"popular_states-8514" by Kyle Johnson, from our Flickr pool
"popular_states-8514" by Kyle Johnson, from our Flickr pool
"MLK and Jackson" by Kyle Johnson (kjten22) , from the Seattlest Flickr pool
"vintageford_120scan" by Kyle Johnson
The crowd, startlingly young for a Sunday show, was treated to a decently long set from Grayskul to start things off. JFK's hyperactive hand twisted and grasped and fluttered its way through at least half a dozen tracks from , plus a few from previous records; we'd forgotten how much we like the title track from that release, and this show's live version was light and quick on its feet. There was the cutest introductory sample for "Scarecrow" we've heard yet, inspiring JFK to play a little air guitar, and "Missing" (the track featuring Andrea Zollo from Pretty Girls Make Graves) never fails to give us goosebumps. The snag in the whole concept: our ears can't actually hear and comprehend as fast as JFK and Onry Ozzborn can rap, so we end up just appreciating Grayskul's two-toned morbid aura without catching more than a few phrases here and there.
Time, having surrendered to the whims of sound, had fallen away to some dark corner of the hall and in its place was a band on a mission to go out in style. We had no idea how long the final encore had gone on. We knew only that we didn't care. This wasn't some finale we wished would come to an end, so we could finally walk to our car, pausing for a moment to rest our tired legs before driving home, mind swimming, ears buzzing. This wasn't even a song in the traditional sense -- more like a supernatural joyride for the senses. Doug Martsch and and the rest of Built To Spill seemed to each be animated by something hardwired in the pit of their souls. Martsch, in particular, looked to us like a vessel or a channel through which these songs poured. His eyes, in fact, were closed most of the night while his voice, his hands and his fingers took care of business. A friend of Seattlest commented that Martsch's playing was "like butter on a hot dinner roll," and as strange as that comment was, we think we know what he meant.
Seattlest's heart's cockles always get warmed when we see a bunch of people who choose to ride their bikes to get around get together, so we were predisposed to love Northwest Film Forum's Second Seattle Annual Bike-In last night. (Almost getting slammed by a driver opening her car door while riding over probably added to our joy at making it there.)