Can't Miss It: Thursday
SOMETHING IN THE LAKE WATER: Every time we try to count the number of amazing Canadian indie rock bands, we lose track at like ten thousand. Wonderful sounds seem to ooze from the country’s soil. It doesn’t matter to us how our northern neighbors became the undisputed champs of indie rock as long as they keep the goodness flowing down. But for all your Wolf Parades and Broken Social Scenes and New Pornographers and Godspeed You! Black Emperors, there is an underappreciated equally fantastic group. One of them is the post-rock/psychedelic rock/shoegaze band The Besnard Lakes. They’re touring in support of their latest release Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night, but to get a decent idea of who they are, one might note that their previous album included members of Stars, The Dears, and Godspeed/Silver Mt. Zion. Equal parts bombast and ambiance, we hear their live show is duly striking. Just watch this song build. W/ Julie Doiron and Hollerado.
UPDATE: For a sample of what concert goers are in for tonight, listen to KEXP at 3 p.m. when the station airs a live in studio with Besnard Lakes.
8:00 p.m. // The Crocodile // $10
REVENGE, FINALLY, SERVED CAFFEINATED: Bored with living the same ol' karaoke life? What sounds better than this? 1) You pick a song from the karaoke list (not your normal list mind you - we’re talking tv show theme songs, national anthems, spoken word stuff like Alec Baldwin’s voicemail rant or Darth Vader quote potpurri, some regular classic tunes, or simply standing onstage to wax poetic or pissed to music). 2) You sing through a microphone or megaphone or neither or both. 3) Your professional accompanist is not a tape deck or a hundred track CD; it’s a real live person, Seattle School's Korby Sears, playing all the music through a 1958 Hammond M3 organ and whirling Leslie 51 cabinet. From the Frances Farmer Organ Karaoke’s perfectly put-together website, “Charles Mingus, Charles Ives, and John Cage all hang at the bar when FFOK opens its luscious red lipstick lips and roars.” Big promises, probably true. Here's the full list of possibilities.
8:00 p.m. // Vermillion Gallery and Bar 1508 11th Ave
IT'S A GALA'VA NIGHT: The time has come to support Northwest Film Forum, Seattle’s premier film arts organization. Seattle’s soul would be more than a bit diminished if it weren’t for NWFF’s unprecedented support of the local and national independent film industry. But providing film classes, camps, and screening hundreds of films each year doesn’t come easy, especially in an industry that thrives on state of the art developments. This year’s Gala includes a silent and live auction, dinner, music by DJ Pnapper, and a keynote address by screenwriter Stewart Stern. Can’t make the dinner? Check out the after-party at 9lb Hammer, entry to that is by donation.
6:00 p.m. // Georgetown Ballroom 5623 Airport Way South // For Tickets, call 206-329-2629
