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…
The 2012 edition of City Arts Fest made its official musical bow yesterday, with turns from David Byrne and St. Vincent, The Head and the Heart’s Jonathan Russell, and Ghostland Observatory, among others. If you didn’t get a chance to check out any of Wednesday’s music acts, fret not: There are still plenty of crucial sonics coming down the pike before the Fest winds down on Saturday. A detailed schedule, ticket info, and various sundry good things can be acquired over at the City Arts Fest website, but here are some of the musical highlights coming up tonight.
DJ Swervewon, Thaddeus David, Larry Hawkins (formerly SK), The Physics, Mos Def @ Showbox SODO. Show begins at 7:15pm.
Showbox SODO sits in South Seattle, pretty far away from the Fest’s Capitol Hill and downtown focal points, and it’s an imperfect performance space at best. That said, the lineup’s strong enough to warrant just hunkering down and shaking your ass for the night. Whether he calls himself Yasiin Bay, Dante Smith, or whatever, Mos Def’s more than earned hip hop royalty status after a couple of decades in the trenches (dude’s a really good film and TV actor, too). But the front end of the bill’s brimming with multiple flavors of local hip hop. Thaddeus David keeps it sparse and menacing, the artist formerly known as SK (Larry Hawkins) plies a more expansive, hook-laden sound, and The Physics back their rhymes with a lush sound that combines velour funk with bursts of silken soul-inflected backing vocals.
Tomten, Throw Me the Statue, Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground, Gold Leaves @ The Crocodile. Show begins at 8pm.
Yeah, Gold Leaves–the newest project from Arthur and Yu’s Grant Olsen–is pretty as all get out, what with its lush arrangements and Olsen’s plaintive, warm vocals at the center. But the three preceding acts make tonight’s Croc show a full-meal deal. Tomten‘s graceful, loping pop songs are so British-sounding you can taste the vinegar on the salt-and-vinegar crisps, and Throw Me the Statue sell their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink indie pop with phenomenal musicianship and drum-tight live performances. Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground, meantime, sound like earnest chamber pop, bum-rushed by a drunken cabaret band.
Nark, Glitterbang, House of Ladosha, SSION @ the Rendezvous. Show begins at 7:45pm.
Wanna dance, but don’t wanna do so in the barn-like Showbox SODO? Get thee the hell to the Rendezvous tonight. Headliners SSION enjoy reams of notoriety for their warped and over-the-top live shows (lead singer Cody Critchloe’s cartoon charisma alone is worth the price of admission) and the band’s newest material takes a left turn from herky-jerky new wave to hooky electro-disco. That change in sound will nicely compliment Brooklyn beat-meister House of Ladosha and Seattle danceketeers Glitterbang, plus busy Seattle DJ Nark spins for early arrivals.
Slang!, Lemolo @ The Triple Door. Show begins at 8pm.
You probably don’t need to hear another round of hosannahs for local duo Lemolo‘s swirly and devastatingly lovely pop, but there’s a reason for all the hoop-dee-doo: their songs completely captivate, and their live shows have never been anything less than transcendental. Opening outfit Slang! consists of Portland singer/songwriter Drew Grow and Wild Flag/Quasi member Janet Weiss. Grow and Weiss are talented as hell, so it’ll be nice to hear the former lending his famously-passionate delivery to other peoples’ material (Slang! is a cover band, apparently) while the latter delivers contrasting harmonies and (fingers crossed) gets behind the drum kit.
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.
When Chromeo took the mainstage at Sasquatch earlier this year, they were shocked by the size of the crowd. “We did not expect this from an afternoon set,” said one-half of the Montreal-based electro-funk/pop duo. Despite the 2:45 set time—a time when, let’s be honest, many festival-goers were still sleeping off their hangovers back at camp—a massive, cheering crowd turned the mainstage into a dance party like no other that weekend:
The party continues this Monday at Showbox SoDo when Chromeo returns to Washington—this time for a proper, headlining gig, with Mayer Hawthorne supporting. It’s true, Chromeo isn’t for everyone. Their R&B/funk/pop sound, dripping with Moog, is straight outta the ’80s, with slick, modern production values. Think: an edgier Hall and Oates. So if you’re considering hitting up this show, there’s one question you’ve got to ask yourself: “Am I cool enough to dance in public?” If the answer is no, stay home. But if your boogie shoes are itching to come out, tickets are $27.50 (not including Ticketmaster fees) and still available.
As for Hawthorne, he’s an old-soul Michigander heavily influenced by the Motown and Detroit sounds he heard as a kid—but, like Chromeo, he brings a modern twist to his retro grooves. Celebs (including Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Erykah Badu, and…Deepak Chopra?) have tweeted his praises, but Hawthorne’s name may also sound familiar if you’ve visited the iTunes Store in the past few days; his track “No Strings” is the free single of the week.
Cage The Elephant performing at the Showbox SoDo on 6/9/2011.
Last night, Cage The Elephant and Manchester Orchestra performed at the Showbox SoDo for the last of their co-headline tour dates together. The night started out with Sleeper Agent, from Kentucky.
Manchester Orchestra took the middle spot for the Seattle date, and they didn’t disappoint. The Atlanta five-piece knows how to rock, but were outperformed when it came to the energy level of Cage The Elephant. So I’m glad Cage went last, because the excitement buildup of the show would have fallen flat on its ass if it was the other way around. It would be hard for anyone to match Cage’s energetic performance.
Frontman Matt Shultz was pretty much a tornado on the stage from start to finish. They played nothing but the hits all night long, all the while peppering the crowd with praise for being so awesome. Matt also dove off the stage no less than four times in their seventy-minute set, with the final time ending up standing upright on top of the crowd for the last song. All in all, a great night of music.
