Results tagged “liveshow”

Saigon descended upon Neumos Wednesday night in true East Coast style, backed by three hype-men, two photographers, one DJ, and for awhile two dancing "homegirls". (Yes, his shirt did come off for a brief moment, and we did get to see those famous bulging arm muscles.) A sparse but expectant crowd watched as the New York rapper and his posse blew through an aggressive set that included the extra-tight club favorite "C'mon Baby" dropped at the stroke of midnight, and "My Favorite Things," a funny exercise in calculated OG optimism.

We just heard about the benefit concert for one of our favorite 15th Ave irregulars, Orion -- whom you may know from such 15th Ave hotspots as the North Hill Bakery and the Hopvine. The benefit part is to help pay for uninsured Orion losing several teeth and fracturing some bones in his face after a bicycle accident. Why do bad things happen to good people? It's a fair question -- Orion is nothing if not good people.

It's been a while since we've heard from The Forms. The Brooklyn four-piece put out their debut album Icarus in 2003 to widespread acclaim, with the Steve Albini-produced work earning an 8.5 from Pitchfork for its "wiry, punchy, indie pop with refreshingly un-hackneyed time-signature games and judiciously placed dissonant chords."

After kittens yawning and cross-species friendship, dear sweet Jens Lekman may be the most precious thing found in all of nature. The Gothenberg Swede makes orchestral pop songs in the vein of Morrissey or the Magnetic Fields without even being gay (just European). To promote Night Falls Over Kortedala, one of the best reviewed albums of the year, Jens has been touring around the States with his almost-all-girl backing band:

Donte's blurb for Man Man is "warpaint!"; our motto for the fun-time Philly circus band is "everybody hits something!" Regardless, the "Viking-vaudeville punk-wop rock-and-soul collective" consistently puts on a great live show. Last night at Neumo's, even their sound check was awesome, and that was way before they donned the all-white outfits and face paint. In fact, the over-the-top performance is so central to Man Man's appeal that we don't even bother to listen to them in recorded form. For us, it's all about the charms of the live act: the aluminum buckets and slide whistles, the melodica and marimba, the crazy-eyed drummer, the mulleted singer/keyboardist occasionally playing the Rhoades with his butt.... It's the simple things, really, that make us smile.

Caribou. Caribou. Caribou. So noisy. So dreamy. So indie.

Get this while you can, local hip-hop fans: GMK's anticipated new mixtape, Perfect 10, finally dropped and it's available online for free download, thanks to the largesse of host DJ B-Mello.

We'll be honest, Ms. Friedberger, we'd listened to the new album, it was...different, we thought why not hear a live show. We were not planning on getting home at 1:30am. But we had never heard a band like this before -- not live -- maybe back in Weimar, maybe back in bienvenue, wilkommen, the perfectly Weill -- but not with this Brooklyn inflection.

Katelyn Hackett attends local hiphop shows. She will write about them for Seattlest.

The Go! Team - "Grip Like a Vice"

Whether you're a fan of melodic noise-rock (not always a contradiction in terms) or just never got over a childhood obsession with dinosaurs, Pterodactyl is the band for you--especially if you like post-rock that doesn't take itself too seriously. They'll be playing at the Sunset tonight with two awesomely named bands we know absolutely nothing about: Nudity and Same Sex Dictator.

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.)

Seattlest has mentioned our appreciation for local band Sleepy Eyes of Death before. They opened for The Octopus Project, acting as a wonderful complement to their synthy quirkiness with a more epic, post-rock feel. Now it's their time to shine. Sure, they're opening again, but this appearance is for the release of their debut LP, Street Lights for a Ribcage. While there's something lost in the translation from live to recording (you can't capture mood lighting and fog on a CD), this mostly instrumental collection captures the sheer grandiosity of the Sleepy Eyes of Death sound. This is a moving, dynamic work, evoking the same emotional tugs as Explosions in the Sky, but with more synths and less meandering. This CD is going to turn a lot of heads and is a definite contender for one of the region's best albums of 2007. Saying that, the live show is even better, so make your way to the Croc tomorrow.

Last time Under Byen played Seattle, we told you how great they were, and some of you listened, since Chop Suey was packed. Well, they're back again tonight (at Neumos), so you know what to do. Show up, stand in the dark, and sway to the band's beautiful output. Never mind that the lyrics are in Danish, that doesn't take away from the show in the slightest. They're opening for The Album Leaf, who put on an equally engaging live show (keep an eye on the robotic hypnotic drummer). Trust us, you don't want to miss this one (although if you are going to miss it, we hope you're at least headed to see Melt Banana at Chop Suey).

Oh yes, Seattlest fans, it's that time of year again. When, after weeks of teasing, the sun finally decides to stick around. When all able-bodied gay men head to Madison Beach in their tight little shorts with their cute little dogs, and all the able-bodied lesbians head to some outdoor location with their picnic blankets and their mullets for an Indigo Girls concert.

Before she came out, walked to center stage and stole our hearts, we were lucky to have made it to the Moore in time to catch the last couple songs from the ex Moldy Peaches guitarist, Only Son. Actually it was more like two songs and a story. A story put to music, told pretty much off-the-cuff and in the first-person about a guy in a grocery store. He sees a girl. She's cute, but he's insecure and awkward and thinks maybe he should avoid the inevitable crushing rejection and just go home to his ever-loving and non-judgmental video games. It could have been one of those you-had-to-be-there moments to really appreciate it, but Only Son (Jack Dishel) was funny and charming and talented enough to win us over.

Mono play Neumos tonight, finally headlining a bigger Seattle stage after years of opening spots (also years of them showing up headliners). Sure, it's a bit formulaic with the whole quiet-LOUD-quiet template, but when you execute the template this well so consistently, it really doesn't matter anymore. Legions of fans know that Mono's live show takes your breath away. Now it's your turn to find out for yourself.

For the last few years Austin’s SXSW Music festival has brought Seattle their best European (mostly U.K.) bands; many of them making their first appearance here before heading back across the pond or whisking away to the many summer music festivals around the country. Seattle seems like a good enough launch pad though, and we’ve got a few beauties lined up. On Monday, May 5th two of the biggest bands coming out of the U.K. right now just happen to be playing sold out shows on the same night – The Kooks at Crocodile Café and The Arctic Monkeys at The Showbox. On a Monday night no less? Tell us where else in the country you’ll see that! Our advice? Save your money and go check out The Klaxons tonight at The Crocodile (there should still be some tickets available here); a great British band on their final tune-up for Coachella and a ton of other huge festivals this year. We can’t get their debut release Myths of the Near Future out of our head and neither can a lot of the British mags hyping them all year (they've already sold out most all their U.K. dates). Call it indie new rave or British dance punk. It’s experimental at times, British pop at others, but definitely worth us checking out their live show. Care to take a listen? Check out a few tracks from their Myspace page here.

...in which we pit two bands against each other, to better determine how you should spend your Tuesday night.

Tonight's episode of This American Life is "What I Learned from TV," compiled from live performances on their tour of the same name. Pieces by David Rakoff, Sarah Vowell, and Dan Savage will be included. Seattlest went on March 7, when the live show hit the Paramount, and we can confirm that the Rakoff and Savage stories are solid. (We're also happy that Alexa Junge's piece, about her experiences as a female TV scriptwriter,...

Tuesday, January 23

Tuesday, December 12

SOLD OUT!

Tuesday 14th

Seattlest read enough "Band to Watch" articles to get either mildly excited or moderately annoyed at the latest Norwegian band to bring their act to the states – 120 Days (file under this year's Serena Maneesh). Formerly known as "The Beautiful People" – these fresh-faced Oslo boys had all the girls swooning at Chop Suey with a formulaic mix of Roland Samples and sexy drum beats (think New Order), oversaturated guitars (think My Bloody Valentine), and a singer with enough swagger and skill to make it all flow (um, Bono?). It's a sound with influences we dig; we just question the concept of originality. One thing is for certain though; their live show definitely lived up to the "Pitchfork-Hype" we expected to regret and the tinge of rock was a pleasant surprise from a band known for 9 minute songs. In fact, after listening to their latest self-titled release, most everything about this band surprised us – mostly their amazing on-stage energy. Not typical from a band with such shoe-gaze aspirations. We just wouldn't want to be their roadie – we've never seen so much damn equipment on stage for one band! 120 Days seem poised to assimilate most of North America as they close out a successful tour here on the West Coast. Holding it down on hump day, Seattlest took in all the experimental/ambientness we could handle from local opening bands Joy Wants Eternity and New Grey Area – unfortunately we probably needed to drop some E to really enjoy the mix of slide show and live show. Really now, that hasn't been done well since The Knife....

Seattlest had the chance to take in quite a few good shows over the past week. Saturday night was no exception. It was just last March when we first saw Art Brut here in Seattle. They were still relatively unknown at the time, having just released their debut album Bang Bang Rock & Roll in the States. After hearing their album, we weren't sure then they could pull off the live show. After their 2nd stop in Seattle, it's clear that Eddie Argos and company haven't skipped a beat.

For weeks we've been waiting for the opportunity to share our latest obsession. Unlike previous obsessions with curling, competitive eating, or most recently Rock Paper Scissors, this obsession is more academic in nature. It concerns the rare, not yet standard punctuation mark known as the interrobang. It combines the exclamation point and the question mark to express both excitement and disbelief. If you've ever said "What!?" then you know how it should be used.

By embracing you with hard rocking hands, petting your head with beats, and letting you know in a sweet falsetto voice that the rocking will never stop, Spoon bends you into believing that everything is going to be okay. Even in the hot hot sun, even when the only food you can afford is roasted corn, even when they have David Cross do an interpretive dance of one of their songs and he shows the entire audience his ass, you know that the rocking will never stop.

The bar is set extraordinarily low for visual entertainment from DJs. Most opt to just mix tracks on two turntables, and while that (hopefully) sounds good, it's just doesn't have the same presence as a band. That's why showmen like Jamie Lidell or Jeremy Ellis and John Arnold are such breaths of fresh air, giving a crowd something to watch while providing the body with a rhythmic imperative. Tonight's Oscillate with Jeff Milligan should prove equally engaging, despite still being turntable-based in form.