This weekend I went to two different block parties. Technically one was an art fair, but whatever.
At the 6th Street Fair in Bellevue I saw Amir Beso play. He's an amazing guitar player, love his stuff and his CD (which I personally bought via emusic.com but it is available at assorted places, check out his website for more info).
Yesterday I went to the second day of the Capitol Hill Block Party. I am now thoroughly exhausted. Here's who I saw:
- Girls - Meh. They were okay but nothing special. Not a lot of range.
- The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - They were also okay, didn't blow me away but I enjoyed their show. They have a couple free downloads on their site which is great, definitely good enough live to check those songs out and see how they are recorded.
- Akimbo - Wall of noise style trash band. They played the hell out of their songs and were extremely high energy. At one point the leader singer told us what the next song was about, I'm pretty sure he was being funny because what few words there were were screamed full out at the microphone and impossible to understand.
- PELA - The first big find for me at the party. I got home and immediately bought their CD on emusic.
- The Thermals - They were certainly good but didn't blow me away. Good enough that I'll be checking them out more, not good enough to make me immediately buy their music (see above).
- The Lonely Forest - Wow what a great find, this is a local Seattle band (recently, moved from Anacortes). Very interesting songwriting, the leader singer has a great voice, and they showed a range of different styles and ideas. Wow. I'm going to try to see them in a smaller venue around town soon.
- Future of the Left - Literally just screaming into the microphone. When they played one song with a keyboard which didn't involve screaming it became clear why they screamed all the time. Left Neumos a few bars into that one. Blah.
- The Gossip - Yeah, well, I dunno. Beth Ditto has a great voice and they have some catchy songs but it didn't hold me. Having said that, the place was packed for them, so they clearly have a large fan base.
- Noisettes - Half an hour late to start, the best part of the show was the lead singer's outfit coming apart. She's gorgeous, incredibly talented, and has a fantastic voice. However, the songs were kinda blah and certainly didn't do her justice. Left maybe four or five songs into the set.
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