Tag Archives: Thee Emergency

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Your Live Music Bets for the Weekend of December 16th through the 18th

Too many great shows in town…Too many great shows in town…

Tonight (Friday, December 16):

Duff McKagan’s Loaded @ Key Arena. $40.00 to $87  at the door. Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm.

Duff McKagan’s earned serious Seattle musical war-hero stripes over the years, having played drums for punk-pop legends The Fastbacks at age 16, and also manning the skins for local old-school punks The Fartz and playing bass for 10 Minute Warning. He’s probably best known as erstwhile bassist for glam-rock supergroup Velvet Revolver, but The Taking, McKagan’s current release as frontman for his combo Loaded, drags its knuckles along the same gloriously filthy path as Green River and Mudhoney, then filters that noise through an epic big-rock filter (the winningly-ugly “Follow Me to Hell” sounds like Dry as a Bone in Cinemascope). Rumor has it that McKagan has some connection with the night’s headliners, a hard-rock band that achieved a modest measure of success during the tail end of the Reagan Years. Dollars to donuts McKagan’s band will mop the floor with ‘em. 

Thee Emergency, Sugar Sugar Sugar, Last Watch @ The Comet Tavern. $8 at the door. Show at 9pm.

Thee Emergency lead singer Dita Vox possesses more charisma in her well-manicured pinkie than most lesser mortals do in their entire bodies, guitar Matt “Sonic” Smith throws a pinch of glam into his garage soul riffing, and the sturdy rhythm section of Nick Detroit and Tom T. Drummer can pretty much push complacent clubgoers’ asses into motion at a hundred paces. Cracka’ Slang, Thee Emergency’s most recent full-length, trades some of that pulsating energy for dollops of candy-coated psychedelic pop and country, but there’s no way they’ll leave the Comet without busting out some beloved rave-ups like “Can You Dig It?”. They’ll have to: Awesome Bellingham heavy-groovers Sugar Sugar Sugar, who precede them, do the dirty dog with the Stooges and T. Rex somethin’ sweet.

Jay-Z, Kanye West @ The Tacoma Dome. $49.50–$99.50 at the door. Doors at 7pm, show at 8pm.

My mom, who doesn’t even own a CD player, knows who Jay-Z is, for God’s sake. She likes Annie some, but it never occurred to me to ask her for her take on the Annie-sample-laden “Hard Knock Life”.

 Saturday, December 17:

Scratch Acid, Oxbow@ Neumos. $20 advance. Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm.

Art punks vomited up from the bowels of Austin, Texas, Scratch Acid cracked the skulls of Bad Brains and the Dead Kennedys together to create ungodly, ranting, cacophonous noise that remains as corrosive (and mind-blowing) today as it was thirty-some (!) years ago. They’ve (reportedly) still got the goods. And for just five bucks more, you’re nuts not to take in what’s sure to be a lively Q & A between principal Scratch Acid screamer David Yow and local music scribbler extraordinaire Chris Estey (with spoken word by Oxbow’s Eugene Robinson) across the street at the Comet  Tavern two hours prior.

 Dinosaur Jr. and Pierced Arrows, with an interview by Henry Rollins @ The Showbox Market. $22.50 advance, $25 at the door. Show at 7pm.

 Dinosaur Jr. made Neil Young cool amongst punk rock kids, thanks to J. Mascis’s openly Young-infused whine and broiling axwork. To a lot of ears, they never topped Bug, their 1988 opus and the last Dino full-length to feature original bassist Lou Barlow until 2007’s Beyond. Also stopping by: Punk legend/spoken-word gadabout Henry Rollins, who’ll be grilling Mascis, Barlow, and drummer Murph about Bug and lotsa other stuff.

Sunday, December 18:

Holiday Showdown: Portland Cello Project, Israel and Ryan of Blind Pilot, Emily Wells @ Columbia City Theater. $12 advance, $15 at the door. Shows at 7pm and 10:30pm.

The Portland Cello Project augment well-honed perfectionist chops with puckish humor, in an engaging melange of classical, jazz, and popular music (their cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” kills). Things are sure to take a holiday turn, but wherever they journey sonically, it’ll sound sublime in the immaculately-appointed Columbia City Theater. Blind Pilot purvey a brand of acoustic indie-folk that gracefully transcends all of the folkies-come-lately crawling around these parts with clean and lushly romantic pop hooks. “Go On Say It” is one urgent and gorgeous acoustic love song, so here’s hoping that band members Israel and Ryan bust it out in their opening set(s).

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Hot Mudhoney In Motion: City Arts Non-Headliners Rock Neumos

With all due respect to the City Arts folks and their otherwise accomplished second-year fest-planning, their decision to replace the early-canceling Fastbacks with a new-blood band, rather than bump Mudhoney to the top of Saturday’s Neumos bill, sure miffed me.

Mudhoney supporting the Fastbacks seemed a natural fit, given both bands’ endurance and mythic local status; Mudhoney supporting a band born last year, no matter how they approached rock, seemed simply lame. A slight to legend. An indifferent shrug at all the flannel-clad, balding dudes still spinning Superfuzz Bigmuff and Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge vinyl in their basements. A flippant bird flipped right in my face, in other words.

But Hot Bodies In Motion were good. Their self-described “baby-makin’ mammal funk” had feet stomping, heads nodding, and PBR cans draining. Guitarist Ben Carson’s low-range, adaptive lead vocals pleased my Vedder/Lanegan/Cornell sensibilities even if his slight growl did sound very much like Dan Auerbach’s. They were like the Black Keys with a few more keys, avoiding derivative by producing a fuller sound.

Still, I missed Mudhoney right away. Their vicious jam of a 45-minute set, kicked off with “No One Has” and capped off with the punk-brief “Fix Me,” was over far too quickly.

Mudhoney at Neumos
Mudhoney Rocks at Neumos
Photogs Shoot Mudhoney
Mudhoney Rocks at Neumos
Mudhoney, Intense, at Neumos
Mudhoney, Still Rocking at Neumos
Mudhoney at Neumos
Rocking Neumos Crowd

Guitars Await Shreddage at Neumos (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

Mudhoney Rocks at Neumos (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

Mudhoney Rocks at Neumos, Charles Peterson-Style (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

Mudhoney Rocks at Neumos (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

Photogs Shoot Mudhoney at Neumos (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

Mudhoney Rocks at Neumos, Charles Peterson-Style (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

Mudhoney's Intense at Neumos (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

A Kinetic Mudhoney at Neumos (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

Bassist Guy Maddison of Mudhoney (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

Neumos Crowd (See? Bald Dudes!) for Mudhoney (Photo: Clint Brownlee)

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Perhaps not too quickly for the few photographers who shot the night’s acts (including Lovesick Empire, which I missed, and Thee Emergency, which was typically raw and sexy, thanks mostly to the heavy breathing, strong vocals, and naughty poses of Dita Vox). From the much calmer edge of stage right, I watched several photogs get pushed, pulled, and pummeled at the lip of the stage, trying to snap the band—frontman Mark Arm (whose typical frenetic energy was tampered a bit by his playing guitar through most of the set), furry-bearded guitarist Steve Turner, friendly-looking bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters—while shooting daggers over their shoulders and protecting their bags from spilled beer. No thank you.

My avoidance behavior actually complemented the approach I’d hoped to take: shooting to catch more of the stage, and loosely, with an amateur’s nod at Charles Peterson’s classic, genre-defining turbulent style. It also helped me enjoy the show, which the real photographers didn’t appear to do.

But it’s easy to enjoy a Mudhoney show. Twenty-three years into a mostly under-the-radar career, they still play with youthful energy, tearing through each song—typically a smattering of catalog-ranging fan (and band) favorites and, on this night, their fiery take on Fang’s “The Money Will Roll Right In”—like they’ve just learned to play it.

As always, the band was also fun to watch as they kicked out dry-humor jams both classic (“Touch Me I’m Sick,” “F.D.K.”) and contemporary (“Hard-On For War,” “The Open Mind”). Turner’s calm demeanor belied the jagged chords—and brief, impressive solos—that spewed from his guitar. Maddison bobbed his head and bounced with a bemused grin. And Arm swayed liked a coiled serpent—striking out over the stage’s edge and those harried photographers—when he put down his guitar, charming the packed house into tossing up fists and singing along and laughing at the occasional deadpan joke. (His introduction to the winkingly vengeful Fang cover: “This is a lullaby my mother sang to me as a child.”)

And then they were done. And some up-and-coming dudes took their places on the stage. Some might call it a passing of the torch, but I don’t think Mudhoney will be ready to do that anytime soon.

Arts & Entertainment, Music, Theatre

The SunBreak’s Picks for City Arts Fest Saturday

The closing night of City Arts Fest 2011 should pack plenty of unmissable moments in its own right. Enclosed, please find our picks for your Saturday evening.

Mudhoney w/Hot Bodies in Motion, Thee Emergency, Lovesick Empire @ Neumos
Katelyn: Mudhoney, people. MUDHONEY. Plus, Thee Emergency’s reinvented themselves at least twice since I saw them last, so I’m interested to see what the ever-sultry Dita Vox and the gang are up to now. Do wear flannel, and do prepare your eardrums for sonic assault.

Clint: Well, don’t I feel lucky going in for Mudhoney? I’d say that’s been covered quite nicely. Just one more thought: While other legendary Seattle bands/records celebrate 20 years in 2011, Mudhoney nears 25. And still the band’s spontaneous-yet-accomplished rock and Mark Arm’s serpentine, charismatic frontman talents remain unrivaled.

Tea Cozies will rock it up tonight at the Rendezvous.

Seapony w/Tea Cozies, Midday Veil, Witch Gardens @ The Rendezvous
Katelyn: Oh, you’d rather be less ragey, more happy on a Saturday night? Done. Go to the Rendezvous for Seapony and Tea Cozies.

Tony: Seapony’s girl-fronted pop’s just plain tasty and sweet, but my heart belongeth to Tea Cozies. The Ronettes fronting Gang of Four while channelling mid ’60’s Kinks, set to a walloping backbeat? Yep, that about covers it.

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down w/Grand Hallway, Lemolo, Kris Orlowski @ The Crocodile
Tony: The Croc’s wildly varied Saturday bill includes Thao’s winning herky-jerky indie pop, Grand Hallway’s entrancing and airy chamber-rock, Lemolo’s electronic allure, and Kris Orlowski’s burnished, beguilingly-ragged Mark Lanegen-esque pipes.

The Hold Steady w/ Grand Archives @ The Neptune
Josh: The pairing of Grand Archives (sunny American harmonics) and the Hold Steady (optimal bar band with a dash of literary tradition) make a great excuse to check out the Neptune.

Male Bonding w/Unnatural Helpers, Virgin Islands, The Fucking Eagles @ Chop Suey
Tony: The bill I’m most excited for this evening has to be this rock and roll quadruple feature at Chop Suey. British trio Male Bonding give great loud pop–short, catchy songs that sound like Teenage Fanclub after a case of Red Bull. But get there really, really early. The other three local bands on the bill pretty much rule: Unnatural Helpers and Virgin Islands serve up some great, spiky post-punk, and Tacoma collective The Fucking Eagles uphold T-Town’s noble tradition of gloriously git-down-and-dirty garage rock, but laced with some muscular R & B. Be sure to bring an extra pair of socks, as your first pair will be knocked off.

Seateeth: Jose Bold (John Osebold of “Awesome”) @ Theater off Jackson
Seth: I wrote about this earlier this week. I will be there at this very show, and if the Huskies beat Stanford that afternoon, I will be the guy smiling broadly and muttering “Keith Mother-f-ing Price! F-ing A!” at intervals. Sorry.

Capsula w/Whalebones, Stag, Rose Windows @ The Comet Tavern
Tony: When it comes to my sixties revivalists, I like ‘em swirly, swaggering and dirty. South America’s Capsula know how to break out the bad-trip psychedelia, and Seattle’s own Whalebones provide a great excuse to show up early.