Strike Your Palms Together Whilst Indicating the Affirmative

Another day, another great show (sigh). For the past two weeks, Seattlest has been seeing live music like crazy, and we've got four more shows on our radar until this current spate is through. Yesterday was the sold-out set at the Crocodile for current Pitchfork darlings Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. We deemed ourselves to be extremely lucky earlier this week when we picked up the *very last* ticket in town. However, the luck was spread around last night, as the Croc ended up selling a few more tickets at the door. Good thing, since about a dozen people (including our companion for the evening) were standing around outside the venue, hoping for a miracle. It just goes to show, kids: Perseverance pays off.

We were there early enough that CYHSY were still mid-sound check, but the room was closed off by a big red curtain, so we headed back to the bar to watch the action on the Croc stage-cam (patent pending). We stayed put until the first band, Portland-based Talkdemonic, was about halfway through their set, though we now wish we had seen the whole shebang. They're just a duo---guy on drums, girl on viola, some pre-programmed beats 'n' electronic squiggles (thank you Apple), and the occasional keyboard---but we were really impressed. The songs were short (for an instrumental band, this is a good trait), melodic, and well-written. We'd like to see them come 'round again sometime soon.

Weaseling our way closer to the stage, we managed to snag a choice spot for Clap Your Hands. The Brooklyn/Philly five piece took the stage right on time, and made the daring choice of opening their set with two new songs. Then came the stuff we actually knew---the Neutral Milk Hotel-esque "Is This Love?" followed by "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth." It was another risky move to play everybody's favorite song so early, but they pulled it off, keeping their energy up and the crowd into it for the entire hourlong set. The band's instrumentation was solid, and sweaty singer Alec Ounsworth was even more David Byrne warbly live, though we really like his lyrics and would've appreciated it if he had enunciated just a little bit. Scattered through the set were another two new songs, one of which we swear had the chorus chant of "Satan! Satan!" (our companion thought he heard "Stay tuned"). We sincerely hope that the song was in fact a devotional hymn to our Dark Lord.

CYHSY played most of the tracks off their album, closing with "Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood." With their set done, the vast majority of the audience, Seattlest included, headed out into the rainy night. We'd like to think that at least one or two people stuck around to see supposed headliners The National. While we've heard good things, alas, they had the unfortunate job of following the Next Big Thing. Ah well, we'll see both bands this Saturday at the big KEXP show at Neumo's. It is, of course, sold out.

Photo courtesy of Gregory A. Perez