show, recording it too. Fond memories from my childhood...

After a short break the Smoke Wreck Kings came out and started playing. They had Rubio playing the djemba with a very nice touch giving them a solid foundation, and Alika Lyman playing stand-up bass (odd synchronicity: Lyman is my middle name, an old family name,not very common) and Marcus playing a hollow body guitar and singing. I took some fairly poor cell phone photos of the band:



I really enjoyed the set, 3 songs in particular stood out but I didn't get anything recorded - dang! Check out this copy of "Something to Believe." You can even download a copy if you want. They have a whole album you can download here: http://smokewreckkings.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-columbia-city - this is recorded with Alika playing lead on electric guitar. Sounds pretty hot! Apparently Alika usually plays electric guitar, so I'll have to keep an eye out for another chance to catch them and see which approach I prefer, the recording with Alika on guitar sounds pretty cool.

I really enjoyed the set and besides "Something to Believe In" several other songs were quite memorable, considering I'd never heard them before. There was a song about America that was great, "No Soul" was effective, and they had a sort of title song that include the lyric "Smoke Wreck King" that was very good.

I'll have to be more careful to take my cameras and field recorder to shows, though. I don't really have much of any record of the show to remind me of the details - and with my memory, the details are going to fade over time. Still it was nice getting to cuddle with Dana, have a couple of beers, and listen to a great set of music. Thanks to Marcus for tipping me off!