Thee Oh Sees CHBP kick-off at All Saints

I follow the Stranger and the Capitol Hill Block Party on Facebook, and they both mentioned a free "Capitol Hill Block Party Launch" show featuring Thee Oh Sees playing at the downtown All Saints store. I was working at the office downtown anyway, so after work I walked over and got in line.

All Saints is a clothing store and they have an interesting antique sewing machine theme, I suppose it's sorta steam punk-ish or something. Steam punk doesn't particularly grab me, but antique sewing machines do. Many of my clothes as a kid were sewed by my grandma on a sewing machine just like those at All Saints, and I used it myself a few times.

First time I've attended a show in a clothing store, and with all the exposed brick and metal I had to wonder how good the sound was going to be. Sailor Jerry was a sponsor, so they were handing out free drinks too, which was sweet! Free drinks and a free show from a band I like is a nice way to end a work day, so I can't really complain even if the sound is poor. Turned out the sound was fine, but the video was shaky. A couple of stiff rum drinks and a rocking band and I can't hold still, no surprise there. As I've mentioned before, it's Dave's inverse rule of great shows vs. great videos. When using a hand held camera, the better the show is the worse the video is, I just can't stop bouncing and moving. Sorry! Well, not really, I'd rather see an excellent show and get shaky video pretty much every time, the real solution is to use a tripod but that doesn't work in the mosh pit! Lots of great music, hmm, the above video is shaky even before they start playing, maybe that rum was more potent than I realized!

I saw a bit of Thee Oh Sees at Bumbershoot last year and I'm glad I finally got to see a whole set, I enjoy the rocking out guitars and the doubled vocals between the guitarist (male) and keyboards (female), they get some cool yips and a male falsetto doubled with a woman's voice, somewhat unusual to have vocals this tricky for a fast and thrashy sounding band, I think it works extremely well.

I didn't get to see them perform at the CHBP on Friday, but judging from the tweets and Facebook comments they put on a great performance, wish I could've been there. I do get to go (tonight) to the Saturday CHBP since I'm volunteering at the Vera Project booth, so I'll have plenty more videos to post shortly. I enjoy Summer in Seattle, and the music is a big part of why: outdoor festivals, free shows, fewer schedule difficulties with the kids out of school, Summer tends to have lots of memorable musical moments.