I fucking LOVE Visqueen. They're my favorite local band, hands down, by far.

Last week while perusing people's MySpace pages I ran past Visqueen's and low and behold, on the section for upcoming shows, on Cinco de Mayo, it says they "might" be playing at the Sunset at nine sharp.

So I go, hoping it's true.

And it is.

I've seen Visqueen at numerous locations all over the city and I've never had the chance to see them at such an intimate venue (with only 30 other people!). This show was low-key on purpose. They were trying to work out the kinks (and kinks there were). Visqueen has a new lineup with a new bassist and an added guitarist, and my assumption is last night was the first time they've played together in front of a live audience.

Half way through their set they blew an amp, which took the amount of time to pee and get another beer to fix. Although while this was happening, we were lucky to be graced with Visqueen frontwoman Rachel Flotard's witty banter.

The band unveiled some new songs -- which sounded great, a definite evolution from their incredible last album, Sunset on Dateland -- which highlighted Rachel's control of her voice, going between sweetly sung verses and powerfully belted out choruses. Rachel also included some good-ole Visqueen tunes to the set including: "Sailor," "Manhattan," and "Zirconium Gun."

I realized while standing there watching this show that we have our own Chrissy Hynde right here in Seattle. By the next Visqueen release, expect Visqueen to be a household name like the Pretenders.

Part of me knows that last night was probably my last chance to see Visqueen play a small venue with almost no other people, but for now:

Fuck yeah, I saw Visqueen last night at a small venue from front and center.