Seattle Subsonic

John Spalding's Name, And Memory, In Lights

January 12th, 2009

In what will surely be remembered as one of the most energetic, buzzed-about concerts of 2009, friends and fans alike came out in droves Friday night at the Showbox to pay tribute to the recently departed John Spalding. The third in a series of five (so far) scheduled benefit shows, the sold-out venue played host to five outstanding local bands, all boasting members with whom John was a close friend. Not surprisingly, each set was filled with the same vigorous dynamism and lively ebullience that John bestowed on all his friendships, old or new. Those of us who were lucky enough to experience both him and the bands easily felt the common bond between the two.

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Unfortunately, I missed the first act, Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death, because the show started promptly at 8pm. I will say from past experience, however, that any band featuring Spencer Moody (Murder City Devils), Dann Galluci (MCD, Modest Mouse) and Andrea Zollo (Pretty Girls Make Graves) is worth a gander. Formerly more of an oddly attractive, drone-inspired incendiary probe, the group has somewhat shifted gears of late, introducing a more “accessible” and conventional aspect to their peculiar and fractured punk experiment. Past Lives, who’ve received a fair amount of recognition on this blog—if you hadn’t noticed—were up next. They played, as usual, a focused set of their best tunes, which included “Beyond Gone”, “Strange Symmetry”, “Chrome Life”, plus a handful of new ones (i.e., those not on their EP). Catch them next at the Comet Jan. 28th and THEN opening for the MURDER CITY DEVILS Feb. 11th and 12th.

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The Cave Singers wove their haunting and sobering back-woods ballads into the bubble of liveliness that encompassed the crowd, intoxicating each person in the room as they have so many times before. Despite the somber tone of many of their songs, the trio opened with a few of their newer, more upbeat tunes, with guitarist Derek Fudesco busting out his electric hollow-body for those. Pete Quirk was his usual quivery self, all tremulous and eerily inspired. If you haven’t seen this affecting band live yet, I encourage whole heartedly that you do. POST HASTE!

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Rocky Votolato was the one act on the bill I hadn’t seen live before. Flaunting his “guns” in a sleeveless tee, he channeled a rabble-rousing rendition of Ted Leo meets Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen. Along with his drummer and bassist, Votolato put another charge into the crowd with some unwavering power-pop and gushing praise for John. He reverted back to his acoustic self mid-performance, playing several old favorites.

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The headliner on this night, for good reason, was local-gone-big tempo-rockers Minus the Bear. While I am a fan, I’d never been completely impressed with their live performance. Tonight—like everything else—was different, however. The synth was driving, the bass from Cory Murchy (who was close enough with John to speak at his vigil) was pumping, and the guitar and vocals from Jake Snider were soothingly powerful. The crowd was the rowdiest for this band, and they delivered. Lucky for me, they played several tracks from Menos El Oso, my favorite MtB album, and rounded out the set (presumably) with many from their newest Planet of Ice. Looks like the dudes are headed to Australia in February for the Soundwave Festival. (side question: is that curated by a Decepticon?)

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Given the site and sets, this was probably the largest of all the memorial concerts planned; but only in physicality. The Comet last week seemed to have almost as much anticipation packed into a smaller place, and the upcoming shows (Chop Suey 1/21 with Damien Jurado and See Me River, El Corazon 1/31 with MXPX and Nazca Lines) will no doubt be similar. It’s only fitting that someone with so much spirit was appreciated and honored with an awesome concert and his name in lights.