Los Gentlemen and Seacats Play Hatties Hat

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

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

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

Next Los Gentlemen took the stage for their headline set.

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

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

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!

Fly Moon Royalty, Legendary Oaks and Sally Ford and the Sound Outside: No Depression

I managed to make it to the annual KEXP/No Depression free show at the Mural Amphitheater on August 3, 2012 and enjoyed the heck out of the 3 bands I managed to see. I wasn't able to stay for Shovels and Rope, but the acts I did see were great.

Local duo Fly Moon Royalty kicked it off. We saw Fly Moon Royalty last year at Bumbershoot and they impressed the heck out of us. Great songs, talented musicians, and the wonderful voice of Adra Boo turned us into immediate fans.

They had the early slot and were working hard out in the hot bright sun:

They closed their set with an awesome version of "Baby Got Back" and I wish I had recorded it but I was having too much fun bouncing around to it and enjoying it, maybe another time I'll get it, I definitely will go out of my way to see them again and again!

Next up was Legendary Oaks, a local band that I was unfamiliar with. They had a great rootsy sound that made me want to hang out in the beer garden and bounce around while drinking Redhook ESB, which worked out nicely.

The crowd was large and loving it, and the songs were instant classics, I'll definitely have to catch them again at some point, hopefully it won't be too hard since they're a local band.

The last act we saw was Sally Ford and the Sound Outside, not quite local (they're from Portland) but close enough. Another instant classic set, petty amazing stuff for a free show! They had an interesting vibe that I enjoyed, but I have no idea what you'd call it. The band was great, my inability to describe it is partially because they're unique and partially my own lack of referents, I don't know who you might consider similar and I don't really care. Check out the video and you can draw your own comparisons, they were creative and tight and fun as heck.

Sweet way to end the week, and when the weather gets this good in Seattle outdoor shows are so nice it's almost hard to describe. Free shows at the Mural Amphitheater in the hot sun with maybe a few ESBs - to hijack a different beer company's slogan, it just doesn't get any better!