Shane Diamanti Headlines the Vera Project Friday October 16

I'd only done two interviews on my blog, but Shane Diamanti saw the Knowmads interview and hit me up. Shane was a teenager in High School in Lynnwood and had a bit of viral success in early 2013 with his Dictionary Freestyle Rap.

This is a Dictionary Freestyle I did during hip hop club! I hope everyone can enjoy! Our hip hop adviser just start throwing me random words out of the dictionary and I went off of that and it came out pretty dope! There are some parts where it's muted because our hip hop adviser said I couldn't upload it unless I muted the part's I swore so I did! But hope everyone will enjoy the freestyle I did over Sunshine by Atmosphere!
Posted by Shane Diamanti on Thursday, May 2, 2013

I was a bit flattered and happy to interview Shane. Shane dreamed of being a successful performer and wasn't shy about reaching out. I wondered how things would go for him, if he'd ever achieve his dream of headlining shows.

A couple years later in early 2015 Shane got in touch and let me know that it was going pretty well! He had a show at El Corazon in May, and if he wasn't headlining at least it was his EP Release Show. I went ahead and interviewed him before the show and while I missed that show I was able to catch him opening for Mark Battles at the Vera Project a month or two later.

Talking to Shane before he managed to make some of his dreams come true and seeing how he worked towards them, in some ways the worst things that happened to him were the best things. They got him out of his comfort zone, motivated him like nobody's business, and inspired his music. It wasn't clear to me how he might achieve his dreams, and I doubt it was clear to him when he was still in High School, but in adversity he found his commitment to his craft and pursued that like a maniac and the rest is just the details.

So the latest news is that Shane is headlining a show this Friday at the Vera Project.


I'll be there. I'm signed up as the show photographer, but that's probably wishful thinking. If any of the key slots needs to be filled I'll end up doing that instead, so I may end up at the front door or in concessions or roaming security, we'll see. In any event I'll end up helping out with cleanup and I'll sneak into the show room and catch some of the show at least. If you make it to the show, say hi!

EMP Sound Off! Round 3

The first two Sound Off! shows were epic, featuring great music and great showmanship and an embarrassment of riches. Laser Fox came out ahead in round 1 and Thee Samedi took round 2. Now for round 3!

I ended up volunteering to help the Vera Project load in at the Triple Door for the gala in the afternoon, then running out and picking up Greg and heading back downtown to see the show. We parked in my office's underground secured lot and walked over to the EMP and headed up the SF stairs to the venue. Coming off the stairs we stopped by the Vera table and said hello. I didn't end up tabling for the Vera Project so I didn't get a seat between acts after all. Dang.

First up was Calico the Band who drove 10 hours from Boise to play for us and brought plenty of supporters.

The instruments were acoustic, upright bass and acoustic guitars and fiddles and banjos and mandolins. At least I think they used a mandolin, they switched around freely. They also had a drum set that was played standing up on occasion and another drum up front. They had a more percussion driven approach than I'd anticipated and got the audience cranked up quickly. The energy level was high and the band was very good, with a rich sound and good vocals and a presentation that just pulled you right in to the stomping beats and fun music. The lady on the keyboards was the "front-woman" handling the majority of the vocals and her charisma put them over. They put in a solid set that warmed up the crowd and had us dancing and yelling, but they had the difficult challenge of winning from the opening slot. The next band had a better chance simply because Calico the Band warmed up the audience. Unfortunate, but somebody had to go first.

Next up was K Sneak. I saw her at a Knowmads show a few years back, if I remember correctly. Oh yeah, I remember, the Japan benefit show in 2011 when she was in 9th grade. She's grown and matured and had a good time working the crowd and rapping, good to see her getting some love and attention and rewards for sticking to it and working at it. A hip hop act with a prerecorded track or sequence has a challenge keeping the EMP crowd engaged; bands like Tommy Cassidy add a full band to the rapping so the sequencing is minimal and the performance has more going on. K Sneak was fearless and carried her set and filled the stage like she'd been doing it for years (at least 3 so far!).

Good flow and an assortment of fast and interesting rhythms along with some nice cover choices got the crowd into it and enjoying it. Two good sets with 2 more bands to go.

Next up was Fauna Shade. My friend Eduard Contreras plays drums in the band and I enjoy their sound, which Troy Nelson described as "reverb drenched" or something like that - and he wasn't wrong.

I enjoy their sound and already have a couple of favorite songs that I enjoy hearing live, so they had me and a corner of the crowd by the stage dancing away and having a sweaty good time. The crowd intensity definitely spiked up with the distorted loud guitar driven sound and the bass lines occasionally replaced by psychedelic sounding string scrapes with Eduardo pounding away keeping time and tempo. Greg (the photographer) mentioned that he was particularly impressed by Eduardo's drumming, and he doesn't give out all that many compliments. Great sound, great rhythm, tight band in a fun groove. Without a pure lead vocalist the guitarist vocalist was somewhat rooted to the vocal mic which made it harder to put on a show while also playing and singing, so the music got much of the focus.

Fauna Shade finished off a great set and our corner of the crowd wiped the sweat off of our brows and re-hydrated aggressively. Things were looking good for Fauna Shade, I was leaning towards them as the best act of the night but it was tough, all the acts were good.

Then Otieno Terry came out. He opened with an a cappella vocal that showcased his beautiful rich voice and got the front row and the center of the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.

Then the band came out and finished the takeover, and we went on an awesome musical journey. Soul music and thumb popping bass lines, crooned sections with rich backing parts and the occasional doo-wop overtones and brilliant piano work all just served to amplify the charisma and effect of Otieno's performance.

The band was dressed in nice suits with dark slacks and grey sport jackets and ties and looked sharp, and also a bit like a throwback to the rat pack days. The backing vocalist in particular was talented and a great addition to the sound and attitude of the band, and his whistling was phenomenal.

Yet even that and consistently hot musicianship didn't come close to overshadowing Otieno, who gave each of his band mates a chance to shine - then emphatically took back the spot light to bring the show home. Intense soulful lyrics and a joyful performance made sure that the musical journey took us exactly where we all wanted to be even if we hadn't known it. This was one of those commanding performances that sucked us in and took us along with Otieno through the emotional wringer that he sang so powerfully to us about. The final number got the crowd screaming and moving and roaring, and once again the night ended with a band strutting off the stage on top of the world, conquerors of several hundred adoring sweating fans, and the inevitable confirmation of the judges that Otieno Terry was going to the finals was almost anti-climatic. They were eff-ing off the charts in a style I haven't seen anybody do, much less do well, in ages, and the judging has been pretty good (if maybe a little biased towards the later acts, just like the crowds). Fauna Shade got the wild card slot, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed until Sunday afternoon.


Update: Fauna Shade did indeed get into the finals as the wild card band. Hot damn! Now we get to see Laser Fox, Thee Samedi, Otieno Terry and Fauna Shade at next weeks EMP Sound Off! finals. This is going to be a great show, and I have no idea who's going to win. They're all talented and amazingly fun so the audience is going to have a great time no matter what!

EMP Sound Off! Round 2

After an epic week 1 of the EMP Sound Off! battle of the bands I was wondering if week two could possibly top it. Unlike week one, when all the bands were new to me, I'd seen Thee Samedi before so I had a suspicion that just maybe week 1 could be topped, but it was going to take some pretty dang good bands having very "on" nights to do it.

The luck of the draw really figures into Sound Off! placing: it's very tough to win from the first slot. The crowd is cold, and by the end of the show the judges and audience will remember the last acts best.

Still, somebody has to go on first and for round 2 it was Manatee Commune. Troy Nelson introduced him and Manatee Commune took the stage with his guitar. He started with electronic and synthesized or sequenced music, rapidly changing settings and interacting with a touch interface app on his tablet.
The music was spacey and electronic, with fairly dense layers of sequenced and pre-recorded material whirling around. After a few songs he played guitar on top of the atmospheric synthesized music and got some more intensity into the performance. He also switched over to a violin which had a nice interaction with his loops and sequences.
Manatee Communion warmed the crowd up and played interesting music, but his focus down onto the devices and button pushing and knob twiddling gave the set a more remote atmospheric vibe. Coming from the lead off slot, Manatee Commune was going to have a hard time winning.

After rocking out at round 1 of Sound Off! the prior week and then aching pretty badly afterwards I was wishing there was somewhere to sit down between acts. I got lucky - I volunteer at the Vera Project, and they are tabling at the Sound Off! and sent out an email asking for assistance with tabling. Which involves sitting behind a table. Sitting. I responded quickly: "I'm already going, I can table before and between bands!" and the volunteer coordinator was happy to have the slot filled. Score! All I have to do is talk about one of my favorite volunteer run non-profits to anybody who's cool enough to come to the Sound Off! and hasn't heard about it yet, or has heard a little and wants to hear more. Well! If you know me, you know I kinda like the sound of my own voice. This show went much better for me as I was able to sit down and rest my feet and legs between acts and let my vocal chords do the work.
We're tabling through round 3 and the finals too, so I'm relieved. Man, I have got to get into better shape before Bumbershoot arrives, I can only make it through 4 acts in an evening and then I need a day to recover. That's not going to cut it for a 3 day festivel with 11 hours worth of bands and a pile of walking needed to see as much of them as possible.

Sorry, I digress. Back to the second act at Sound Off! round 2: the Onlies.
The Onlies are three high school students who've known each other since grade school with a classic blue grass instrument lineup: guitar, mandolin, and fiddle.
They proceeded to put on an awesome old school bluegrass show. I grew up on this stuff, often listening with my dad to the live KRAB bluegrass show on every Saturday night back in the seventies. The Onlies played their instruments well, and when they launched into beautiful three part harmonies on top of it I was into it and so was everybody else in the audience. From fast and flashy leads and party songs to romantic laments they nailed it. They passed leads back and forth and switched up the instruments some, swapping the mandolin for a second guitar and then a banjo - the most dangerous instrument in the world. Their between songs patter was good too.
They were cute as heck which is a horribly patronizing thing for me to say I suppose, but they enjoyed the music and the audience and each other and made me happy just by being so upbeat and amusing as performers. When you add in all the technical chops and harmonies where they get that beautiful blend going, I was beyond happy. The audience responded and was loud, and the music got me moving some and sweating - and sadly enough, my sweat is a rough figure of merit for shows. The more I enjoy the show, the more I move. The more I move, the more I sweat. Hence the more I sweat, the better the show. This was a hot and bothered show, but they weren't on long enough to get me to the sweating through my clothes state.

Another great band with another completely different approach, and another great set. They had the bluegrass showmanship down: their hands were always occupied making music, yet they moved their instruments and moved in relation to each other and kept things lively and physically dynamic while always staying within 2 or maybe 3 feet of the centrally placed microphones so that the instruments and voices came through the PA clearly. The crowd ate it up.

Next up in the penultimate slot was Nabii Ko$mo, a hip hop duo with a live drummer.

The dude on the left handled most of the leads with the duo jumping on words and phrases to add some punch. The live drummer was a definite plus, giving the show a dynamic feel as the hard cadences of the raps lined up with the rhythms from the drums, increasing the rhythmic power of the performance. Hip hop music with rap leads uses rhythm, word play and rhyme without much melody to get it's message across, so the organic feel of the live, on the fly rhythm and the interplay between the drummer and the vocals stands out for me. Nabii Ko$mo put on a hot set and got the audience going, working us hard with arm raises and waves, call-outs and responses, engaging us more fully in the show. Another sweaty set that basically made you move, totally the sort of experience I get off on. Thank goodness we got to sit down and table for the Vera Project to recover, the bands were just too good and my feet and legs were paying the price from all the dancing.

The final act was Thee Samedi, the first band I've ever seen at Sound Off! that I'd already seen. They were nice enough to come in and play for free at a Veracity show show for us. And I DO mean put on a show. Their lead vocalist Noah Fowler is a committed performer who put an amazing amount of energy into the show and the band plays hard crunchy guitar oriented rock played loud - right up my alley.

As you can see here Noah had some sort of fuzzy shawl like wrap and something red spread across his chest - and the shawl is about to come off. The band smashed through their songs, playing loud and hard, with Noah wailing away and using the mic in unusual ways and the crowd just exploded. The security staff had to move to the edge of the mosh pit to try to keep things a little calmer, and pretty soon the foolish stage dives started - at least two times somebody leapt out and pretty much missed everyone, splatting to the floor. Good thing they were young resilient flexible kids, if I tried something like that I'd break things and end up in the hospital. The mosh pit was more than enough physical abuse for me!

The guitarist in particular had a great smile as he faced right into the writhing crowd and banged his way through the power chords that just got us all writhing even harder. Noah start writhing around on the ground and stuffing the mic into his mouth and screaming away, classic stuff.
I didn't quite see how Noah did it, but he managed to knock himself in the face a bit. As the blood trickled out of his nose onto his upper lip the audience just lost it's shit. Noah eventually noticed it when he got blood on his fingers and then he rubbed it all over his chest on top of the ketchup or whatever the heck it was that was already there. For some interesting effects he rubbed the mic back and forth across his chest until you couldn't tell if he had smeared the earlier red stuff or the blood, or maybe had just made the skin red from irritation.

We had ourselves one heck of a mosh pit. I ended up in bouncing from nearly up to the stage back to the line of security folk holding down one end of the mosh pit, fending off the flying maniacs, redirecting and catching the staggering kids to avoid falling and pileups, getting a hand or a hip on the frenzied sideways pogo fanatics before they managed to nail me or someone else with an elbow or a knee, taking the occasional elbow or knee anyway, riding the surges of frenzied kids back and forth and back and forth. We managed to only have 2 major pileup/tramples and no fights, so it was a good clean bruising mosh pit in the best Seattle tradition. Nobody was bleeding in the mosh pit, although at least one tee shirt got shredded. As far as I could tell, all the blood was on the stage.

As Thee Samedi wound down their set and left the stage with a triumphant strut I staggered back to the Vera table so I could sit down. They pegged the sweat measurement: all the way through my shirt over most of my chest and lower back. My feet and arms were sore too, so it felt good to relax and sit down. The judges weighed in with their decision and Thee Samedi came in first and is going to the finals.

As I recovered from the show physically I was still on an emotional high and I realized another one of those odd correlations I enjoy, this one's a painful correlation. It's not just sweat, pain is proportional to show intensity too. The awesome shows whip us into a frenzy that leaves me a bit beaten and bruised and sore.

I'm getting somewhat old for this, yet the pure intensity and transcendent joy in the collective experience makes it worth it every single time. I only hurt badly after a show if it was an awesome show, and I'll take that deal every time. I just need to remember to get a certain amount of time off of my feet to recover every so often, then it works well. Well enough anyway; I can't wait to go back next week for part 3 - Eduardo's band Fauna Shade is playing, and so is K Sneak, so next week I'll set a personal record and see 2 acts that I've seen before in a single preliminary EMP round, along the two bands that will be completely new to me. I'm also looking forward to getting to see the finals, the 2 bands in already put on a great show, and the wild cards are good as well. It's been a great Sound Off! already, and the shows are only half done. Lots of good music left!

BTW I want to thank Charles for the excellent photos from both rounds. You can click through to his flickr photos from the blog and check them out if you want.

EMP Sound Off! Round 1

For no good reason I haven't made it to the EMP Sound Off! events in a few years. This year I got tickets and rounded up my friend Charles to take pictures, and I'm glad I did: the first night of the Sound Off! was impressive. Troy Nelson from Young Evils (he also has a Saturday DJ slot on KEXP) was our MC.

First up was Tommy Cassidy. Just like Charles the photographer, Cassidy is from the Tri-Cities and went to Hanford High School. That plays a part in his message and we'll get to that, but first some details about the man and the band. Cassidy raps in front of a live band with horns. The band is fun and loud and has a women with a strong voice singing leads, alternating with Cassidy's raps and occasionally backing and filling during them. This band cooks along, and when the horn section comes in for some backing it's cool. When they run through some leads on the trumpet it's even better, and they even had some cool old school muted trumpet stuff giving a completely different sound and feel to one number.
Cassidy varied his approach in different songs, using a slower back-off-the-beat approach which somehow gave almost a visual quality to his raps, and also using a rapid fire intricate aggressive intense flow in another number that was visceral and powerfully emotional. Cassidy's range and lyrics and patter connected with us - his comments about being from the nuclear Tri-Cities and feeling like a stranger in his hometown resonated with everybody who's been a teenager.
Cassidy drew the first slot which is pretty much impossible to win from. He took a cold audience and warmed it up, did great work and impressed us, but then 3 more acts got to go on and distract us from the first performance, and they got to start with a warmed up audience. Cassidy showed he's more than capable of opening a show and I expect him to move up the bill quickly if he can make it to Seattle very often.
Quite talented and tight, Cassidy and the band got the crowd warmed up and into it.

Next Sophia Duccini took the stage with a violinist/fiddler and a backing vocalist. Duccini plays guitar and piano and sings, and the group gets an interesting range of sweet to haunting sounds and songs out of the lineup. The vocals stand out, with Duccini's strong leads carrying a good portion of the songs and the gorgeous harmonies reinforcing and ornamenting the songs and emotions. Duccini and her band cover a range of styles from piano based pop in the older sense to guitar and fiddle instrumentation with a folky Americana feel. Interesting music, I tend to think of it as small scale and a little quiet but Duccini instead made it introspective and recursive and filled with a different meaning each time they hit a repetition. It engages you and pulls you in without having to pound on you, it's almost a more hypnotic approach in some cases and more conversational in others. Getting the audience to connect to the music and get enthusiastic without that bottom end - no bass & no drums - is challenging but Duccini pulls it off, her music drives when she wants it to and she easily carries the rhythm on the guitar and piano, switching back and forth between songs. Already I'm torn between the first 2 performances, both groups are ridiculously talented and skilled. At this point I'm thinking the decision is between these two acts.

Next Laser Fox takes the stage. I've got to admit, the name is brilliant. It works really well in a chant - wait, I think that's a spoiler. Laser Fox kicked it off with a singer, drummer and two dudes at keyboards, one using an analog (or emulated analog) setup, and one of the two (couldn't tell which) filling in the low end so you had a good base line. It might have been sequenced or prerecorded bass, it's difficult to tell.

The lineup varied a bit from song to song, here one of the keyboard players is playing the bass guitar and the vocalist has taken over at the keyboard. The singer is the focus in this band. On a few songs he played a hollow bodied electric guitar and sang.
Laser Fox looked good, sounded good, and they sounded like they felt good. The crowd started getting into it and dancing and moshing, and the vocalist started strutting around and gesturing as he sang. The dude had charisma to spare and was totally pulling it off with the mosh pit getting bigger and more intense and just eating it up: we loved him. Laser Fox knows how to put on a show, and the pacing and slot (good hot hip-hop to warm up, internal and relationship songs (some were both) to whet our appetite, now a big loud testosterone filled performance - in a nice NW way, we are after all a polite Scandinavian influenced culture topped things off nicely. We were already having fun and then that danceable electronic music hit and we started moving, and the vocalist was moving with us and dancing and dropping and totally thriving on the attention. They got that feedback loop going where the audience intensity feeds off of the band's performance and then the band feeds off of the increasing audience intensity. Hot stuff, we were bouncing around and sweating and moshing.

I was sweaty and sore, and normally I'd expect a let down after 3 acts this good. On the other hand, a buddy had spoken highly of Dames. Dames plays a largely guitar driven sound with keyboards and (judging by the Macs) either sequenced or recorded bits too.

Dames brought their audience with them and turned in a rocking set, keeping the energy level high and making us sweat and bounce even more. The guitarist lead vocalist was the focus through much of the show and his voice held the songs together and felt very personal, like he was talking to you and a few friends, not to a few hundred sweaty fans bouncing around in the mosh pit.

The mosh pit was bigger than ever and fun, filled with smiling people bouncing around and surging off of each other. All the thrashing fans in the mosh pit showed an innate politeness and niceness, and those are not terms I usually use to describe a mosh pit. Seriously, it was the nicest, sweetest mosh pit I've ever been in. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't lame or low intensity at all, it was full of people flying around and surging forward and to the sides and sweating and thrashing, your typical intense mosh pit. Nobody was in studs and leather, no really big dudes who like bruising people, and none of those boneheads who like to cover their faces with a bandanna then do spin moves with feet flying, putting everyone nearby at risk. I was happy not to run into any of that, it made being in the mosh pit after more than 5 decades on this Earth much more manageable.

Dames also had the most elaborate set - they put up a vinyl goose. OK, not terribly elaborate, but probably the best I've seen since The Lonely H did the light sabre duel in the way back in the 2004 Sound Off - they came in second. Not only did Dames bring the crowd, they were great to mosh with and their joy in the performance was infectious and the night ended up being a sweaty dance party on top of a rocking show - and that's one of my favorite things to experience.

I'm amazed at the level of talent on display at the first weekend of the Sound Off contest, every band was great and did something completely different and unique. Laser Fox ended up winning, and they arguably put on the best show. Dames was the runner up so they have a shot to make it as the wild card band and for once the judge's selections seem pretty solid. In the past the judges always seemed to reward the weakest bands, so this was refreshing. I shouldn't be surprised, the judges included Hollis and Marco Collins and I respect them both for their musical taste - Collins helped form or should I say update my taste a few decades back when he was a DJ on a local Seattle radio station and Hollis performs and contributes to some of my favorite musical stuff at a ridiculously high level - you can't nail that many things that well without having exquisite musical taste and judgement. Definite hat tip and high fives all around to the judges for representing and choosing awesome dynamic performers to advance.

I've discovered that the mosh pit is a time travel device. When I get into the mosh pit, my age decreases by a decade or more: I'm much younger and more energetic, and it's a fun and occasionally joyous experience. Then I get out of the mosh pit and go into the cold outside air, and the missing decade comes back from his smoke break, and he's got another couple decades of his buddies he invited over, and I feel SO OLD. I shuffle back to the car lifting my sore feet with my sore legs, sweat evaporating and cooling me off rapidly.
While the end of the evening is a little painful, there's a tautology here that guarantees that it's always worth it. I was sore because I had been dancing and moshing, and that's a spiritual experience to me. At the best shows the music takes you out of yourself and engages you in every way. You move and respond to the music physically, just as you react and respond to it emotionally. You're sharing this experience in a fellowship with the rest of the crowd. Good lyrics engage your intellect too, and emotionally charged writing often fires off associations and memories.

It's a wonderful and intense experience, and I'm always happy to be introduced to more bands that are figuring out how to engage and move a crowd, how to create and present their art and entertain and thrill us. Here's to four new to me bands that are all worth keeping an eye out for and going out of your way to see. All of these bands know what they are doing and I look forward to watching them progress, and yes to, some day saying "I knew them when..."

Music Tapes at the Vera Project

I was excited to see that Music Tapes was playing the Vera Project. I saw them put on a beautifully strange show at the Vera a couple years ago with Olivia Tremor Control and the stories told on stage about Hungarian Gypsy circus performers really stuck with me, and so did the world's largest metronome.

Julian Koster has a different vision of what live performances are, using narratives and props to a much greater degree than any other small venue touring band I've ever seen. If I thought the last show was more narrative and prop driven than most, I had no idea what I was in store for this time - it was the traveling imaginary tour!

The band put up a circus tent inside of the Vera Project, and the audience was full of parents with little children. The show takes place in and around the tent, with Julian leading the children and the adults in organized play and contests before the music started.

They brought back the world's tallest metronome and added the drowning sailor and games of skill involving balls and giant snowmen, there were Hungarian Gypsy circus stories - mostly different stories, Julian appears to have quite a few. It was another fun yet totally unexpected and imaginative show.

The first couple of songs were Julian on the musical saw, then on a banjo played with a bow while he sang: Different sounding song, odd and a little small, but it has an undeniable emotional impact as the descending banjo sounding a little like a violin winds through the song.

There was plenty of music on a combination of normal instruments, some used differently (bow on banjo in the above video) and some less usual instruments like musical saws (a saw played with a bow) and the worlds largest metronome and the odd percussion thing to the back a little on the right, I have no idea what they call that. Here's the bit where they introduce the metronome then the giant (drowning?) sailor assembles for an almost indescribable number with the music starting around 2:00 in.
Between the odd rhythms and the horn driven sounds I can sense the circus roots, but the horn break around 2:30 or just after defies easy classification - this stuff is the Music Tapes, and not much else is like it.

I was happy to see that they had several new tricks up their sleeves like the game of skill involving the snowman and throwing balls at the moon until you break it.
They play more conventionally on some songs like this one, but it still has a musical saw and that odd percussion thing going, so it's only more conventional than the other even odder Music Tapes songs, it's still way out there in unconventional music territory. As a long term novelty seeker, this makes me very happy. They are dedicated to a unique artistic vision, and they pull you into that vision through their artistry and commitment. The odd atmosphere with the occasional barker leading the audience into participating in games (the ladies got be firefly fairies with lights before the show) and play, the high proportion of kids, all of us seated in the circus tent watching the show, it felt like something out of a Ray Bradbury short story - and that's a pretty big compliment, coming from me. Definitely an all out experience, not bombastic or sensory assaulting, just different, like we were slipping into an alternate universe where the old school European Circuses never faded away into something different and they still circle the globe , bringing an evening of alternative reality to those of us lucky enough to find it.

Land of Pines, Special Explosion, Peeping Tomboys and Iji at the Vera Project

Land of Pines put on an EP release show on May 4 and I signed up to steer well ahead of time. I've seen Land of Pines a few times, opening for STRFKR/Champagne Champagne (a pretty epic show) and at the CHBP on the Vera Stage in 2011 and at Reverb Fest later in 2011 as well. They're always fun to watch and listen to, so I signed up as soon as I saw they were doing the show. I bused to the Vera - the weather was nice and hot so I got a little warm lugging the tripod and cameras and laptop and dinner and all, but it was really nice getting some sun and working on that vitamin D deficiency.

We got a good crew of volunteers and they made it easy to steer - all the critical front door posts were filled, and so was concessions and roaming security, so I just had to check in periodically. I was able to get the whole show on video and take lots of pictures. First up is Iji. Iji is a local Seattle (or nearby) band that I never quite caught. They play local shows, they toured with Megabog and I saw Megabog, but not with Iji. Must have been a different tour. Anyway, I was happy I finally did manage to catch Iji. Guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, with a woman on drums. I'm not sure I'd point that out normally, but we did get a shout out form one of the bands noting that we had many great women performers playing, more than you tend to see at most rock shows.
Iji has a nice guitar driven sound with good dynamics, I enjoy the way the guitar rhythms play against the drums in this one, their final song:
The song has a nice sense of movement and development, pulling us along with it's instrumentals during the break and circling back through the lyrics, with the upper end into the falsetto drifting over lightly, slightly questioning and detached, perhaps. Nice use of song structure and tone to set a mood.

Peeping Tomboys were up next. Funny name, tomboys culturally are "girls who act like boys" and peepers are usually boys or men, so the using that name for an all girl band definitely opens up some thoughts on sexuality and sexual identity. While looking through my pictures from this show, I noticed that I have photos from Peeping Tomboys playing with Silicon Girls too (Silicon Girls was all men, so the gender identity stuff which was never an explicit topic as far as I noticed was in play there too) but that's another story. They have the same power trio lineup with the guitarist doing most of the vocals, bass and drums. Good mid range guitar sound, nicely built rhythm carrying interesting songs along and supporting the vocals. The drummer does a good job filling some of the transitions and solos too, they never have a weak or anemic sound, it's always working in the context of the song.
This one uses a descending chord progression and some fun backbeats and rhythms to build into a fun song:

Special Explosion had the penultimate slot.
Lead, rhythm and bass guitar with drums and two vocalists. The guitarist/vocalists did most of the vocals, with the bass player also contributing on occasion.
On thos one they get an angular, jangly opening into a fairly rich, complex instrumental bit before the vocals come in a bt over 90 seconds in. I love the droning sound of the vocals and the transition from the vocals back out to the jangling guitars, and the building leads coming across the vocals around 2:45 to 3:00, then the structure changes and you get some repeated almost paused tempos, the rhythm is quite complicated. I enjoy the song structure and really like the leads and the sense of anticipation as he builds that delay into his licks. Nice stuff. The second song starts about 5:25 in and has dual vocals, also worth checking out.

There are several more tracks from each of the bands on my YouTube channel like this video of Special Explosion closing out their set, so if any of these pique your interest, by all means check out their other tunes on YouTube.

Next up was Land of Pines, the headliners.
They roll with 2 guitars, bass, keyboards, and drums. They have a great sound, mixing elements from the different band members as needed, making great use of dynamics. Songs have bits where fewer instruments are playing, then the song intensifies and more instruments join in, with nice rhythm guitar hooks and the rhythm section chugging along until the final climactic breakdown.
Nice song, nice sound. It's good to see Land of Pines headlining a good loud show with some interesting attitudes and themes on display, here's to hearing the new stuff on the radio and more chances to see all of the bands again. Special Explosions in particular look poised to headline their own shows, and Land of Pines should be increasing their draw with some radio airplay and perhaps getting some larger venue gigs. These bands are all working hard and putting on good tight shows - Seattle has an embarrassment of riches with so many solid bands at every level.

The Men, Dude York, CCR Headcleaner and Big Eyes at the Vera Project

After attending the pop conference at the EMP Saturday morning and afternoon I headed over to the Vera Project and set the tripod up for the show. I was there pretty early so I got to listen to the sound checks and hang around a while, then Big Eyes took the stage right on time at 8:30. Big Eyes has a power trio lineup with the guitarist also singing. Good guitar oriented sound, nicely active high end from the drummer and a good solid low end from the bass, nice guitar riffs driving the songs along, good vocal hook too on the first song here. I also enjoyed the solo about 2:20 in, a good contained solo, old school sort of stuff that stays within the song structure and adds nicely to the song - tasty. Fun set, and we were just getting started.

Next up was CCR Heacleaner. In a musical context, when I see CCR I think of Credence Clearwater Revival. I can't say the music sounded like it was inspired by that CCR or anything along those lines. They had 3 guitars, bass and drums. They play songs with unconventional structures, sections of slower tempo building and ebbing, multiple vocals on occasion, and fairly complex song structures. They were working out some different sounding approaches, definitely doing and creating their own thing.

Up next was Dude York. I hadn't heard them before, but the bass player was in Natalie Portman's Shaved Head/Brite Futures so I'd seen her quite a few times and was looking forward to seeing her new band.
Dude York had a power trio lineup as well. The first song on this video has pretty aggressive, driving beat and a more angular sound than Big Eyes, the earlier power trio. They cranked out some edgy tunes, more from the punk side of the spectrum perhaps - powerful fast songs, not too long. I was happy to hear old friends in new sounding bands I've been seeing Dude York getting booked quite bit locally, so it looks like they're doing pretty well which is even better.

The Men took the stage for their headlining set. The had 3 guitars, an acoustic and two electric, along with the bass and drums. The acoustic guitar player also played  keyboards on occasion.

I like the way the meld the guitars together in this one. Nice beat and prominent guitar placement in the turnarounds, good vocals that are easy to pick out, nice song structure. Interesting music, fairly uptempo, I even enjoy the "la la la la-la la" bit towards the end of the song. Goof stuff!

The transition from song to song is also reasonably brisk, so they packed quite a bit of music into a moderate sized set. I didn't get to stay to the end of their set, since I had to catch the bus (which got stuck in traffic so I missed the transfer and got stuck downtown, but that's a different story). I enjoyed what I saw, and it was nice seeing Claire's new gig in Dude York and hearing 4 bands that are new to me that all are doing interesting things is always fun.

Defunked, Marina Beat and Junk Drawer at the Vera Project

I signed up to steer the Defunked show at the Vera Project without knowing anything about the bands, pretty much par for the course for me. We had a small volunteer crew but we handled things well enough and Junk Drawer took to the stage to open things up. I enjoyed their set quite a bit. They had guitar, bass, keyboards, drum, and vocals, a nice sound and a good group vibe.

Here's a nice number they did: The lead singer said something like "if you don't like this song's genre, just hang on a minute and it'll change with the next song" which was amusing. I got a chance to talk to her a bit between acts and she told me the different interests of the members of the band drove that wide selection of genres - the punk bass player, classic rock guitarist, jazz keyboardist - I'm misquoting her to some degree, I ought to take notes since I know I'm going to be blogging about it. I also thought from her shout-out to Riverside and the headliners that her band was from Riverside, it was more along the lines of several members were from there sometime back, they're a local northwest band.

Next up was Marina Beat

Marina Beat has dual guitars (strats), bass and drums, and a nice fast upbeat rock sound:

They played several songs I liked, this one is "Hey Josephine"

Two talented bands already, and the headliners perform with a horn section - I love horn sections!
Defunked took the stage, and they filled it. The horn section with two saxophones and a trumpet along with 2 guitars (1 Strat style and 1 Les Paul style), bass and guitar. They play fast loud rock and roll with a punchy horn section and plenty of noise and pounding to make you want to bounce around and work up a sweat. Nice stuff with that kick-in-the-rear beat that makes you want to move in time with it. Fun rhythm changes, ska sounding guitars, it opens a bit more punk, moves more ska in the middle, then back to that punk fast thrashy beat.

I like the breakdown that leads into this one, and the different paces that rise up, giving it a back and forth feeling. It switches back out to that slower feeling beat, more tentative or pent up, then back to the main beat - and the second horn breakdown around 2:00 in is pretty killer. They also just nail the ending, fun song done extremely well. I like this stuff!

Fun show with three talented bands, I hope these bands are able to connect with the kind of solid fan base they deserve, the music they cranked out was fun and makes you want to bring others to hear it. At it's best, it demands to be danced to, and I just love a good funky band that plays fun music that irresistibly gets you moving.

Internet Memes: Brony

My son turned me on to "My Little Ponies" and the Brony movement. The "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" cartoons are watched without irony and the music is listened to obsessively. In addition to the cartoons, there is a whole universe of media - similar to fan fiction, but with music and storyboards and the occasional animated bit. Ben listens to a wide variety of musicians doing an odd assortment of styles - with plenty of dubstep, for some reason.

While attending last month's Steering committee meeting at the Vera Project, Beth mentioned they had a Brony show coming up. I checked with Ben and signed us up for the show. Music about rainbow colored horses with tatooed buts and occasional wings or horns, couldn't be much odder than the wizard rock show we saw.

The show was put on by the Everfree Northwest folk. They run a yearly convention for My Little Pony fans and use this event to build some excitement and sell some convention tickets. I enjoy the brightly colored hair and horse ears.


The show kicked off with Tarby, who played guitar and sang with a saxophone player accompanying him.
Interesting sound, I managed to get a bit of video of the performance here:

Next up we had Maestro Scherzo playing something in the alto sax or oboe range, a reed instrument, anyway. Definitely getting plenty of reed instruments!

Speaking of plenty of reed instruments, the Cutie Marks and Donn Devore (I'm torn, the show schedule said Don DeVore, but a YouTube video said Donn DeVore) set had one too.

I enjoy the beat and the sound in this one:

The final act was DJ Everfree. He had some fun laser effects; I didn't video tape his set but I took some pictures.

The audience also put on a show with the wigs, t-shirts, and lots of pony ears sticking out on top of everybody's hair. It was somewhat odd and silly, but earnest and non-ironic, and actually quite fun and different. Just like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the Brony movement in general, kind of hard for an old fossil like me to process. My 15 year old who is bigger than me and needs to shave watches juvenile cartoons and appreciates their message, and then he listens to Brony music. Rainbow colored cartoons. With ponies and unicorns and some have wings and many have magic. Then lots of 8 bit music and dubstep and pop and disco all about ponies. The Vera show didn't cover all of those genres, but it gave us some fun music and songs about ponies and friendship and magic. Totally new genre for me, which is all good as far as I'm concerned.

2013 Vera Gala

The Vera Project held its annual fundraising gala and auction on Saturday, February 23 in 2013. I volunteered to help with the event this year, so I arrived early to setup, just before 1 on a surprisingly nice Seattle afternoon.
The Triple Door donates the venue, staff, and dinner for the guests. Between the Musicqarium Lounge and the Triple Door Main Stage, it's a wonderful venue and they are incredibly generous to donate so much to the Vera Project.

We held the silent auction as the guests arrived, with appetizers (the shrimp toast was great) and free drinks made with donated hard liquor from Oola. After closing the auction out and finishing the initial portion of the evening in the MusicQarium we encouraged the guest to move to the Main Stage auditorium. The Triple Door venue is dedicated to table seating with views of the show. The house lights are down and the stage lights are up in this photo so the tables are a little hard to see, but the whole auditorium is filled with scalloped tables like this with additional counter seating tucked in here and there. That's John Roderick taking the stage as our Master of Ceremonies. You can see some of the seat layout better in this photo: Roderick was great, riffing on the Vera Project and Seattle's variant on "learning it on the hard streets." When there wasn't a safe venue like the Vera Project around to help you channel your creative energies into useful activities, you went and hung out on the Ave in the U-District. I suppose that makes it the mean street of Seattle, singular. I grew up there before the Vera Project too.

The Grizzled Mighty performed on the Main Stage with a drummer and a guitarist/vocalist. Small group but they pumped out the volume and noise so it's all good. The Grizzled Mighty crank up the guitar and drums and make a great loud racket, grinding and crashing away. Fun loud music!
The auction went well and Andrienne Pilapil's speech about her Vera family was quite powerful and moving. I've known Andrienne for over a year - she took over as the Veracity chair after me - but I learned more about her from this talk than I had in a year of booking shows with her. She got very personal and shared details of her emotional life and the impact was palpable to the 400 guests, staff and volunteers in the venue.

We also got a surprise bit from the mayor as a bonus. Perhaps he was inspired by Roderick and Andrienne, he was mildly funny and interesting. Roderick was having some fun with smartphones while the mayor was talking so he probably got some amusing tweets out.

While the Main Stage events kept the crowd in the auditorium we broke down the silent auction remains, got the paperwork sorted and forwarded and put things in place for the After Party.

The Physics played the After Party back up in the MusicQuarium lounge. Fun hip hop with two lead vocals (and a guest on one cut) plus a couple backing vocalists and a guitar. This picture of their sound check shows most of them, except the guitarist is obscured: The guitarist is more visible in this one: The Physics have a great sound and flow, and the multiple vocalist and live guitar in the mix keep the songs moving and evolving. The sound is mildly lousy since my camera ended up just about in the speaker, but you can get an idea what it was like. The live sound was actually quite good, the problem is with my camera's ability to record it.
I enjoyed the Physics, dancing and bouncing a bit to their numbers as the night wound down.
My feet were pretty sore from going up and down the stairs repeatedly, not to mention standing for 11 hours, but it felt nice to be part of a successful team putting on a great event. Anne O'Dowd and Kristina Goetz and Tristan Carasino and Andrienne Pilapil and the whole Vera crew and John Roderick and the bands and the Triple Door staff put on a killer event. There were many generous sponsors and the guests were more than generous, enthusiastically bidding the Macklemore Thrift Shop shopping trip to around $7,000 and donating generously to help a cause that means a lot to me and many youth around the greater Seattle area and beyond. I'm thankful that so many people support the Vera Project so enthusiastically, and that we can have so much fun building on our successes and funding another great year at the Vera Project.

January Veracity with Tangerine, Thee Samedi, Kathy and Rebel

Another interesting Veracity show last night at the Vera Project. The order of the bands got switched a little due to a late arrival, but the show went off smoothly.

Kathy was the final act confirmed for the show, they roll with a guitarist/vocalist and a drummer. The vocals are mostly incidental in most of their songs. The guitarist plays facing sideways, so the drummer is in his field of view. The guitar is prominent, a bit distorted with plenty of echo and sustain. The first song builds slowly from the guitar, adding the drums in after a few measures. The vocals are quiet, a minor addition to the song.
Interesting approach, the guitar probably could have been louder but I always enjoy listening to distorted guitars and pounding drums. The transitions as the drums kick in for a while, then stop again for a few measures, then back in again provide some contrast as they work through the song progression.

Next up was Rebel, a hip hop performer working over recorded beats. This one is a Seattle song that talks about needing sunny days and rain.
The third act was Thee Samedi.
The front man definitely carried on the traditional over the top rock extroverted front-man role. Above and beyond the music and the singing, he put on a performance for us. The band's instruments are the classic power trio guitar, bass and drums setup, and it worked well with the band crunching out angular punky sounded thrashy music and the vocalist sneering and writhing, stripped down to his pants - no shirt no shoes, obnoxious service, classic punk approach.
Eventually he added some colorful touches with the help of the audience and started writhing on the ground while singing.
You should've been there, it was a pretty classic performance. We had 3 or 4 older adults watching them from the catwalk above and I couldn't help wondering if the lady taking pictures with her cell phone was his mom. Definitely a fearless performance!

The final act was Tangerine, who varied their instruments a bit from song to song. They always used the bass and drums, performing some songs with 2 guitars, some with 1 guitar, and some with a guitar and keyboard. All of the musicians added backing vocals, with most songs have choruses with "wooh-ahh" style group backing vocals. I enjoy the vocal complexity and the more complex arrangements, I miss this a bit. It seems like it used to be a more common approach but few bands use it recently, so I definitely give Tangerine props for it. It takes some effort to work out parts and practice and discipline for the musicians to play their music and come in together on pitch effectively. Nice song structures, well rehearsed coherent sound, definitely enjoyed the set.

Fun Veracity show with quite a variety of bands and sounds, and the attendance was quite good too with around 50 people in enjoying the show. Andrienne has been doing a great job getting shows together and getting a crowd to show up to see them. Thanks, Andrienne, and thanks to the performers for a fun show!

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band and Fresh Espresso at the Vera Project

Marshall has been a member at the Vera Project for a few years, running lights at shows and hanging out with the rest of us volunteers and having fun. Marshal is in high school and enjoys socializing and pretty much always seems to be happy, great kid to hang out with at a show. After knowing him for a year and a half and working with him at any number of shows, he casually mentioned to me that he was in a band.

"Which band?" was the obvious question. "Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band" he replied.

Wow - that's the cool local band I've read about - hadn't managed to see them yet - and they have the complex back story involving Benjamin Verdoes and Marshal Verdoes, adoptive brothers...

I realized he was that Marshal - oh! I had no idea. I'd always wanted to see Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, now I wanted to see them more than ever.
Seeing Marshall pounding on the drums at a hip hop show whetted my appetite. Marshall joined the DJ and drummed live along with some pre-recorded bits, and the Dj's set got much better while he was playing.

Finally on a Saturday a while back I got a chance to catch the Mt. St Helens Vietnam Band with Fresh Espresso and guests at the Nova Benefit show at the Vera Project. I've seen Fresh Espresso a few times, at a Capitol Hill Block Party After-Party and so on, and P-Smoov is familiar to me for some other stuff as well.
Fresh Espresso does good, fast catchy hip hop music, in this case with a live drummer.
They have a good time rapping, trading leads back and forth, syncing up for some harmony work or at least a little emphasis. Nice sound, Bosanova is pretty cool.
I enjoy the music and the message, Fresh Espresso is a reliably upbeat fun party act.
I also got some footage that I think is "Can the Boy Tell Time" which features Marshall on drums too:
I think "Can the Boy Tell Time" was before Fresh Espresso, but the videos ended up in 1) Fresh Espresso then 2) Can the Boy Tell Time then 3) Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band order on YouTube for some reason. Most likely I was switching cameras and the order taken off the cameras differs from the order recorded onto the cameras, if that makes any sense.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band came out for the headline set with a typical rock and roll lineup, 2 guitars, bass, keyboards and drums.
Nice sound, I like the way they build this song up from a simple beginning to a nice full song with some complexity and tight control of dynamics and intensity.
They played a nice selection of good, catchy songs. I like the guitar riff that starts about :45 into this one, it's jangly and kinda pulls you along Then when they drop it the feel changes and moves away, circling back eventually, I love the sense of movement and progression. I also enjoy guitar oriented rock, so this is pretty much right up my alley, and parked in my driveway up on blocks, I suppose - almost too comfortable a fit.

The band put on a great show and kept a large benefit crowd happy and entertained, and I'm very happy I finally got to see Mt. St. Helens Vietnam band and found out what all the fuss was about.

It turns out they have an embeddable link for their CD, so here's some of their music if you're looking to pick up a CD.

November Veracity

I managed to make it to most of November's Veracity. I didn't book the bands - Andrienne does that, and she does it well. I base my band identifications on the order posted in the show event in Facebook, so if I get the bands mis-identified please let me know.
Leadership By Assault led it off with a brief sound check - vocals were a bit low, they brought them up nicely for the actual set which starts just over 1:00 in. Good beat, good dynamics, nice sound, nice songs, fun opening set.
Next was Creech: More piano oriented, nice song with a fun groove around 1:10 in, interesting transition around 1:50. Nice stuff.
Clubscouts played next: Interesting vocal, teeters from melodic to more punk/shouted, back and forth quite a bit. The sound works well, the song that starts a bit after 1:40 has some nice structure and transitions, building and throbbing, then softening, then bouncing back again.
The final band I recorded was Trees and Stars. I think there was one more band - the headliners - but I wasn't able to stay past Trees and Stars. I did get several songs by them before I left, so I got a fair bit of Trees and Stars, anyway. Attendance was great, over 50, and the number of bands (5) was ambitious. Very nice show with talented bands and lots of music. Another great Veracity in the books!

Silicon Girls last show ever at the Vera Project

Silicon Girl's Last Show Ever had Marvelous Good Fortune opening for them: Synth, guitar, bass and drums, good mid tempo rock sound.
I saw Silicon Girls with Kimya Dawson At the All Ages Movement Project show in January 2011 and also saw them open for Titus Andronicus in April 2011.
I got to know Nikolas, their guitarist, I think he ended up tabling for AMP at Sasquatch when I was there for the Vera Project in 2011 so we hung out and visited a bit. Nice kid, he had some good stories to tell and I followed him on the usual social networks. I saw they were playing their final show and made plans to record it.
I recorded quit a bit of footage. Here the girls have us pretend it's their big climax: There's a bit over 40 minutes of Silicon Girls footage from this show on my YouTube channel if you want to track down a good chunk of the performance. It was a fun, angular, loud show. It was good to see the Silicon Girls go out loud and obnoxious, occasionally thrashy and disjointed, sometimes melodic and always interesting, just like they came in.

October Veracity

Made it over to the Vera Project for a vegan burrito and a bit of music, first up was HOCKEYxFIGHT with a fast hard core sound
I got a couple of short videos, all their songs were short which can happen with hardcore music.

We also saw a bit of Jay Johnson playing some solo acoustic guitar rock.
Fun fast guitar oriented music, very nice.

We were unable to catch the headlining acts, so we only got these first two acts recorded. It's nice to see a good crowd and a well run show, Adrienne is putting on great Veracity shows, the committee is in good hands!

Calvin Johnson Tape Release Show at the Vera Project

I steered a fascinating show at the Vera Project in August. It was billed as the Calvin Johnson Tape Release show, supporting a cassette tape release of songs by a variety of bands, all of which had originally been release on cassette. It took me a surprising amount of thought to get my head around that!

There were 11 bands playing, so they used two stages - the mainstage and a lobby stage. Each band played for 15 minutes, then the next band would start almost immediately on the other stage, while the first band moved equipment off the old stage and the follow up band then set up to be ready to go in another 15 minutes. It was easier to watch than it is to explain!

The first band up was KMVP - like most of the artists at this show, I hadn't heard her before. Her patter was amusing and she was fun to listen to.
Almost before you got used to listening, she was done and it was back into the main auditorium for Baby Islands - 15 minute sets are pretty short! Baby Islands had a nice sound and a more traditional guitar, bass and drums line up. Soothing voice and an easy rhythm, comfortable song. I like the feeling, even though it was new to me it felt familiar and the little touches like the guitar ringing around 1:55 in are very nice.

Calvin Johnson was fun, his first song was about a phone ringing but I wasn't able to get there in time to record it. I got him giving credit to some of the other bands and then playing his second song. His last song was a Hive Dwellers tune done a capella that I wish I had recorded. It used all sorts of derogatory terms and turned them on their head, making it a call to inclusiveness, very powerful!

Next up was Happy Noose As the name implies, they had a somehwat harder sound with a traditional power trio lineup - bass, guitar and drums, and quite a bit more distortion on the guitar. I managed to get two songs by them: Good punchy bass and driving rhythm, nice stuff.

With this many acts so close together, and with a last minute cancellation, there's always some risk that I'll end up mistaking the bands for each other. If I got one of the bands wrong, feel free to let me know!
Next up is Shana Cleveland and the Sandcastles, at least that's who I think it is, but it doesn't match the list/order of bands that I saw before the show. Nice sound, larger band than most that night with a cello and a woodwind.
Another short fifteen minute set and we were off to the main auditorium to see the Shivas. The Shivas were the only band I'd actually seen before, so I already new I liked them. Upbeat power trio, good sound and good songs, very nice. I managed to get two songs and I really like the upbeat uptempo song with interesting dual vocals in this one: Due to lousy camera work you can;t see the drummer much until around 1:00 in, then you can finally tell that she's doing the high end second part of the vocals.

Next up was Skill Meadow, who used a sequenced or taped rhythm section and sang and played keys.Another nice performance, good full sound for a solo performance, nice use of the electronic options.

This show had quite a bit of variety, and speaking of variety, the next performance by Mom was almost indescribable: She used tapes of assorted songs and sang with quite a bit of vocal effects - you petty much had to be there to get the whole effect. The video gets petty dim when she leaves the stage, but I enjoyed the little bit from "Monkey's Uncle" - I'm old enough to actually remember watching the Disney movie with Annette Funicello singing the title track shortly after it first came out in the sixties.

Next up (I hope, and I apologize if I have it wrong!) is Laura Leif & APB: I like the vocal approach, she has a good voice and the occasional backing vocals add nicely. The dual strings - guitar and ukelele, I think - also sound nice. I got a second song, not sure what the title is, could be Monkey Face, or Time to Move On, or something about strawberries; based on the intro it's new and inspired by strawberries, and it's a very nice song.They changed one instrument to a drum for this song.

Next up on the same lobby stage was Broken Water, I got a little bit from a song on video:
...and then a longer bit here, nice heavy sound, quite full for a power trio:

The Hysterics had the last slot and they were just arrriving as Broken Water was wrapping up. They played a short punk set, and they set up on the floor of the venue, rather than the stage.I like the approach, it brought the audience right in around the band and got more energy going. I also liked the lead vocalist's comment: "Less cameras, more dancing!"
Unfortunately, playing on the floor meant the stage lights didn't hit the band so the video is pretty dim, but I don't think the band cared - or if anything, they probably preferred it that way. I honored their request and turned off the camera after that and just bounced around and enjoyed myself.
Quite an amazing range of bands and sounds for one evening, definitely a whole lot of fun!

August Veracity with Camp 10, Sea of Teeth and Watusa or maybe Watusi

We had Joey Lyon as a "guest booker" for the August Veracity show and he put together an interesting lineup with three bands, heavy on guitars.

First up was a fairly thrashy band that had just renamed themselves something like "Watusa" (at least that's what it sounded like, maybe it was Watusi; I didn't get it in writing).

Whatever their name was, the had a classic power trio instrumental lineup (guitar, bass and drums) and a lead vocalist with an occasional bit of backing vocals. Their between song patter was also pretty funny, although I only got a bit of that on video.

I like the energy, haven't heard enough thrashy punky hardcore music recently.

Next up was The Sea of Teeth
Sorry for the doubled image, my camera work was a bit off.
The Sea of Teeth played a regular show in the main room over the weekend so this was their second Vera Project show in a week. They mentioned that their bass player was unable to make this show. I missed their weekend show so now I'm curious what they sound like with a bass player, anyway here's what they sound like without a bass:Good fast guitar oriented rock, fast drummer and pretty tight rhythms, fun hard core sound.

The last set was by Camp 10, another power trio with the guitarist doing vocals and the bassist occasionally doing a bit of backup vocals.
Their sound was less thrashy with an occasional quiet bit, and vocals that were sung rather than screamed, but the tempo was still fast and the rhythms were interesting.
It was interesting hearing 3 different takes on fast powerful rock and roll and I enjoyed getting to listen to the bands Joey booked, very nice show! Joey will be booking another show in October, this time with his and playing too I believe, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'll be booking the September show and a new Veracity chair is spinning up so she may be booking from November on, although I'm not sure. It's been a blast chairing the Veracity committee and I plan on continuing to support the committee, I definitely plan on attending the shows and posting videos and blogs. Free show every month usually with cheap vegan food - Veracity is still the best value available in local music. Check it out if you haven't yet!