Seattle Subsonic

The Head and the Heart, Why I Love Music, :)

May 4th, 2011

We walked into Easy Street Records in West Seattle to kill time. She’d left her wallet at Talarico’s just down the street the previous night and after a lazy Saturday morning breakfast, we went back to the bar. It didn’t open until 11:00 though so we had fifteen minutes at our disposal, and browsing the racks of CD and vinyl was the obvious choice over the craft store across the street and the gem show a few blocks away.

“That’s a cool album cover!” she said pointing to the rack straight in from the door.

“Yeah, The Head and the Heart. I’m reviewing their show tonight. I write about music sometimes.” She hadn’t known this yet since we’d just met at Talaricos the night before. Yes, things had blossomed quickly.

“Cool. I want to read it.”

“Certainly,” I said picking up the CD and walking back to the counter. I would need it for reference later when writing about the show, and though bands often give me free copies of their music, I was happy to buy this one because I’d heard so many good things about them. I was eager for the show and as we left the store, we exchanged phone numbers, retrieved her wallet, and said goodbye. “I’ll call you after the show. Maybe we can have a late drink.” She smiled.

The Head and the Heart played the Moore theater that night, had sold it out as a matter of fact. There was excitement in the crowd, a general sense on anticipation that I had not felt in an audience that size in quite some time. I texted her, “Had a great time last night.” She replied, “Me too!” It was going to be a good night.

The show started with “Cats and Dogs”, the first song on the CD. There was a clicking from the drums. The acoustic guitar came in with an F chord repeated with a downstroke, a few “oohs,” and the vocal, “Somewhere underneath the floorboard, I will sweep my garden…” The vocal continued, the people around me sang, the chords changed, D to A#, “…nothing there to discover.” And bass and drums and there was groove, a popsy, folksy groove that penetrated the audience, and not even one minute into the show the vibe was set. The place was happy, nothing but happy. HAPPY. It’s one of the reasons I so love music.

I texted her again with the url for my blog, “in case you’re interested.” She replied simply, “:)” Yes, it was going to be a good night.

The show went on in the same manner as the first song. The music bounced. The musicians bounced. They had fun in a way that very few bands do. It’s easy to see musicians getting into their music, getting lost in their music, but this was different. This was like a spreading disease that started from the stage and worked its way over the crowd. It was infectious. The piano rolled about with “Ghosts”, one of my favorites. And later there was a plucky acoustic and “boots of spanish leather” and a bass on the root notes and the guy in the middle singing about “grandfather’s tribe” and the drums coming in and some more “oohs” lots of “oohs” in the evening and a building and a breakdown to just the vocals which all lead to a BIG applause. It was a new song but very cool. It swept one up. It swept everyone up. They were good, very good.

The last encore of the night was “Rivers and Roads”, an quiet number, one of those mellow tunes that has an undeniable power, a good closer for sure. “Nothing is as it has been. And I miss your face like hell.” Great line. I texted her such. “Miss your face.” The quick reply, “:)” And the tune, the night, ended a cappella, “Rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers till I reach you.”

Everyone was singing. The music indeed had heart, or more like Heart.

“Rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers till I reach you.”

BIG, BIG applause. The people loved these guys.

I made a quick exit, but stopped to buy a tee shirt on my way out. “There’s only medium left,” said the guy selling.

“That’s OK. It isn’t for me.” I got it and left, texting as I exited the theater. “On my way.” And her quick reply, “How was the show?”

“:)”

Dave

Concert photos by Marianne Spellman at TheAudioPerv.com