Top 10 in 2011

I went out of my way to see a huge amount of live music in 2011. I've decided to pick my favorites in 3 main categories: favorite national acts, local favorites and new favorites. There aren't always ten winners, I only pick 7 national acts, 11 local favorites and eleven new favorites. I also pick 5 best songs and 4 additional accomplishments.

Best National Acts local favorites who've gone national and my favorite non-local big acts

Presidents of the USA - I saw them twice, at PUSA Fest and at Bumbershoot on the main stage. Both times I had Ben, Carina and Heather with me, and enjoyed the crap out of it. The Prez still rock out and get big crowds bouncing around to the beat and sweating all over each other. Having my kids along puts it over the top, the Presidents kept me and my kids rocking in 2011!


Das Racist played the Sasquatch Preview show, Sasquatch, the Capitol Hill Block Party and Bumbershoot, so they went from unknown to my favorite rappers. All tan everything indeed.


Two of my top national acts - Death Cab For Cutie and Maklemore & Ryan Lewis - get props for best live song (Where Soul Meets Body and Just Dance, respectively) below.

Decembrists added an additional voice, I think the original female vocalist left the band later in 2011 after this show.


Finally caught up with The Reverend Horton Heat live, the kids and I have some fond memories of his hits a decade or so back.



Foo Fighters did their bombastic rock show at the Gorge Friday night at Sasquatch.




Local Favorites

Mad Rad always puts on a great show with standout songs like Life On Party Mountain and You Only Live Once (air keyboards!)

Kimya Dawson is an idiosyncratic performer who brings passion and creativity and thoughtful patter into a show like nobody else does!

The Thermals reliably kick my ass and this year I got multiple ass kickings at the Sasquatch kick-off show, at Sasquatch and Bumbershoot.

PWRFL Power made a rare appearance at Magma Fest doing thrashy guitar work, nice to see him again, it had been way too long.

Brite Futures matures into an arena rocking heavy weight. I remember seeing them as Natalie Portmans Shaved Head at the EMP Sound Off many years ago, they've made it almost to the top.

Land of Pines - saw them at least 3 times: at the Vera, CHBP, and Reverb.

Ryan LaPlante

Kinski always puts on a solid set of great music

Silicon Girls - got to know a nice kid in the band while he was volunteering for the All Ages Movement Project, I enjoy their shows.

Hey Marseilles has consistently brought it - I still remember a cover of Love Insurgent from a few Bumbershoots back that ruled. They were in prime form in 2011.




Bear Cove from Bellingham kicked it out




New Favorites - Bands that I immediately liked that I had never seen before, sometimes I'd never heard them either.
Titus Andronicus

The Globes - listed in best song for "A Stitch Can't Save the World" and here's "Stay Awake" from Sasquatch:

Antlers - one of many excellent Sasquatch performances, need to see them again

The Smith and Westerns - another band I was unfamiliar with that played an excellent set at Sasquatch.

Other Lives were another discovery at Sasquatch

Tokyo Police Club - another unknown to me band that ruled. Sensing a trend?

Champagne Champagne did shows at the Vera Project and CHBP and Bumbershoot, I believe. Hip hop rap duo, excellent material and the two voices are different and play well together; every performance is an instance party, worth checking out if you ever get the opportunity. They've spent a fair amount of time touring with STRFKR recently.

Sol broke out some, I like the live lineup here with a drum set, bass, backing vocals, and a DJ who might have some keyboards.

TacocaT - palindromes and bright punk thrashing, gotta love it!


Sleeper Agent


My Goodness packed quite a punch for a duo.




Best Live Song

I Like Giants by Kimya Dawson Kimya had another one about a friend dying that had me in tears, and Alphabut is the Stairway to Heaven of little kids songs

And We Danced by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. The Town, My Oh My, and Dark Side all hit it out of the park or is it the Key



Where Soul Meets Body by Death Cab For Cutie (I'll Follow You Into the Dark, Title and Registration, that one jealous one "Gotta spend some time love... I will posses your heart")Listening to Where Soul Meets body at Sasquatch as my Mom's soul was losing it's last tenuous hold on her body sure gave it a wallop.

A Stitch Can't Save the World by the Globes

The River Runs Deep by Knowmads




Special props

At 4,078 views Macklemore & Ryan Lewis playing "And We Danced" is my most popular video. I managed to post it a few weeks before they got the song out which drove traffic; their video came out a little later and it has 652 thousand views.

My blog on the Craft Spells show at the Vera Project was my most viewed blog. Every week multiple people were viewing it; I'm not sure why it had so much more staying power, I have to attribute it to the audience - the fans. I can't see that I did anything special that was different from my other blogs. If it was something I did, I'd do it more!



I saw Knowmads at the Vera Project right before my fiftieth birthday. Shortly after that I took a class in interviewing musicians and had to select somebody to interview so I contacted their agent and set up an interview. They were young and therefore less intimidating, I suppose. My first on camera interview was with Knowmads Tom Wilson and Tom Pepe.


My video of the interview got 567 views, and blackout3842 (who does media, social media and web wangling for the Knowmads) posted excerpts that got more than 2,300 views.


Sea Cats were my son's first local band crush. We saw them at a Veracity show and got an inexpensive CD that Ben enjoyed, then he randomly got to see them do an outdoor show at the Seattle Center when he and Carina were wandering around. They got a nice gig at the Vera Project and I interviewed Josh Davis before it.

Saturday at Sasquatch

After the Friday night shows and a night spent sleeping on the ground I woke up with a sore sinus and throat due to the freezing weather. There was frost all over, but it warmed up pretty quickly once the sun rose.

We trooped in and set the pavilion back up and re-chalked and opened back up for business.
After the slow start on Friday there are way more bands scheduled for Saturday, starting with the Seattle Rock Orchestra covering Radiohead.

This video of Paranoid Android got more views than anything else I posted from Sasquatch.

Next up was Pepper Rabbit, interesting band with a bass guitar + ukulele + drums approach.

Good vocal in a good song, when the backing vocals join in they get a kind of dreamy sound, tasty use of occasional reverb on the vocals too. They mix the sound up a bit, stripping it back to lead vocal and percussion for a bit, then bringing the instruments and harmonies back to finish the song up. Very nice!


Opening on the main Sasquatch stage was Alberta Cross, I only got pictures since I got there too late and/or was too busy.


Next I climbed back up the hill, getting back in time to see a little more of Pepper Rabbit.


Zipped on over to the Bigfoot stage and caught Secret Sisters next.

Nice sound, reminds me of First Aid Kit a little, more country than them though.

The blond guitar playing sister gets the lead on this nice old Patsy Cline number:


Back over to at the Yeti stage the Globes were hot.

The build into this song with the odd repetitive patterns and unusual sounds is wonderful, and as the vocal winds in the song builds to an interesting intensity before stripping back down to vocal and drum, then back again. Tasty use of dynamics and transitions, excellent performance.


The next band on the Sasquatch stage is The Radio Dept.

Two guitars and keyboard with sequenced drums. The first song is dreamy and a little dancey, somewhat spacey in an accessible way. Nice Summery pop song.

This song features the vocal a little more prominently, but it's still a bit hazy and Summery. The nice upbeat instrumentation contrasts just a bit with the slightly sadder vocals, giving it an interesting distance.


Headed back up the hill and caught K-OS doing a nice rock/hip hop/funk performance.

Good scratching, good vocal, good rhythm section, I like the live music and the guitar, and around 2:00-2:15-2:45 when the guitarist and turntablist swap leads back and forth - pretty tasty stuff, talented live crew.


Missed the Head and the Heart, heard it from a distance but didn't get to see it.

Dan Mangan had a bit of a horn section and a good sound


Trailer Park Boys were amusing, no video found of them so far.


Sharon Von Etten put on an excellent set, I like the vocal and the sound


Caught a bit of Wolf Parade, no video though.

I worked on some Sasquatch business for a bit so J. Mascis and Jenny and Johnny got past me. I was able to get Pink Martini:

Classic big band approach, strings and horns, lots of percussion, wonderful old school sound.


Next after trudging back up the hill I saw Wye Oak.

They were cool, unfortunately my DSLR did a poor job with their sound so the video isn't very good. The technical difficulties are all mine, fortunately Wye Oak sounded great and put on an excellent show, I just didn't do a good job capturing the excellence.


Next up was the Antlers who really put on a great set.

This song in particular made my day, wonderful song performed well, I'll have to keep an eye out for the Antlers, one of my favorite new discoveries from Sasquatch.


Next up was the Thermals, long time favorite Portland punk outfit I've seen 2 or 3 times at Bumbershoot plus the free Sasquatch kick off show early this year.

They put on a fun fast tight set, I always enjoy the Thermals.


Matt and Kim were fun, they were pumped up and having a great time and the audience was totally into the energy.



Next up was Iron and Wine on the Sasquatch main stage.


Around then we got a beautiful sunset over the gorge.


Saw the Glitch Mob


Saw Bright Eyes


Back up out of the amphitheater to see Robyn


I was getting seriously tired, going down to the bottom of the amphitheater, filming, then coming all the way back up and filming, then repeat.

Headed back down into the amphitheater one last time as the sunset glow faded. Time for some Death Cab for Cutie to wrap things up.


One of my favorite Death Cab for Cutie songs, heavily prefiguring mom's death of cancer within the week. I really love this song, and I really love the crowd sing-along effect you can hear in the recording.


Title and Registration is another great song with the crowd singing.

Obsessive love song, pretty unpleasant sentiment in a pretty wrapper. Very well done.


Missed some good stuff like Head and the Heart, Jenny & Johnny and Aloe Blacc but I got 19 documented and I believe I actually saw 20 counting the DJ.

Awesome day of music, all kinds of good things to watch and listen too. An embarrassment of riches, really.

Off to sleep in the tent, halfway through the festival. Sunday lineup looks pretty good too!