Tag Archives: Comet Tavern

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of August 23 through August 25

After this weekend, you won’t have Absolute Monarchs to kick around anymore. (photo: Tony Kay)

The Dog Days of Summer are officially in place, so get ‘em while they’re hot. And if you’re of the opinion (like me) that the best moments of the soundtrack of your life should be set to live music, this weekend will not disappoint.

Tonight (Friday, August 23):

Pixies Cover Night (feat. members of Midday Veil, Ononos, Kithkin, Tea Cozies, and more) @ Chop Suey. 21+. $10 at the door. Show at 9 p.m.

The Pixies’ brand of mutant pop sports so many jagged edges, it’s easy to forget how many durable, honest-to-God songs they crafted. Tonight at Chop Suey, you should get plenty of reminders. Best of all, none of the bands whose members comprise the evening’s entertainment sound at all like The Pixies, meaning the possibility of hearing some radical reinterpretations of classics like “Monkey Gone to Heaven” and “Where is My Mind?” runs pretty high.

Luke Winslow-King, James Apollo, Annie Ford Band @ Columbia City Theater. 21+. $12 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

It’s gonna probably be hot and a little humid tonight, and Michigan transplant-turned-New Orleans club vet Luke Winslow-King‘s variety of ambling, bare-bones blues should fit that kind of climate to a T. Winslow-King’s one of those roots musicians who sounds like he stepped from a 1930s Mississippi bar, straight into a time machine that spit him out in 2013 (the warm retro environs of Columbia City Theater should feel exceptionally apropos). That he never seems to be trying too hard to sound like he does adds immeasurably to his easygoing charm.

Men Without Hats, The Scarves, Color, Crooked Veils @ El Corazon. 21+. $18 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

Synth band Men Without Hats will forever and ever be known as the architects of one obscenely-massive hit, “The Safety Dance,” but they actually cut a couple of pretty good pop albums back in the big ’80’s (Rhythm of Youth and Pop Goes the World) bric-a-brac with ploinky synths and propulsively catchy artificial rhythms. Their most recent record, Love in the Age of War, takes a solid step into the New Wave Wayback Machine, but you’ll be forgiven for biding your time until you’re able to do that scissor-armed spastic dance like Ivan Doroschuk and his dwarf buddy in the video.

Saturday, August 24:

Linda’s Fest, featuring Absolute Monarchs, Constant Lovers, Katie Kate, Tilson XOXO, Big Eyes, and Iska  Dhaaf @ Linda’s Tavern. 21+. Free. Show at 9 p.m.

It’s the fourth year that Linda’s Tavern will be rustling up some choice local talent for a totally free show. This year, the Fest takes place in the parking lot behind Pine Food Market. The buzz set of the night belongs to post-punk/metal titans Absolute Monarchs, playing their (say it ain’t so) last show. But you’ve also got the similary-corrosive and awesome Constant Lovers, dance-music priestess Katie Kate, the soul-hip-hop-and-more polyglot of Tilson XOXO, short-and-sweet sugar buzz punk from Big Eyes, and jumpily-gorgeous echo-chamber pop music from two-man band Iska Dhaaf.

International Pop Overthrow Seattle Day 3, featuring Peter Fedofsky of Curtains for You, Irene and They Go Pop!, Smile Brigade, Lights from Space, and more  @ The Mix. 21+. $10 advance/day of show. Show at 9 p.m.

International Pop Overthrow, a festival dedicated to celebrating pure pop music from all over the globe, landed its Seattle iteration at Georgetown’s The Mix yesterday, and it’ll be parked there tonight and tomorrow as well. Quality acts were/are scattered throughout the three-day fest, but the final night of the Fest includes sets from some of this town’s most choice pure-pop acts. Lights from Space play awesome, toothy power pop that sounds like Fountains of Wayne’s tougher kid brothers, while Smile Brigade‘s 60s-style sunny singalong ditties include a pinch of enchanting psychedelic weirdness. Best of all, Peter Fedofsky, keyboardist/songwriter/singer with Curtains for You, opens up IPO Day 3 at 7:30 with a set of sparkling pocket symphonies that roll Ben Folds, Harry Nilsson, and Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys into one lovely package. Get there early, and stay late.

Sunday, August 25:

Black Nite Crash, Dead Teeth, Yonder @ The Comet Tavern. $7 at the door. Show at 8 p.m.

The fact that Black Nite Crash named themselves after a song by Ride will come as no surprise once you hear ‘em. The Seattle band play their spattering and swirling mix of shoegazer rock and Brian Jonestown Massacre-style psychedelia so sublimely, you’d swear they were a bunch of pasty-faced Brits (that’s a massive compliment). Equal parts danceable and dizzyingly heady, their sound’s infused with just enough urgency to render the familiar ingredients wonderfully fresh.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of January 13th to the 15th

Nothin’ but nothin’ can take the wicked sting out of the current cold snap like a night packed into a local music venue. So get out there already.

Tonight (Friday, January 13):

Dick Dale, Dead Man @ The Tractor Tavern. $20 at the door. Show at 9pm.

Well before Quentin Tarantino goosed “Miserlou” into the mass pop-culture consciousness in Pulp Fiction, Dick Dale was already one of the undisputed legends of surf guitar, a virtuoso of the style who pulled dirty rock sounds into the stuttering beach party mix with volcanic ferocity; and he’s a staggering force of nature in a live setting. Get ready to frug, and to get your ears blown out.

Post Adolescence, Mothership, We Wrote the Book on Connectors, The Dignitaries @ The High Dive. $7  at the door. Show at 9pm.

Post Adolescence play winning post-punk with emotions and fun writ large in equal doses. The band’s fat and full guitar sound recalls Suede, and Johnny Straube’s tremulous tenor voice is an idiosyncratic pop taste well worth acquiring.  The ballad “Don’t Walk Away” manages to make the girls swoon while the boys air-guitar, and the band’s rockers jump out of the speakers with playful energy. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, get to the High Dive early, for Pete’s Sake: Tacoma’s Dignitaries pound out garage rock with blunt-force trauma, and We Wrote the Book on Connectors bolster their ample chops with the funniest great pop songs this side of Flight of the Conchords.

The Bad Things, Bakelite 78, Bat Country, Gunstreet Glory @ The Comet Tavern. $8 at the door. Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm.

I loves me some drunken cabaret pop, and the Comet’ll have it in doses this evening. Headliners The Bad Things remain that gloriously-sodden sub-genre’s local masters, but don’t miss Bakelite 78‘s clattering Tin Pan Alley pop: Crooner/principal singer Robert Rial suggests the love child born of a bathtub-gin-fueled make-out session between Rudy Vallee and Tom Waits.

Saturday, January 14:

Allen Stone, Kris Orlowski @ The Neptune Theater. Sold Out. Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm.

Allen Stone’s honey-sweetened soul voice has arrived with so much hype it’ll almost kick in your gag reflex, but there’s a reason for the mountain of press and the Conan O’ Brien slot: The kid’s got the goods. Tomorrow’s Neptune gig is sold out, which means if you ain’t got a ticket you’ll miss Stone and what’s sure to be a solid set by Kris Orlowski, a folk singer whose sandpaper pipes rough up his rootsy compositions with bracing grittiness. Stone also plays Sunday night at the Neptune with Noah Gunderson of The Courage warming things up, and yeah, that one looks to be sold out, too. Sorry to tease you like that.

 Lonesome Shack, Sugar Sugar Sugar, The Curious Mystery @ The Sunset Tavern. $7 advance, $8 at the door. Doors at 9pm, show at 10pm.

Blah, blah, another two-guy band rifling through the blues, blah, blah. But Lonesome Shack pick out a more back-porch sound than the Black Keys or My Goodness–think Leadbelly, possessing the souls of a couple of indie-rock kids. Great stuff. The Curious Mystery, meantime, sound a little like Mazzy Star’s atmospheric attempt to compose music for a Sergio Leone western after dropping acid. Oh, and I won’t prattle on any more about middle-slotters Sugar Sugar Sugar than I have already, except to say that they kick ass.

Sunday, January 15:

Orchestra Zarabanda @ Columbia City Theater. $10 at the door. Show at 8:30pm.

Seattle ensemble Orchestra Zarabanda  parlay Cuban salsa music that’s utterly free of pretense or irony: It’s just there to make you dance, and it’s played to perfection. They periodically headline classy and high-priced joints like Teatro Zinzanni, so take advantage of the chance to hear this tight and danceable rhythm collective in a classy and reasonably-priced joint like Columbia City Theater.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of December 9th to the 11th

There’s some sublime–and some ridiculous–in Seattle music venues this weekend, so let’s jump right in, shall we?

Tonight (Friday, December 9):

Bushwick Book Club with The Seattle Rock Orchestra present: Music Inspired by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas@ Town Hall. $15 at the door. Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm.

Born in Brooklyn, the Bushwick Book Club delivers one of those novel concepts that nearly always yields nuggets of sonic gold. The Schtick: Give a classic work of literature to several local musicians. Said musicians digest said work, write songs about it, and perform those songs live. This time out, the Book Club takes on Hunter S. Thompson’s  gonzo journalism masterwork, replete with accompaniment by the awesome Seattle Rock Orchestra. The ace line-up of performers includes angel-voiced Youth Rescue Mission singer Hannah Williams, roots treasure Jason Dodson of the Maldives, and Mike Votava of Seattle clown princes We Wrote the Book on Connectors (who, happily, play the Sunset Saturday night).

Smokey Brights, Fort Union, Guests@ The Comet Tavern. $8 at the door. Show at 9pm.

If you’re a fan of Hannah Williams’ late great pop outfit Friday Mile, it’s a Sophie’s Choice between Town Hall and the Comet tonight: Williams’ former bandmates Jace Krause and Jake Rohr play with their new band Fort Union at the latter venue. FU’s combination of alt-folk prettiness and ghost-in-the-machine electronics suggests a more vocally-rich version of Grandaddy, with a little Wilco thrown in, meaning it’s as haunting as it is beautiful.

How the Grouch Stole Christmas Tour with The Grouch, Zion-I, Eligh, Evidence (of Dilated Peoples), Scribes @ The Crocodile. $18 at the door. Doors at 9pm.

I won’t pretend that my pale ass is anything resembling an authority on hip-hop, but Dilated Peoples’ 2000 debut The Platform is still one of the leanest and best rap debuts ever. Evidence (one-half of that legendary crew) shares the stage with Living Legends head honcho The Grouch and a ton of other MCs. They all sound more than solid to these relative neophyte ears. The geezer in me’d love to hear Evidence give the awesome “Work the Angles” some stage time, but his newest full-length, Cats and Dogs, sports production as imaginative as (and, honestly, more expansive than) The Platform. It should sound great live.  

Down North, Philana, DJ Leopold Bloom @ the LoFi Performance Gallery. $8 at the door. Show at 9pm.

Looking for some funk? You could do a helluva lot worse than heading to South Lake Union to take in Down North, a hard-soul combo with scrappy throwdown energy. Fireball lead singer Anthony Briscoe apparently has Prince, James Brown, and Terence Trent D’Arby sharing harmonic space in his pipes, and he’s a wonder to watch (and hear) in action.

The Taj Mahal Trio@ Jazz Alley. $32.50 advance. Shows at 7:30 and 9:30pm.

See Saturday’s entries.

Saturday, December 10:

The Taj Mahal Trio@ Jazz Alley, December 9-11, December 13-18. $32.50 advance. Set Times Vary.

For damn near fifty years, Taj Mahal’s augmented his style of blues-rock with journeys into reggae, Caribbean, and soul music. And if he’s leaned towards a brighter, more laid-back output for ahwhile, there’s no denying his skills at the fretboard and the sublime rasp of his voice. It’s not just anybody who can pack a fancy joint like Jazz Alley for nine nights of shows.

 Angry Snowmans, Neutralboy, Rat City Ruckus @ The Funhouse. $6 at the door. Doors at 9:30pm.

 Angry Snowmans come from the frozen North (Victoria, BC, to be exact). They play funny punk songs about eggnog, presents, trees, snow, and being pissed off about eggnog, presents, trees, and snow. Neutralboy are a bunch of Bremerton punks who’ve been kicking and spitting, drunk-and-sloppy-like, for nearly twenty years, and Rat City Ruckus are the only hardcore punk band I know of to proudly claim White Center as their home. Look, you need some sort of antidote to all of the forced-smile perkiness and consumer gorging that is the Holiday Season.

Me Talk Pretty, Madina Lake, New Years’ Day, Avion Row, Hell or Highwater, Alabaster, Anchor the Tide @ El Corazon. $14 advance/$16 day-of-show. Doors at 7pm.

It’s practically a nu-metal Lollapolooza at El Corazon tomorrow, with seven bands playing to an all-ages house. I’m not much of a fan of the subgenre, but this is undeniably a lot of bang for your buck. Three of the bands on the bill stand out: Seattle’s Alabaster hits the Paramore epic-femme-fronted-guitar-rock notes with undeniable polish, and Hell or Highwater offset their generic choruses with a bit of rockabilly twang. Headliners Me Talk Pretty invite serious guilty-pleasure status, though, with a high-gloss but extremely hooky melange of At the Drive-In noodle-rock, herky-jerky new wave, and power pop. Lead singer Iulia Preotu looks like an Eastern Bloc mallrat drawn by anime artists, and there’s an arch strangeness to her delivery that’s sometimes painfully, ridiculously strident–but never dull. If they played through busted amps and weren’t so damned fresh-faced and catchy, they’d probably be indie-rock megastars. 

Sunday, December 11:

Supernaughty, Stand Up and Shout @ The Comet. $5 at the door, doors at 4pm.

Pick up some lunch somewhere on Capitol Hill, then mosey on down to the Comet for some tribute band goodness. Supernaughty is a Black Sabbath cover band, while Stand Up and Shout pays homage to the late great heavy metal elf himself, Ronnie James Dio. And you know the latter’s just gotta play this one.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Your Best Live Music Bets for the Weekend of November 11 to the 13th

Frank Fairfield at Doe Bay Fest 2011. (photo: Tony Kay)

Yeah, there’s lots of great stuff out there this weekend. Go see some of it already.

Tonight:

Welcome to Doe Bay Documentary fundraiser with Frank Fairfield, Rusty Willoughby, and guests @ Columbia City Theater. $15 at the door. Doors at 6pm.

Forget a notion as superficial as “retro”: California fiddler/banjoist/singer Frank Fairfield‘s wonderfully bare-bones traditional music sounds like it belongs in an ancient flatbed truck, tooling along a John Steinbeck countryside. And with the success of his recent solo CD/roots project Cobirds Unite, you can now officially take the word “unsung” out of the phrase, “Seattle’s best unsung singer/songwriter” when talking about Rusty Willoughby. CCT’s promising some super-special surprise guests, too. Tonight’s show benefits fundraising efforts on behalf of the documentary feature in-the-works, Welcome to Doe Bay (you can find their Kickstarter page here).

Lesbian, La Otracina, The Great Society Mind Destroyers, Hypatia Lake @ The Comet. $10 at the door. Doors at 9pm.

Who’da thunk you could get so many shades of loud and trippy in one night? Seattle’s own Hypatia Lake remain one of this ‘burg’s finest shoegazer outfits, and the mighty Lesbian brings the prog-metal with epic follow-through and a cloud of Stygian Black Lotus. Highlight of this bill, however, could well be The Great Society Mind Destroyers, a fab Chicago psych-rock combo who rock their effects pedals like Rambo rocks his bandanna and bandoliers. Bring your earplugs, and expect a contact high–with or without your own recreational aids.  

Saturday:

The Wombats, The Postelles, The Static Jacks @ The Crocodile. $12 advance. Doors at 8pm.

Get your short, sharp guitar pop fix at the Croc Saturday night.  The Wombats, three cute British lads packing Buzzcocks directness in a youthful package, headline, but The Postelles and the Static Jacks deliver similar energy and hooks with just as much spirit.

Vampires vs. Werewolves: THEESatisfaction, Knowmads, Dyno Jamz, DJ Darwin @ EMP. $7 EMP members/$10 general public. Doors at 7:30pm.

I woulda killed for all-ages shows this cool when I was a kid back in the pleistocene era. Fresh-faced youth can check out the EMP’s terrific Can’t Look Away horror film exhibit and hear a dizzying array of local hip-hop from retro-space-age lounge divas THEESatisfaction, jazz-friendly collective Dyno Jamz, and straightahead crew Knowmads .

Sunday:

White City Graves, Iron Mic, guests @ The High Dive. $6 at the door, doors at 8pm.

White City Graves hail from stout punk-rock stock: The band includes former members of Slop Shots, Lee Rude and the Trainwrecks, and I Fergit. The sounds generated by this current conglomerate, though, lean more towards the grinding garage-rock end of things. Think The Cramps and the Misfits with a little bit of Social-Distortion working-stiff elbow grease, and you’re on the right track.  

M83, Active Child @Neumos. $15 advance, SOLD OUT. Doors at 6pm and 9:15pm.

M83 handily sold out not one, but two Neumos sets, so I’m obviously not the only person out there in thrall to their epic electro-shoegazer sound. Expect Anthony Gonzalez and crew to emphasize their fine, eighties-tinged new long-player, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming this tour. If you’re lucky enough to possess (or are able to score) a ticket to either show, though, keep your fingers crossed that the doomed romance of “Don’t Save Us from the Flames” rears its darkly-swoonsome head.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

If You Didn’t Get Enough Lemonhead(s) This Weekend…

Fresh off of his sold-out Triple Door gig Saturday night, Evan Dando, the Lemonheads’ lead singer and songwriter, is playing two low-key shows at the Comet Tavern tonight and tomorrow.

Tonight, things start at 8 sharp (get going, now!), with Street Chant, the scrappy New Zealand combo who opened for him at the Triple Door, warming things up.

 Tomorrow night, he plays even earlier: 7:30pm, with local trio Cali Giraffes (the newest project from local power bassist/Northwest rock goddess Kim Warnick) opening.

As multiple parties will attest (and our own SlightlyNorth/Shawn McClung corroborated photographically), Dando’s a terrific live performer, and seeing him play in the more intimate and beer-stained environs of Capitol Hill’s best scruffy punk rock club should be a hoot-and-a-half. Don’t miss.

 

 

Arts & Entertainment, Film & TV, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts

The SunBreak’s Picks for City Arts Fest Thursday

Now that you’ve all purchased your City Arts Fest wristbands (you did get yours, correct?), you surely need some help choosing what acts/presentations/events to attend during Seattle’s Last Best Festival of the Year.  Enter your trusty SunBreak staff to offer their picks for Fest must-sees.

Robyn w/YACHT @ The Paramount
Katelyn: In the car, at my desk, at every party where I have even half an ounce of control over the playlist: I’ve been having Moments to Robyn’s defiantly hopeful dance pop album Body Talk nonstop since it dropped in late 2010. This is the can’t-miss performance of the entire festival, Ryan Adams included.

Josh: Show up at the Paramount early enough to see YACHT (off kilter musical motivational speeches/cult recruitment, with cowbell) open for for Robyn.

The Ecstasy of Influence @ Town Hall
MvB: Because this is an arts fest, there will also be poetry. Luckily it’s from irrepressible Heather McHugh, and three of her students: Kary Wayson, Kate Lebo, and Erika Wilder. Music sneaks in through the back door when McHugh’s poems are sung by the bluegrass trio The Half Brothers.

Crystal Castles w/Crypts, Nightmare Fortress @ Showbox SoDo
Josh: If you’re still standing after the interesting pairing of dance pop that is Robyn and YACHT, make the hike to ShowDo to have your eardrums assaulted while Crystal Castles strobe light you into seizures. One of the few bands that might actually benefit (instead of suffer) from the echo-y cavernous space of this venue.  Hey, it worked on Skins…

The Felice Brothers w/Gil Landry (of Old Crow Medicine Show), Shelby Earl, Gabriel Mintz @ The Crocodile
Tamara: Rootsy Americana-rockers the Felice Brothers always put on a lively gig, complete with songs about whiskey, lovers, and questionable characters, and featuring a healthy dose of down-home instruments (fiddles, washboards). But rumor is the guys have a new musical direction that includes synth, horns, and…acid jazz? That alone makes this my pick for the night: I’ve gotta hear it to believe it.

The Cops w/Birthday Suits, Strong Killings, Nazca Lines@ the Comet Tavern
Tony: Michael Jaworski’s raging post-punk quartet The Cops play a live show as pin-point sharp as it is electrifying. They’re so good, it makes me wonder why there aren’t as many Cops sound-alike bands in town as there are, say, Head and the Heart sound-alike bands.

That boring Mad Rad Buffalo Madonna guy will probably jump around a lot at Mad Rad's set tonight.

Mad Rad w/Katie Kate, Helluvastate, Slow Dance @ Neumos
Tony: I wonder if Mad Rad’s hushed acoustic set of fragile folk ballads will go over with a rowdy City Arts Fest crowd…Kidding. It’s always worth watching Seattle’s electro-trash hedonists work themselves into a lather.

Allen Stone w/Fly Moon Royalty@ The Triple Door
Katelyn: Allen Stone looks like my dad circa 1976, glasses included. Head to the Triple Door for some serious stylish redheaded soul.

The Horde and the Harem w/Exohxo, Elk and Boar, The Nameless @ The Rendezvous
Seth: Horde and the Harem put on a good show. They’ve got two frontmen, one who acts all cool and like “I-don’t-even-care” and another who flirts with the ladies. The tag team effect works.