The Ladies Loved Citizen Cope Last Night...And They Can Love Him All Weekend Long

Citizen Cope is playing three times at the Showbox this weekend, and the only one that still has tickets available is Sunday. Let's look at the reasons why, shall we?

#1: Alice Smith. Damn Alice Smith! It's hard to say anything else about this gal. She's got pipes on her that would make Halliburton jealous. And, keeping in the same class of metaphor, when her set was over last night, the audience crowded around her guitar player for free cds - hands in the air like Iraqi children waiting for soccer balls.

Besides, she started her set out with a tune called "Fake is the New Real," and Seattlest happens to be a fan of wordplay that takes up where "Brown is the new black" started and runs with it (i.e., Kings of Convenience's "Quiet is the New Loud," and Janis Ian's less creative spin-off, "Folk is the New Black").

#2: Ladies Love The Cope. And we're not just talking about college ladies and teenage ladies. There were plenty of lesbians and older ladies there last night, too. And every single last one of them was singing at the top of their lungs, "These feelings won’t go away / they be knocking me sideways." In fact, they kept singing after Cope was done singing.

He didn't seem phased by it at all, though. Head cocked back and barely moving, it's hard to tell if he was stoned or just really into it. Probably a bit of both.

At any rate, Cope's latest record is outstanding, so we were pretty happy to see him get the radio hits ("Sideways" and "Bullet and a Target") out of the way immediately so that he could bust out with some of his newer, far more eloquent and well-arranged material.

#3: His Band is Tight. And we're not talking about just musically tight. Check out the arms on that drummer! For reals.