SIFF Rocks Neumo's

SIFF runs a tight ship. Even though their Face the Music party at Neumo's last night had a bajillion bands on the bill---all of whom were doing ~20 minute sets chockful of covers, as a tribute to musicians featured in films at the festival--- somehow they were actually running ahead of schedule. How often does that happen at a regular rock show, let alone one with eleven musical acts? Somebody must've been cracking the whip. Truly, this slavedriver should be commended.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the individuals working the door, as the entrance procedure was approximately retardulous. There was a clearly marked VIP entrance, as well as a cheesy red carpet and photo area set up (we're hoping pics will be posted soon at the official SIFF Flickr site); meanwhile, the entrance for the plebes wasn't designated at all. How about a couple signs somewhere, like at the box office? Or handling the ticket-taking near the Juju entrance? Or at least having one of your numerous SIFF workers over by that entrance to inform people where to go? Something. There's got to be a better way.

As to the show itself, Seattlest arrived during Trespassers William's set. The press release indicated that they'd be covering Sigur Ros and Bjork, but if they played songs by those artists, we missed it. We asked a friend of ours who had been there all night, and he wasn't sure either, though he did say that the band opened with something "atmospheric." Since that term, as well as "soporific," could be used to describe anything the band plays (including last night's covers of the Pixies and Bonnie Prince Billy), that didn't clear things up any.

However, at least with Trespassers William, we could figure out which songs were being played. For some of the other groups on the bill, the covers were far past the point of identifiable. Go Like Hell (the best band of the evening featuring a screaming dude wearing a dress) played the Pixies' "Tony's Theme," which would have gone completely unrecognized, were it not for the spoken word at the beginning. Same goes for Razrez---not a clue as to what songs they performed (besides one their own), but they did have a fog machine, some terrible mullets, and a pair of ridiculous striped skinny pants. On the other hand, the reunited version of the Girls (with a new drummer) performed their set in Team Zissou garb, a look we whole-heartedly endorse.

But as far as we're concerned, the show didn't really get good until later in the night. Carrie Akre and David Dederer had perhaps the strongest set of the whole show, covering The Police's "King of Pain," George Michael's "Praying for Time" (a song we owned in junior high as a cassingle), and Bjork's "Human Behavior," the latter of which somehow transitioned nicely into the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army." Well played.

Despite their late set time, a lot of the crowd stuck it out for "Awesome," who did their standard multi-instrument smart-funny thing, covering The Police, Devo, The Pixies (in conversation form), and a Sean Nelson-led über-medley of Harry Nilsson songs. Sean followed that up with his own set of "Nelson covers Nilsson." And then we were outta there. Sorry Mountain Con, but we had to miss your highly-anticipated cover of "Faith."