Seattle Subsonic

My (Your?) Block Party Plan: Saturday

July 22nd, 2009

Yesterday, I put up my game plan for Friday’s Block Partly lineup, and today I offer you some thoughts on Saturday. The mainstage—with Sonic Youth, the Thermals, Gossip, and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart all scheduled—is gonna be difficult to leave, but obviously there are a ton of bands worth checking out on either of the other two stages.

.

I can’t claim to be a Life Long Sonic Youth Fan, and I haven’t even listened to half their albums (including the latest The Eternal)—yikes! But I dammit if I don’t love Daydream Nation and Dirty like a couple of crazy, angst-ridden, guitar shredding, melody-conscious feedback kings happily married and playing in the same band for near 30 years. (What, that’s an analogy.) I wouldn’t dare miss this opportune live performance, and neither should you. Who knows, they just may not ever make it back here. Gossip‘s new album is pretty fancy and aggressive, but come 9pm, when the sun’s setting and folks are gettin’ nice and liquored up, expect a raging dance party on Pike St. while Beth Ditto wails into the twilight.

.

We all know and love the Thermals, but I’ll be honest: Now We Can See underwhelmed me a tad. It’s not that it was a bad record, it just had so much to live up to, and that’s unfortunate (kind of). I’ll probably watch their always-awesome set unless I feel like wandering over to Neumos to hear funky Game Boy glitch-hoppers Truckasauras blow out some eardrums.

.

New York’s the Pains of Being Pure at Heart are another intriguing band that plays delightful John Hughesian guitar pop inspired by the likes of the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Vaselines, Psychedelic Furs, and the Cure. Anthemic and heartfelt, I think this band might surprise some people.

.

If you ain’t bored yet, there’s more after the jump/cut/fold/whatever.

.

Provided I can get there by the 1pm start time, I’ll be rewarded with a raucous set from local punk-americana outfit Wild Orchid Children. Concluding what they might sound like from their name is not necessarily a bad idea, and given all the positive “internet reports” on their live chops, I’d bet on great inaugural entertainment. Following WOC, The Pica Beats deserve your attendance at the Vera Stage at 2:30 3:30. No questions asked. Their debut on Hardly Art is a smart, mournful folk-pop record that flourishes with each listen. The Moondoggies are nice, but I’m curious to check out local synth-romancers Hotels at 3pm inside Neumos. Yes, there are many bands with a similar sound (think of a swankier, peppier Voyager One, for example), but this foursome has a compelling charisma to their output.

.

I’m pretty sure that’s all I’ll have time to ingest, but the schedule conflicts of Future of the Left, Japandroids, New Faces, and Awesome Color still burn a little. I’m gonna try extra hard to head over to the Cha Cha at 6:45, though, to see L.A.’s Moonrats. A lively, multi-pronged indie rock trio headed up by former Pretty Girls Make Graves guitarist Nathan Thelen, joined on keys and vocals by Aska Matsumiya and Jason Echeverria on drums, I’ve been waiting to see them in Seattle for a long time. I used this phrase already, but “anthemic and hearfelt” definitely fits this band.