Los Gentlemen and Seacats Play Hatties Hat

Most of the family is out of town, so I'm more likely to get to free events on weekday nights. Thursday's Los Gentlemen and Seacats show at Hattie's Hat is a prime example. I've seen both bands before and enjoyed them, but making it to Ballard via bus on a weekday is time consuming. With nobody waiting at home I decided to check out the show and get dinner while I'm at it.

Seacats are a long time favorite that I've seen a few times, and I've also interviewed Josh Davis, their lead vocalist/guitarist.

This was as smaller version of Seacats, just Josh and a keyboard player with sequenced or recorded drums that Josh referred to as "Spacecats."
They had an interesting luchadore thing going with masks, but Josh couldn't keep his on and sing so that ended quickly.

Next Los Gentlemen took the stage for their headline set.

Los Gentlemen do covers of older songs - stuff from decades ago, still younger than me, so these are songs I remember fondly from when I was a young adult like Taling Head's Psycho Killer:
Nice version, feels a bit faster and more directly rocking, maybe slightly less frightening just because it isn't quite as deranged.

I noticed Kurt Block was hanging out listening to their set, Kurt's played Hattie's Hat any number of times. For their final number they got Kurt up with them to do a cover of the Fastback's "K Street" which I found amusing in a sort of self referential way. It's also a nice song! So that was my free music to go with my dinner at Hattie's Hat, I have to admit I love listening to music in Ballard.
As a bonus I wandered into a different bar and caught part of a set from a blues band. Unfortunately I lost track of the band's name, it was the something Street Blues Band.

Brite Futures, Los Gentlemen and Unibroz at the Vera Project 4-8-11

After yet another Vera Project meeting on Friday (getting ready for next week's member meeting) I stayed late and caught another excellent show headlined by Brite Futures. I saw them perform as Natalie Portman's Shaved Head (love the name!) in 2007 at the EMP's Sound Off battle of the bands contest and they were instantly likeable - bouncy dance pop, cute young kids having a great time on stage, I still remember that show fondly. Here's their video for Sophisticated Side Ponytail - pure pop genius! They did this song back in 2007 an dI swear none of them could've been older than 17. Since then they've renamed themselves Brite Futures and now they're playing SXSW and headlining packed shows at the Vera Project - it's nice to see talent get rewarded!

The first band to take the stage was a hip-hop outfit called Unibroz - a funny play on bros as in brothers and uni-brows as in needing to pluck your eye brows. This photo is pretty good except that I managed to leave one of the members out of the frame:

You can see all three members in this photo, although I don't like the picture as well:

Some day I'll get better at framing my shots, meanwhile you'll just have to muddle along with my best efforts...

I managed to get most of their title song - Unibroz (they were helpful enough to spell it out for me), it opens with "Thought you could pluck it but it just grows back..."

Hilarious overloading of terms and concepts in this one, witty stuff, quite amusing.

Next up was Los Gentlemen, three young dudes in a power trio lineup (guitar, bass and drums). I recognized several covers from the Cure and REM, not sure if they did originals or just some obscure covers mixed in. They obviously liked the material and did a good job with it, I particularly enjoyed the bassist, although maybe that's just because I was closer to him.


They did fun fast covers of alternative songs from the nineties which is a good source from my point of view, so I quite enjoyed it. Here's a cover of REM's Radio Free Europe:

Talented performers, although they'll most likely need to move to either their own material or more obscure covers if they want to get very far in today's music business. Strange how a few bands like the Beattles being so good at writing their own material caused things to change so much that the majority of rock musicians play their own material, and almost every rock performer aspires to doing so. It wasn't always that way!

Finally Brite Futures took the stage and the crowd just ate it up.


Song after song worked well with the crowd dancing and bouncing to the beat, wonderful positive energy and the band clearly getting off on the audience.


Just one big happy rocking out dance party.


Brite Futures is brilliantly fun and they have amazing pop chops. Their song "Sophisticated Side Ponytail" is an all-time classic, and their video for it is wonderful too. The bit with Shamu rising up from a google earth looking back drop to swallow the band - wow!

Unfortunately I had to leave early to catch the last bus home or I would've filmed more of the show. Too bad! A great way to spend a Friday night, Brite Futures always puts on a show worth seeing.

Looking Ahead to April Shows

The Vera Project has a full roster of shows with 8 shows and more than 20 bands listed so far, with the Veracity show not up yet. I can also check out free shows at the Blue Moon on Sunday, so I should be able to see 20+ bands even if I miss a show or three at the Vera Project. Many interesting possibilities: Bright Futures, Karl Blau, Los Gentlemen, Titus Andonicus, Starfucker, Champagne Champagne, and Vivian Girls. Monica has been coming up with great Veracity lineups so I look forward to that and all of the bands I'll get see for the first time.

I'm looking at a more formal volunteer engagement for Veracity shows, we'll see if that progresses and has any usage.

I'm also starting to ramp up on some volunteer efforts for the Sasquatch Fest 10th Anniversary year book. Not only does it serve as my free ticket to Sasquatch Fest this year (and the bands are awesome) I also get some training on interviewing and an opportunity to interview some bands and fans. I missed the second meeting so I get to start with MusiCares (provides aid for musicians) and HeadCount (signs concert goers up to vote). Hopefully I'll get some bands that I like too.