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Sunday, August 14, 2011
The Comet
The Comet is just off Broadway, in the Pike & Pine corridor, on Capitol Hill... so every trend that blows up in this town is likely to blow through here first. 
Unlike Neumo's across the street, it's small enough for local acts of any size and style to show up, and since The Comet is in the center of Seattle's “hip” neighborhood, every new, cool thing is bound to show up here (remember the 15 minutes Electroclash held the world in sway?)
Unlike Neumo's across the street, it's small enough for local acts of any size and style to show up, and since The Comet is in the center of Seattle's “hip” neighborhood, every new, cool thing is bound to show up here (remember the 15 minutes Electroclash held the world in sway?)
That said, The Comet is comfortable, low-key, and kind of divey. The hip and the cool show up and wander through, sure, but the club itself is incredibly unpretentious and accommodating-- almost everything shows up on the Comet stage. This is a club that will book Americana, metal, folk, or garage rock... catch them on a Sunday and you might find a light poppy afternoon show followed by a blasting hardcore show at night. The Comet doesn't discriminate.
The club's advanced a bit as a local venue-- when I first knew the place, bands set up on the floor, separated from the audience by a pair of monitor wedges and force of will. Fairly recently, they've built a stage (with a removable center section-- for loading gear beyond the stage into the back room) and changed the layout. The new stage is a little small, and kind of bouncy, but it's a nice change.
Currently, The Comet is one of my favorite places to play-- it's a wide-open sort of place, with a lot going on pretty much any time you wander past. I like passing by the Comet when sound's coming through the walls (or sometimes, open windows) and hearing what's going on... if it's something great, pay the door, go in, and stick around.
Currently, The Comet is one of my favorite places to play-- it's a wide-open sort of place, with a lot going on pretty much any time you wander past. I like passing by the Comet when sound's coming through the walls (or sometimes, open windows) and hearing what's going on... if it's something great, pay the door, go in, and stick around.
Friday, August 12, 2011
On Stage #4 - No scammers, thanks
4. Don't play a show that requires you to pre-sell tickets and then turn in your money to a show-runner. These "pay to play" gigs are obvious scams, easily debunked, and don't benefit anyone but the people taking your money. You're better off paying for a room yourself and hiring someone to work the door for you-- it will invariably cost you less than the stack of cash you would have handed over to the Pay to Play scammers like Afton (formerly Big Time.)
Even limited to my experiences, this list is nowhere near complete. I planted it as one of the first pages when I began this blog with the very first handful of points from the quickest surface skim of my gray matter. It will continue to grow.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Chop Suey
The Chop Suey is a fairly big place, a bit off Capitol Hill's main stretch. It's not a huge club, but it's got more floor space, a bigger stage, and a more formidable PA system than the smaller bars around town. 
It's also very wide reaching: Chop Suey will host hip hop one night, indie rock the next, and metal the night after-- this is not a place that builds its identity around one certain type of music.
It's also very wide reaching: Chop Suey will host hip hop one night, indie rock the next, and metal the night after-- this is not a place that builds its identity around one certain type of music.
The sound at the Chop Suey is pretty damn good. It's not unusual for two sound guys to be working (one for the house mix, one working the band's monitor mix), the stage has floor wedge monitors and a big, upright monitor beside the drum kit, so it's one of the easier places to play and hear all your bandmates. Bands get drink tickets and the bar sometimes (not always) has Hoegaarden on tap; if you want me to go to a club, the easiest way to get me there is to tell me they serve Hoegaarden.
There's a spot back by the mixing desk for bands to set up a merch counter, and a number of dark nooks and crannies at the back of the club for people to retreat from the dance floor. For bigger shows, the back room is open, making a large lounge area available separate from the bar and stage.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
On Stage #3 - A little graciousness
3. Save your post-show self criticism for tomorrow. You just played an awesome show, a fan has run up to you saying it was an awesome show, they just had an awesome time-- stick with the Awe of it all. Thank them, reciprocate... do not correct someone who loved your set by telling them you messed up the quarter note triplet break in the bridge of "Hunger Dunger Dang." That wasn't the stand-out moment of the show, and no one noticed but you. Practice more later, fix your mistakes, but at the show, when someone tells you how great it was: believe them.
Even limited to my experiences, this list is nowhere near complete. I planted it as one of the first pages when I began this blog with the very first handful of points from the quickest surface skim of my gray matter. It will continue to grow.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
7 Year Old Blind Girl
Who:
Where:
When:
When:
7 Year Old Blind Girl complicates matters by not fitting themselves into any of punk's well-populated subdivisions... If I have to compare them to someone, I usually pick older, Andy Kerr-era NoMeansNo, mostly because they both have a tendency to veer off in an unexpected direction within a song (I can imagine them covering "Dead Bob" or something like that from the NMN catalog.) There can be some sharp corners in a Blind Girl song, hard turns and abrupt edges.
My friends and I tend to spend a Blind Girl show wide eyed, nudging each other for each “can you believe they just did that?” moment... and there are a lot of them. One song can easily be fast and slow, bright and sludgy-- 7 Year Old Blind Girl might have a slow heavy riff slam into a bright, bouncy, up-stroke rhythm, but they're just as likely to change between the two in the middle of a bar, halfway through the third line in the verse.
These songs aren't technical exercises, either-- the flow of the songs, the flow of the show, is not designed to confuse or lose the audience. Changes in tempo and compound time signatures join together dramatically, with big crescendos and heart-stopping pauses. There's familiar territory where they let you find your feet, and fans of traditional, rapid-fire punk rock will find plenty to love at these shows... but expect the unexpected, because a part will never sit still for too long. 7 Year Old Blind Girl seems to operate in the anti-boredom zone, letting a riff or break go as long as it needs to, but the changes take the legs out from under anyone who might complain that punk rock might be predictable or formulaic.
From the audience, Blind Girl shows are equal parts high energy, intense, and fun. There's a playful presence coming from the stage, and for band that can get crushingly heavy or breakneck furious in the song, this obviously isn't a band that takes itself too seriously... they have no problem with stage banter, jokes, or interacting with the audience.
Without fail, these are fun, engaging shows: they're tons of fun for the uninitiated, they're fast enough (and punk enough-- no matter how you define "punk") that the punk crowd will love them, they drop into the kind of heavy grooves that will win metalheads over, and they're intricate enough to win the favor of prog fans. I'm not saying 7 Year Old Blind Girl is all things to all people... they'll surely alienate the beard/glasses/sweaters crowd looking for acoustic guitars, pop hooks, and mooney eyed verses about their deep, deep feelings (for example)... but a Blind Girl show is a riot for anyone who wants a band that will blow their hair back. The added bonus is that you'll have a great show regardless of whether your brain is switched off or on.
Personally, I recommend On.
7 Year Old Blind Girl on MySpace
photos by Tyler Griffith
photos by Tyler Griffith
The Galway Arms
unstable for dollar beers ($4 pitchers). Their recent remodel has improved their PA and the flow of traffic through the bar on busy show nights, but the vibe in the place remains friendly and low-key.The Galway lives at the top of University Way, up by Ravenna-- if you're familiar with the University District (or avoid the U-Dist because of sports bars, frat boys, and kids who've just turned 21), the Galway is far enough north of the distasteful facets of U life for those things not to be a problem. The Galway is an even keel punk bar that doesn't suffer fools lightly... them looking for fights are quickly ejected (and quietly, too. I've never seen a punch thrown in there.) I don't want to make it sound like an exclusive club, either-- going in on a non show night, you're as likely to hear bluegrass or Ween as punk on the sound system.
Personally, I usually go on show nights, and the Galway tends to be pretty punk and/or metal with their live shows, though that's also not an exclusive thing-- you'll still find variety here if you check their listings. The stage is fairly small and the PA is run off a mixing board behind the band, so you'll be setting your levels yourself, but the intimacy of the club (and overall enthusiasm of a Galway crowd) make it one of the most fun places in Seattle to play.
The Galway Arms is also one of the few clubs I've seen bring in walk-in traffic during shows. I always thought that kind of behavior would be more prevalent, but lots of people walk in off the street, put down their $5, and wander into a Galway show even though they have no idea who's playing... and it's not the same people from show to show. That's pretty damn cool.
The Galway Arms is now The Kraken
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