Author Archive
Blue Scholars & Common Market at Neumo’s December 18, 19 & 20.
Oh baby it’s cold outside!
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Seattleites will certainly know the place to get warm (or hot!) this weekend is Neumo’s, where two of our favorite hip-hop groups will be sure to put on shows that will relieve a little stress before the holidays.
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Hot on the release of their fifth album, Butter & Gun$, Blue Scholars will certainly grant the crowd an escape from Old Man Winter banging on the doors. It will be exciting to see the performances to be given by Geologic and Sabzi, as this will be their first Seattle performance since the 2008 Presidential election. Nobody knows for sure how this duo voted, but judging from previous performances and their lyrics, one can safely guess they are pretty frickin’ happy with Obama taking the White House this January! Were they even there for election night when the crowd jubliantly poured into the street? Who knows? But if you were there on election night, be sure to get yourselves back to Neumo’s this Thursday, Friday and Saturday for some good memories! I’m sure some references to that memorable night will be made.
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Not very often you get a ‘twofer’ at shows these days, but as an added bonus, Common Market will also make an appearance all three nights. Following the release of their second album, Common Market will open for Blue Scholars, and if there is no other reason to go (which there is not), show your support for Sabzi, who will essentially perform six sets in three nights. Can you think of a better reason? Neither can I.
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The Physics, Truckasauras and Mad Rad will start the show each night, respectively.
War Tapes
Don’t ask me why, but the first comparison that came to my head for the lead singer of War Tapes is a mix of Morrisey and Glen Danzig, and put those two together, you’re bound to have a damn entertaining live performance! That’s exactly what I thought the first time I listened to the their eponymous EP release. A polished rhythm and the deep guttural voice of Neil Popkin leads one to believe that this is a band that has put a lot of work into delivering their unique sound. According to their MySpace page, they describe their own sound as ‘Doom Pop’, and a comparison to Danzig certainly lends credence to that description, but it’s hard for me to label their sound as such when listening to the focused precision they put into all their instruments. I definitely sense some angst and longing in their music and lyrics, but there is no doubt this is a band that enjoys playing their style, which just doesn’t mesh with the ‘doom and gloom’ genre.
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It’s not often a band comes along that highlights all their instruments at once, and for this reason I can’t wait to see War Tapes live. The typical style of a performance is for the lead singer to be in the spotlight, and slightly steps away when the guitarist gets his (or her) time for a two-minute solo. I heard something unique in the song ‘Start Again’, guitarist Mark Bennett really carries the song with his slightly punk-influenced guitar playing, and the song is such that Popkin’s voice almost is meant to be the back-drop, that maybe gets a bit of time for his own solo. Solidly holding the rhythm together are Becca Popkin, whose new-wave inspired bass playing and subtle back-up vocals compliment her brother’s singing, as well as William Mohler, a drummer who brings to mind the style of Keith Moon which isn’t concerned with solely keeping up the rhythm.
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I haven’t seen any dates where they’re playing in the Pacific Northwest, but I definitely want to keep my ear to the ground for this band, and I recommend you do as well!
Stone Temple Pilots @ Bumbershoot
A big draw to me – and I’m sure lots of other fans – for Bumbershoot is the efficiency. Shows start when they’re supposed to, artists play their allotted time, and the crew gets the next band set up like clock-work. For <b>Stone Temple Pilots</b> to show up a half-hour later than their scheduled start time was incredibly shitty. I’m sure they’ll have their reason for it, but I really don’t want to hear it. When you play a festival like Bumbershoot, you show up on time. The fans have been on their feet all day, and to make them wait an hour between sets shows a complete lack of respect. If you can’t make that happen, don’t sign up for it. I talked to a couple of friends after the show and they heard rumors about Scott Weiland and why the band was late, and anybody who’s followed the history of STP can probably figure out what these rumors are. Who even knows if they are true, but the band is doing this to themselves by showing up as late as they did. The Seattle music scene has been through enough front men bent on giving into their cynicism rather than nurturing their creativity and to see even a hint of that tired old cliché and rock-star boorishness does not bring back pleasant memories and is really not welcome. My message to STP is this: Grow the fuck up! When a band as successful as yours gets back together after 6 years your fans expect to see some maturation, not a repeat of what caused you to break up in the first place! I absolutely mean this, and I want you to succeed this second-time around, because your performance fucking kicked ass! Do not destroy yourself with this pettiness!.
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The band was tight, and embraced the rock ‘n roll hits of their past with a fervor not seen with bands who do not have a bright vision of their own future. They started out slow with the anthemic ‘Big Empty’, and Scott Weiland truly demonstrated his talent with his vocal range during the chorus. After that the band kicked into high gear with one of my personal favorites, ‘Wicked Garden’, and the way the crowd responded to that song you could easily forget that they even broke up. The band segued into ‘Big Bang Baby’ before ripping the stage with another favorite of mine, ‘Vaseline’. There is no doubt that these guys are pros, and what the fans want, they deliver. I was kind of hoping to hear some new stuff, but then again why would I go to see STP if I didn’t want to hear the hits? It was pretty much a greatest hits show, which the crowd certainly didn’t have a problem with. I’m not sure if Weiland was good at making fun of himself, or just plain clueless when introducing ‘Plush’. ‘This song was on our first album and you might have heard it before.’ Yeah, about every fucking half hour for the entire summer of ’93!
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STP, you rocked the shit out of Bumbershoot, and you should be proud of that. Now get it the fuck together and don’t disrespect your fans, show up to the shows on time!
Blackalicious & STS9
Don’t you just love it when you see some bands you know absolutely nothing about and you wind up having a great time?
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I was excited to see Blackalicious and Sound Tribe Sector 9 at Marymoor Park only because it was a beautiful day and listening to music outside sounded downright nifty! At the time I knew nothing about either band, but if I didn’t enjoy the music, well, at least I would be outside. I can’t tell you how bummed I was to find out the show had been cancelled at Marymoor at moved to The Showbox. I have nothing against the Showbox, I think it’s one of the best venues on the West Coast, but dang it, I wanted to be outside! I was half hoping my friend would call to inform me that she had sold the tickets and we wouldn’t be going, the idea of sweating in the Showbox just didn’t sound all that appealing, especially since I knew nothing about the two bands. Also, I’ve never gone out of my way to see hip-hop shows, but I figured if there was an opportunity to see some new music, what the hell.
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We got there a bit early and were able to score some chairs and a table, so at least we wouldn’t be crammed against the 18 and over crowd on the floor. We just hung out and talked while the DJ & bass player duo Conspirator warmed the crowd up with some tunes and riffs. As with most shows, the crowd was fairly sparse at the beginning, but the floor quickly filled up when the first set finished.
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The cool thing about Blackalicious was how they built their set around a steady escalation of rhythm and rhymes. Front man Gift of Gab took the stage almost as he if he was in a Suge Knight look alike contest, but the irony was completely forgotten as he treated the crowd to a rhyme that sounded like a car accelerating from 5mph all the way to 100mph in about 4 minutes! DJ Chief of Xcel handled the background just as he should have, and kept the crowd moving for the entire 50 minute set. It was good to see a group perform progressive songs with politically charged lyrics, the only regret I have is that I couldn’t really understand them, as he raps with the speed of that guy from the old Micro Machines commercials. Oh well, how else to you keep a crowd moving?
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My friend told me that she bought tickets for Blackalicious, so I didn’t even know that STS9 was even going to be there, let alone headline. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a purely instrumental group, so seeing these guys was a real treat. They kept the crowd pleased through their groove-jam style of performance that didn’t really involve hypnotic trance techniques. Heavy on the rhythm with every instrument given it’s due. It was also really cool to see a jam band where they don’t just stay planted on one spot playing their instruments, which made it easy to get into.
I’m always pleased when I find new bands to listen to, although I still think it would have been cooler to groove to these guys underneath the stars instead of the plasterboard ceiling of The Showbox. I’m going to check out iTunes and sample some of the tracks of these two bands; I just may want to listen to them when I go running!
