Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of October 23 through October 25
The Halloween-themed shows don’t really kick in until next week, so this weekend’s live music isn’t as likely to be accompanied by costumes and monsters and scariness. Then again, who cares? There’s still plenty of great stuff to be heard.
Friday, October 23 (tonight!):
This Blinding Light, Dirty Sidewalks, Coyote, God and Vanilla @ The High Dive. 21+. $10 advance. Doors at 9:00 p.m.
Seattle band This Blinding Light take their cue from psychedelia and space rock, squeezing every last bit of juice out of their extended riffs like a holy shaman mashing a peyote cactus between two rocks. They celebrate the release of their new EP tonight, sharing the bill with new wave-tinted guitar band Dirty Sidewalks, Coyote, and God and Vanilla.
Northwest Speed Fest 3 w/Capitalist Casualties, BruceXCampell, Bob Plant, Waste Away, guests @ Columbia City Theater. 21+. $10 advance. Doors at 5:30 p.m., show at 6:00 p.m.
If you’re still looking for a really scary Halloween mask, just come to Speed Fest, as the resulting blast of loud-and-fast will effectively melt your face. Expect a mix of hardcore punk (Capitalist Casualties), industrial-tinged grindcore (Seattle’s Acid Feast), and turbocharged speed metal (the apparently Evil Dead-fixated BruceXCampbell) among the twelve bands on the bill, all unified by playing, yes, really fucking loud and really fucking fast.
FIDLAR, Dune Rats @ Showbox Market. 21+. $16 advance, $18 at the door. Doors at 8:00 p.m., show at 9:00 p.m.
LA’s FIDLAR know how to galvanize a room. The last time I saw them live (at Bumbershoot 2013), audience members’ responses ricocheted between over-the-moon awe and undiluted hatred. The truth, customarily, is somewhere in between. There’s nothing here that you haven’t heard before, and for some reason the band’s been adopted by a large bro contingent. But damned if this isn’t a lovably sloppy, hard-charging garage-punk band that plays their guts out. If you dig the way The Black Lips mix rough-hewn primal energy with snot-nosed fuck-you wit, and you want to see it delivered in as unhinged and spastic a fashion as possible, you could do a whole lot worse.
Saturday, October 24:
The Fabulous Downey Brothers, Fruit Juice, Mutiny Mutiny @ Obsidian (Olympia). All ages. $5 at the door. Doors at 7:oo p.m, show at 7:30 p.m.
The first Olympia Zine Fest began yesterday, and it’s a great opportunity to check out/support DIY publishing in all its rough-hewn glory.
All of the local acts playing this Fest after-party definitely ride the new wave/post-punk side of the street. The Fabulous Downey Brothers bust out costumes and performing-art goofiness that cross-pollinate Devo with The Residents, and Olympia’s irresistible Fruit Juice jump between clipped, surfy new wave and psychedelic pop, with hooky vocals that suggest Sparks and Sleater-Kinney duetting.
Mutiny Mutiny aren’t as showy as the other acts on the bill, but they’re the most topical, lobbing a molotov cocktail of righteous anger at generational apathy and technology’s zombification of the masses. Their new EP undefined is undeniably sharp, well-played, and a great listen, but live is where their songs really pop with raggedness and a palpable sense of urgency.
Truly, Low Hums, The Valley. @ Sunset Tavern. 21+. $15 advance. Show at 9:00 p.m.
I’ve already prattled on interminably about the abject majesty of veteran Seattle power trio Truly, whose transfixing blend of drop-tuned grunge and smeary psychedelia elevated them head-and-shoulders above most of their flannel-shirted Clinton-era peers. It’s the twentieth anniversary of their overlooked masterwork, the epic Fast Stories…from Kid Coma, so expect to hear a goodly portion of it onstage.
Sunday, October 25:
LIVE and Let Live: A Benefit for the Joe Skyward Cancer Fund with Sky Cries Mary @ Neumos. All ages (bar w/ID). $15 advance. Show at 12:00 p.m.
Back at the dawn of the Grunge Era, Sky Cries Mary played a variety of trance-pop unafraid of dance rhythms, long jams, and exotic texture. Too ethereal and expansive to really fit in with the flannel-clad yarling of the time, they nonetheless left an indelible imprint on local rock, with some of this town’s best newer bands (Wind Burial and Midday Veil among them) picking up the metaphoric torch.
After several years in hiatus, SCM has reformed its original lineup to raise funds for former bass player Joe Skyward’s cancer fight. The Saturday October 24 gig handily sold out, but you can still nab admission to Sunday’s all-ages show if you jump on it fast enough. The cause is unassailable, and anyone who’s seen Sky Cries Mary knows fully the hypnotic quality of their live gigs.
