Musical Strategies

I haven't gone out and seen any bands play since Sasquatch, so I sort of went from a crescendo (53 at Sasquatch, giving me 68 for the month) to a near silence for the last couple weeks.

I'm hoping to get more motivated and go catch a Vera show, that would help. Longer term, outdoor weather is here (in theory) and that means festivals and street fairs. While Sasquatch, Folk Life and the U District Street Fair are done, there are many more still to come. Free shows all over, too.

The following list of events is what I'm looking at so far for the rest of the year. Free events are prominent (have I mentioned being a bit of a cheapskate?) and a few festivals, especially Bumbershoot. Laid out roughly in chronological order, the later parts will be revised as the months pass and more events get publicized, so this is my current snap shot of interesting upcoming events.

Wednesday, June 15 the Out To Lunch Concert Series features The Moondoggies (Free) at Westlake Park at noon.

Friday, June 17 the Out To Lunch Concert Series features Hey Marseilles (Free) at Harbor Steps at noon.

Street fairs feature music, and the Fremont Fair this weekend June 18 and 19 is an excellent example. The solstice is almost here, and on top of the nude bicyclists we get four stages of live music, 30+ live acts all free, pretty cool!

Wednesday, June 22 the Out To Lunch Concert Series features Choklate (Free) at Occidental Square at noon.

Friday, June 24 the Out To Lunch Concert Series features the Maldives (free) at Harbor Steps at noon.

The Jackson Street Music History Project opening celebration is on Saturday, June 25th, 2-8pm at Blanche Lavizzo Park (free + all ages) with
3:00 DJ Seabefore & Special Guests
4:30 Wheedle's Groove
6:30 Zulu Nation Hip Hop Showcase

June 26 Seattle Peace Concerts at Gas Works Park Noon to 6 (free) featuring Shooting Star (Bad Company covers) with special guest Amber Babbit, Seattle Teen Music: Carly Calbero, School of Rock Show Band, The Whole Bolivian Army, Annie O'Neill, Jackson Sundown with the Dirties. Check out the Seattle Peace Concerts web site for more links to individual bands.

Shabazz Palaces appears (free) at Easy Street Records on Queen Anne on June 28.

The Portland Blues Festival July 1-4 is always fun. Free blues in the waterfront park with a couple of stages, boat cruises and late night sets in nearby bars, quite an experience - I can personally vouch for the boat cruise, we drank microbrews and danced our asses off to blues and rock and roll and had a great time.

July 3 Seattle Peace Concerts at Lower Woodland Park Shelter 1 INTERDEPENDANCE DAY PICNIC Noon to 6 (free) featuring Dr. Klean, The Barker Boys, Lonely Taylor, Tangletown String Band, Shamaniacs, Lost River String Band, The Bare Roots. See SPC site for band links.

Thursday July 7: Star Anna & The Laughing Dogs (free) at the open stage at St. Edwards State Park in Kenmore

West Seattle Summer Fest is July 8, 9 and 10. Last year they ran 2 stages and I saw a great Shelby Earl set.

Highlight this year is the Fastbacks reunion. This is a free festival so there's no reason not to go!

The Ballard Seafood Fest is that same weekend with 2 stages (family friendly vs. grown-up) with some good bands like Verlee for Ransom, Duffy Bishop, the Moondoggies, Star Anna and Stan Boreson twice(!).

The international district's Dragon Fest July 9-10 in Hing Hay Park. The web site hints at an entertainment schedule (coming soon...).

Wednesday, July 13 the Out To Lunch Concert Series features Star Anna & The Laughing Dogs (Free) at Waterfront Park at noon.

Thursday July 14 Clinton Fearon & Boogie Brown (free) at the open stage at St. Edwards State Park in Kenmore

Sunday July 17 Seattle Peace Concerts at Magnuson Park Beach Area BEACH PARTY! Noon to 6 (free) featuring Master Mahan, Hey Sharon.. Hejira, At a Siding, Banzai Surf. See SPC site for band links.

The Bite of Seattle July 15-17 features 5 music stages (I've seen Verlee for Ransom, Shotty, Yogoman Burning Band but not 50 or 60 others) and is free.

July 17 - Magnuson Park Beach Area BEACH PARTY!

Thursday July 21: Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three (free) at the open stage at St. Edwards State Park in Kenmore

Friday, July 22 the Out To Lunch Concert Series features the Damnwells (free) at Waterfront Park at noon.

The Capitol Hill Block Party runs July 22, 23 and 24. At least 6 different performance venues including the Vera stage and for the first time both of my daughters are now 21 so if we go we can see the bar bands too. First time I ever saw Mad Rad was at last year's CHBP, the "air keyboard" song (You Only Live once) is a classic:

Not to mention the best performance in bunny suits by Steel Tigers of Death:

Their striptease to the gold lame shorts was an instant all time classic.

Good chance to see plenty of music in our own back yard with nearly 100 bands. I've seen Fences, Mad Rad, Ra Ra Riot, Thee Satisfaction, Grynch, Grand Hallway, Young Evils, Witch Garden, Kung Fu Grip, Craft Spells, and Land of Pines, 11 out of 95 or so bands, so there are still 80+ bands I've never seen. I haven't gotten tickets for this and they are running out so unless I can finesse attendance by volunteering for the Vera Project I may miss this one. Sigh.

If I miss the CHBP I'll consider consoling myself with some free music at Renton River Days the same weekend, July 22-24. Bands play all 3 days, but pay attention to the schedule, there are dances and game contests for solid chunks of time on all 3 days too.

Thursday July 28: Pickwick (free) at the open stage at St. Edwards State Park in Kenmore

Sunday July 31 Seattle Peace Concerts at Volunteer Park Noon to 6 (free) featuring UltraViolet Uforia, Two Sheds Jackson, Randy Oxford Band. See SPC site for band links.

Thursday August 4: Jon Yamasota + hula (free) at the open stage at St. Edwards State Park in Kenmore

Thursday August 4: Jon Yamasota + hula (free) at the open stage at St. Edwards State Park in Kenmore

Friday, August 5 Concerts at the Mural features The Maldives, Hey Marseilles, Black Whales (free) at Mural Ampitheater

The KEXP BBQ w/Fool's Gold, Capsula, Virgin Islands, Mad Rad is a free show at the Mural Amphitheater on Saturday August 6th.

Thursday Aug 11: The Wilders (free) at the open stage at St. Edwards State Park in Kenmore

Friday August 12 Concert at the Mural - artists TBD

Sunday August 14 Seattle Peace Concerts at Gas Works Park Noon to 6 (free) featuring Role One, Sarah Christine, Sick Donkey Showcase featuring (Essential I, Jahson Ites & DJ Sticky) Mista Chatman & special guests. See SPC site for band links.

Friday, August 19 Concerts at the Mural features Black Mountain, My Goodness, Whalebones (Free!) at Mural Ampitheater

Friday, August 26 Concerts at the Mural features Langhorne Slim, Pickwick, Drew Grow & The Pastors' Wives, Ravenna Woods (free) at Mural Ampitheater

Friday, August 26 Out To Lunch Concert Series features Clinton Fearon & Boogie Brown Band (Free) at Harbor Steps

Sunday August 28 Seattle Peace Concerts at Volunteer Park Noon to 6 (free) featuring Electricity and its Double, Special Explosion, The Sidereal, Jeff & the Jet City Fliers, Jimmy Free, Tim Turner Band. See SPC site for band links.

Of course, we "end" the season with Bumbershoot - three days of too much music, lots of stages and bands, twelve hour days and a few more hours each night downloading the videos and photos. Having a good time and documenting it can be hard work. It pays off on occasion, though.


This year they are no longer using the Broad St. stage or the Memorial Stadium mainstage, instead they are using the Key Arena as the main stage and running 2 stages around the fountain instead of one. They will continue to run the new covered stage outside of the EMP, the Sky Church stage, the Mural Amphitheater stage, the Exhibition Hall stage and the NW Courtyard stage as far as I know so we'll have 8 stages of musical goodness, plus all of the comedy (Vera and other theaters), plays (at least a couple of venues) and the film festival in the basement of the opera house.

The venues are closer together on paper, we'll see how it plays out in reality. Even closer together it's still way too much for me to capture more than a fraction of it, but it's fun (and exhausting) to go and film and photograph the experience. Processing the media and writing blog posts always ends up taking close to another week to put to bed.

Sunday September 11 Seattle Peace Concerts at Lower Woodland Shelter I Park Noon to 6 (free) featuring The Babylons, Piper Stock Hill, Little Sense, Kuli Loach. See SPC site for band links.

Fremont Oktoberfest September 24-26 looks to have the most music on Saturday with smaller selections on Friday and Sunday.

Reverb Fest is a purely local October music festival. It's a bit under the radar, but it shouldn't be. This year Reverb is announcing the lineup at SW's Artopia, the annual arts happening that goes down July 14 at Coyote Central (the place across the street from EMP that used to be Polly Esthers) (Tip of the hat to the Seattle Weekly "Today Reverb Recommends" for the club guidance).

City Arts was busy promoting the first annual Heineken City Arts Fest in late October last year, a good festival focused on "indoor" performances (the only way to go in October in Seattle!), I assume the second annual fest will be gearing up in October.

Later in the year there are jazz festivals and then of course Christmas shows, I don't make it to a lot of either most years.

Thanks to KEXP's event calendar for lots of details, and to Google and the event web sites too.