Capitol Hill Blog Party! (Saturday)

So Bronwyn and I made a move a bit earlier down to the part-ay to find it was way more crowded and hot and sweaty and thirst-inducing than friday. Possibly the fact that it was a whole entire day in which many people have no work to be done or doing. We also saw Str@y and I ran into Mike Murphy and it was a good day. Lots and lots of bands we did not watch all of and a few we did.

Amongst them:
The Pica Beats Local sort of folky-twee-indie-adjectiveadjectiveadjective band with a cute girl who sometimes sang but mainly played tambourine and there was a saxophone and like, xylophone or something and a guy in glasses who looked pretty typically northwest and sounded it too. This sort of stuff often comes off contrived, or completely played but it was pleasant enough.

Pains of Being Pure at Heart New York power-twee! Washes of Teenage Fanclub distortion on gentle melodies that was really good even if they basically had one basic drum beat for the entire set.

New Faces "Listening to the New Faces is like seeing that person at the store that's like 'hey, remember me?' and you don't, which is weird, because you remember everyone and you have an awkward conversation and you remember that they're boring and that's why you didn't remember them. If they were a band, they'd be the New Faces."-- Brielle.

we didn't stay.

Pela Pela play a form of Springsteeny American Punk Rock and Roll that can be pretty good sometimes but gets less good each time someone who grew up on MxPx decides to get "serious."

once again, we didn't stay.
"I think Pela might be a bit more interesting than the New Faces, but they're way more offensive. Why the dry spell, Block Party?"-- Br'elle

The Thermals I've missed the Thermals so many times it felt like I'd seen them before. They played well but eschewed their earlier, faster stuff for a fairly uniformly 4/4 set, peppered with covers of Nirvana ( "Verse Chorus Verse/Laundry Room") the Breeders ("Summer's Ready" or whatever its called) and Green Day ("Basket Case.") Good show by them but I couldn't help but feel like for a band that's built it's case for existence on being simultaneously brainy and bracing it wasn't much of either.

Future of the Left For about an hour I was back in Wales, just bigger and louder. More stuff from their first record than the new one, which would be my only complaint. Other than that, maybe the most kickass I've seen them. By the time they finish writing "Cloak the Dagger" it'll be unstoppable.

Gossip I'm all about Beth Ditto as a progressive female role-model for young girls. But I do not care about her band. In the words of Bill Hicks: "Oh good. Now there's an all girl form of the music I don't like."

So I went to Future of the Left. Brielle wasn't old enough for that, so she watched Gossip for me. They were okay, apparently.

Sonic Youth It was Thurston Moore's birthday. From a distance he looks about 20. They rocked like it, too. None of the "biggest" hits, but a few from Daydream Nation, lotsa the new record and "Death valley 69" as a closer. Pretty young crowd for a band that started when I was 2 years old. Water was sprayed into the crowd to help with the dehydration issue and once the Youth started, everyone was having a good time.

the 40 minutes before, with everyone, really everyone, trying to get to the front, not so fun. but we avoided punchups at least.

Tommorrow!!!!! A whole-weekend wrap up with all the super-important and relevant hilarious things I forgot to write in the first two entries.