Winners and Stinkers of the Block Party [Friday]

Seattlest arrived on scene soon after the Capitol Hill Block Party had opened. We wandered, checked out the stage locations and thought about getting a beer, then spotted a booth touting free bottled water. It looked like the booth had something to do with praying to the Earth Spirits or some other new wave white hippy crap, but we decided to take our chances. We asked for a water and oddly enough their were no questions asked of Seattlest, no "Is your spirit at peace with the world?" or "Do you ever cry for Mother Nature?" We did, however, get thoroughly eye-fucked by our water purveyor. We told him thank you, took a mental bath and off we went to hear some music. (And before you reactionaries out there start accusing us of homophobia, get over yourselves. We're not talking about getting "checked out." We're talking about a look that said, Right now, in my mind, I'm eating spaghetti off of your chest.)

We soon found the Shackeltons playing inside Neumos. Shackeltons hail from PA and sound like most other hipster emo bands. Singer Mark Redding dramatically staggered around the stage letting flowers fall from his delicate person in a sad display of sad saddy sadness. Woe is him. What's going on outside?

Ah yes! The Saturday Knights! These local indie rocker/ hip hoppers were more than all right in our book. Sure, we've had our brooding phases of enjoying music which connects to our own self-righteous pain and suffering, but then we discovered the joys of craft beers and sweet potato fries and thus, decided the world's a pretty great place. Anymore, when we go to a show, we want to see performers having a good time. We want them smiling and teasing the crowd between sets of music that get us moving and covering ourselves with spaghetti. Yummy! What? Anyway, The Saturday Knights delivered a performance sure to please everyone from the discreet toe-tapper to the all out booty-shaker.

Now we had some time to kill. Not much at the Vera stage had sparked our interest and anyway, we were thirsty. Beer garden? Fuck that. Why pay $4 for the piss-water being served at the garden when Moe and Neumos had a $3 special on Dewars?

After catching most of The Blakes absolutely rockin set, we hurried outside for Blood Brothers. Of course we've listened to these guys online and heard them on KEXP, but by all accounts, the live show is where it's at. Seattlest concurs. Holy shit. Blood Brothers have more energy in any one of their skinny elbows than most bands do all together. Even Mrs. Seattlest, who isn't prone to liking heavy music, was all ga-ga for these hyperactive hipsters.

Seattle's favoritest representative for 206 hip hop, Blue Scholars, gave the best performance of their's we've ever witnessed. Last time we saw them was at Memorial Stadium when they opened for Kanye West -- which sucked. It was like the soul of Kanye and his ilk had invaded Geologic's body, forcing him to spend less time rapping and more time instructing the crowd in the fine art of waving your hands in the air. Friday, however, the boys of blue were back in line with their own self-professed work ethic, delivering to the crowd a full payload of rhymes, beats and samples including a well-received sampling of Peter Bjorn & John's "Amsterdam."

Capping off the evening for us were the Silversun Pickups. We've missed this So-Cal band's last few visits to Seattle, so it was great to finally see them live. For the most part, their set was pitch-perfect, but for a few vocal issues during the first few songs. Despite having performed the songs from Carnavas about a zillion times, singer/guitarist Brian Aubert seemed to be having the time of his life up there, but even his great stage presence wasn't enough to keep our full attention. We spent most of the set either in awe of Drummer Christopher Guanlao's hair as it thrashed about, or trying in vein to tame the crush we've got for singer/bassist Nikki Monninger. Hot damn, she's a cutie.

Oh, yeah, we missed Girl Talk again. Hey, we were tired. And our feet hurt. And Matlock was on.