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Saturday, November 26, 2011
The Rules on the Books
The rationale for this ban was that the band is employed by the bar while on stage, and therefore should be bound by the same rules as bartenders and wait staff... which was a fine justification for restrictive, puritanical bullshit. Remember: until 2002, Seattle actually had a poster ban justified by the danger of utility workers injuring themselves on rusty staples on utility poles (I swear, I am not making this up)-- rather than try to honestly stop posters in the city, Seattle managed to back-door-ban postering due to the danger of staples.
...but I'm straying from the point. This is a cause for celebration because, like the poster ban before it, this is another bit of unnecessary, 1950s conservative, life-choking bureaucracy just got culled from the books... not the kind of thing people associate with Seattle, but it is part of the cultural make-up here.
This is what I'm going to call a Moral Victory, simply because the "no drinks on stage" rule was almost never enforced. Pretty much every member of every band had a beer on stage and they were never held accountable unless the liquor board was on the rampage... and that only happened when the obnoxious ordnance was up for review. Even then, the worst consequence I ever saw was a sound guy yelling at the band: "Hey! No drinks on stage!"
So today is a win for yanking a useless rule off the books that 1) never made any sense and 2) was never enforced.
Monday, November 21, 2011
The Diminished Men
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There are exceptions, however-- I'm not sure how The Diminished Men's Simon Henneman tunes his six string Fender Jaguar, but as a band with drums and two guitars, there's no gaping hole in the sound. A lot of the time, that Jaguar is a strong bassline, full and musical, completely countering my argument. By my measure, The Diminished Men actually have a fuller sonic palette than lots of bands with more members and instruments; their sound comes out of a live show sounding (for lack of a better word) “produced.”
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| I wish I'd brought a camera to this show (I attended last-minute), because I can't find any photos online of The Diminished Men live at the Blue Moon |
But surf is a bit of a pigeon-hole, and The Diminished Men are well beyond that kind of easy categorization-- they evoke Ennio Morricone's audio cinemascapes as readily as they do The Ventures, and a number of horizons beyond... there are touches of heavy and progressive in the stew as well. Drummer Dave Abramson doesn't seem confined at all by arbitrary genre restrictions, tending to snake through the rhythm of a song with an artfulness unheard of in retro or genre-obsessed rhythm sections.
As a pedal geek, I couldn't help but notice Schmit used a Moog ring modulator better than I've ever heard a ring modulator used before-- when a Diminished Men song engages the ringmod, it evokes the kind of cosmic bell tones I always knew the effect was capable of, but never heard realized. I've heard ring modulators applied by many, many bands, but in a Diminished Men song, it becomes a sort of atmospheric bell chime, both extra-textual and part of the song. It is part of an amazing soundscape that's impressive, even if you never knew the names of the technology making those sounds, but it's stunning to me because I've never heard that timbre used so beautifully (not by anyone: not Brian Eno, not Devo.... and not by me; I own one myself.)
That's certainly part of my fascination with The Diminished Men: they're using a number of things I'm familiar with, but everything they're doing is surprising. I can't speak to their recordings, but the live show I saw colored way outside the lines. The bassless approach lets Henneman come up from holding a bassline and be part of the jangly guitarscape (which is an odd but effective turn, coming up from the low end), both guitarists have interesting and varied pedalboards with myriad tones available, and the songs are surprising but melodic, engaging, and fully realized.
This was my first Diminished Men show, and I found it mind-blowing. This band is immediately rocketed into my top-10 in Seattle, and I can't wait to see them again.
The Diminished Men Official Site
P.S: Apologies if I got any of the names wrong in this write-up, but I don't know The Diminished Men personally, and there doesn't seem to be a good bio/members listing online... there have been member changes, and I can't be certain I have the lineup for the show I'm reviewing. I hope I got it right; if not, let me know.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
On Stage #13 - No Cancellations Allowed
A continuing series of insights from the stage at the local club level...
13. If you book the show, play the show. Short of a band member being dead or ineligible for bail, if you said you were going to play, then play. No excuses.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
ubik. gets a nod
This is a really nice write-up of a Comet show we played with The Shitty Dudes, The Fabulous Downey Brothers, and Airpocalypse. There's even a picture of me without my standard white labcoat-- I dyed the coat Downey Blue for this show-- which is a little weird for me to see.
Many thanks, Seattle Audiophile!
Friday, November 18, 2011
On Stage #11 & #12 - The other bands on the bill
A continuing series of insights from the stage at the local club level...
11.Watch at least part of the other bands' sets; if you're sharing a stage with them that night, you should at least give them a look. If you check them out and they're not to your taste (or not very good...), sure, retreat to the bar, but not caring about, looking at, or listening to any band other than your own pretty clearly makes you an asshole. At least give them a song or two to see what these other bands are like; it's common courtesy.
12. Similarly, if you do skip out on another band's set, it's seriously bad form to come back in after they've finished and tell them how great they were. It seems ridiculous to even type that, but I'm amazed by how often it happens: someone returns from the bar down the street, not having heard a single note of the set, and begins heaping insincere praise on the members of the band they didn't see. It only ever works for about five minutes, too-- someone who saw them walk in after the music stops always calls these people out, forever to be branded as shallow phoneys around the local music scene.
12. Similarly, if you do skip out on another band's set, it's seriously bad form to come back in after they've finished and tell them how great they were. It seems ridiculous to even type that, but I'm amazed by how often it happens: someone returns from the bar down the street, not having heard a single note of the set, and begins heaping insincere praise on the members of the band they didn't see. It only ever works for about five minutes, too-- someone who saw them walk in after the music stops always calls these people out, forever to be branded as shallow phoneys around the local music scene.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
This explains the Billboard charts, eh?
Anyway, that inspires a long quote from a much more talented writer than m'self:Does anybody really listen to that shitty music they play on the radio? FM radio music... What's it called- adult contemporary? classic rock? urban R&B? You know what the official business term for that shit is: Corporate Standardized Programming. Just what an art form needs... corporate standardized programming, derived from scientific surveys, conducted by soulless businessmen.
Here's how bad it is: one nationwide chain that owns over a thousand radio stations conducts weekly telephone polls asking listeners their opinions on 25-30 song hooks they play over the phone, hooks that the radio people have already selected ("hooks" are short, repeated parts of pop songs that people remember easily). Depending on these polls, the radio chain decides which songs to place on their stations' playlists. Weeks later, they record the hooks of all the songs they're currently playing on their stations across the country, label them by title and artist, and sell that information to record companies to help create more of the same, bad music. They also sell the information to competing radio stations that want to play what the big chain is playing.
All of this is done to prevent the possibility of original thinking somehow creeping into the system.
Let me tell you something-- In the first place, listening to music someone else has picked out is not my idea of a good time. Second, and more important, the fact that a lot of people in America actually like the music automatically means it sucks... especially since the people who like it have been told in advance by businessmen what it is they're supposed to like.
Please save me from people who've been told what to like, and then like it. In my opinion, if you're over six years of age and you're still getting your music from the radio, something is desperately wrong with you.
I can only hope that somehow MP3 players and file sharing will destroy FM radio the way they're destroying record companies. Then, even though the air will probably never be safe to breathe again, maybe it will be safer to listen to.
--George Carlin
(man, I miss that guy)
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Blue Moon
styles of music on the Blue Moon stage, the shows will always have a back bench of grizzled old timers who (in my experience) responded well, once, to a band that sounded kind of like Hendrix.My introduction to the Blue Moon was back when they had free shows... and that's a couple years gone now. Currently, it's usually $5 at the door, which is reasonable, but I do miss having a reliable free venue in town. The bar used to be cash-only back in the free show days, but has evolved to take credit/debit cards, which is an appreciated update for anyone wanting to start a tab at the beginning of their night.
The stage is decent, but the PA can't keep up with a loud band; turning up the vocals usually mean splatty distortion on the house speakers, and the monitor situation is just this side of a disaster. My best experiences with seeing bands at The Blue Moon are instrumental groups... maybe a little kick drum on the PA, but the sound is always better if the house doesn't have to cover vocals. The sound guy's disdain for the bands who play there used to be the main component of the Blue Moon's MySpace blog... but no one uses MySpace anymore.
The Blue Moon on Wordpress
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
On Stage #10 - Containers
A continuing series of insights from the stage at the local club level...
10. Beyond what fits in my instrument case, there's a handful of accessories that come with me to every show (cables, a stand, spare tremolo arms, capos) as well as some random tools (tape, a screwdriver, pliers, hex wrenches)-- I highly recommend carrying these kind of items in some kind of case, possibly labeled with your band name. For quite some time, I carried this stuff to and from shows in a backpack... until I realized that there's nothing conspicuous about someone wandering away from a show carrying a backpack. After replacing all the gear that walked out of a gig without me (cables ain't cheap), I now carry these items in an aluminum case with our band name on it.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Phalgeron
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Phalgeron have deep roots in the post-British Invasion, Power Metal genres, but aren't constrained by them-- for anyone not interested in vocals that wail or ramp up to a flamboyant falsetto, that may be their greatest strength. They can march out covers of Mercyful Fate (with growls and roars replacing King Diamond's trademark shrieks) and Suffocation with equal panache, both made more impressive for Phalgeron being a guitar/bass/drum power trio.
My night with them at the Galway was not my first time with them-- I've known this band since they were called Phlagathon, I've seen them a number of times, got a ride home with them from a too-long-to-walk-home-from show in the south of Seattle, played with them at Beer Metal Summer Camp.... I've known this band for a while, and I've always liked them.
So I don't want this review to fall on deaf ears just because I was a bit out of m'self. I've dug this band since well before I started this blog.
That said, my Phalgeron eureka moment occurred maybe six hours after ubik.frontwoman Michelle and I got slightly out-of-our-heads (some substances stay potent, wrapped in foil in a ziplock bag in my fridge, for five years. Who knew?) We did enjoy our time in odd places before the show, but it's fair to say we both breathed a sigh of relief when we took our seats at the Galway: safe haven. Home base.
Watching good, national bands (Phalgeron was the only local band of the night) tune up on a small stage at a local bar was a bit of a godsend to me at the moment: I've been in Seattle long enough that I'm not sure I ever appreciated how far removed I am from my 16-year-old self, someone who listened to tapes of obscure bands I never thought I'd see live. Shows like this are a candyland my teenage self never dreamed of, but they've become a normal part of my everyday life.
Just sayin'... this is good fortune.
Though the bill featured a good band from Utah and a cheesily flamboyant band from L.A. (a contest between the two guitarists determining who was the better wanky lead player? Seriously?), Phalgeron were the highlight of the night. Again, this isn't preferential treatment to a local band, because I truly had an epiphany with them that night: I'd always liked them, but I'm still kicking myself... I ought to have loved them well before this specific night.
Phalgeron are almost perfectly my kind of metal. They're technical and articulate, but not cheesy or overly flamboyant about it. They mine heavy, heavy grooves, too, and have a tight, true-to-death metal moshability. Finally, they're metal as metal can be, but their stage presence plays massive pronouncements and edicts delivered from God-On-Stage as profoundly silly... which is to say, Phalgeron are fun to see, a million miles removed from the pompous asses that can pop up on metal stages. Phalgeron aren't just better than the egotists that populated the Candlemass stage, they're the antidote to it.
That kind of fun-and-loose personality only boosts the stunning gestalt of the music. Guitarist Tyler and bassist Lane have a kind of Jeff Walker/Bill Steer interplay on their dual vocals, and Lane will often hold down the groove while Tyler's guitar hits the British Invasion/power metal technical top end. The songs will evolve and change, find different riffs, different grooves... interact, react, and play off one another... the highlights of what intelligent metal riffing is capable of.
This doesn't even mention how Michelle and I spent our night: watching Ian, Phalgeron's drummer. The drums in Phalgeron don't have any limits: Ian blends easily from the hardcore influenced drumming of early thrash to the double-kick drumming that dominated the Slayer era of metal to modern blast beats. Big, rolling fills come in where the songs peak and hit their harder corners, but, like the rest of Phalgeron, the drums are exactly as flashy as they need to be... the fills and rolls fit the songs and work within the songs themselves. The drumming is massive, technical, and executed with exactly as much panache as fits the songs... but isn't a show-off session. Everything is dexterous; nothing is in excess.
All things considered, I consider Phalgeron one of the absolute best metal bands in Seattle-- I haven't reviewed any of their contemporaries (yet), but I see them as Top 5 (probably Top 3... I can only think of two other metal bands in Seattle I like nearly as much as them), and I tend not to mention bands I can't link to.
By my measure this is a world-class metal band, exactly the kind of group I used to listen to obsessively before I moved to a city where I could see Phalgeron every other month or so. I am lucky to have them, and so is Seattle... and if you're not in the Pacific Northwest, then buying their record puts you in the shoes I was in when I was listening to Carcass tapes all those years ago.
Phalgeron on Facebook
Friday, November 4, 2011
On Stage #9 - Road-tested
A continuing series of insights from the stage at the local club level...
9. Some folks will tell you not to play a song on stage until it's perfect... not me. As far as I can tell, you can practice a song for months and it's always going to be unfired clay. Until it's in your setlist, until you've fucked it up in front of people a couple times, until you figure out how it works (or doesn't) at a show, until you've fired it in the kiln of the public for a while, the song isn't actually done. You have to take it out of rehearsals eventually.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Fuel
The biggest problem I see with Fuel is that the sound is pretty bad. It wouldn't be hard to fix, and maybe they'll adjust their attitude toward live music sometime in the future, 
but for now... terrible sound. I say “attitude” because it's not a problem with the equipment; their gear is fine. The problem is that they make everything go through the PA. A guitarist with a massive Marshall stack, who could fill Fuel will sound without being mic'd, will be asked to turn down... way down... running so quiet he wouldn't be heard over the drums. This monsterous-but-now-quiet rig will then be heard by the audience through an SM-57 microphone (which has kind of a honky, midrangey sound), the mixing board (which will be further EQ'd to the sound man's taste), and to the PA speakers (which have their own sound, as well), so the guitarist doesn't sound much like himself. Every instrument in the band will be treated this way, so that you can see a show at Fuel and, even though a 5-piece group is live in front of you, you'll be hearing two guitars, bass, drums, and vocals all mashed together and coming out of the same club PA speakers.
but for now... terrible sound. I say “attitude” because it's not a problem with the equipment; their gear is fine. The problem is that they make everything go through the PA. A guitarist with a massive Marshall stack, who could fill Fuel will sound without being mic'd, will be asked to turn down... way down... running so quiet he wouldn't be heard over the drums. This monsterous-but-now-quiet rig will then be heard by the audience through an SM-57 microphone (which has kind of a honky, midrangey sound), the mixing board (which will be further EQ'd to the sound man's taste), and to the PA speakers (which have their own sound, as well), so the guitarist doesn't sound much like himself. Every instrument in the band will be treated this way, so that you can see a show at Fuel and, even though a 5-piece group is live in front of you, you'll be hearing two guitars, bass, drums, and vocals all mashed together and coming out of the same club PA speakers.
Listening from the floor, I could always hear what the drummer and singer were doing, but the guitars and basses were anyone's guess...
This is made more frustrating because Fuel isn't really built to be a venue: there's room for roughly ten people in front of the stage, but most of this fairly small sports bar's real estate is optimized for sitting at tables, watching sports on the TVs and eating Buffalo wings. If ten people do stand in front of the stage, they will be continually jostled by patrons making their way to the bathrooms. I'd forgive most of this if the musicians were allowed to turn up-- seriously, in a club this small, there's no need to mic the guitars and basses, and the whole affair would sound much, much better.
Fuel's Yelp reviews are fairly telling-- glowing reviews from people who want pitchers and shots before the game and bikini contests. The only mention of live shows is a 1-star review from a fire dancer who booked a show she wasn't allowed to play (there are no mentions of bands at the time of this writing.) Live music really isn't something Fuel puts a lot of effort into, and therefore, isn't very good at.
Fuel's Yelp reviews are fairly telling-- glowing reviews from people who want pitchers and shots before the game and bikini contests. The only mention of live shows is a 1-star review from a fire dancer who booked a show she wasn't allowed to play (there are no mentions of bands at the time of this writing.) Live music really isn't something Fuel puts a lot of effort into, and therefore, isn't very good at.
The club is located in Pioneer Square, which is not my favorite part of Seattle. On weekends, Pioneer Square fits a frat boy cliche that would be comical if it wasn't so frighteningly accurate. At bar time, these eight square blocks or so are awash in short sleeve button-ups and cargo shorts chasing the tiniest dresses possible too drunk to walk in their 6-inch heels. I'm not exaggerating-- Pioneer Square is the only place I've ever seen people having sex on the hood of a car (it wasn't hot.)
Friday, September 30, 2011
On Stage #8 - Alcohol Impairs Judgement
A continuing series of insights from the stage at the local club level...
8. Take drunkenness lightly from up there. Drunken audience members can love or hate you at the drop of a hat, sometimes due to something as simple as misunderstanding a lyric or stage banter. Similarly, next time you're trashed at a show, remember the "reason" you've started grumbling may not actually exist. I've seen this one from both sides.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
NoMeansNo
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By some measures, I came late to the NoMeansNo party; not only did I not like them at first, I originally assumed they were a Christian band (giving The Worldhood of the World As Such a casual listen, I completely misinterpreted songs like Humans, Angel or Devil, and He Learned How to Bleed). I bonded with them in the late 90s over Live and Cuddly, but it took time and many forced listenings at the hands of friends. Once it sunk in, it really sunk in, and I've called NoMeansNo my favorite band for more than ten years. I could bore any reader to sleep with obsessive descriptions of my various hard-to-find vinyl EPs and NoMEansNo errata-- I'm that kind of fan.
One couldn't expect the Bumbershoot crowd to be filled with fans (though I met a few die-hards in line), but NoMeansNo didn't play what I'd call an “accessible” set-- one of the great things about the band is that they're challenging and diverse, and whoever wandered into the Exhibition Hall while they were playing was going to see a challenging and diverse show.
To their credit, NoMeansNo opened with one of their more uptempo and poppier songs (Angel or Devil) before following up with one of their odder, Devo-bounce, lock-step tracks (Can't Stop Talking). For the uninitiated, this would have been a fine crash course in NoMeansNo's sense of variety: they played slamming, straight-ahead hardcore punk (Theresa, Give Me That Knife), a slow, patient, atmospheric song (I Need You), some bass-and-drum groove songs where the guitar sits out (Metronome and Big Dick), some of their chanty/spoken word stuff (Brother Rat), a cacophonous noise jam (the end of What Slade Says), and some of their more layered, newer material (Something Dark against Something Light.)
For me, this was a thoroughly satisfying set... even if no one was allowed to jump around. Bumbershoot's "No Moshing, No Stage Diving" policy was strictly enforced. A small pit broke out during the second song; not only was it quickly dispatched, but one-by-one, for the following 20 minutes, security came back and removed everyone involved... a constant procession of flashlights and escorts through the crowd.
The band was in top form-- the rhythm section of bassist Rob Wright and drummer John Wright is one of my favorite drum/bass combos anywhere. The bass is heavily driven with a bright midrange, and can hold down full songs without a guitar in the mix; the basslines are often metronomic, tightly locked rhythmic loops, but can break into strummed chords or even lead lines, depending on the song. The drums reflect a lot of jazz and prog influence, both with twitchy, off kilter hat/snare work and bigger, more sonically imposing beats that rely on accents within the constantly rolling toms or snare. The Wright Brothers can (and will) play straight, standard, 4/4 punk rock, but their ability to lock into strange repeating patterns, odd loops, and tricky rhythms is a large part of what makes NoMeansNo such a unique and enduring band.
One couldn't expect the Bumbershoot crowd to be filled with fans (though I met a few die-hards in line), but NoMeansNo didn't play what I'd call an “accessible” set-- one of the great things about the band is that they're challenging and diverse, and whoever wandered into the Exhibition Hall while they were playing was going to see a challenging and diverse show.
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| my camera displays this band as a brightly colored blur, so: From Nothing But Words Photo by Mike Toppa |
For me, this was a thoroughly satisfying set... even if no one was allowed to jump around. Bumbershoot's "No Moshing, No Stage Diving" policy was strictly enforced. A small pit broke out during the second song; not only was it quickly dispatched, but one-by-one, for the following 20 minutes, security came back and removed everyone involved... a constant procession of flashlights and escorts through the crowd.
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| my camera displays this band as a brightly colored blur, so: From The Sun Break Photo by Shawn McClung |
The band was in top form-- the rhythm section of bassist Rob Wright and drummer John Wright is one of my favorite drum/bass combos anywhere. The bass is heavily driven with a bright midrange, and can hold down full songs without a guitar in the mix; the basslines are often metronomic, tightly locked rhythmic loops, but can break into strummed chords or even lead lines, depending on the song. The drums reflect a lot of jazz and prog influence, both with twitchy, off kilter hat/snare work and bigger, more sonically imposing beats that rely on accents within the constantly rolling toms or snare. The Wright Brothers can (and will) play straight, standard, 4/4 punk rock, but their ability to lock into strange repeating patterns, odd loops, and tricky rhythms is a large part of what makes NoMeansNo such a unique and enduring band.
Since NoMeansNo began as a duo, their original guitar sound was very bright, kind of harsh, and usually kind of dissonant, which kept the guitar out of the way of the massive bass sound. Their current guitarist, Tom Holliston, has been with the band since the mid-90s, and brought a fuller, richer sound to the band (usually playing humbucking Gibsons and sometimes using echo); Tom's a great fit for what the band has evolved into, being both more melodic and heavier than original guitarist Andy Kerr. When NoMeansNo goes into a guitarless song, Tom sets down his instrument and takes on lead vocal duties.
Though Rob is most often on lead vocals, all three members of NoMeansNo can sing and all have songs where they take the lead. While I make a big deal of all the band's rhythmic complexities and their ability to change on a dime, surprise an audience, or have a song explode into a thrilling climax, their ability to write a big, unshakable chorus can't be ignored. With the three of them singing, NoMeansNo has no trouble with three part harmonies, call-and-response, or melodic counterpoint. Their show has no shortage of captivating, well written melodies and choruses to balance out their weirder, more inscrutable songs.
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| my camera displays this band as a brightly colored blur, so: From TheStranger.com Photo by Suzi Pratt |
Nothing like this happened at the Bumbershoot show: the band looked like they were having a blast on stage. They were high energy and fun, cracking jokes, and (in Tom Holliston's case, when he put down the guitar) even dancing. NoMeansNo had no intention of stopping, either: the band was ready to break into another song when the venue called time on them. They played a great set, and, if they're sometimes too strange to be all things to all people, those who've acquired the taste for Canada's most consistently rewarding power trio * finished this show thoroughly satisfied.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
On Stage #7 - Tuning
A continuing series of insights from the stage at the local club level...
7. String players-- get a tuner. No crowd wants to hear a band play The Tuning Song on stage, especially if they have to hear it more than once during your set.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot is an annual Seattle music festival, taking place roughly at the base of the Space Needle in the Seattle Center. A collection of indoor and outdoor performance spaces, 
Bumbershoot is a fairly big deal in Seattle, attracting crowds from all the outlying areas and bringing in not just downtown music types, scenesters, and enthusiasts, but also lots of suburban families. It's a big event, but it's also a family event.
Bumbershoot is a fairly big deal in Seattle, attracting crowds from all the outlying areas and bringing in not just downtown music types, scenesters, and enthusiasts, but also lots of suburban families. It's a big event, but it's also a family event.
There are a variety of stages at Bumbershoot, so sound varies from place to place as you switch from open air stages to concert halls to theaters. Most of the spaces are large, and everything comes through the PA-- all the drums are mic'd (and often pretty reverb-laden), so boomy and cavernous is the general mix personality.
There is also a “No Moshing, No Stage Diving” policy that makes sense when you're standing next to someone's 85 lb. grandmother during a punk show, but it was so viciously enforced that the line of kids being escorted through the crowd and out the door seemed endless. I can't tell if they were all part of some previous pit, but I definitely saw docile, unoffending kids pulled from right in front of me... we can file that under “not too cool.”
Friday, September 23, 2011
On Stage #6 - Know Your Gear
A continuing series of insights from the stage at the local club level...
6. Don't play with gear you haven't practiced on. No matter how excited you are about your new instrument, effects pedal, microphone, etc-- if you haven't rehearsed with it before the show, don't use it at the show. It's a recipe for disaster.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Fungal Abyss
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The first thing I knew about Fungal Abyss was that it included the members of Lesbian, easily one of the best metal bands in Seattle. I was told they're a psychadelic group, a bit on the jam-band side of the spectrum; for me, that's one tick in the positive column (yay, psychadelia!) and one in the negative column (blech, jam bands)... but I like these players, have seen Lesbian many times, and wanted to see them before the opportunity faded. I caught them at the final night of their weekly residency at the Comet.
Fungal Abyss contains both guitars, bass, and drums from Lesbian, but adds a third guitar, a suitcase modular synth, and a vocalist. The biggest surprise from a band with three guitarists on stage is that Fungal Abyss is not notably guitar driven-- the bass and drums propel the music along, and the melodies, textures, and sonic freakouts layer themselves over the top. My strongest comparison for the group is Miles Davis' Bitches Brew era, a kind of free form 70's electric funk groove, with no shortage of swirly modulations, trippy echoes, and wah...
The music comes with a light show, too-- a projector set up by the sound board, providing an expressionistic backdrop for the music... when dipshits weren't making bunny ears in the light. It was a 21+ show at a bar, so I'm certain they weren't in third grade, but once they discovered they could throw shadows, the couple back by the light source kept it going. Still, I appreciate a band with a visual component to their shows, and the projector was a really nice touch.
Sonically, the suitcase modular synth gives a good idea of where the band is going. This isn't a band with a keyboard player; a collection of knobs and patch cords, the synth generally doesn't care about the key of the song or the root of the riff. This synth is in the mix for UFO takeoff noises, weird shrieks, wobbles, and electronic blips and blurps. It is a specifically textural instrument.
The vocals, on the other hand, are melodic and atmospheric-- no lyrics, as far as I could tell, but Fungal Abyss is big, spacial, and textural, so actual words would probably be too literal for the mood. Run though a handful of effects, the vocals range from a solid tenor to swooping falsetto, sometimes carving out a melody, sometimes hitting accent beats, and sometimes working as a strange special effect (for example: the Blixa Bargeld inverse scream).
The band comes together as the truest representation of a psychedelic group I've ever seen. Where many bands self-applying the moniker are blues bands with a phaser pedal and semi-surreal lyrics, Fungal Abyss truly allow a song to build, bend, trip out, climax, and turn around to find another direction. The music hearkens back to the swirlodelic 70s, but isn't really a retro act; it pushes forward as a 7-piece, huge, but not cluttered.
Fungal Abyss on Facebook
Monday, September 12, 2011
On Stage #5 - The player is not the audience
5. The sound on stage doesn't have
that much to do with the sound in the crowd-- monitors vary,
relative positions to amps and drums vary, and room acoustics vary.
If you're lucky, someone in the crowd that knows your songs can tell
you if the guitar's too loud of the bass is overwhelming (and ask
them: I fully endorse asking the crowd), but onstage, just accept
that the crowd isn't hearing what you're hearing.
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.
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:
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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
Friday, July 22, 2011
On Stage #2 - Your place in the lineup
2. "Headlining," at a local level, is a nice way to say "you're going last." If everyone at the club isn't there to see your band, "headlining" means you're playing to the few remaining people who'll stick around for the last band... and your set may be interrupted by Last Call announced over the PA. If everyone at the show really is there to see you, then you are a genuine headliner: it's the honorable move for you to not make the lesser-known band play to the few remaining people who stuck around after you finished.
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.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The Fabulous Downey Brothers
Who:
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When:
The Fabulous Downey Brothers excel at both ends of that spectrum: song 1 was nothing like song 2, and I spent the show (the third Downey show I've seen so far, and I don't intend to miss them on their next visit) absolutely blown away. The music changes quite a bit over the course of a Fabulous Downey Brothers show, as sequencers get plugged into the PA, members change instruments, and band members come off stage for choreographed dance numbers for specific songs. I have to mention the music first (which is fun, catchy, and always given to weird shifts you didn't see coming) because, in a blog with pictures and no sound, the spectacle may threaten to overwhelm everything else. For example: the show began with the pair of lead singers faces obscured by giant, head-covering, blue cupcakes. The show pre-dates this blog and I only have photos stolen from their Facebook page, or I would provide cupcake headed photos to prove I'm not making this up, but for now, you'll just have to trust me.
I usually appreciate when a band takes the extra step, away from staring at their fretboards in jeans and T-shirts, and makes something of a stage show. Well... there are stage shows, and then there's the Downeys. This isn't just costuming: though the band is slathered in electric blue, their stage show involves audience participation, dance numbers, and one particular song when drummer Liam Downey comes forward and has a high energy freak out, stomping in circles and screaming into a mic.
Lyrically, they mix high- and low-brow so effortlessly that a songs with farts, pee-pee, and poo-poo are giddy fun instead of puerile, and songs that reference a tertiary Hamlet character aren't pretentious in the least: when they say 'Rosen,' you say 'crantz.' If you roll your eyes at pee-pee, that song's about the empty space within matter; if you don't know who Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are, the call and response comes with que cards.
The Fabulous Downey Brothers produce something I seldom see at shows-- Joy. There is a jubilant, playful, overwhelmingly fun energy that washes out over the crowd at a Downey show, from jaunty pop songs to dancey sequencers to screaminess, the show tends to have me smiling so consistently and for so long that my face hurts a bit by the time they're done.
The Fabulous Downey Brothers on Facebook
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