City Arts Fest 2012 bounded through this neck of the woods last week, and I was lucky enough to catch some of the Fest’s highlights last Thursday and Friday.
You can go here for a more exhaustive report (and several different photos) from my two days camped out at the Showbox SODO, Neumo’s, Barboza, and the Crocodile, respectively. Meantime, here’s your Cliffs Notes from the hip hop contingency to go with the enclosed pics:
Thursday night, I caught Mos Def, as well as some great local hip hop, at the SODO. Yeah, the venue’s still one of the most annoying music spaces in town, but glass half-full time: The show was pretty awesome. In addition to basking in the glow of a hip hop royalty headliner, local MCs Thaddeus David, Larry Hawkins, and The Physics offered Mos Def solid support.
Last Friday’s Neumo’s set also provided a hip hop extravaganza, this time all homegrown. The Good Sin served up socially-aware lyrics and a baritone voice that impressed me mightily, high-school-age MC Key Nyata laid down gothic hip hop that utterly subverted his tender years, and Kingdom Crumbs changed things up with a trippy and party-centric set that painted frescoes on frontal lobes (even without the benefit of the blunt being passed around and smoked openly).
Fresh Espresso‘s headlining set was reputedly awesome, but other musical acts called. More on that, later…
Friday night holds the promise of the weekend in its hot little hands, so it’s no surprise that some of City Arts Fest’s choicest musical offerings surface tonight.
Wristbands for the Fest are now sold out, but single tickets for some of the events can still be purchased at the respective venues. As always, zip on over to the City Arts Fest website for purchase details. Here’s what’ll rule musically tonight.
The Swearengens, Land of Pines, Cody Beebe, Ravenna Woods @ The Crocodile. Show at 8:00pm.
It’s another great all-local bill at City Arts Fest, and a varied one to boot. The Swearingens and Cody Beebe hold up the roots end: The former provide the party music, while the latter serves as the soundtrack for that last-call sob into your beer. Land of Pines, contrary to their rustic-sounding moniker, bash out great (and decidedly non-rootsy) guitar pop, but the evening will definitely belong to Ravenna Woods, who play live with the jumpy, desperate energy of guys facing their last night on earth.
The Good Sin, Key Nyata, Kingdom Crumbs, Fresh Espresso @ Neumos. Show at 8:15pm.
Someone out there’s surely clucking on about the hip-hop renaissance that Seattle’s experiencing right now, and if they’re not, someone (maybe even me) probably will after this evening of homegrown crews. That mantra of early show arrival really, really applies here: Opener The Good Sin is flat-out terrific, a tersely-effective lyricist with resonant, deep delivery and expansive melodies to back up his rhymes. Key Nyata’s barely old enough to vote (18), but he’s on to a seriously addictive mix of trippily-sluggish beats and jet-black verse. Kingdom Crumbs’ vividly-imaginative jams mix experimental electronics with sometimes surreal stream-of-consciousness rhymes, and they’re energetic as hell onstage. Last but surely not least, Fresh Espresso shall surely bring the house down with their established and fervent party-down agenda.
Reignwolf @ The Laserdome. Doors at 10:45pm, show at 11:15pm.
The current fave rock rave of every rational human who’s seen him, Reignwolf delivers such an astonishing show all by his lonesome that throwing him into a laser show seems almost superfluous. Here’s hoping the set-up accommodates that. Rumor has it that this one’s sold out, but there may be some single tickets at the door.
Prism Tats, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, Fox and the Law, Howlin Rain @ Barboza. Show at 6:30pm.
Headliners Howlin Rain are pretty damned awesome–think an unlikely but pretty magical amalgam of Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, and Love–but again, get there early. Prism Tats have formed from the ashes of the late, great Koko and the Sweetmeats, and they play very cool garage-rock laced with minimalist indie-pop beauty. San Franciscans Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound sport a name almost as cool as Prism Tats and a gently psychedelic sound. Second-to-the-last but not least on the bill is Fox and the Law, a great, growling rock combo who sound like electric blues on a Queens of the Stone Age head trip.
