Menomena, Blitzen Trapper, and BOAT at UW

The other weekend I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the Menomena, Blitzen Trapper, and BOAT show at UW. I wanted to see all three bands, particularly Menomena and BOAT, so I was thrilled that a ticket cost a mere $6 -- with no ticket charges!

The venue, however, was a disaster. The show was in the basement of the HUB on a makeshift stage that barely raised the performers above the crowd. Believe it or not, this setup was even worse than the HUB Ballroom staging for the Hold Steady and Art Brut show.

At least the performances were good.

BOAT, a local band, started the show. I've wanted to see them for some time, having read about them at Three Imaginary Girls and heard a couple of their songs. They play sing-along indie pop with a charmingly lo-fi aesthetic, and they seem like friendly, normal guys on stage. I liked their set quite a bit, and because the concert ticket was so cheap and I could buy directly from those nice guys, I bought both of their albums. They were extremely thankful and earnest, which was refreshing. I love supporting local bands.

Blitzen Trapper played second. Their sound fits somewhere between scruffy alt-country and Pavement-style indie rock. They barely fit on the stage, and their diminutive lead singer was barely visible behind the bobbing heads in front of me. Their set opened with more of a polished sound than I expected based on their album, but eventually turned into more noise than song. Their set was the least interesting of the night for me, but that's what I expected.

Menomena were the headliners, and for good reason. Friend and Foe was one of the best albums of 2007. I've heard that they're pretty amazing live, that people finally "get" Menomena after seeing them. A big part of getting the band is seeing how only three guys play such dense and interesting music on such a variety of instruments. Unfortunately, I could see only Justin Harris and Brent Knopf. I couldn't see Danny Seim's percussion work at all, and I couldn't see Knopf switching between his many instruments. That detracted significantly from the show.

What I could see was how much emotion Harris and Knopf had on their faces while playing. Menomena's songs rely on a series of cathartic moments, and those moments are much more focused and intense live than they are on the album. When Harris pulled out his baritone sax, I could see and feel the anticipation of his great sax lines. They played most of Friend and Foe and a few other songs, which was exactly the right set list. As they closed out with "Evil Bee," I was more than happy with their performance.

But I couldn't say the same thing about the venue. I'd like to see both BOAT and Menomena in a better venue.

Up Next: I saw The Magnetic Fields at Town Hall just the other night. Write-up coming soon.

Hold Steady and Art Brut at the HUB

Time to do some catching up...

A bit over a week ago I saw the Hold Steady and Art Brut at the HUB Ballroom on the UW campus. The HUB Ballroom is more like a high school cafeteria than a real concert venue -- never attend a concert there unless you must. The whole night would be a battle between the high quality of the bands and the terrible venue.

I showed up a song or two into Art Brut's set, apparently after Eddie Argos had a bit of a piss over the lack of booze and early start time at the HUB. He and his band were busy making it up to the still small but growing crowd. He'd ask, "Ready Art Brut?" and they'd bang their way through another song.

Argos's voice is an acquired taste, but he's in on it, which makes Art Brut all the more entertaining. After a couple songs he asked the sound guys to turn off his monitor, noting that he didn't actually sing, that he was fine with being off key, and that his bandmates really didn't want to hear him. The crowd did, though, and he got them going by jumping off stage and pogo-ing around the with crowd for a song.

As Art Brut ended their set, Argos apologized for his earlier negativity, but apologies were no longer necessary. He was already back in the crowd's good graces.

I expected Art Brut to be a good opening act, but with songs like "Emily Kane" and "Good Weekend" they made it more of a twin bill than I expected.

Next up was the headliner, The Hold Steady, one of my favorite, most literate bands. I'd seen the Hold Steady before, so I mostly knew what to expect, especially Craig Finn's hyperkinetic stage presence and twitchy white boy dancing.

I stood at the back of the room last time, so this time I got right up from -- close enough to see the Finn's spit fly, Franz Nicolay's tooth pick dance around his mouth, and Tad Kubler's fingers all over his guitar. Before forming the Hold Steady Kubler and Finn played together in Lifter Puller, and I noticed a camaraderie between them that I was surprised to have missed before.

They played a good mix of their albums, focusing less on Boys and Girls than they did on the last tour, and even trying out a couple new songs. They were particularly on for "Southtown Girls," which has become one of my favorites, in no small part because I grew up a few miles from Southtown Mall and because Nicollet, Lyndale, and Penn were the extent of my geography at a young age.

Unfortunately the sound was a mess for most of the night. "Massive Nights" sounded awful, the sing-along chorus turning into a muddled yell. And there were more stage problems, like the lights causing one of the monitors to start smoking.

The band dwelled on the lack of drinks at the HUB, which was understandable but almost sad as stage banter. The Hold Steady are a bar band, the kind of group you want to see with a drink in your hand, but they're also one of the best live bands around and have at least one of the best albums of the decade. If you can't enjoy them sober, drunk, or high, there's something wrong with you.

I guess that's a good way to summarize the night for me: Despite all the problems with the venue, it was still a good show by really good performers. I left with a T-shirt featuring the Hold Steady's take on the old Twins logo, firmly identifying with my fellow former Minneapolitans and quite content that I'd seen two bands in their prime.

First week back in Seattle

Jana and I drove into Seattle a week ago. It was a sunny afternoon. As we made our way North on 5 we could see Mount Rainier, which just built up the anticipation. A short while later, we had our first glimpse of the skyline. It was like a vision. I was smiling ear-to-ear. Jana mentioned that it had been a long drive up. I thought, yeah, it took us over five years.

After signing our lease and checking out the new apartment, we took Lyra out for a walk. The entrance to Magnuson Park is right out the back door of our apartment, which is great. We made our way through a hilly green trail and down to Lake Washington. The sun was setting behind us as we looked across the lake at Mount Rainier, regally reflecting the sunset. I was home.

The next morning was my first commute to Kirkland. I decided to try going north around the top of Lake Washington on city streets and then back down to Kirkland. That way I could avoid the 520 bridge. It was a gorgeous drive, but it took about 40 minutes. On subsequent commutes I tried the 520 Bridge (very slow during rush hour, not bad early in the morning) and biking around the north end of Lake Washington (not too bad, but a serious one-hour workout each way). After a few tries I found what might be the best solution: Driving across 520 at 7:00AM, going for a run in Kirkland, and showering at work. Still, I'll be a happy man when the Fremont office opens.

Thai Tom. Those two words make my mouth water and yen for peanut sauce. I've yet to find another Thai place to match the hole-in-the wall dive on the Ave that is Thai Tom. As Jana and I took our seats at the counter, Nirvana was blasting on the stereo and the chefs were just returning from their break. We ordered from the painted slab-of-wood menu and watched the chefs hustle their way through the backlog of orders. It was like a dance with fire and pans going everywhere. The food was spectacular, almost living up to the expectations of a five-year absence.

One of the great things about where we live is that we're about two blocks from the Burke-Gilman trail. On Saturday Jana and I rode the trail into campus. She wanted to see where her academic buildings were and we both wanted to enjoy the weather. The trail was busy with runners and bikers, and as we approached campus, it was full of football fans. UW was playing Ohio State that afternoon; we were biking right through the pre-game. The band was warming up along the side of the trail and everyone was wearing purple. I felt a bit sheepish in my red biking jacket, but when someone asked us for directions, he said that he knew it wasn't Ohio State red. Nothing like an early autumn day on a college campus.

The next day was rainy, but I was back out on the Burke-Gilman. This time I ran north to Matthews Beach. The beach was vacant and covered in a misty shroud; the partial views across the lake were surreal, like a poem about the beauty of loneliness. As I made my way back home, surrounded by trees and the misty rain, I felt right at home. This was Seattle, and I was happy. Not bad for a first week.