Hot Water Music, La Dispute, and The Menzingers ended their weeks long tour together the other night at our very own Showbox at the Market. And what a show it was! All three punk bands play a very different brand of the stuff, but together it was a night of great music. We were there to capture it just for you.
Hot Water Music
La Dispute
Oops. Sorry, the band did not allow professional photos to be taken of them. I’m sure you can find plenty of them from this show on Instagram though.
Did you know The Damned are 35 years old this year? That thought makes me feel old and impressed at the same time. As most bands are doing at this stage of their careers, The Damned are touring this year (they were in Seattle last Thursday at Showbox at the Market) by playing two albums from front to back–their 1977 album Damned, Damned, Damned and their 1980 The Black Album. Both are important milestones to the band’s lengthy career and both were performed exceptionally well with just a short break (and costume change) between them. Sadly, for me, the only thing missing from this show was including “Smash It Up (parts 1&2)” in the encore. Still, it was an amazing night of music from a band that has been around just about as long as I have.
Yep, that was in fact, the smooth jazz saxophonist and Franklin/UW alum making a guest appearance–with Foster the People, of course. No, not the ubiquitous “Pumped Up Kicks” (that was their first song), but another Torches track, “Houdini.” In case you missed it:
More clips from this episode of Saturday Night Live here.
Foster the People play a sold-out Showbox SoDo tonight, with Cults and Reptar opening.
People talk about an Of Montreal show because you can’t not talk about it, which is why, eleven days after their show in Seattle, I’m still going to put up this slideshow. It’s more because I felt the need for photographic proof–that if I just mentioned the pigs and Mexican wrestling you imagine something that is not quite right. For all that, what I remember is the audience singing along, full-throated, “Eva, I’m sorry, but you will never have me,” and the speaker stack bungied down but still swaying alarmingly as a thousand feet left the ground, came down, went up again: “And you ain’t got no soul power.” And there was “Our Riotous Defects” in the encore (there was also “American the Beautiful” and, earlier, a cover of “My Funny Valentine” that went off like a charm). I tend to shoot at slow speed in clubs to compensate for my ultra-zoom’s lack of light-gathering, timing shots as a singer pauses at the mic–Kevin Barnes doesn’t pause. You could power supply a small town from his kinetic energy onstage. That’s what’s missing when you read his stream-of-surreal-consciousness lyrics there at your computer, I discovered, is the dance beats, and the ballsy funk showman in the short red skirt. Whatever else you take away from a concert like this, somewhere in your heart will be a cheerful social anarchist, sweating and well-pleased.
I don’t need to tell you that the band Of Montreal isn’t of Montreal, but of Athens, Georgia, but you completists who need to see all six bands from the Elephant 6 Collective would probably like the heads-up that they’re in town tomorrow, May 11, at the Showbox Market, or ShoMa, as I’m now calling it. Painted Palms and Beat Connection open, starting at 8 p.m.
The band has a new EP, Thecontrollersphere, out, following up their 2010 album False Priest. “I thought it would be our most accessible record, the record that most people would be able to connect with,” Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes said in an interview. “But oddly enough, it hasn’t really been perceived that way.” The next album will be “symphonic-funk.”
Barnes has been fooled before of course: “Thought you were my Annie Hall / Or at least Ali McGraw” he sings on “Famine Affair.”
Of Montreal is known as much for their performance-art costumes as Barnes’ lyricism–his brother David acts as a kind of art director, and for this tour, you’ll see Glenn Beck’s face in unexpected places. Apparently, legal quashed plans to drop hair, instead of flowers, on the audience. Enjoy.
There’s nothing like a burst of old-school dance pop–played by real human beings on real instruments and sung by non-auto-tuned grown-ups over legal drinking age–to whisk away the mid-week slog. So tonight’s English Beat show at the Showbox at the Market should be one heck of a tonic.
The Beat’s brand of second-wave ska mixed with songwriting-to-die-for is back in vogue of late, with their ageless hit, “Save it for Later,” surfacing on the Hot Tub Time Machine soundtrack and lead singer Dave Wakeling recording a solo acoustic version of his new song, “The Love You Give,” as a benefit for Acoustic for Autism. Oh, and the band’s got a new album due out soon, too.
Wakeling remains the only original member in his current incarnation of the band, but he’s surrounded himself with some truly great players who deliver the songs in the tightest, sweetest sonic package you could ask for.
He’s also a funny guy and a terrific interview subject (cue link to the SunBreak’s extensive 2010 interview with him). Best of all, you won’t have to worry about the draconian curfew situation that cut short the band’s Bumbershoot set last September.
Doors open at 8 p.m., and a few day-of-show tickets ($25 each) may still be available.