Braille, Theory Hazit, Knowmads, Greg and Jerome and Friends

Hip hop show Sunday night at the Vera needed steering, when I checked in I was told they had steering but minimal volunteers so I could do Lead Front Door. I brought my son and a couple of his friends, between them they did front door security (checking purses and backpacks), concessions (probably $50 or so in business) and roaming security. Steering never showed, so the show manager and I sort of herded the boys while I sold tickets. The show manager was nice enough to cover me for several minutes here and there so I could start and restart my video cameras and take a few pictures.

Here's the show manager waving and my son in concessions:

The set list showed 4 acts and we had a couple extra plus a few guest performances.
Korvus Blackbird performed an early set (I know his name because I signed him in, not sure what the other dude's names are).



Greg and Jerome, plus Korvus Blackbeard and Julie C take turns putting on a show:


Knowmads put on a great show, I suspect most of the crowd turned out to see them.
They've always been good about sharing bills and revenue and tonight was more of the same with Braille and Theory Hazit both capably headlining but the Knowmads doing the heavy lifting of delivering the paying audience.

Tom Pepe did a spoken word introductory piece:



We got some new material too:


Several classic joints like The Boat Can Leave Now:

and Wildflower:


A few additional bits from the show ended up on my youtube channel.

Knowmads are one of the more reliably creative local hip hop crews, always putting on a good show and always pushing the envelope with free-styling and battling, nailing their classic numbers every damn time. Kind of odd noticing kids who aren't even 20 yet (Tom Wilson and Tom Pepe - wait, didn't they just have back to back 21st birthdays or something?) have several year old "classic old school" tunes.

Theory Hazit put on an excellent set of urgent personal music.


I got most if not all of Theory Hazit's performance on my youtube channel if you want to check it out. Here's a couple more bits:

I enjoy the way his faith informs his music and the intensity, very nice.



Finally Braille came on and finished the show off with a great headlining set.


I got quite a bit of good video footage by leaving the Flip running on a tripod in the balcony.

Dense with hip hop music, little filler, strong rhythms and interesting rhymes.

I ended up getting most if not all of Braille and posting most of it here.

Some other stuff and the finale can be found on my youtube channel if you're interested, the 3 selections above cover most of Braille's set though.

I believe I count the 4 announced acts plus 3 others (Korvus, Julie C, one other) for 7 total. Could be more, hip hop is interesting and flexible that way. So the running total ends up at 237 performances so far through August, 209 bands for the first time.

Thank you and good night.


P.S. Official Packed Bagz off of The KnewBook is available via KnowmadsMusic on youtube

Braille has a video listening session for "Native Lungs" that looks interesting.

Prepping for Bumbershoot

Bumbershoot is next weekend and I've started preparing my devices and planning my strategy. I've got a new 2 hour Flip so I can record 168 minutes of video plus whatever I add with my digital SLR. The SLR does nice HD videos but the sound fails badly when recording anything that's loud so the Flip produces usable video, SLR mostly does photos.

I'll try my new Flip out tonight at the Vera Project with Braille, Theory Hazit and Knowmads. I may borrow or purchase a field recorder too.

I'll do a few Wii Fit yoga and exercise workouts this week to keep my back limber and my strength up, and we'll pay attention to hydration and good food choices at Bumbershoot and hope things go well. No major physical trauma heading in this year, but my neck and shoulders are still out of sorts from my epic unpleasant trip back from India.

Plotting out Bumbershoot bands, why did they have to have Shelby Earl and the Presidents of the USA at the same time? Brite Futures and Craft Spells too, and Nice Nice vs. PS I Love You, tough choices, that plus Shabazz Palaces and it isn't even 6PM on the first day yet. I count 38 bands I wouldn't mind seeing, if I can get to 20 of those that's better than 50%, anyway. Saturday is shaping up to be a good day, both of my daughters and my son will be going with me. This will be the 4th or 5th time I've seen the PUSA, my daughters have seen 3 or 4 I think, and this will be Ben's 3rd at least. They're definitely a family favorite, always put on a hot energetic fun show. STRFKR, Lawnchair Generals, Meklit Hadero, Ray LaMontagne and Mavis Staples and others I've never heard of. Awesome lineup for the first night!

I should be able to get some good videos, here's a favorite from last year's Bumbershoot:

This performance is on the Broad Street stage, they aren't using that stage this year. and they also aren't using Memorial Stadium as the main stage. They are using 2 stages in the EMP, the Key Arena as the main stage, and an additional fountain stage, so the venue lineup is a little different.

Sunday kicks off with Sol, local reggae, Lonely Forest and Whalebones at the same time, Mad Rad and Massey Ferguson at the same time, No Means No overlapping with Broken Social Scene, Thee Oh Sees, DaM FunK + Master Blazter, Atari Teenage Riot, Com Truise, Das Racist, Anti-Flag, Warpaint, Butthole Surfers and Leon Russel at the same time, with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis 30 minutes later, Tori Y Moi, The Kills, Joe Pug, Whiz Khalifa and more. Sunday's lineup looks excellent.



Monday has Motopony and the Horde and the Harem at the same time, a stretch of unfamiliar (to me) bands: Legendary Oaks, Fly Moon Royalty, Quadron, Curtains For You, Kendric Lamar and DJ Introcut. Finally bands I recognize: My Goodness, Head Like A Kire, Grand Hallway, Big Boi, YACHT, WD4D, MASH HALL, Ill Cosby, LAKE, Sharon Van Etten, Vendetta Red, Urge Overkill, Ravenna Woods, Fitz and the Tantrums, Phantogram, Truckasaurus, The Reverend Horton Heat, Hall & Oates, Grant Lee Buffalo. Other new to me bands like Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, SPLATINUM, Over the Rhine, 214, Eisley,
Charles Bradly, and Greensky Bluegrass. Quite a lineup, I hope I can do it justice!

I'll bring 2 Flips and my digital SLR and (hopefully) a field recorder. I try to get a video of a song and some photos from each band, with favorite bands (PUSA) getting several songs.

Even 168 minutes of Flip will get used up pretty quickly and I can be pretty picture happy with the SLR. I'm trying to arrange a spot for my laptop so I can download videos wile recharging the Flips and download my photos and recharge the SLR batteries too. A 45 minute pause to get downloaded and recharged (overlapped with food and water and cleanup etc.) could double the daily capacity!

Summer Update

I was trying to do monthly retrospectives to review what I've seen and look forward a bit. Due to circumstances beyond my control (a death in the family) that plan went off the rails for a couple months.

I finally got caught back up on the Capitol Hill Block Party (except my pix from Saturday have disappeared for now) so it's time to catch up with another retrospective.

All kinds of awesome music related performance since my May retrospective and a few sad musical experiences too. The songs you hear while a loved one is passing away will take on an amazing (and somewhat painful) poignancy, at least for me. I love remembering my parents, even if it makes me cry, so in an odd way I celebrate the painfulness of hearing those songs again. More than anything else I love passion in music, and passionate performances knock me out.


Passion can be up or down - passionately angry and amazingly passionate depression are both common in some of my favorite songs. The upside of human emotion is well represented too, thank goodness. In some cases we bring our own passion and meaning to songs based on associations with events in our lives that we feel passionate about, and that's also another beautiful element of music.

I saw an amazing amount of good music over the last two and a half months, even though I was somewhat missing in action for a fair amount of it. As the saying goes, life is what happens to us while we're making other plans.

The free Veracity shows kept me supplied with some music when I wasn't really able to spend much effort on it.


I got to check out a new (to me) venue called Luther's Table and listen to a free show - somebody in the band was a friend of a friend's fiancee's kid or something like that, good enough excuse for me to check it out. I'm pretty sure Luther's Table is run as an outreach for the Lutheran Church and I think that's pretty darn cool. There are many ways to witness for your faith and reach out to those willing to listen, and I think music is one of the better ways. I know it's central to my faith.


Perhaps that's enough about death, faith and philosophy, at least until next month. Partying is pretty darn fun too! The Capitol Hill Block Party kicked ass like it always does, one monster hedonistic jam with lots of cheap beer if you know where to look. I heard a pile of new (to me) bands like Fucked Up:

Ra Ra Riot:

Spaceneedles (love the name):

Campfire OK:

I finally saw TacocaT!

I also got to hear some old favorites like the Head and the Heart and Grynch:


I also heard some music in India while I was there on a business trip (the soud is somewhat drowned out by the fountain, too bad):


Let's see, through May I saw 157 bands, 136 for the first time. In the last two and a half months I saw 73 more so the total now stand at 230 performances, 203 for the first time.

I didn't make it to Hempfest - too jet lagged and tired, I got back late Saturday and took it easy Sunday. There's an interesting festival next weekend called the Northwest Love Fest I'd like to see but I'm not sure if I'll make it. Seattle Peace concerts coming up too, I may get to one of those.

In two weekends Bumbershoot is here, and I have tickets for all 3 days. Here's one of my favorite performances from last year's Bumbershoot with Hey Marseilles covering Love Insurgent:

I should see 60 or so bands Bumbershoot weekend alone, which will put me very close to 300 for the year. Looking forward to more good music, and with my second Flip I can get even more video per show!