Seattle Subsonic

Saturday Knights and EMP: What Happened?

August 9th, 2009

The Saturday Knights performance at Seattle Center’s, Experience Music Project, EMP, left me a bit conflicted. First, my bias is that I am really interested in the prospect of the EMP having more shows. There are at least two great venues in the building, one large stage with a huge video screen back drop and a second venue that has a balcony, great lighting, and pretty decent acoustics. From what the promoters (volunteers?) indicated, they want to have more shows, like they did in the past. And I agree their venue is well suited for some amazing performances. Last Saturday’s show had tie-ins with their current Muppet exhibit (which is really well done and was free during the show).
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For the show, the stage was pulled away from the wall, elevated and hit with colored lights plus an atmospheric backdrop of swirling projected graphics. I liked the setup and was appreciative of the cool circulated air on a hot night. I want to see more bands here (I’ll keep saying it). I caught the end of Eldridge Gravy & the Court Supreme, which was a big band playing funky music and several players in Muppet attire.
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Both floors had a pretty whimsical showing for a good show that had been promoted with a stellar poster all around town. For some reason drink tickets, in the form of small rubber duckies, where ever flowing and contributed to my overall enjoyment. Plus, the drinks were only $3! I had never seen the Saturday Nights before. Two MCs, a Dj, a keyboardist, drummer, and a bassist on stage and with rock rap vibe that I could get into. But the Dj immediately had some frustration over the mic stand that led him to thrash one mic stand against another, bang a tambourine on the speaker (and the drummer’s head), and then he finally tossed the tambourine to the 2nd level crowd (which was returned and broke apart), before splintering a drum stick a few feet from myself. Such is rock. But the rest of the band never really caught on to the antics. It wasn’t the the dramatic finale to a kick ass set. It began as soon as they took to the stage. His actions felt more awkward, then expressive. The rest of the band did continue to move the crowd. I admittedly do have a harder time getting into the newer jammy hip hop groups, as the sound doesn’t always seem cohesive and the lyrics often fall secondary to the live music but the Saturday Knights did have good party music. The two Mcs, Tilson wore sported redpants and chucks with checkered open flaps and Barfly, a grungier hipster, akin to Sam Kinison meets John Belushi, played an exhausting set in a cool environment, sometimes leaving the stage or laying on it for minutes at a time (maybe they had too many ducks?). The highlight was probably when one of the MCs jumped into the crowd for a song, but the downside was definitely watching the conflict between the DJ and the frustrated stage hands, who paced around offstage.
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I’m all about rockers getting caught up in the moment and acting rebelliously, but I’m not sure that the DJ acted with the bands best interest. But I don’t know what happened behind the scenes, so feel free to defend yourself. I did see MC Barfly, get escorted out by security.Maybe the Saturday Knights and the EMP were not the perfect match.
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. I would absolutely see another Saturday Knights show. And, hopefully, they haven’t tarnished my hopes and dreams of seeing quality shows at the EMP on a regular basis. I am ready EMP!!! You have the facilities, now use them! Although, I recommend the 21+ people not have to descend two sets of stairs to use the bathroom and climb all the way back to the balcony. That’s a lot of extra work when you want people to buy drinks.