Knowmads, Real Rodgers, Language Arts and Kung Foo Grip at the Vera Project 3-12-11

I thought about going to the Saturday evening hip hop show at the Vera Project but I was leaning towards not going. Dana and I were planning on going to a friends house warming party, and it was the day before my birthday, and I'd already been to a show on Thursday (Diamond Rings, PS I Love You and Noddy). On the other hand my cousin's son was going and spoke very highly of the bands - but I was still leaning towards not going until I got an e-mail from Tristan asking if I could help with security. They were expecting a big crowd, the hip hop crowds tended to be a little more aggressive and drug and alcohol impaired, and the security volunteers so far were a smaller 16 year old kid and a couple of young women. Nothing wrong with them working security, but the obnoxious drunken frat boys at the show would tend to ignore them and when drunk they can be fairly difficult to handle. So I agreed to work security, and I'm glad I did. I suppose that sounds fairly ageist/sexist or even sizeist (is that a word?) and I apologize for that, but in fact drunken young adults usually do respond better to older and larger authority figures - not always, but usually.

Hip hop isn't my first choice for musical genres for various reasons. My tastes were formed in the sixties and early seventies before it existed, and it's emphasis on beats with frequently minimal melodies makes it somewhat less appealing to me. On the other hand there are some classic tracks like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five doing the Message or White Lines that I quite enjoyed. Grandmaster Flash in particular was associated with an interesting memory for me. One summer back in the early eighties I had been working in the middle of nowhere in Indiana on a robotics project, feeling far away from home, and I finally got to head back to Seattle after several months. I was still feeling alienated like I hadn't quite returned home when I hopped into the car to go somewhere and turned on the radio in my piece of crap car. I only had AM radio, so KJET (1610 "all the way to the right on your radio dial") was about the only useful musical option, so I turned it on. The DJ said "I just got a pissed off call from a listener saying "Quit playing that rap BS" so this one goes out to you!" and the opening strains of White Lines started and suddenly I felt at home and much more comfortable.

More recently I've volunteered at a few Vera shows and the Capitol Hill Block Party and seen some performers like Macklemore, Blues Scholars and Mad Rad that I quite enjoyed. The audiences were energetic and enthusiastic, much of the lyrics were explicitly political when they weren't party anthems, and the misogyny and gangster stuff which never appealed to me was at a minimum; the pervasive drug references didn't bother me too much, as I still sort of remember being a teenager in the seventies.

I got to the Vera a little late, around 6:45 (traffic was tough as usual, and the parking was horrible) and there was already a line out front, which surprised me some.

After a brief preparation we hung around and listened to the sound checks wrapping up, then opened the doors at 7:30, with an DJ scheduled to start at 8. The line by now stretched up the stairs and out of sight and we worked furiously to get everyone in before the show started. We had plenty of pre-sales, so it didn't take us long to sell the venue out, much to the disappointment of the 5 or 6 people who didn't quite make it in. After checking on the guest lists and will call I think we were able to get most everyone in after all and the venue ended up being full but not overly so.

I saw my cousin's son and said hello, he and the whole crowd were excited and positive, looking forward to the show. The positive energy was fun and added quite a bit to the experience.

The DJ was interesting, spinning some older tracks and quizzing the audience. He'd play 5 seconds and ask if the crowd knew who it was, and they mostly got it, except when he tricked them by playing an original that had been sampled in a more famous later release, everyone recognized the later track, not the original. He also played some Trinidad music, since that was where he was from; the contrast in sounds was interesting, with more complex beats in the Trinidad stuff he played.

The crowd was into it, but it was also getting into more questionable activities - I confiscated some whiskey from some bonehead who was making a big show out of drinking it; the Vera is an all ages venue and that is not allowed. "But I'm 21, I've got ID" he kept repeating. "This is an all ages venue and it isn't allowed, if you want to drink you'll have to leave!" was my reply.

The hip hop performers were active, letting lots of people into the green room, especially the cute ladies (no surprise there!). They also took frequent trips out of the venue through the back stage exit, coming back with red eyes, but at least they kept it out of the venue.

Kung Fu Grip put on an active and fun set with plenty of crowd participation - lots of arms in the air waving and call and response interaction - "When I say Kung FU, y'all say Grip!" "Kung Fu" and the crowd roars back "Grip!" Being on the show floor with lots of arms in the air makes the performers harder to see in the videos, but it added a lot to the energy of the show.

Next up was Real Rodgers, who talked up a new mix tape he had coming out within a day or two; if I caught the details in one of my videos (a web site reference) I'll have to go check it out. I'd never heard of Real Rodgers or Language Arts before the show, so I'm not sure which one I got on video here:

Next the DJs and MCs asked "Who wants to spit? Raise your arms if you want to spit!" and they brought up 6 or so people from the crowd and had a freestyle battle - first time I've ever seen one. It was quite fun watching them thinking up insults on the fly and making them rhyme.

I also had to push through the crowd and confiscate people's pot. Fortunately nobody was too tanked, so they didn't argue too hard. We also had to clean up puke a few times which wasn't pleasant, I think I prefer the potheads over the drunks, and that's without even considering the aggressive drunken behavior.

Language Arts took the stage next. The "beats" - the recorded music he and other performers rapped over - are mostly bass, drums, and a little keyboards sprinkled over it, very heavy on the bass end of the spectrum. That works well with the rapping, since you can clearly hear the voices, except when they get the bass so dang loud that your ears distort and you can't tell what the heck is being said. I've never understood why people play the bass so loud in their cars that it makes my ears hurt in a different car, and there was some of that at this show. Even with my hearing protection in the bass was close to painfully loud, and almost nobody in the crowd or on stage had ear protection - most of these people are going to be hard of hearing by their forties, which is sad.

Finally Knowmads took the stage. I hand't listened to them ahead of time and was surprised to see that they had a violinist playing with them; if I had bothered to look I probably would have noticed that they have quite a few tracks available for free downloading. It seemed like an odd choice, but it actually worked very well with the low frequency "beats" - the violin punched right through and added interesting embellishments as they rapped.

I was quite impressed by the Knowmads songs. The crowd obviously knew the material, singing and rapping along with their favorite bits and participating enthusiastically - I've never seen so many arms raised and moving in time to the music for song after song, I suspect many in the audience had pretty sore arm muscles by the end of the show. The energy and pleasure the crowd got from the performance definitely enhanced the show - the band fed off of it and worked harder still to keep that positive vibe feeding back and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

I was also struck by the political approach, even some of the pro-pot tunes like "How We Live" had a distinct political edge, identifying with the underclass and the outcasts, making the case that you do what you have to in order to survive in a tough situation.

"The River Runs Deep" was a standout track, it's imagery of being out on the Seattle streets, walking because it's too late to catch a bus (been there!) and the challenges of trying to make it ahead while being tempted and distracted by drugs, and it's odd yet brilliant turnaround in the final verse, finding a drugged out person bleeding and dying in the street and realizing it was himself, suffering the consequences of making some decisions differently - I found that moving and powerful, a brilliant piece of writing that haunts me a bit. Having lost some close friends to the effects of drugs - both to deaths and to permanent mental impairment - I know that that lyric and the "there but for the grace of God go I" sentiment is frighteningly accurate. Surprisingly insightful for a modern hip hop outfit with writers/rappers who aren't old enough to drink legally. It took me a bit longer to realize just how dangerous some of the substances I toyed with were, and just how lucky I was to get out of my adolescence and early adulthood without much damage. Major props to Knowmads for getting that message out to the kids, these guys tend to have a lot of influence with their audience.

Update: This was easily the best hip hop show I've seen all year, and now Knowmads are doing another show at the Vera Project next Saturday, April 30 - a benefit for Japan with Real Rodgers and Rawlo, I'll make sure I don't miss it and you should be there too!

Diamond Rings, PS I Love You and Noddy at the Vera Project

I ended up taking over steering at the Diamond Rings show at the Vera Project for Sam, who had originally signed up for it. I was at the Vera for a meeting anyway, so once the meeting wound down I was able to take over and "steer" the kids and see an interesting show. One of the great things about being open to volunteering at the Vera when they need a hand is that I get to see all kinds of bands that I wouldn't normally have gone to see. That's not always a great blessing, but it has certainly broadened my horizons.

Diamond Rings was described as a "glam rock/pop" act when I read about it, and the video I checked out had the singer and 4 other kids wandering around the streets (somewhere in Ontario, I suspect) dancing to the music while the singer lip synched. The singer had a kind of rainbow eye makeup thing going on and a dyed blond mohawkish sort of haircut.

When I was a kid back in the 70s and 80s glam rock was a pretty huge influence; even fairly loud guitar oriented bands like Rat, Poison, Def Leopard, and Bon Jovi all spent a fair amount of time on their makeup, hair and appearance. While I enjoyed some of the songs, I was drifting towards a slightly more hardcore sound and I tended to sneer a little about the bands that spent so much time on their image. I preferred the energy and raw power of a good punk show, or the heavy metal sounds of less "glam" bands like Black Sabath and Led Zeppelin. When I look back now the distinction seems pretty silly, since the heavy metal bands put time and efrfort into their clothes and hair too, they just consciously went for a less pretty look, and the punk bands for all of their "non-conformist" claims mostly went for a small set of similar looks: military surplus, ripped jeans with safety pins and so on. It was an anti-uniform uniform, but it was still a uniform.

Since then I've gotten over the fixation on looks and I now spend more time listening to the music and the lyrics, that's what speaks to me (if anything does). Being a typical male I'm still a sucker for attractive women, some things never change, but the makeup and clothes don't figure as prominently to me.

Listening to the one song by Diamond Rings that I checked out on YouTube I was struck by the vocals: the singer had a low voice and an interesting approach, and the music was bouncy and fun too.

So here I was checking out the show. The attendance was fairly light, with a small crowd for the first band, Noddy. When I went into the show room, the 20 or so people who were watching and listening were mostly sitting down in the chairs at the outer edge of the venue, which is odd and mostly negative - the band gets zero energy from the crowd when that happens. It did let me get right up close to take pictures, though.

Noddy was interesting, if a bit tech heavy for my tastes. Two of the three members were playing synthesizers and triggering sequencers and drum machines, so they tended to be rooted to their equipment and either almost hiding behind it or facing sudeways; both of which tend to create an emotional distance which makes the performance a little less urgent and engaging. The music sounded pretty good, though.

The lead vocalist was more energetic, and one of the keyboard players at least was moving around and putting on a bit of a show. I missed having a live drummer, the lack of a real performer tends to limit the options for dynamic interplay between the performers and freeze the beats to a metronomic exact timing - not always a bad thing, but it does limit artistic options to some degree.

Mildly lousy camera work, par for the course from me. I'm kind of amused by my criticism of their artistic efforts, when mine as demonstrated in the video suck much worse. They moved enough and put out enough energy to get the audience to stand up and move closer, so the performance was successful on most levels. Not bad for an opening act.

Next up was PS I Love You, kind of the anti-glam rock approach.

The quitarist had long hair that at first fell down and almost merged with his reddish beard, giving his face a kind of wall of hair appearance which was amusing. He also could really kick out some interesting riffs, and I enjoyed the live drummer.

In the video above you can see him using his right leg on some equipment, on looking closer I realized he was using bass pedals - not quite sure what the correct term for that is, but it allowed him to get a more full sound by including a bass line underneath the music which I think was a smart artistic choice. Two piece bands often end up with a kind of top heavy sound, and the bass pedal avoided that.

PS I Love You brought Diamond Rings up for the last song or two of their set, including one song that they said they wrote together, so it's apparent these guys know each other (I believe they're both from Ontario, Canada). The visual contrast was somewhat interesting, the big hairy dude shredding on the guitar and the lean blond madeup dude singing along - nice final bit and a good choice to end the set.


It also set us up well for the transition to Diamond Rings.

In this photo her's playing guitar, but he spent more time playing synthesizer. I just like the visual of the guitar better.

He used a drum machine and sequencers, playing keys or guitar some while he sang, sometimes just singing along to the sequenced tunes from his laptop. Once again not my favorite approach, I like the dynamics of a group, the interplay of the drums and bass in real time and so on, but he won me and the crowd over with his dancing and performance. He has aenough charisma to pull it off and keep us interested.

The way he opened up the show, facing away from us while the sequenced music played, pumping his fist to the beat and so on worked quite well.

When I was younger I would not have appreciated this much, but that says more about me and my biases than it does about Diamond Rings. In an interesting way it somehow closed the distance between us and him. It was like we were all listening to the same music, and he was grooving and moving to the beat - we wished we were that interesting to watch, and that confident. Facing away from us he ended up facing in the same direction we were facing, at least at first. Effortlessly throwing in one hand keyboard riffs, singing in that low voice, the engaging motions, he was definitely putting on quite a show.

He also played the guitar for a bit:

Working the hair, busting the moves, singing the songs he'd written, playing multiple instruments - the guy's got talent, and he had the audience getting into it too. He definitely won me over and I enjoyed the show. An excellent way to spend a rainy and windy Thursday night, and I'm glad I got a bit out of my comfort zone to check it out.

Ash Wednesday Mass

I love music, both listening to it and performing it. Some years I sing in the church choir at St. Marks, although I haven't this year. Tonight we went to Ash Wednesday mass, the first night of Lent. Lent is a time of repentance and preparation, 40 days to get ready for Easter, the most holy mass of the Catholic year.

The music during Lent is all done a capella, which is Italian for "in the manner of the Church/chapel" and means sung without instruments, just voices. The choir sings mostly in 4 part harmonies, and mostly in Latin, which I enjoy.

The Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) is always one of my favorites. There's a bit where the sopranos go up to this incredibly high note that always moves me. We also go forward and get a cross formed of ashes on our forheads while the priest or one of the assitants intones "remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return." Very humbling stuff, combined with the centuries old vocal music and solemn process it helps get you into a repentant and contrite state of mind.

I also saw several of the kids that I taught in religious education classes - some of them are growing pretty tall! I like having connections to the kids, and I enjoyed hearing babies laughing, babbling and crying during mass. A healthy church should include lots of babies so that it can continue on into the future.

I miss singing in the choir, and more so at Lent than most of the year. Advent is also fun, and of course Christmas and Easter are the best: we do those masses with full accompanyment, strings for Christmas and brass for Easter, and I love the songs. It's hard to explain the appeal of songs that I don't even understand, but the harmonies are just so beautiful and the performance so passionate that the meaning gets through even without the language.

Tomorrow it's back to the "mundane" music, which I love in a different way, volunteering at the Vera Project. I find really good musical performances of secular music can reach a spiritual level for me, raising goosebumps and affecting me in a way and on a level that I can only describe using religious terms: spiritual, grace, communion and salvation all come to mind.