Eternal Fair at the Anchor Pub

I won free tickets to see Motopony, Hot Bodies In Motion and Eternal Fair at the Anchor Pub up in Everett. I'd been to the pub before a few years back, and I'd seen and enjoyed both Motopony and Hot Bodies in Motion too, so I was looking forward to it. Eternal Fair was new to me, and that's a bonus, I like seeing new (to me, anyway) bands.

The blurb for the show said it was at 8, but I was somewhat suspicious, frequently that means "doors open at 8, bands are at 9" but we hustled up to get there close to 8 anyway. If nothing else, we could stake out one of the tables up near the band so at least we'd have seats.

While I was right about the timing - at 8 they were just beginning to set things up -the area up near the band no longer had any tables or chairs, so there were only a few seats to be had, and each time we went to claim a seat somebody sitting near by would always say "We're reserving that seat for a friend who isn't here yet."

While I understand that, it's annoying not being able to sit down so that somebody else who may or may not even show up has seats and doesn't need to come early. So we stood around for an hour - and I was already a bit sore from sitting on a bench seat in a bar for many hours the night before. The result of all that was that I had to bail after seeing a little bit of the first band, so I ended up missing Motopony and Hot Bodies in Motion. Dang!

Anyway, I can't complain too much, it was free and sitting at a show isn't really the point.

I did get to see Eternal Fair, and that was interesting. They had a traditional power trio lineup with a guitar, bass and drums, and had a nice distorted guitar oriented sound that I enjoy.

The vocalist had an interesting way of ending phrases with a little additional vowel sound on a rising inflection, it caught my attention and he used the technique repeatedly. It fit into the rhythm well and grew on me as they cranked out their interesting rocking tunes. They also had all three members with microphones and did a nice job both with backing vocals and three part harmonies on occasion - I love vocal harmonies and complex (or even simple) multi-part vocal arrangements, and most bands don't bother nowadays, so props to Eternal Fair for getting 3 good vocal parts out of a band with 3 members. Nice!

I ended up recording a couple of songs in a single take before bailing, so this is what I got for the music at the Anchor:

I'm complaining more than I should, I like the venue and if I'd known I wasn't get a table or chair (or just didn't try) I could've shown up around 9 and avoided all the standing around waiting for the show to begin which would've saved my back some pain. Once the music starts I don't notice the pain as much anyway.

I also like the bands that were playing, and Jet City Radio (who gave me the free tickets)  was sponsoring the event along with an Everett city music initiative, so overall I really have to come down on the side of supporting the whole thing. Adra Boo (vocalist in Fly Moon Royalty, a local favorite) was in attendance, and I think Marco Collins was too, so there was all kinds of things to like and interesting people to talk to.

More shows with fun local bands in venues all around the region is a good thing, and Jet City Radio (which isn't a radio station in the traditional sense, it's a streaming internet service) is also pretty cool. I'll keep an eye out for more of these, and next time try to make sure I'm in better shape to start with, and also plan/time things better so I can get all of the fun out of the evening that's available, rather than wimping out and heading home early.

I'm not terribly well educated on venues in Everett, I don't get up there all that often, but I do like the Anchor, and I also enjoy seeing Ryan Laplante do regular gigs at the Balefire. I'm glad to see Everett's live music scene getting promoted and good crowds turning out, the more venues in the region the better the bands do and the larger the audience, all good things.

Thanks to Jet City Radio for the free tickets, and the city of Everett for it's music initiative. Nice stuff!

Bottom Feeding and Jet City Stream

I work at getting to see a ridiculous number of free shows, nowadays I book a free show with 3 or 4 bands every month
and also continue to go see the occasional free show at the Vera Project,
which isn't quite free because I volunteer to help running the venue so I have to work to see the show, I just don't have to spend any cash. I'm a Vera member so in theory I can watch any show for free without volunteering, but in practice I always end up helping out since they can just about always use a hand.

The Vera is a small venue, and I help out more on the shows that they have a harder time staffing - the smaller shows, the ones that are more obscure or in an odd genre.
The more mainstream shows that are going to sell out will get plenty of volunteers so I don't need to help with those as much, so I miss many of the more successful acts that play the Vera.

This makes me a bottom feeder, and I say that with affection. I grew up on the Puget Sound, my grandpa was a commercial fisherman and my dad worked on tugboats so nautical imagery comes naturally. I mostly graze along the bottom of the market in terms of draw, not talent or desire or anything like that. Clearly the best local talent moves on to bigger venues over time and I no longer get to see them live for free, but that's OK - at least I've heard them live and I enjoy the "I knew them when" feeling - and I can always go and pay to see the bands I really love. The problem is that I only see a small fraction of all the bands out there, and there ends up being a pile of cool local talent that I never saw that now I probably won't hear. Bumbershoot takes care of some of that, but still I'm missing a fair amount of local talent. The Seattle music scenes is amazingly active with a large number off venues of various sizes putting on shows all over the place, even with a local focus I'm not close to keeping up; maybe if it was my full time job I could come close, but that isn't going to happen.

I've found a partial solution, though. Jet City Stream is a fairly new local web cast - what an odd concept! The whole point of a web cast is that it's an inexpensive way to put up the rough equivalent of a radio show or even a radio station with a world wide reach, so a local podcast sounds a bit like an oxymoron - but it isn't really. It's a very focused concept (Seattle music and Seattle bound bands) that may have some global appeal and surely serves the local Seattle/Western Washington market well.

I've been listening to it for several hours today and I'm recognizing maybe half the local bands, which mostly means I've read about them or seen them listed on a bill, more like 1 in 10 are bands I've actually seen live, and even many of the songs from bands I've seen are new to me - a very good sign, they're not going back to the same favorites over and over. I'm a variety and novelty freak with a local focus, and this stream is just about perfect for me.
I love the funding model too: no commercials in the live audio stream (other than plugs for the station) and plenty on the web site that are mostly related to local music like Sasquatch, the Triple Door, and a show at the Paramount. They also aim to help fund local music in schools according to one plug, and that's a cause I admire so I hope they succeed at it.

A Fox and the Law song called "Feel So Blue" just started playing, perfect example: I've seen Fox and the Law
and I don't particularly recall this one, it may be new or maybe I was working and missed this song live or my memory is just weak (did I mention I see lots of shows?) - but it kicks some ass! I'm really enjoying having a stream that covers the same exact little slice of the music world that I obsess over. I've gotta give this 3 or 4 thumbs way up or 7 out of 5 stars or basically off the scale on whatever rating system you like: highly recommended. Check it out!