Who's Next?

One of my favorite sports is rooting for local bands and artists to have their careers take off and get huge. Heart, Sir Mixalot, The Presidents of the USA, Nirvana, Pearl Jam & Alice in Chains all made it.

I got a thrill out of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis blowing up, as if I had something to do with it beyond clapping and screaming at the top of my lungs at their shows a couple times. Pretty similar to the feeling I get when the Seahawks do well.

So who locally looks like they're ready to blow up? Perhaps the question is who sounds like they're ready to blow up? We have an awesome regional music scene in the NW, so which bands/artists are sufficiently talented, hardworking, and lucky enough to break out from regional success to national?

Are we going to see another hip hop act explode, like Kung Fu Grip or Don't Talk to the Cops? Has Thee Satisfaction already blown up? If not, they’ve got to be close!

Maybe a singer/songwriter? Amazon.com named Shelby Earl's prior album the "#1 Outstanding 2011 Album You Might Have Missed," and her new one is better. I suspect she’s already– as ZZ Top Said – nationwide.Damien Jurado produced Shelby Earl's latest, and he blew me away with Marqopa and has been getting some love and attention for his latest album too. Will he finally get some recognition proportional to his talent?

Many other bands have knocked me out at live shows, maybe it’s one of these next: Deep Sea Diver? Sera Cahoone? Lonely Forest? Star Anna? TacocaT? Crimson Wave was fun and the video had crabs and octopuses. Wait, Brandi Carlile – with that voice and talent, she ought to have a strong national following, I suppose she’s already nationwide? Bret Amaker and the Rodeo? Fly Moon Royalty is doing a West coast tour, it wouldn't take much for them to break nationally too.

You can probably tell I don’t have that great a handle on who is or isn't already past the regional stage. That doesn't bother me much, I’ll just keep rooting for all of them and see them live every chance I get.

Damien Jurado and Naomi Wachira at a Seattle Living Room Show

I went to my first "Seattle Living Room Shows" event to see Damien Jurado and Naomi Wachira. Damien Jurado has been a local fixture for a while, but somehow I had never managed to see him until last Summer at Bumbershoot, where he totally blew me away. He writes powerful, often bleak songs that just totally hit home with me, and I was looking forward to seeing him in a more intimate setting.

The process of seeing the show is a little secretive - you sign up electronically, then a bit later they give you the details. We got there within a few minutes of the doors opening and already more than half the seats had been claimed, but we got reasonable seats together. That was kind of important because Heather was on crutches, so there's one tip: come quite early if you want to get seats at a Seattle Living Room Show!


It wasn't actually in someone's house, it was in a space near the Seahawk's stadium that I think is a gallery, but it was the intimate setting I was hoping for.


The crowd is seated in front of and to the right of the performers, with around 40 seats, and another 30 or 40 watch while standing behind the seats. The technical crew (audio and video, more on the video later) took the left side space. A small table was laid out with free snacks, bread with a spinach spread and chips, salsa, and multilayer dip (beans, cheese, sour cream, onions, a few peppers) to munch on, and a paid bar with beer, wine and hard liquor.

They had a single bathroom which also made it feel like a house show - standing in line to get into the bathroom took a few minutes.

The show was a benefit for the Melodic Caring Project, and they streamed it live to several hospitalized kids and teens.

Both Naomi Wachira and Damien Jurado have kids, and you could tell they took the charity to heart. They spoke to the kids during the show, and they both got choked up doing it. Having your own kids, the thought of kids being deathly ill hits too close to home for comfort. That's OK, the world is full of things that are not comforting, and too often our culture stays in denial on the subject. It's important to acknowledge how tough things are for some, even if it makes me cry in sympathy.

Naomi Wachira took the stage first, she's bee n in Seattle for some time and is originally from Kenya. She told us that she was going back home in the next couple days and would get to see her child, who is being raised by her grandparents. It was interesting how personal the stage chatter was, I think that was the influence of the charity and knowing that kids in an extremely tough situation were watching.

Some of her songs were personal, about lessons learned, songs of strength and self determination like this one:

She had some tasty backing vocals on this and some of the songs, the backing vocals were from another band, but I promptly forgot the name of the band. Sorry about that, I'll edit this and add the name back in if I ever track it down.

Simple, heartfelt, fairly stripped down with guitar and vocal and tasty backing vocals, very nice for the intimate setting.

She finished up with "African Girl" which is also the title track on the CD they had on the merch table. A beautiful song that looks back on her roots and her life, a song of faith and identity. I like how it frames things and lays out what matters to her. Lovely voice, complex lyrics that avoid the endless repetition so common in most modern music, definitely packed full of more ideas in one song than most bands manage to get in a full album. Great match for Damien Jurado, who has similarly dense and meaningful, if challenging, songs.

Damien Jurado took the stage for his headline set next. Jurado is an interesting performer; when I saw him at Bumbershoot he really didn't have much in the way of patter. He often looked down while singing and playing, or looked straight out, above the heads of the audience. He doesn't get much if any eye contact - I can't tell off hand if he doesn't like it, or just isn't concerned, but either way it makes for a slightly introverted yet powerful experience.

As Damien sat down he laid out various sheets of paper on a seat near him and mostly looked at them while playing.

After his first song he said "I'm not going to do these songs, I'm tired of them" and he shuffled through and skipped down the stack to some new songs. He told us he was working on a new album, and that he was going to do new songs. As a result I didn't recognize most of the set, but that's OK since the songs were consistently excellent
I noticed that Damien also was talking a bit between songs, which was a new experience for me. He mentioned his two kids, and told us the story of how "Museum Of Flight" came to be. It was a very personal story involving his adolescent child, and once he told us the story he said "I never explain my songs, so now you're the only group who knows where it came from" or something like that. I think the fact that he had an audience of terribly sick children watching streaming video of the performance was what pushed him into opening up. The audience is there to hear his songs, but those kids deserved more communication from him, somehow, and I really respect that artistic choice.

He continued opening up in ways I suspect he never had before on stage. If you notice in the first picture of him above, his shoes are off. He mentioned that, saying something like "this is a living room show, so I'm getting comfortable like I would in my own living room." Then he paused, and said "Well, if it was my living room, I'd be in my long underwear, which I'm wearing under my pants." After that it didn't take much encouragement before he ended up - after saying "this is entirely age appropriate, I'm not stripping!" which he emphasized by repeating - then he took his pants off. As you can see in the intro to this song, he riffed on that and turned it into a wonderful moment of solidarity with the kids watching from their hospital rooms.

If you look closely, you can see that sure enough, he's playing in his long underwear.

Here's a picture so you can see it more clearly:


As he wound down his set and got to the final two numbers, he gave a sweet testimonial that made us all choke up and made me cry. I caught it on video here:
The other thing I notice about it: he never looks at directly at the audience as far as I can tell, but he insisted on tracking down which camera was operating and looked directly at it, directly at the kids in the hospital watching the show, and spoke to them, thanking them and expressing his love. Mortality hitting the young is one of the toughest things there is to process, and something we strenuously avoid talking about. I feel uniquely privileged to have been there for this, to have experienced the love and pain and emotion in a simple 40 minute set with Damien Jurado opening up on stage in a way I've never seen before, and I suspect in a way he never has before. Wonderful dedication, a compelling example of a show dedicated to those who weren't there, who were watching from their hospital beds.

As if that wasn't enough crying and snuffling, he topped that with his final song, "Cloudy Shoes."

The chorus breaks my heart and makes me cry, even now just listening to the video:
"One day you will be taller, taller than the sky,
Til that day, you will be, here with us, below.

Such a beautiful heart-breakingly appropriate song for this benefit show, and a perfect downbeat ending for a "depressive songwriter" (to use Damien's term) to end the show on.

Saturday at Bumbershoot

Saturday was a beautiful day in Seattle and a great day to listen to lots of bands at the Seattle Center. Dana and Ben went with me and we got there early enough to catch the early acts. First up was Lights From Space, a local band that I've read interesting things about their influences include some of my favorites from the sixtes like the Beattles and the Kinks. Tough list to live up to, but they were fun and interesting live. Good rhythms, catchy tune, nicely done full sound for a trio.

Next we scored tickets for Serra Cahoone's KEXP indoor set. It's always easier early in the day since the crowds haven't picked up yet. The sound was awesome and the performance was excellent and the audience was very attentive. I like Sera's expressive voice and the tasty backing vocals kicking in, and the pedal steel guitar is wonderful. Talented performer in a setting that really showed her favorably, very nice.

Next up was TacocaT at the Sub Pop stage. I enjoy TacocaT's upbeat slightly punky sound, and they're always fun to watch; with the sunlight and bubbles they were even better!

Back over to the TuneIn stage for Don't Talk to the Cops We saw them last fall at Reverb Fest and they were an immediate favorite, and they haven't lost a step. Great fun upbeat show, just as good out in the sun as in a club - or maybe even better!

Next into the concrete box - the Exhibition Hall - for Spittin' Cobras. The sound in the Exhibition Hall can be pretty tough, but if you put in hearing protection and get close it's not bad - the echoes are drowned out by the loud music from a band like Spittin' Cobras. Unfortunately the heavy bass tends to overwhelm my Flip's microphone, so the audio isn't great, which is totally a problem with my equipment, the live sound was actually quite good - and heavy! They ended up with "Criminal Mastermind" as their final song and I quite enjoyed it. Good loud thundering sound, wish my equipment had done a better job though.

Next up was Polecat at the new Promenade stage. The venue was nice - the Promenade between the Opera House and the Exhibition Hall, and the band was excellent. A classic old country sound with a fiddle and a couple of guitars, upright bass and drums and a good dual vocal approach. I grew up listening to a wide variety of my Dad's music and this sounded very familiar - and I mean that as a definite compliment. Good old time sounding music with solos as the vocalist calls out the musicians, this sort of a performance from 60 or 70 years ago was one of the contributing streams that led to modern rock music, and decades later Polecat gave an excellent example of some of the roots of modern rock and roll.

Next was Unnatural Helpers at the Sub Pop stage Another wonderful band that I thought I'd never heard before - but I was wrong! I saw them at Bumbershoot in 2010 and they were memorable enough for me to mention in an old blog. The drummer sings - and sings well - and I love the fast rock sound. As I play the video back my son is humming along within a single repeat while he's reading and not really paying any attention - definitely a catchy hook, fun and fast and well executed.
Seven great bands well worth seeing in the first 3 hours - I was enjoying myself but not pacing myself too well, there were just too many good bands. Hmm, is that a real problem?


Next was Skerik's Bandalabra at the Starbicks stage. Another good show, this band had very talented musicians - the saxophone in particular blew me away (heh heh, but seriously). I actually ran into the sax player later at the Promenade stage watching other bands so I made a point of telling him how much I had enjoyed the show and he seemed to appreciate the compliment. I'm often a little too shy to say anything.

Next up was JC Brown and the Uptown Sound at the TuneIn stage Another excellent performance, JC's vocals are powerful and he's a very charismatic performer, and the band was tight and funky. They play around with timing and vary the beat, and jump in and out of changes as they go, very cool stuff.

Too much good music combined with my lack of pacing caught up with me so I ended up taking a break and not seeing any bands for a while. I'm a little annoyed at myself - I missed Black Breath, Cosmetics, Gotye, Serah Cahoone (at least I caught her KEXP set, so I didn't miss her completely) and Ayron Jones and the Way. Sigh, oh well I've never caught every act on any given day, and if I really tried I'd probably get so burned out that I wouldn't enjoy it all that much. Enough whining, back to music!

After a break and some food we checked out King Khan & the Shrines Good performance, nice horn section and fun visuals, it got me back in the mood to see more of the acts and I needed the energy.

Next was Prong in the Exhibition Hall The sound is rough; heavy metal bands in the Exhibition Hall are always a bit loud for my equipment. Too bad, they were another loud fun loud raucous band and I enjoyed it.

Next was the Barr Brothers at the Promenade stage I love the vocals and the lyrics, and the way music feeds into the song's progression. Enjoyed the show, makes me want to see more of them. I also want to dig through their lyrics more carefully, I like the contrasts and images.
My FLip was out of storage so I switched to my other Flip and got some more footage of the Barr Brothes, nice stuff:


Next it was back to the Sub Pop stage for THEESatisfaction, this one is Bisexual: They have a style of hip-hop different from any other I'm familiar with. I'm not well educated when it comes to hip hop so that doesn't mean too much, but I love the approach, the way the vocals play off each other, the dance moves, and the lyrics are creative and fascinating. Bisexual in particular is quite witty and interesting. I got some more footage including Deeper here: Again, the lyrics are witty and fascinating - "My melanin is relevant."

Next was "The Heavy" on the TuneIn stage, this one's "The Big Bad Wolf": I like the saxophone and the audience participation, they made us work! Fun stuff.

Over to the Promenade stage to listen to Western Haunts Amusing chatter and a very nice sound, I like the vocals in particular and the way the rhythm drives the song around 1:16 in.

EYEHATEGOD played the Exhibition Hall Loud heavy metal show, pretty good "clean" sound for a distorted heavy metal show, if that makes any sense - you can here the different instruments and track the beat and even hear the almost screamed vocals pretty well.

Oberhoffer played the Sub Pop stage They play fun upbeat music with some interesting lyrics: I'm pretty sure the "first time playing on this coast" comment was tongue in cheek, they played the Sunset last April and they've almost certainly played LA and so on.

Alela Diane played a nice solo acoustic set on the Promenade stage Nicely evocative song, beautiful performance. I bit of a caveat: I've never seen Alela Diane before, so I'm assuming that's who this is based on the Bumbershoot schedule; if there was a substitution then I could be completely wrong on the singer's name. Hopefuly I'm right, but feel free to comment or send me a message if I misidentify anything. Whether it's Alela Diane or not, she has a beautiful voice and played some gorgeous songs for us.

Next was City and Colour playing some nice tunes at the TuneIn stage You may notice that as the day progresses the videos are taken from further back and to the side - the crowds were picking up, and I was zipping around from one act to another, so unless I wanted to be pretty pushy I ended up with a somewhat poorer spot to record from. That's OK, the sound was generally pretty good and I enjoyed City and Colour even though I wasn't front and center.

Next I caught Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit on the Starbucks stage, this is "Codeine:" Wonderful composition, I love the way the phrases bookend the sections - "one thing I can't stand" and "one thing I can't take" - lovely, definitely sticks in my head. Sad song of loss, it sort of sneaks into your heart, it takes a while to reveal the depth of the loss and what the song is really about, quite effective.

Next was the Helio Sequence on the Sub Pop stage: I often end up with a fragment of a song to start with - the song already playing when I work my way into the crowd. I used to wait until the next song, but a few times when I did that I missed the last song, so now I usually just go ahead and record the song from the middle just in case. This was nice enough that I went ahead and posted it, then recorded another song too: Wonderful sound, quite full for a two piece band, and the songs are powerful.

Back to the Promenade stage to catch Damien Jurado do a powerful version of Nothing is the News: References to ghosts, doors being closed, standing outside, walk upon the clouds in my eyes, the song builds a powerful sense of isolation and alienation, and I love the way the instruments build into the song's emotion. The spacey synthesized accents (some sort of sound like a theremin, others waver in pitch rapidly) also add to the disjoint sense of the song. Wonderful song!
I got Maraqopa on video as well Jurado writes phenomenal songs and listening to them performed live is wonderful.

There were still many interesting acts I'd like to see Saturday night - Pezzner, The Jayhawks, M. Ward and more - but I was out of energy and still had two more days to make it through. Jurado was a great act to end the day on, though.
I'm going to have to be a bit smarter the next couple of days, take painkillers in the early evening, watch the alcohol intake, or probably both; I always regret missing acts at Bumbershoot.