Still recovering from a very fun weekend spent Bumbershooting in Seattle. Went up with my roomies, hung out with M. Matos a lot, and finally got some kind of feel for the place. Seattle seems like a pretty cool town, if you know where to look. Here are some highlights:
Kiki & Herb: I think this may be the best thing I saw all weekend, including the mega rock and rap stars. It’s this insanely over the top cabaret act, which sounds horrible in concept, but is actually very smart and deeply moving. The performance consists of showstopping vocal and piano numbers, spliced with playful banter in which the characters (mostly Kiki) detail their tragic personal histories (child molestation, dead babies, drugs addiction). At first you think these horrible lives are a joke, but they’re not. As the show goes on they’re fleshed out to the point that you realize horrible lives like these do exist, and it’s not so funny. Then they’ll break into these bravado pop montages (think Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer into Smells Like Teen Spirit, with a coda from Mrs. World) which are both absurd and totally vindicating. Fucking genius. And they’re doing their last show ever on the 19th.
The Girls are so RAD!
The Girls: Caught these guys at this nasty-ass club right near the Seattle Center called Funhouse. We went knowing nothing save for the fact that this was a Dirtnap Records showcase, and Dirtnap is an awesome Northwest punk rock label. Turns out the headliner is the Girls, who are playing a secret show under the name Spaghetti and the Meatballs (they’d played Bumbershoot that same day, and probably signed something saying they wouldn’t play anywhere else). Let me just say, these guys fucking rule, for a couple reasons. 1) Costumes: They came out in speedos/tighty-whiteys and weird toga/headdress hybrids, lost the togas by the third song, and the bassist ended up completely naked, shaking his grody cottage-cheesey ass in the audiences face. 2) Music: Sort of a strange hybrid of the Cars, Devo, Roxy Music, and every generic drunk-as-shit, three-chord punk rock band ever. The underlying theme is that they always give you what you want (riffs, dance beats, synth lines), exactly when you want it. 3) Energy: I haven’t seen a band this pumped to be playing / drunk in a long time. And the best part was I had no idea who they were till show was over. Legendary.
Other highlights were Public Enemy, American Music Club, Built to Spill, Nas, Popular Shapes (their last show ever apparently), Matt Jorgensen + 451, Brother Ali, and some other stuff I’m forgetting. The Pixies were a highlight too, but they seem to have lost some energy since their first reunion shows, and Frank Black’s voice lacks the nasal shriek that sounded so amazing on their old records. He sings almost every song straight. But Kim Deal sounds like an angel.
First Bumbershoot = SUCCESS. Next up, MusicFestNW. Fuck.
