Seattle Subsonic

Back to Seattle, GnR and Aerosmith, and thankfully, Bone Cave Ballet

May 30th, 2010

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Correction: The Comet website says Bone Cave Ballet will play on June 2nd, but word from the band is that they will be there June 1st, Tuesday, tomorrow.
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I was driving back to Seattle from Camano Island. I’d been up there for the past two months to work on a few writing projects and some music projects and well just to wallow in the quiet and solitude to be had there. Driving back south on I-5, I had the radio on and was switching back and forth between KEXP and KISW and finding nothing on either. KEXP is great at times, and of course I love the fact that they take chances. They play shit no one else in this town will even consider. Even if the song is great, producers and DJs at other stations will scoff, “But the recording isn’t up to our standards.” Funny thing is even the home recordings these days are probably better than much of what was recorded 30 years ago, well in terms of the audio quality at least. It still might have been mixed by someone who was either tone deaf or who turned the suck knob up just a bit too much.
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Sometimes though, those other producers are right to scoff as KEXP does indeed have periods where they play song after song of crap. Every station does though so what can one do but keep flipping in hopes of lucking upon a bit of magic. So I switched again from KEXP to KISW and was far from lucky for there came Guns and Roses’ November Rain. I screamed, “Ahhh!” and turned off the radio quickly. They just aren’t a band I can listen to anymore. I was never a big fan, but they had an energy I appreciated at one time. Not so these days. When all you have is energy, it’s sure to disappear as the years pass. I’m surprised they still get as much airplay as the do. Even some of that “crap” on KEXP would be better, but it’s too late now. The song is in my head and Axl is on repeat in there. “…In the cold November Rain…” … “Ahhh!”
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It gets me thinking that I find Aerosmith very much the same. I can’t listen to them anymore. They rocked at one point but died a long slow horrible and public death. Yes, they were laughing all the way to the bank, but no one has ever rocked while laughing on their way to the bank. They saunter, they stroll, they glide but they don’t rock. Maybe it’s old news. Maybe you’ve heard it before, but I want to turn on the radio and hear something new that makes me swerve to the side of the road and shout, “Holy shit! What the hell is that?” It hasn’t happened for some time though so I’ll have to seek it in the clubs. I’ll have to seek out opportunities to jam with others and make a little of my own magic.
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First up will be a band called Bone Cave Ballet. Their singer, Jacqui Gilroy, used to play guitar and sing back up in my own band before I was in my own band. I’ve seen them once and they were quite good except for the fact that the sound man either had his head up his ass or his hand on the aforementioned suck knob. So I went up to stand by the stage and hearing the stage volume, the amps, the unmiced drums, the vocals only in the monitors, they were good. There was energy. The riffs were tight, the melodies unexpected. They did this great bit in a song called Chewing Sand where they were trading “Ohs” so to speak. Listen to the song on their MySpace and you’ll see what I mean. Live it was most excellent so I’ll be there to see them either June 1st at the Comet (acoustic show) or June 6th at the Funhouse. Possibly both.
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Just passing Everett on my way back into Seattle, I turn the radio back on. It’s still on KISW. And I hear that voice, “Janie’s got a gun…”
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Click.
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As much as I love music, sometimes silence is better.
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Dave
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