Three Imaginary Girls - Paramount Theater

For the (whole) love of Wilco

imaginary victoria — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:27:11 +0000

7 Feb 2012

Last night's performance by Wilco at the Paramount was just a few strokes short of phenomenal. And those few strokes, mind you, were negligible at best. The set had that bright, perfect, let-your-love-light-shine kind of feeling, coupled with a stunning amount of... well, shredding, really, is the only way to put it. Hella shredding, even! Lovelight and shredding, with lots of emphasis on the new album, select tracks from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and a perfect integration of the rest of the band's catalog. Lines like what was I thinking / when I said hello {I Am Trying To Break Your Heart}, with no larger problems / that need to be erased {Impossible Germany} and you love her / but you don't know why {Born Alone} were delivered with the intimacy and care as if they were being played for a few hundred close friends at a venue the size of Neumos. Connecting with a room the size of the Paramount is no small task, and Wilco seemed to pull this off effortlessly, much to the crowd's delight.

On top of all the sonic bliss, fans seated up in the balcony were able to take in the show the full view of the stage and the incredulous setup of hundreds of rag-covered lights that hung from the rafters, which reflected an aptly-displayed series of lights and images that changed with the songs during the set -- birds, mountaintops, digital dreamscapes, and open skies. It was reminscent of the thousand-lantern stage setup that Grizzly Bear had at the Moore a few years back, only better. Shreddier, even. And so beautifully Wilco-esque.

Set list:

* One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)
* Poor Places
* Art Of Almost
* I Might
* Bull Black Nova
* Company In My Back
* I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
* Kamera
* Impossible Germany
* Born Alone
* Laminated Cat
* Shouldn't Be Ashamed
* Whole Love
* Heavy Metal Drummer
* I'm The Man Who Loves You
* Standing O
* Misunderstood
* Dawned On Me
* A Shot In The Arm

===

* Candyfloss
* War On War
* Walken
* Red-eyed and Blue
* I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
* Outta Mind (Outta Sight)

{Photo of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot towers (Chicago) by Victoria VanBruinisse.}

{Set list after the jump!}

Get your {indie} freak on with the new Andrew Bird track

imaginary victoria — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:35:47 +0000

We're just about a month out from Andrew Bird's next album release {Break It Yourself, due out on March 6th} and twice that from his upcoming show at the Paramount Theater {April 9th} with Laura Marling. Pre-album, the single "Eyeoneye" has made a (legal) foray out into the 'nets, and seeing as it's been on rotation since the minute the mailing list hit our imaginary inbox, we thought it fit to take a moment and hip you to it.

If this track is any indication of what Break It Yourself is going to bring to us on the whole, we're ready to put this as a frontrunner for one of 2012's top five albums without a single look back. There's a wide spectrum of recognizeable influence here while remaining decidedly Andrew Bird, which is to be expected -- he's one of those artists that continues to evolve with the world around him and change dramatically without departing too far from his baseline. And that said, there's a whole new freshly familiar vibe to the music: still laden with whistle-overs, graced with more than a hint of Phil Spector wall-of-sound-ery, and sliced through to the skeleton with a half-dozen emergent indie sounds of, well, right-fucking-now-ness.

This Wednesday's Bright Eyes show will make it all better {especially if you win free tickets}

imaginary liz — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:45:26 +0000

(Please oh please let them play this song at Wednesday's show)

This has been a rough week for me. Two of my favorite bands of ever and all time decided September, 2011 is the perfect month to step away from the tambourine and call it quits. Oh REM and the Bluetones, I will miss you so. Your songs have made life worth living on many a day and I thank you for the memories.

The only thing that has made the last week musically bearable is the fact that my dear Bright Eyes is going to be in Seattle this Wednesday, September 28, 2012 at the Paramount.

And the best part? We've got a pair of tickets to giveaway to the Bright Eyes show!

Recommended show + free tickets: Neko Case at the Paramount

imaginary victoria — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:15:04 +0000

Whether you're married to the New Pornographer's one-of-a-kind sound or you're head over heels for the solo show: in some capacity, you loves you some Neko Case. We know. Us too. Some days it's the wandering piano-guitar intro of "These are the Fables" that envelops our hours and some days it's it's the trickle-down gorgeousness of "That Teenage Feeling" -- but no matter how we hit the shuffle button, everything this woman does pulls our heartstrings in the best possible way. Which is why we're over-the-top excited that she's coming to the Paramount next week with a newer love of ours, Y La Bamba. So excited, in fact, that we want to send you and a friend to the show!

You are invited: FANS at the Paramount bar {3/10}

imaginary victoria — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:23:55 +0000

Peeking through the gates of the closed bar during DeVotchKa's set this past weekend at the Paramount, we caught a glimpse of what's sure to be our favorite show there yet: a photography exhibit by our friend Christopher Nelson. Master of the stage shot that he is, Chris has turned the tables on us for this show and put together an exhibit that's fans-only -- that's right, all of the dozen or so pieces hanging up in the bar (the show is aptly titled FANS) are of people freaking out at shows en masse. Never before have we seen so much 'yay!' in one place!

Come down and join the fun, as we'll be celebrating the formal opening this Thursday night from 5-8p.

{Admission is free, but this is a 21+ event. Cash bar will be available. More information about the opening can be found at the STG Presents website here.}

GREASE is the Word: Recommended Weekend Theater {1/7-1/9}

Imaginary Amie — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:39:41 +0000

{Go Greased Lightnin' Go photo by Joan Marcus}

I am bursting with excitement because the one musical that I have always been fond of is coming to The Paramount Theatre this weekend! I’ve never seen a live production of Grease, so I’m looking forward to seeing Danny, Sandy, Kenickie, Rizz (< my favorite) and the rest hit the stage to sing and dance—and duh. I’ll be singing and dancing in my seat right along with them.

In addition to this looking like a pretty slick show, the cast holds kind of a hilarious surprise: Carmine Ragusa – Eddie Mekka, AKA: The Big Ragu (!!!), Shirley’s boyfriend on Laverne & Shirley, plays DJ Vince Fontaine. I can’t lie; my L&S fangirl heart is all kinds of excited about that.

Grab your tix online now, put your hair in a ponytail, throw on your circle skirt and cardigan, and practice your “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop A-wop-bam-boom” - and I’ll see you there!

Win tickets to see the Flaming Lips at the Paramount {9/27}

imaginary victoria — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:44:30 +0000

Can you say rOctober, anyone? We can!

Here in imaginary-land we've been prefunking fall tour since laying eyes on Bumbershoot a few weeks back, sending lucky ticket winners to everything from Cobirds Unite to Pavement to Matt and Kim. And to help keep easin' that weather transition on down the road, we want to send you to another free show! As of right this very instant, we've got not one, but two pairs of tickets to give away for the Flaming Lips show this coming Monday, September 27th.

Two. Two pairs! So what are you waiting for? Enter to win! Tell all your friends! Tell them twice! Open a new tab right this instant and send an email off to tig@threeimaginarygirls, and let us know why we should send you to the show. Act quickly, because we'll need your entry by 5pm tomorrow -- that's 5pm on Thursday, September 23rd.

(Be sure to use the subject line PuttingAllTheVegetablesAway so that we know that it's you.)

Good luck, everyone! We'll see you at the Paramount!

Imaginary Interview: Marty Riemer Funny Festival

ChrisB — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:18:13 +0000

The Marty Riemer Funny Festival has become arguably the biggest night for comedy in the Northwest over the past six years. This year’s event is this Friday (January 15) at the Paramount and features comedians Bill Burr, Kyle Cease, Nick Thune and Jeff Garlin, one of the stars of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, which I think is the funniest program on television right now.

This year’s Funny Festival is being billed as “Wholly independent since 2009” after Riemer’s often very funny morning radio show was canceled on 103.7 KMTT (The Mountain) last September. I met up with Marty Riemer and his equally funny co-host and partner in crime, Jodi Brothers, at a coffee shop in West Seattle to talk about this year’s Funny Festival, what people can expect on Friday, wrapping the governor in a shroud, and sex with koalas. Goddamn it.

What can people expect from the Funny Festival on Friday night?

Marty Riemer: If you’ve never been to a Funny Festival before, what sets us apart from other comedy shows is that ours is a show. It’s not just the lights dim, the spotlight comes on and the emcee comes out and then the first comic, the second comic and third comic and then everyone goes home. We put some effort into what goes on around the comics. We put a lot of effort in early on in deciding who the comics will be and then we work on how to present the comics and make it different and give it some sex appeal, compared to the other comedy shows.

What I originally said was that I wanted to turn comedy into the “new rock and roll” because rock always felt like it had this way of presenting its merchandise and there seemed some shame with comedy. “We’re sorry, this won’t take long, hope it won’t be too late.” Our whole goal was to give it some show appeal. That’s what you can expect: everything from a sporting legend that will open the show, like Apolo Anton Ohno - it won’t be, but feel free to suggest it because nothing impresses us more than disappointed looks for the first several rows. “They think Apolo Ohno is coming.”

We focus equally on booking the comics as we do on the opening. The opening of the show, for us, is of paramount importance. It began the very first year, we thought we were really impressive because we created this recorded intro with the voice of God and real rock music. That was our way of introducing comedy as something you didn’t need to be ashamed of. The second year we had kids come out and read letter that were real heartfelt appeals to me to bring another comedy show back to Seattle.

Jodi Brothers: That was really funny.

Marty: Yeah, it was funny. The letters were written by me and they were letters that would be inappropriate for kids to be reading at a comedy show. The third year, I came out and started talking and we transitioned into a blues number about how were lamenting so much stuff we were in, “but look, we’re here for a comedy show.” After that it really went up an exponential curve.

For the fourth year – there’s a saying comedy that you either have to be funny or know magic – and I don’t know either. I don’t know how to be funny…

Jodi: That’s true.

Marty: And I don’t know magic. Everyone thinks that because I host the show, I’m a standup comedian, but I’m not. The very least I could do was develop a magic act, so we brought Jodi and we wrapped her in this “shroud of mystery” on stage in front of a few thousand people. We wrapped her in this shroud and then got some magic dust out and had some production elements and then unwrapped the shroud and Governor Gregoire was standing there. When we did that we thought “oh man, this is going to be so hard to beat next year.”

Last year we did this Letterman-esque Bollywood number. Jodi was working at a strip club because of the hard economic times and had to take a second job across town. I decided to we had to bring her to the comedy show. In the middle of the show, I ran off stage and ran across town with cameras and got her out of the strip club with a Bollywood dance.

Jodi: Flash mob.

Marty: Yeah, a flash mob with twenty or forty other people.

I’m really sad I missed those. This’ll be my first Funny Festival.

Marty: The magic trick really was, well, props to Gov. Gregoire for having the chutzpah to do that. When we went to her office to do a dry-run through the magic trick they thought we were out of our minds. Security staff is standing there and we asked “do you like magic tricks?” “No.” The trick was when I wrapped Jodi up in the shroud, which is this huge…

Jodi: Airline blanket.

Marty: When I wrapped Jodi up in the airline blanket, it wasn’t Jodi wrapped up in it anymore, it was Gov. Gregoire. So the whole time I’m doing this stuff with the magic dust and the glitz and the glamour, I’m realizing inside my head that “oh my god, I’ve got the governor of the state of Washington wrapped inside of a cloth and she’s standing there mummified."

Jodi: And that was an election year and you’ll notice she got reelected. We asked Mayor Nickels to be in our flash mob video last year and he declined – and he did not get reelected. I’m just saying… I’m not saying there’s any correlation, but…

Marty: Maybe Apolo Ohno will get a gold medal after appearing in our video. Which he’s not, so he’s good.

So that’s what you can expect. It’s more than an awkward, in the basement of a bar, brick wall comedy show.

Jodi: Just a little bit more.

All of the comedians you’ve booked for this show are really funny. What made you want to book, say Jeff Garlin or Nick Thune or Kyle Cease?

Marty: Because we played comedy on the radio, our focus was already narrowed by what comedians we can play on the radio. We’re not prudes about this, but there are some comedians whose material is so blue that we can’t play it on the radio. We can bleep things out, that’s not the problem, but if the whole subject matter is something where I need to bleep out forty-five seconds of a minute long bit, it wouldn’t make sense. With those parameters, it leads us into a certain direction.

After that, it has to be comedians that have a certain amount of material where we don’t think they’re going to come out and do three minutes and the rest is filler. Guys like Bill Burr and Kyle Cease have tons of material that we could promote it really well on the air.

Jodi: Marty is very particular about the comics.

Marty: She books the comics. We discuss who we want to go for and she gets on the phone and she tries to wrangle these guys.

Jodi: That’s not the most important part. We’ve done a few of these now and you can tell there’s a formula to it and it’s his formula that’s in his head. There’s a progress of style and intellect that the comics will have. You won’t get four really sarcastic, depressed comics or four really macho comics or four women. It’s very different but there’s no way to explain how it’s done, you just have to know comedy.

Marty: And we’re wholly unimpressed by popularity, oddly enough. We have agents telling us all the time “you have to book this guy” but if it’s not the right style of comedy, it just falls flat with us. Who is the guy we always bring up, the ventriloquist?

Jeff Dunham?

Marty: Yeah, he’s insanely popular but we’d never do it.

I hate him. It’s either rational or irrational, but I truly hate him.

Marty: I think he’s a close-minded dick. He’s the blue-collar comedy guy who just happened to dress up as a ventriloquist.

Jodi: Or that Terry Fator guy, who got like $100,000,000 after he won “America’s Got Talent”. Now he’s in Vegas and we have to ask “who wants to see these ventriloquist acts?”

Marty: We get so many messages that say “you gotta book this Jeff Dunham guy.” First off, he’s outrageously expensive because of his popularity, and then he’s just sitting there pointing out the brown people in the audience and saying “you guys talk funny and don’t allow us drive big cars.” I don’t know how funny that really is. Maybe we lose part of our audience because of that…

Jodi: We definitely lose part of our audience because of that but we don’t want them anyway because they’re not going to like the rest of the comics that we like. We like “unpopular” comics.

Marty: The very first year, we had the slate open to us because we hadn’t done this before. The very first year we had Jim Gaffigan as our headliner and Demetri Martin, who at that time was relatively undiscovered, David Crowe was our opener and Mike Birbiglia. That was a fricking lineup right out of the gate.

Again, because you have this overarching theme that they have to be able to be on the radio, they’re all very clean comics. The next year was Jake Johannsen, Tom Papa and Maria Bamford, also very clean. It wasn’t that we designing it that way, we like people we can have on the radio.

The problem now is that there’s a certain level of expectation. Was it year five?

Jodi: Four. Greg Giraldo.

Marty: Year four, when we brought Greg Giraldo. Holy crap. Greg Giraldo came up to me just before he went on stage, who by the way missed his plane and was high on something not ten minutes before he was to go on stage. I told his agent, “I’m not sure if we can book Greg Giraldo. We love, love his comedy but we’re not sure he’s reliable enough to book him". His agent insisted he’s reliable and he’s clean. That morning we got a call saying he missed his flight but he was going to make it. We kept getting updates like “his plane landed” after the show started and that was the show the governor was at – and not only was she in the show, she stayed for a while. The first two acts were relatively clean. Greg Giraldo asks me just before he was to go onstage, “Marty, I say ‘goddamn it’ in my routine is that okay?” and I said that it’s no problem and there’s nothing to worry about. He was totally yanking my chain because he goes out there and starts making jokes about koala bears giving him head.

Jodi: Goddamn it.

He was a lot of people’s favorites and a lot of other people said he went too far.

Marty: That’s what’s so amazing about him. He’s Harvard-educated and really, really smart, but filthy as hell. He gets away with that with me because his presentation is so smart. He’s not just copping out with a swear word.

Every year, there’s this angst with how far across that imaginary line are these comics going to go. We have no fear about Kyle Cease or Nick Thune and Jeff Garlin…

Jodi: We just don’t know.

Marty: Have you ever seen the routine of that horrible comedian Bob Saget? The whole Bob Saget phenomenon is like “here’s my chance to cut loose” but he’s not even funny.

But people think he’s funny because they used to watch “Full House.”

Marty: Right. It’s out of character for him, what’s going on? So we don’t know what to expect from Jeff Garlin.

Jodi: I think he’ll be pretty clean.

Marty: And then Bill Burr, we just don’t know.

Jodi: His routine is about having sex with koalas. Goddamn it.

Marty: Are we still on the first question?

I think second.

Jodi: We don’t get to talk to anyone anymore.

Marty: I don’t bathe.

Jodi: Marty never bathes.

There’s been a lot of people whose careers have taken off after playing Funny Festivals, like Demetri Martin and Flight of the Conchords, is discovering new talent important to the success of the Funny Festival?

Marty: I just look at “can they make me laugh?” There’s a certain style of the presentation where I think they have to have a certain confidence on stage. Now, ever since Flight of the Conchords, who established a trajectory that is a little hard to maintain. We now need at least one marquee name. In the early days we didn’t need it, and I’m not sure if we even do now because I’m not sure that people are buying tickets for Jeff Garlin or Bill Burr, I think they’re going because they’ve gone in the past and were never disappointed and that’s why we’re going again. We need to remind ourselves of that but early on we get nervous and go “we need one name that people recognize.”

Jodi: There’s a specific formula. There’s a list of agents that represents millions of comics, so there’s millions of options but Marty will say no, it’s black and white. Some people I think are fine and very funny but Marty will just say no.

Marty: And there’ll be people in the back of my head that I think will be a dream to get and then it doesn’t work out for several reasons. It is a Rubik’s Cube that you need to solve. You need to find a venue that is available and then you have to find comics. We always had an A, B and C list and try to fill it up, but when we’d fill it up with maybe two B’s but no A’s or an A but no B and then we’d need to change a date and we’d lose our A.

Have you ever repeated an act?

Marty: One guy, Mike Birbiglia. We didn’t announce it the second time, or sell it on his name. We announced a super, secret guest. People had no idea what was going to happen until he came out on stage and surprised everyone.

There’s always an expectation of what to expect at a music show, but when we put on our comedy shows, there’s a buzz in the audience before the show because they don’t know what to expect. It’s wonderful. There’s not a comedian that plays one of our shows that doesn’t tell us afterwards “that’s the best show I ever performed.” The audience is so into it that you could hear a pin drop in between the jokes because they don’t want to miss a single thing. People are almost getting angry when people are laughing because they don’t want to miss the next joke.

Jodi: And all the comics are watching each other from sidestage instead of sitting up in their dressing rooms waiting for their call times. It really does feel like a family affair. All of the comics, from the opener to the headliner, do their set and sit and watch everybody else.

Marty: There are certain comics that start out as skeptics, who sign on to the show by their agent and when we meet them for the first time, I tell them before they go on that they’re going to love this crowd and they say it’s like another crowd, but it’s so true. They walk into this room and everyone is into it and laughing and having a good time. It’s almost unheard of. Now watch, this’ll be the one where the wheels come off.

There are two comedians (Kyle Cease and Nick Thune) that have local ties. Is that important to you when deciding who to book?

Marty: It should be but funny is much more important. Maybe I’m a comedy snob but there are a dozen or so local comedians who show up on the bill of every comedy show because people ask say “we want to do a comedy show, who can we get?” and it’s always one of those twelve. Nothing against those twelve because they’re all probably very funny - but it gives the show a certain vibe. “Oh, it’s this local show with the same comedians.” I don’t want to name names but every decade there is a group of comics who make the local clubs, so we’re very careful that when we put people on the bill we don’t put people that they’ve seen before. Nick Thune and Kyle Cease have grown way beyond Seattle. It’s nice that they’re from Seattle, but that’s not what we were going for.

Jodi: It’s cool, though.

Marty: It’s very cool but that wasn’t what we were going for, we just really liked their material.

Win tickets to the Marty Riemer Funny Fest at the Paramount

ChrisB — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:46:55 +0000

There are few things in this world that make me laugh as hard or as regularly as the HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm", so it should surprise exactly no one that I'm really looking forward to seeing one of the stars, Jeff Garlin, next weekend (Janary 16) at the Paramount as part of former KMTT morning show host Marty Riemer's "Funny Fest" (which also features the very funny comedians Kyle Cease, Brian Burr and Nick Thune).

For our first ticket giveaway of 2010, we are thrilled to give away a pair of tickets to the show to one of our lucky TIG readers and their guest. It's simple, just send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com sometime between now and 9am next Monday morning (January 11) with "FunnyFest" in the subject line and we'll draw a winner's name at random and notify you shortly thereafter.

The Swell Season: soul decimation and really cute buttons.

imaginary victoria — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:14:13 +0000

22 Nov 2009

swell_season_01.jpg

Somewhere in the midst of plush seating, complete and utter emotional annihilation, and a sea of gorgeous cartoon owl-laced merchandise lies this fall's Swell Season tour. Showcasing to many a seated theater across the states behind last month's release of Strict Joy, Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova, and ninety-nine percent of the Frames swept last Sunday's crowd at the Paramount through one of the most compelling sets I've seen in recent years. Moving seamlessly from duo opener to full band to solo-singer-in-a-spotlight and back again, the show that these honest, earnest musicians put on was nothing short of true genius.

Glen and Marketa took the lead for the bulk of the opening songs (hence the sea of Glen photos), and proceeded to filter in the rest of the Frames for another half-dozen songs before Glen took solo center-stage rights mid-set. And this, as they say, is where the proverbial magic happened. What happened during Glen's solo piece of the performance rivaled even his mindbending set in Austin this past summer -- complete with a series of broken strings, a raging Van Morrison cover, and a rendition of "Say it to Me Now" microphone-free from the very front edge of the stage. Unlike some recent seated performances we've attended lately, this crowd was rapt -- absolutely and utterly rapt -- with attention for every moment of every song. And in-between fighting off a full-on sob festival and losing my lens cap, I took note (and very much appreciated) the lockdown that the Paramount staff imposed on seating, ushering in a few people every three songs or so and only during breaks in the performance.

Thanks to our inner fifteen-year-old fangirls and an Olympic-worthy range of arm's reach, I was happily presented with the setlist post-show. To wit:

Falling From the Sky
Lies
Low Rising
In These Arms
The Rain
The Moon
If You Want Me
Fantasy Man
Say it to Me Now
Leave
Backbroke
Astral Weeks [!!!!!]
Colm [violin solo]
Rise
The Verb
I Have Loved You Wrong
Once
When Your Mind's Made Up
---
Falling Slowly
Shannon
(New Song)
High Horses
Thomas
Red Chord

The true, raw emotion of the night coupled with a gorgeous stage setup and a flawless, get-this-person-a-raise kind of sound left us breathless, with hearts happily wounded and the photographs to prove it:

{Make sure you check out the rest of the shots from Sunday's show in the imaginary flickr pool!}

The Pixies slayed me

Imaginary Shrie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:27:38 +0000

I went to the Pixies show last Friday night highly excited, but not knowing exactly what to expect. Accounts of the previous night's performance were nothing but positive, so I let myself look forward to the experience. I hoped to see one of the bands that shaped my outlook on music today, and NOT be disappointed in how they sounded and the show they put on.

This time, my doubtless anticipation was completely appropriate. Kim Deal, Frank Black, Joey Santiago and David Lovering not only looked exactly like they had in promo pics from ten or fifteen years before, they also SOUNDED just like they do on their records. Dare I say, even better!

This isn't a formal live show review, but I couldn't resist throwing my two cents in about the show. I couldn't believe how well Frank Black screeched, how creamy and gorgeous Kim's voice was, how impeccably amazing Santiago's solos were and just how damn precise and punctuating Lovering's drumming was. Frank and Kim may hate each other but they make sweet, sweet music. I shed a tear at that show... a tear of amazement and of awe for a band that helped shape who I am today.

Win tickets to see the Swell Season at the Paramount!

imaginary victoria — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:47:43 +0000

This not a test. I repeat: this is not a test. This is an actual ticket giveaway. (It's so good, I almost thought that we were kidding.)

The Swell Season will be stopping by the Paramount this Sunday, touring in support of Strict Joy which hit the shelves a few weeks ago at record stores across the States. The lucky winner will not only receive a pair of 14th row floor seats (!!!), but they'll also get a print of this limited edition tour poster made just for the Seattle date of the tour. Email tig@threeimaginarygirls.com with the subject line "StrictJoyInSeattle" to get in the running!

For anyone out-of-town that can't catch a Swell Season date on their relentless upcoming tour schedule, here's the link to Glen and Marketa's recent visit to NPR. (Click "Listen Now" at the top of the page for the full twelve minute interview on "All Things Considered".) I often will quip that performances like these are pull-the-car-over-and-stop kind of amazing, and that's exactly what this performance caused me to do. If you have the time, it's well worth the watch for both the sings and the interview. Enjoy!

Regina Spektor at the Paramount tonight

ChrisB — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:11:28 +0000

Although I often post here about how much I love Regina Spektor (an awful lot), I don't do it without good reason. Tonight, she'll be playing at the Paramount and I couldn't be more thrilled.

She's an unconventional songwriter whose songs don't always follow a structure and she can go from abrasive to sweet and gentle and back in matter of a seconds. One of her concerts is like reading a series of short stories - each song has a different perspective or tone or ideology; although her newest album, Far, is the most emotional, it's tough to say that it's the most personal. Live, she's perfectly lovely and charming and isn't afraid to pull songs out of her entire catalogue (I think each time I've seen her play, she's performed "Baby Jesus" - see below - although it hasn't appeared on one of her albums).

Have I also mentioned that she's really lovely?

Win tickets to see Regina Spektor at the Paramount

ChrisB — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:06:39 +0000

Did I just type that headline? Really??

It's true, we have a pair of tickets to give away to a VERY lucky TIG reader to see my queen of rock and/or roll at the Paramount on November 3. Regina Spektor is one of my very favorite artists as she her combine nonlinear songwriting with a harmony that is lovely when it needs to be and jarring when it's called for.

Win tickets to see Monsters of Folk (and find out if M. Ward continues to be the last hold out on Monster beardedness)

imaginary liz — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:06:58 +0000

It pains me that I'll be out of town the night that Monsters of Folk take the Paramount Theater stage on Thursday, October 15, so I want a lucky imaginary reader to go and weep and cheer and love it all in my place.

Want to be my stand in? Email tig@threeimaginarygirls.com with the subject line "I will be your monster of folk" by Wednesday night at 9pm (PST) and you'll be entered in the drawing for the pair of tickets to the (I hear they are going to be really really good seats too!).

If you want, when you email me your entry, let me know how long you think M. Ward is going to be able to stay clean shaven after prolonged exposure to his hairy band mates. I am guessing that Conor Oberst only held out for a few days into the recording of the album. His artist demeanor and devil may care attitude lends itself well to skipping the shaving cream morning sauce.

To confirm that I haven't taken this scheduling mishap lightly on my part, I've watched these two videos over and over to nurse my broken Oberst Ward'd heart:

Awesome Monster of Folk on Monster of Folk interview:

My favorite song from the new really rad 'cause it grows on you Monsters of Folk album:

Photoessay: So happy to be sad with the Avett Brothers & Heartless Bastards

imaginary victoria — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:19:11 +0000

28 Aug 2009

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Ever since I caught wind of "Tear Down the House" off of 2008's The Second Gleam, I've had a thing for the Avett Brothers. They're alt.americana without too much hippie folk, a deconstructed version of a front porch jugband full of new-old soul singers, a sort of modernized country-toned heartbreak festival without a single strum of twang. Epic, pen-to-paper lyrics fall in waves like clean white sheets, settling down on top of skilled fingerpicking and down-home harmonies. In short: these guys are gorgeous. The Avett Brothers are simple enough on some base levels to appeal to the casual listener, warm enough for the dreadlocked touring free-love set, and layered enough with lyrics to stop even the most jaded music critics right in their tracks.

Touring with the release of I and You and Love, this quartet took the crowd at the Paramount through a beautiful set last Friday. The songs they chose never got too-foot stompy, and at the same time never strayed too far from the rootsy base of their catalog. Just as staggeringly lovely was the set put on prior to theirs by Heartless Bastards, who wound up being the Avett's perfectly paired up companions to warm up and wow the diverse crowd. The lead female vocalist was strong and ballsy with her tone, one part Neko Case to four parts grit, with a foundation of grunge-girl inflection that juxtaposed with some Patsy Cline records and old-timey radio shows. The other three-fourths of the band took on an equally powerful stage presence, even without any additional backing vocals. Together, Heartless Bastards translated extremely well -- it was clear that all four of them belived in every note they played, and it was a pleasure to watch both bands get behind their respective performances with earnestness and confidence.

Heartless Bastards about to blow away the Paramount this Friday, August 28

Chris Estey — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:37:00 +0000

For those who have seen the Heartless Bastards live at in-stores and local clubs and love their tough woman-led, riff-bruised blues-rock, their stint opening for the Avett Brothers this Friday, August 28 will be special: Their soaring songs should echo through the Paramount Theater with astonishing results.

Returning again on tour (do they ever stop touring?) for The Mountain, an underrated, really-grows-on-you collection of anthems bolder and more honest than indie rock can usually bare, Erika Wennerstrom delivers clarity-driven songs about compromise, sorrow, and mindfulness like spitfire. After a few listens, compelling imagery enfold sin her punchily strummed and feedback-infused narratives, from the clarity-seeking lamentations of "I Could Be So Happy," to the brawling bar-rock of "Early In The Morning." Title title track as well mesmerized the audience at the last Sonic Boom live freebie show a few months ago.