1. Haley Bonar. Saw her twice at the Tractor. She is golden. An Angel. Find her and listen to her. "Little Maiden Gin".... it will make you cry it is so lovely and sad! Can't find a good link to that song to post here but take my word for it. All her stuff is great. And I bought the t-shirt. And chatted with her so she remembered me as "the crazy librarian from Seattle" on her second tour. I usually bill myself this way because we all know librarians are like nuns, or buddhas or something.
2. Shearwater. At Neumos. During a horrible breakup with a horrible guy. After falling down basement stairs in my sleep (thinking I was going into the bathroom- NOT). My friend Rachel subbed in for the horrible boyfriend who was supposed to go with me. I literally almost broke my neck on the stairs but was determined to see this band. Bought the t-shirt, chatted up the lead singer. This venue was too large and loud for such an ethereal band. I found myself shushing the crowd and trying to muscle my way to the front using the excuse that I was a librarian with a broken neck. Crowd pissed me off but the music.... the music!!! Dreamy, trippy stuff. The lead guy is an ornithologist/musical genius and the band is a bunch of buddhas in my opinion.
3. Joe Pernice (of The Pernice Brothers). This was a book release/music deal at The Tractor. Pernice, while having a wonderful musical style and voice, turned out to be a bit of an ass. He read from his book (so-so) and played a bunch of covers. I didn't get it. When I requested ONE real Pernice Bros. song, he dismissed me as an idiot. Fuck you Joe. My friend Kara accompanied me and she wasn't familiar with this guy or The Pernice brothers. I give her kudos for finding it at least a little interesting. Did not buy a t-shirt or a book. But I did tell the dude selling the book I was a librarian and therefore, do not buy books. Points for me.
4. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. This was a lunchtime show for KEXP supporters at The Triple Door. Went with the horrible boyfriend and felt decadent for drinking Prosecco in the middle of the day. Don't remember the music. It was more about being out midday watching a band and drinking Prosecco with a hot boy.
5. Man Rockwell at The Rendevous. Norm, the lead singer, is a former child who my friend Tessa used to babysit. They're good! I couldn't get in the door because my ID wasn't current (I was 51 people!!! I look way over 21 ok???) so the band and Tessa had to sneak me in the backstage door, adding a little extra excitement to the night. And I got to play some original tunes for Norm, et al on his guitar in the dressing room. Me, me, me!!! So special!
6. Radioshark at Skylark. This was random. I bid on the Strangermart annual fundraiser to be the honorary Mayor of West Seattle. I had originally started out trying to bid for Karaoke with Blake Lewis but couldn't keep up with the bidding... So I took Mayor of West Seattle. Prizes included free mac n' cheese for a year at West 5, two tickets to Arts West, a private party at Mission and a night to book 3 bands of my choice at Skylark. I wanted Curious Mystery (see below) , Man Rockwell and didn't know who else. CM couldn't make it so I was left with just Man Rockwell. The owner booked two other bands for me. Never heard of Radioshark before and don't remember much about them except they let me onstage to perform an original tune I wrote long ago. A fairly simple chord progression so they kept up beautifully. I was a star! For 5 minutes! It was only the second time I had ever performed in public so I was pretty stoked. I have the picture on my facebook to prove it. Dude from Radioshark looks just like Springsteen in the shot so it's double cool.
7. The Curious Mystery at The Crocodile and The Sunset. I followed them around for a while because I was in love with the drummer, Faustine B. Hudson. She is amazing. And now she plays occasionally with The Young Evils who I have never really seen live, but I have seen Troy in his Black Daisy incarnation. Faustine creates some very out there stuff with her percussion. Amazing. And I told her I was a librarian so she always remembers the crazy middle aged librarian who used to stalk her.
8. Part Man Part Horse at Easy Street. These guys suck. The best part of watching them is the lead singer always strips down to his tiny underwear and is all over the stage and all over the audience and he has a nice bod. That's all.
9. Noddy at the Seattle Center Mural theater. A friend and co-librarian, Jared is the lead singer of this sorta screamo band. I can't say it's really my type of music (sorry Jared) but Jared does throw himself into it full force and he's quite talented. My daughter went with me and thought he was "totally hot".... alas he is also gay, dear daughter, but yes.. HOT!!!
10. Gym Class Heroes at Bumbershoot. Oh boy. This one was for the daughter when she would still be seen with me in public. In the giant stadium at Seattle Center. Too many people! Too many teens! Too much noise! I liked this band but not the setting. And nobody was told about my librarianship. Nobody woulda cared. I was not into talking to anyone but my kid anyways. It wasn't that kind of event.
11.Natalie Portman's Shaved Head at the Seattle Center Mural theater. These kids come from The Center School where my daughter now goes to school. They're all grown up now but the connection to Center was a nice touch for the daughter. Not sure why we went to see them. Free KEXP show was something to do that day. Some other rappers opened up the show. Elyse was starting to distance herself from me by then so I had to sit alone on the grass while she sat several feet away from me, not wanting to be seen at a rad show with her godawful MOTHER. These guys were good! Very energetic, cute and unique music. The crowd was crazy for them. They've changed their name now to something stupid. No t-shirts. Elyse got some free posters. I had the name of this band totally wrong in this post previously. It was the drugs.
So that's about it for my forays into the music scene in the Seattle that has such a great music scene. I don't know why I was thinking about posting all of this drivel, just thinking about it the other day because I had a desire to go see New Politics at Neumos next month but then thought better about it since reviews have stated the lead singer often leaves the stage bloodied from his amazing frenetic breakdancing during the show. They're from Copenhagen! I saw them on Kimmel and was blown away but this librarian ain't crazy enough to throw herself into that kind of scene. My neck might get broke for sure.
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