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.
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 DawsonKimya 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.
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.
2011 was a banner year for local bands. Some pretty big bands like the Presidents are local, that's why I get to see them so often. I took the kids to this one.
I consider Portland local.
Dustin's band My Parade got to open for The Ex (I saw them twice):
I saw around 30 bands at Veracity shows and got some good video:
This doesn't do justice to all of the local shows I saw this year - I saw several hundred - but it's a nice selection. There is an amazing pile of talent in the area playing a wonderful variety of music, we're lucky to have so much available.
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!
We got 4 tickets to day 2 the Presidents of the USA Fest, the Saturday night show which was all ages. The original plan was for me to take the kids but Carina ended up canceling at the last minute so Greg ended up agreeing to go. I've known Greg since we were in high school more than 3 decades ago and while we've seen a few shows together it has been a lot of years since the last one. I remember Greg providing tickets to a memorable Eric Clapton show where I got to hear the missing verse of Badge, and seeing the Kinks and other interesting bands with him.
It's been a while so I wondered how he'd hold up. We stopped by Dicks for milk shakes, burgers and fries on the way to pick up Greg, then headed down to the Showbox. We parked for free a few blocks away on Third and walked through the cold air to the Showbox. I wore a knitted cap Heather made for me and my wool jacket, it was cool but I didn't want to have to deal with all the layers at the show; I also made sure to wear a shirt with a pocket to hold the field recorder. I ended up checking my coat (pockets crammed full of hats and gloves) which made things easier.
First up was the Young Evils with Troy Nelson and his girlfriend Mackenzie Mercer. They were a bit light and pop-rockish, but they had talent and charisma. This short bit catches them sounding fun with a good pop vibe:
This song - "The Place I Lost My Mind" - was quite effective, flickr truncates this at 90 seconds:
Here they are in a bit more of a rocking vein:
Good opening act, the audience enjoyed it but was somewhat distracted.
Next up was Jonathon Coulton, a solo singer acoustic guitar player. He knew what he was doing. Some songs had a definite novelty feel - the Ikea bit was amusing - but some also had some bite. The one song about being down in the basement where the shop vacuum drowns out when you call me and when you cry was effective. Greg, Heather and Ben all gave this guy a thumbs up: good acoustic guitar work, very modern observations and sensibilities wrapped up in a classic nimble guitar picking pop/folk idiom, fun stuff.
Finally the Presidents took the stage. Chris Bellew was excited, hopping around and going a mile a minute running his mouth like he usually does. The crowd was as livedly as I care to see it, Ben and I had to back off 8 or 10 feet, the moshing was just too intense for us.
An energetic enthusiastic crowd, the Presidents blasting all of those familiar tunes, the frenzied bouncing crowd each and every time the Presidents hit a peak or a groove - the break in Little Dune Buggy (check out the audience bouncing 25 seconds in, crazy Presidents lyrics working so well "spider's bad ass fat old abdomen stuck in the bucket seat" - classic, they had us bouncing all over, made it hard to record. Some Postman ruled, as the son of a postman I'm never sure what to make of this song, but it rocks out with a fun groove:
Lump didn't limp along at sub-sonic speed so I only got the tail end:
Naked and Famous was off the scale "30 foot smurfs" - yes, everybody does want to be naked and famous, and 30 foot smurfs - there's not much else to say: Old Man On the Back Porch - they're getting old, and so am I, that old man is me for sure:
Kitty ruled, check out the audience sing along:
My camera ran out of room so we just rocked out to the rest of the show, with classic versions of We're Not Going to Make It (the whole crowd chanting No! NO! NO! NO!...), Kick Out The Jams (We Done Kicked Them OUT!), and ending with Video Killed the Radio Star at the end of the encore leaving a mussed up, hot and happy crowd to stream out of the Showbox into the cold Seattle night.
Northwest husband and family man, software engineer, loves music and getting out doors and on the water, I like to volunteer at the Vera project and see live music.
