girl talk at the showbox; photo by me; more in the photoset [flickr]

Girl Talk is one of those acts that reminds you how fortunate it is to be in a place with a floor built on a bed of springs. Mere minutes after Greg Gillis ran onto the stage, made a round of front-row high-fives, scaled his table, and settled into his spot behind a card table decked out with plastic-wrapped laptops (”2 laptops and a pair of giant studio monitors are the new 2 turntables and a microphone.” [@asa]), the sold out crowd was putting the structure to the test. A track or two in, and the empty stage began to be filled by a not entirely unreasonable cross section of Seattleites — a low key programmer type for every two neon spectacled party kids — and a duo of jerseyed leaf blower operators who sent toilet paper, confetti, and the occasional inflatable into the house.
Really, though, the onstage spectacle of dancers, a sweaty disrobing (not a) DJ hardly stopping his bouncing while hammering away at the mix, and retro projected graphics, hardly mattered. The stacks of samples, cutting across decades of popular and obscure culture, colliding into each other, being mixed into new mental connections, and made fresh in an on-the-fly live experience made nonstop dancing entirely more compelling than people-watching. I’m sure that someone with a better ear and mind for cataloging will come up with a brainbending setlist; my favorite moments of recognitions were for classic Nirvana, Kelly Clarkson, Journey, the usual set-ending Elton John, and some new (disc of the summer) Phoenix making it into the mix. After something like an hour and a half, the show ended promptly. In the moment, stopping before midnight seemed too soon, until you realized that maybe if it went on forever people would die of dehydrated exhaustion, making the leaving while wanting more just about perfect.

get up kids playing the roseland for musicfest nw. photo by me; more in the photoset [flickr]

Last weekend Portland (a.k.a., the new Ballard) turned over some of its finest clubs to host Musicfest Northwest, a sort of (I imagine) South by Southwesty citywide parade of excellent shows. Over the four days, it seemed like just about every important touring band converged on the town to torment fans with difficult decisions about how to best make use of their wristbands and to balance strategic decisions about lining up early versus seeking out taco stands and worlds of books. To an infrequent visitor, this collection of packed nighttime performances and small daytime performances in basements or former funeral homes only enhanced the perception that Portland is a sprawly city with a bit of magic in the air. Schoolbuses with confused drivers shuttled between clubs, a costumed wrestling match took place on our hotel’s covered courtyard, the per capita concentration of plaid and heavyframed glasses were so far above the national average it’s hardly even worth trying to quantify, entire villages of food carts have come to occupy stray parking lots, and sometimes people say “the evil swoosh” out loud.

Of course, the shows were great, too. Explosions in the Sky make melancholy sound heroic like nobody’s business; Frightened Rabbit make continual heartbreak seem like not such a poor life choice; Arctic Monkeys kept the dance floor rolling while seeming incredibly tired of being young and famous; Mount Eerie are wrapping sprightly nature poems in harsh metals; the Local Natives provided an excellent reason to get out of bed before ten; Pink Mountaintops were pleasantly less psychadelic than advertised; and the Get Up Kids had me screaming with Napster-era nostalgia during certain parts of their set. Also notable was a KEXP–Caffe Vita co-production at the Woods, a venue carved out of a former funeral home. The Lonely Forest, Langhorne Slim, Fences, John Vanderslice, Bobby Bare Jr., Black Whales, and others played tiny sets in the parlor as the perfect soundtrack taking it easy on a Saturday afternoon. Keep an eye on their blog [caffevita] for performance footage. All in all, the festival was a wonderful reason to visit our neighbor to the south to be reminded that there are cities even more relaxed than Seattle.

the depreciation guild (above) & the pains of being pure at heart (below) played neumo’s on tuesday. more pictures in the photoset [flickr]

On Tuesday night, early-arriving fans at Neumo’s were no doubt disappointed to find that a burrito in Idaho had spoiled their efforts to see Cymbals Eat Guitars. Food poisoning had derailed the band’s plans to claim a much-anticipated opening set, leaving its members unfortunately ill and Seattle with a bit more time on its hands to get a drink. Sadness about missing them aside, I think that anyone who has suffered from severe digestive illness knows which party got the better end of this arrangement.
That left the Depreciation Guild, basically the shoegaz[ier] A/V club (or rather subcommittee) of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, in the role of warming the crowd. Combined with the last-gasp of summer outside, the poor ventilation inside, and videogame bleeps blipped over guitar washes and energized by a live wall of shifting color blocks, they stepped-up to the task admirably, holding and gathering a crowd.
Although the all-ages balcony had plenty of breathing room, the main floor soon attracted a perspiration-heavy gathering for the headliners, who ran through most of their recorded material — including geographically-appropriate “Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan” (which, they admit, cribs more from the Vaselines than Nirvana), and venue-appropriate “103″, and closing with an encore of their rock out freakout “Gentle Sons”. Along the way, they played some material from their forthcoming Higher Than the Stars EP along with old favorites about library sex, taboo love, and dedicated a get well song to their ailing tourmates. Predictably, the vocals were sometimes swallowed by the giant wall of fuzzed out guitars, but it was OK. We heard about how they loved Seattle and that season of the Real World with the fish throwers, the slap heard ’round the world, and the teddy bear sacrificed to the Sound. The front rows pogoed madly and more than a few guys with giant hair air drummed aerobically.
By the end, during the “banter part”, some people implored them to ditch Brooklyn for Capitol Hill. And while I’d concur that we’d love to have them in town all the time, I’d not encourage anyone to live in the basement at Neumo’s. Until then, though, we’ll have the records and the hope that they’ll bring their big tour van back someday soon.

Speaking of the EMPSFM, one of the things that’s always irked me about the place has been the extremely strict photo policy that prohibits any photography in the galleries and exhibitions which I’ve always felt was way, way too harsh, particularly since I’ve been to plenty of fine art and historical museums with materials much older and more fragile than the items on display at the EMP who have been much more liberal with their photo policies.

Finally, the EMPSFM has come to their collective senses and have restructured their photo policy. Now visitors CAN take photos in the galleries and exhibitions. Like pretty much every museum in the world they prohibit flash photography, but you don’t want to use your flash to take photos inside, anyway–it makes them turn out awful.

The new policy goes into effect on Saturday, September 26, which happens to be Smithsonian’s annual museum day, a day when museums all across the US will be offering free admission to anyone who downloads and prints out the museum day admission card available on their site, so you could go to the EMPSFM for free and take photos all day long if you like. (Or you could visit any of other participating local museums.)

The EMPSFM certainly has a lot of interesting objects that would make great photography subjects; I’m looking forward to seeing what people come up with. Once you’ve been there and taken your shots, why not add them to our Flickr photo pool?

I know, I know; Bumbershoot was SO last week. But after 3 days of PAX and another day of Bumbershoot, I kind of got buried in photos there for a while. Lame excuse, but there it is.

However, I do want to share some of the photos I took for your enjoyment. These are my favorite pictures from the 3 acts I enjoyed the most. Jason Webley, Truckasauras, and Metric.
My favorites from each: (many more after the jump)

Jason getting the crowd “wasted” for his final song of the set before the parade out to the fountain.

Truckasauras playing in front of the MASSIVE digital screen at EMP’s Sky Church

The stage lighting of the Broad Street Stage where Metric played was pretty terrible, but I like how this photo came out. Metric killed it. I’m actually surprised Metric did not play the main stage.

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johnny & the moon, the moondoggies, and fruit bats at seattle centers. photos by me. full photoset. [flickr].

Last night three nocturnally-named, but highly warm evening weather appropriate bands — Johnny & the Moon, the Moondoggies, and Fruit Bats — closed out KEXP’s exceptional Mural concert series at Seattle Center. The lineups and timing of this series and it’s remarkable freeness, with cold beer in close proximity, made it a stellar addition to the summer. Let’s hope that the station does this again next year. Bringing bands that I’d typically see late at night into the Friday cocktail hour during a season where the incentive to go to shows faces tough competition from barbecues, weekend travel, and festivals, was stroke of brilliance that brought together eclectic talents and laid back audiences. Well done!

Swimming race at Colman Pool, circa 1960 by Seattle Municipal Archives

From 1:30-3p.m. Saturday, you can get free admission into the Rainier Beach and Meadowbrook pools, part of Seattle Parks and Recreation’s Summer Splashtacular. There will also be free diving instruction at Madison Beach from 2-5 p.m., and at West Green Lake, Pritchard, Matthews and Madrona beaches. Flotation devices from Oodles of Noodles will be available from noon to 6pm at the beaches.

Little ones will get wading pool toys and activities at 14 local wading pools from 1-4pm.

“Hey, Ho, Weirdo!” [#] painting by ben walker; other photos by josh (me); more in my exhibitchin’ photoset [flickr].

On Saturday night, the EMP|SFM’s Henson exhibit was turned into a full-scale Exhibitchin’. The ladies of the Adventure School donned Waldorf and Statler costumes while hosted a thrilling Animal Drumming contest where many a drummer was chained, drumsticks were destroyed, drum kits brutalized, and a cymbal stands was destroyed only to be replaced by a crouching human. DJ Electro Wolf spun all of the alt/mainstreamest dance hits of the last few years, hilarious Muppetized album covers were projected on screen, rubber duckies were traded for drinks, and Dr. Bunsen whirled cotton candy on the dance floor. Later, costumed funk was blasted by Eldridge Gravy and the Court Supreme and the Saturday Knights blew out the speakers while sending the crowd into lyrical gyrations. Although I don’t think that the security guards were entirely comfortable with all of the revelry so close to the artifacts, I think that almost everyone had furry good time.

More pictures online [flickr], and a few more picks after the jump.

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According to Ye Olde Thermometer at the Seattle Times, we have ourselves a tied temperature record today:

photo via the seattle times

Oh, and stay sane out there. Remember, obsessing and complaining doesn’t necessarily make it any better [twitter/seascorcher]