Three Imaginary Girls - The Showbox

See Sia at the Showbox tonight

ChrisB — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:14:29 +0000

I hadn't paid too much attention to the music of Sia Furler until I started managing her home country, Australia, in the Pop World Cup. After going back and listening to her very good and breakthrough 2008 album Some People have Real Problems, I found myself impressed, but even more so with her next album, We Are Born.

We Are Born is scheduled for release in early June, but I've already gotten hooked on the first single, "Clap Your Hands". It's a deliciously fun bubblegum pop song with a chorus that gets stuck in your head for days, even if it is mostly repeating the title over and over again. The song, though, isn't as simple as it sounds, the bridge is particularly memorable and the production gives it a layer of sophistication that makes you think it's one of the best songs early in 2010 and should remain that way at least through the summer. That Perez Hilton also endorsed Sia's music is not her fault and certainly shouldn't be held against her.

Tonight, she'll be playing those songs live at the Showbox at the Market with Body Language (21+, $23) before finding her way down the west coast to the Coachella festival this weekend.

Win a signed CD from, and tickets to see, Florence and the Machine on April 15

three imaginary girls — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 05:20:22 +0000

Next week (April 15 to be exact), the much-buzzed-about UK avant-pop act Florence and the Machine will be in town to surely please the audience at the Showbox at the Market.

As though it wasn't exciting enough, we have a pair of tickets to giveaway to see Florence, along with a signed copy of her excellent debut album Lungs. If you want win this wonderful prize package, just send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com before 9am on Monday, April 12 with "Florence's Lungs" in the subject line. The show is all ages, so anyone can enter.

Photos from last night's (incredible) Raphael Saadiq show

ChrisB — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:13:05 +0000

Last night's Raphael Saadiq show was pretty amazing, truth be told. His band sounded great, covering hits by The Fifth Dimension, as well as spanning most of Saadiq's career. The crowd loved every second of it. It really was the type of show that people who weren't there should have made excuses to themselves for missing the show that was captivating nearly every second Saadiq was on stage.

Fortunately, the excellent photographer Jason Tang was on hand to capture the show with his SLR. Below are a few of my favorite photos of Saadiq and opener Anjulie:

Tonight's recommended show: Raphael Saadiq at the Showbox

ChrisB — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:00:41 +0000

In the days and weeks after Bumbershoot, the question of "who was the best act you saw [during the three day festival over Labor Day weekend]?" came up often and my answer was always Raphael Saadiq. The soul singer's two sets I saw (one being in the KEXP music lounge) were incredible to watch. He was backed by a tight (and sharply dressed) band playing some of the most irresistable funk and soul you're likely to here. He sounded sincere both when singing in lust like during "Let's Take a Walk" and paying tribute to victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Beardo's sleazy hip hop world

ChrisB — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:39:24 +0000

There can be parts of an artist’s story that makes any critic steer clear. In the case of Beardo, finding that he’s a white rapper who rolls with Mickey Avalon should be enough to make me pass on him and be held blameless. Yet, I took a chance to listen to a few songs after someone I trust recommended him by mentioning that he was the opening act on Snoop Dogg’s most recent tour and was compared him favorably to Paul’s Boutique-era Beastie Boys (which I guess is a starting point for every Caucasian dude who thinks they can rhyme).

When you listen to Beardo’s music, you hear stories of LA junkies, lowlifes and losers mixed in with his own paranoia; drugs are often involved. After a few minutes spent with his single “John Lennon”, I found myself singing along with the ridiculous (and ridiculously catchy) chorus. Beardo’s music has a consistent narrative where his sleazy background and style gels with the ne’er-do-wells he rhymes about. Beardo puts the conversations you overhear at bus stops to a verse and his rough delivery fits with the scene he’s documenting. The beats Beardo uses are as sleazy as he probably is but they fit with what he’s getting across. “Snort Your Drugz” has him spitting out his own verses over the beat to MIA’s “Paper Planes”.

Flickr photo of the day: Mayor Nickels

ChrisB — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:02:37 +0000

When I saw the thumbnail of this photo of outgoing Mayor Greg Nickels in the TIG Flickr pool, I thought the mayor was holding a tambourine. No, he's presenting an award at the first Seattle City of Music Awards at the Showbox to Fleet Foxes.

I couldn't make it to the awards show on Wednesday night and with Nickels losing his bid for a third term in the primary last month, I wondered if the next mayor will be in the same place next year handing out a similar award to another band. Nickels had a complex relationship with music and nightlife and his legacy will likely be mixed, but overall, it was mostly positive. Under Nickels' watch the Vera Project found a permanent home at Seattle Center, the restrictive Teen Dance Ordinance was overturned (a campaign promise he kept) and the City of Music Initiative was launched. The petty campaign against the Blue Moon Tavern and the indefensible "Operation Sobering Thought" sting (a fortunate failure) both likely originated from puritanical city attorney Tom Carr's office (who is up for reelection this fall).

Thanks for putting the photo in the TIG Flickr pool spratt504!

If you were headed to the Passion Pit show tonight...

ChrisB — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:44:56 +0000

...you might as well just stay in because it has been postponed due to illness. No reschedule date has been announced yet, but the official word is that one is forthcoming and your tickets for tonight will be honored.

Win tickets to see Passion Pit - hurry!

ChrisB — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:36:17 +0000

If you want to see the very-sold out Passion Pit show at the Showbox on Sunday, we have a pair of tickets to give away to one of our lucky readers. The tickets literally just arrived in the mail, so there isn't much time. To win, just send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com with "Passion" in the subject line and your mailing address in the body by 3pm today, Wednesday, October 7. We'll notify the winner shortly thereafter and I'll head to the post office immediately after that.

Semi Precious Weapons and Ladyhawke overshadow Perez Hilton (fortunately)

ChrisB — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:47:12 +0000

28 Sep 2009

Perez Hilton’s leap into the music business is, in nearly every way imaginable, a complete failure. He was given his own imprint at Warner Brothers and thus far, his only signing was a French pop star named Sliimy, who was already on a European imprint of Warner – this meant that the former Mario Lavandeira turned catty gossip blogger has basically been used to give an American promotional boost to an artist already part of the label, not his own discovery. It’s looking more and more like a tax write-off than anything else. When Hilton got into a spat that turned modestly violent with Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am at a Canadian music awards show, he got little sympathy from any existing artists. In fact, quite the contrary, the most critical people were known musicians. Despite those setbacks (did I mention Black Book magazine pointed out that nearly every musician Hilton supported on his site was already written about favorably on the in the indispensible British music site PopJustice?), Hilton jumped in feet-first to promote his first musical tour.

The tour has been, unsurprisingly, a disaster as well. It’s sort of unfortunate because many of the acts on the bill are actually pretty good. One of the headliners was the Norwegian star Ida Maria, who has a rock and roll swagger, pop hooks and often piercing and emotional lyrics. She suffered a meltdown on stage at the Boston show, the fourth on the tour. She was replaced by Seattleites Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head.

When the time came for the Seattle show, last Monday night, it was at the Showbox at the Market, an 1100 capacity venue that was nowhere near close to being full. I believe it was the smallest crowd I’ve ever seen at that particular club. All but one bar was open and there was never more than a person or two in front of you to get a drink. I heard the guestlist for the show was a mile long, with hundreds and hundreds of names, but very few people ended up showing up. I also heard that the Showbox eventually started letting people in without a ticket. That’s normally an event that would upset the people who bought tickets for the show in advance, but I doubt there were that many people to get upset.

The two out of town acts on this tour, Semi Precious Weapons and Ladyhawke, deserve better (NPSH does too, but I’ve been seeing them play smaller shows for years, so there was a little bit of pride seeing them play one of the bigger clubs in town – even if it was on a Monday, before a small crowd).

Semi Precious Weapons is a glam rock band, where both the words “glam” and “rock” should be capitalized. After witnessing a few minutes of their lead singer Justin Tranter, I tweeted that he is what would happen if “Jack Shears [of the Scissor Sisters] ever knocked up Kevin Barnes [of, uhh, of Montreal] (or vice versa, I suppose)”. Tranter is catty and seems to love the attention that being a rock star provides.

The obvious thing, though, is that he treats his sexuality as a fluid commodity. Sexuality is the driving force behind Tranter, who told the crowd at the Showbox “you’re all beautiful tonight; I bet everyone here is getting laid tonight; except you,” after pointing out a child in the crowd who couldn’t have been any older than seven or eight. He danced around the stage in a pair of stilettos whose heel was so thin they could be used as a weapon.

The band’s music is a heavier version of glam rock – maybe Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie with more power chords. They do rock – and the band put on an energetic, forty-minute set, with almost everyone in the crowd jumping around and moving about the stage. The guitarist ran into the crowd and played in the middle of the floor during the final song (“Magnetic Baby”). Tranter is an electrifying performer who paid little attention to the size of the crowd. Instead, he long ago realized that being a rock star means not having to back to your hotel alone, but being an exciting one meant he has a bigger crowd to choose from for who goes with him.

Ladyhawke, the New Zealand singer born Phillipa Brown, also made the best of a difficult situation. After there was a large exodus after Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head finished (those young kids had school the next morning!), Ladyhawke was playing to the thinnest the crowd was all night.

Ladyhawke, either Brown’s personae or the full band she fronts, have a dance rock sound, getting people to move on the floor while using power chords and a four-on-the-floor beat. She’s got some very catchy songs and certainly understands how to craft a hook.

Playing her first Seattle show ever, Ladyhawke went a few minutes beyond the stage curfew and played and added a couple of songs to their setlist (which I could see from where I was standing). I was a little disappointed that “Manipulating Woman” wasn’t on the setlist, but it served me right because when it was played, it was a very pleasant surprise and sounded great inside the Showbox.

I hadn’t written about NPSH much because I had already written about them a bit and this review is getting long enough as it is. I will just point out that one of the last times I had seen them play was a sold out show at the bigger Showbox Sodo, opening for my favorite pop star (and Hilton’s most outspoken – and funniest - critic) Lily Allen. There’s no doubt who got the last laugh there.

Perez Hilton’s name will hopefully be forgotten soon, but Semi Precious Weapons and Ladyhawke tried to see to it that their names would not be as well.

Girl Talk and a remix manifesto

Jeanine Anderson — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:35:14 +0000

Rip: A Remix Manifesto is a new-ish documentary film about the legality of remixes and mashups and features Gregg Gillis of Girl Talk as the poster child for open source licensing. Heading to Girl Talk's second Seattle show later tonight? Be an informed wild child and get a handle on the remix/mashup debate. There's some pretty good Girl Talk show footage, too.

Although the narrator has a strident tone at times, the documentary brings forward valuable insights and varying viewpoints on reuse and appropriation. Reuse and appropriation are not new nor the exclusive domain of music: Walt Disney appropriated the Buster Keaton character Steamboat Bill when creating his first Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie. In contemporary art, Yasumasa Morimura reinvents iconic art paintings and photographic images using subtle modification and not so subtle self-portrait elements.

Also appearing in the Rip documentary is one of my favorite authors and the technology culturist Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing). Doctorow is a strong supporter of creative commons licensing and many of his published books and short stories are freely available in various e-reader libraries.

NPSH replacing Ida Maria on the [redacted] tour; playing Showbox next Monday

ChrisB — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:52:10 +0000

It's been a tough go for the tour put together by [redacted] (a figure so loathesome I'm not going to mention his name here, although last time I did, I wrote approvingly of violence against him): it's been plagued by low ticket sales and one of the headliners, the insanely talented Norwegian pop star Ida Maria, dropped off the tour after a meltdown on-stage last week in Boston. There are two silver linings here: the first is that the lineup for this tour, which includes a stop next Monday (September 28) at the Showbox at the Market, still has a great lineup with Ladyhawke and glam rockers Semi Precious Weapons; the second is that Ida Maria is being replaced by Natalie Portman's Shaved Head for the remainder of the tour, which began for them last Friday in Chicago.

Junk Culture tonight (and Monday) with Girl Talk

ChrisB — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:54:27 +0000

If you're going to either of the Girl Talk shows tonight or Monday night, might I suggest getting there a little early to catch opener Junk Culture? Taking their name from an Orchestral Maneouvres in the Dark album, the project comes from Deepak Mantena and his laptop (live it features his brother Nitin on drums) and the project is not disimilar to Girl Talk, their tourmates and their Illegal Art labelmates. Deepak combines his songs with samples of random bits of noise here and there and combines them with electronics from his laptop and some instrumentation, all ran through a handheld recorder. Illegal Art be releasing the debut Junk Culture album, West Coast, late next month.

Imaginary Interview: Girl Talk

ChrisB — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:05:30 +0000

A Girl Talk show is a unique and unforgettable experience. It’s a chaotic dance party where the DJ is mobbed by fans desperate to dance on stage. All of this is welcomed by Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk), who has become one of the most discussed artists in music over the past several years.

Gillis crafts songs that are compiled with samples of (often) recognizable songs, maybe a vocal hook here or a bassline there or a drum fill from somewhere else. Somehow it sounds chaotic and random but also flows together cohesively. His most recent album, Feed the Animals found itself on a lot of critics’ top ten lists last year (including placing fifteenth overall in the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop poll). It was offered online for fans to download in June of 2008 for whatever price they wanted to pay, followed by a subsequent CD release in November.

Girl Talk has two upcoming Seattle shows, the first is on Friday, September 18 at the Showbox Sodo and sold out quickly and a second show was added on Monday, September 21 at the Showbox at the Market. In advance of those shows, I spoke with Gregg Gillis by phone about how he finds inspiration for sampling, his chaotic live shows and what he’s working on next.

When in the process of crafting songs do you realize that it will work to go from Quad City DJs to Kelly Clarkson, via Nine Inch Nails?

I don’t think I figure that out until later in the process. I might be listening to music and hear Quad City DJs and say that’s a classic song and I love that verse or you hear Nine Inch Nails’ “Wish” and realize that guitar riff is perfect and it’s isolated with no vocals over it and it’s very distinct. I can fill that in. When I listen to music, certain things come out. I can go home and sample and isolate those elements. I sample a lot more material than you actually hear at a show or on an album. I sample maybe ten songs for every one song I actually use. Maybe for a day, or a week, or a month, a very long period of time, I work on isolating pieces of songs and quantizing them and cutting them up.

Once I have a lot of them organized, I sit down, and using the software I use live, where I trigger samples and load in loops and change tempos and change different things; some things work together and better than others. From there, I work that into the show. I have new ideas where a new song came out of a new song. Maybe I don’t have too much nineties alternative music in the set so I use Nine Inch Nails’ “Wish” and it goes pretty well with Kelly Clarkson. Every weekend, I try to just integrate new parts into the set, small things each week - maybe a minute or thirty seconds, or whatever. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn’t, but you learn from that at each show. I try to work on everything, the transitions – how one thing flows into another, the peaks and valleys of the set – and slowly, over time, that evolves and takes shape. When I sit down to make an album I realize that this part goes really well with this part and things that became staples in sets become very normal to me because they work well. Other things I may play once and never play them again. I think by the time I actually do the album, it’s almost a juxtaposition of what I thought was the best material I thought from the performances.

When you play your live shows, do you start with a blank slate and fill in the samples from there?

It’s actually the opposite of a blank slate. I never wanted this to be something that was anywhere near complete improvisation or anything like a magic trick. If I feel like playing Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” right now and I’ll figure out something to throw on top of it on the fly. I trigger everything by hand and have samples queued up live and have hundreds and hundreds of loops. Because of that, the arrangements and organization kind of have to be set beforehand. I think of it more in terms of like a jam band where you have a set idea but there are places where you have to improvise. The idea that song A will layer on top of song B will layer on top of song C well, that is set and that’s in front of me. When I drop that or bring in the drums or how I transition in and out of there, how I cut it up on the fly, all of that stuff is improvised to a certain degree. I have elements in front of me and I can jump to this or jump to that, but there is a general organization to the arrangements before the show and it’s something that I rehearse and practice. For me, it’s always been about composition and the precision of the sets. I think a lot of times if you hear a set it sounds like a random group of samples but it’s a very calculated randomness. I wanted it to come across as eclectic and unpredictable. That’s also how I want the album to sound.

How do you listen to music to get ideas for what to sample? Do you flip through the radio dial and go from station to station?

I get in and out of different modes. At any given time I have a list in front of me of songs I want to get into my set and it never seems to dry up. If I’m looking for samples, I can go to that list. I’m always writing things down in my car or texting myself and keeping a text document going on the desktop of my computer. Outside of that, though, when I’m listening to music, I do just listen to Top 40 radio or check out a hip hop station or check out an oldies station. Sometimes, I’m also buying a lot of CDs. Sometimes I’ll be in a mood where I am not hunting for samples and sometimes I am really trying to change the setup at some point in my life. I still go out and buy a lot of CDs and when I pop in a CD into the car or at home and I’m listening to a full album, that’s less of a hunt for samples and more zoning out and listening to music. There are other times where I have a show coming up in Seattle, and I played there a little over a year ago and want to look into what I probably played at that show and how to change it up and may be hunting for specific samples for that. In that regard, I might get in the car and flip around and think maybe I need some new hip hop content and focus the radio there or maybe I need some sort of eighties content and focus it there. I definitely use the radio as a tool but, as I said before, there is such a never-ending list that it never gets to the point where I ask “what song am I going to sample next?” I have no idea and it just doesn’t end with the world of pop and Top 40.

When someone listens to your music, it’s often like hearing a history of pop music or pop culture over the past twenty or twenty five years, or so. You’ll find a song that is on the radio right this moment and sample it and maybe use a bassline that might be forty years old.

Absolutely. I basically sample from whatever I’m into. I don’t make a conscious effort to represent anything I’m not into. I’m not sampling anything for history’s sake or anything like that. I do like a lot of pop music, dating back to the fifties or sixties. Doing the shows and the albums, I like it to be as “all over the place” as possible; I love to have elements from the sixties mixed with elements from the nineties to now. In the world of pop music, you’re never going to fully represent everything. When people come out to the shows, the audience might not listen to the radio or listen to oldies as much as I do but that doesn’t necessarily matter. These are songs people maybe have heard a couple of times in the dentist’s office or in a TV commercial or whatever. I remember listening to a lot of hip hop as a kid and hearing James Brown samples and maybe hadn’t heard the actual song but you could tell where it was coming from or you can get a sense that it was a previously existing recording manipulated; I really liked that idea.

I do think a lot of your audience does recognize where the samples came from, even if they won’t admit to it immediately.

Yeah, I think it’s the sort of thing where I think the reaction is interesting to engage. With the show, it is such a chaotic environment where fans are drinking and talking and screaming and because of that, I feel like I’m a bit more aggressive or blatant. There might not be as many subtle elements as there are on an album. On an album, I can work in things that I think sound really great but wouldn’t have the same impact live without people knowing it. Certain things I put on an album, I know that people are going to hear that over and over again and become familiar with it. A lot of the more subtle elements are slightly more obscure and nothing is obscure in the world of pop or Top 40 but maybe a crowd I’m playing to likes slightly more obscure stuff. I love putting that on an album and that becomes a familiar thing even if it is an obscure song from 1978 and then I can drop that live and get a reaction. I don’t want a show to be where I am hitting them over the head with one extreme thing that they know after another.

Where did it start with people running on stage to dance behind and next to you?

It was a sort of thing that back in day, when I was getting started I’d play venues where there wasn’t a stage. Back then, it was very common to play on the floor and setup your stuff in the middle of people and I always really liked that. When I was starting to get some momentum with Girl Talk, which I think was around 2004, I started to play a lot more house parties and I wasn’t necessarily playing them as a traditional DJ-style of sitting in a corner cutting up tracks; it became an integral part [of the show]. It would be kind of weird as a performance that I would be set up in the middle playing and people would be around me during the show, playing fifteen or twenty minute sets. I was playing a lot of house parties but I was also playing a lot of clubs, opening up for hip hop groups or a rock band or whatever. It always made sense to me that “why couldn’t we have this energy or closeness” and I was bringing a couple of people on stage. For a brief period of time, I had people synchronized dancers on stage with me, but all of that was to break the ice. By the time I started to exist on a more national level, when Night Ripper came out, I already had the idea of pulling people up on stage already from those early shows, but that was the time when I was actually selling out venues that it just took off. Slowly it just evolved where people were jumping up without being asked and it grew to where it was happening at every show and now everyone wants to get up on stage now. That was never a decision of mine; it just naturally grew into that – and I liked it. I always liked the idea of that because it helps break the barrier between everyone. I like and appreciate that it grew almost [completely] by the fans’ decision. It’s almost like a mosh pit at a punk rock show where there’s a pre-determined etiquette and it evolved into that over the years.

I love the energy of those shows but I was always curious if it was hard to concentrate on the music and mixing your set while people are bumping into you.

Yeah, a little bit. When we were first starting out, it started to evolve where everyone was jumping up there and it was a different vibe then. There were just a few people up there and they were letting me do my thing but it became big enough where it was a little bit of a battle. When that started happening, there would be a lot of shows where a cord would be unplugged or someone would bump into me and mess me up or whatever, but that came with the turf. It wasn’t something I would want to happen at any show, but simultaneously, it was the sort of thing I welcome and I like the human element to it. It is the show and if someone screws me up, someone screws me up and I deal with it. It brings me back to that house party-sort of feel where someone knocks over the stereo and everyone boos but then when you get it back in line, everyone goes nuts.

I think over the past year or so we’ve fine tuned the operation to control the chaos. I actually have a tour manager for the first time and he helps out. I’m cool with people bumping into me but there was definitely a time when the shit could hit the fan and shows could be stopped prematurely, or lots of issues like that, but in the past year, that hasn’t been the case. People definitely mess me up to a certain degree, but I feel like it all adds to the character of the show.

I remember the last show I saw of yours was at the Capitol Hill Block Party last year and security controlled how many people were let on stage.

That was obvious a festival and for years I played shows and there was never a barricade in front of the stage and we always requested that there would be no barricade if the venue was small enough but it became unreasonable to have every single person come on stage. We kind of learned that the hard way but we try our hardest to make that possible, but there are just so many shows that got completely out of control or we had to just stop it. But for a festival like that, we’ll open the gate for a minute and people up front can run up and be a part of a show. But for something like that, with a crowd of that size, you can’t just let it become a free for all. It would just become too much.

I know I’m almost out of time, but I wanted to ask what are you working on now? A similar album to your last two, Night Ripper and Feed the Animals, or something completely different?

I don’t really know. At every stage, I’m always working on the live show and that goes to influence what goes on the albums. Right now I have a lot of new material for the live show that I’m pumped about but I haven’t even thought about sitting down to make an album yet. I want to make sure things are evolving into a certain direction and moving forward. I definitely think that there was a clear transition between Feed the Animals and Night Ripper and I thought that was a step forward, production-wise. I’m not necessarily concerned with the next album yet, but I am sitting on a lot of new material and that will probably go on to become something. Right now I’m just thinking about the shows next weekend. I also do remixes with a friend named Frank (Mussara) and we have a project called Trey Told ‘Em and that’s been a little more active recently, doing remixes. We just finished up a remix for Kings of Leon and we’re working on a few other things. That’s more of a traditional, solicited remix; that’s something I’d definitely like to develop more. Girl Talk is definitely at the forefront, but this is something I’ve had some time to toy with over the past few months.

Gaga for Lady Gaga

Imaginary Muller — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:19:02 +0000

16 Mar 2009

3364197693_72667ae830_o.jpg

You can't turn on the radio these days without hearing one of her songs. That kind of saturation, with this level of talent, leads to a show that sells out the Showbox at the Market in minutes.

Lady Gaga doesn't just perform her songs on stage, she puts on an entire avant garde production. She emerges from the fog as her 3-part LED screen display splits apart after a video introduction proclaiming, “Haus of Gaga Presents”, she greets the audience like a recently landed life-form from another planet...nay, another galaxy welcoming them to the Fame Ball Tour.

Wielding her disco stick, Lady Gaga played through her hits with strong choreography to the delight of the all ages crowd. They were especially rowdy during “Just Dance” and “Poker Face”. Many in the audience took cues from Lady Gaga's Manhattan-driven fashion and dressed the part...oddly enough, many with their parents in tow.

After my requisite few songs to photograph, I decided to call it a night. Some of my friends said that she played on for over an hour and that it was well worth it. Lady Gaga continued her tour in Portland the following night.

Check out more photos from the show here!

She greets the audience like a recently landed life-form from another planet

DeVotchka, Norfolk & Western, and Kid Hops... what?

imaginary victoria — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:11:27 +0000

31 Dec 2008

DSC_0182.jpg

I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about the new year's eve lineup at the Showbox last week. Having never seen DeVotchKa live, I knew I was in for a treat; and Norfolk & Western have long since been one of my best friend's all-time favorites. But Kid Hops? It just didn't seem to match. There had been some rumors afoot that he got the party started right when he performed outside the box of his weekly KEXP reggae-centric show, so I was cautiously optimistic. But there was still a part of me wondering if it would all match.

Was I ever wrong. I am here to report that Kid Hops does, in fact, rock the West Coast Party. His progressive, smooth beats had even the most cement indie-prone feet dancing, and he also managed to create a little magic, at least for me: I suddenly realized that I was ringing in the new year at a killer show, with good friends, shooting for this site, dancing. It set off a gleeful, sparkly, super-fun tone for the rest of the night.

Norfolk & Western, as we tweeted and shouted to each other throughout the set, might be one of the tightest, most seamless bands I've ever seen take a stage. That's not to say that plenty of bands aren't fluid, or do their fair share of practicing. It's just that these folks must be doing something outside of that, like sharing a home. Their intuitive response to each other's direction throughout every song was tangible and impressive, and left us reeling. Had they played two hours and headlined the night, it would have sufficed.

And then, DeVotchKa. Glorious, tuba-wielding, epic DeVotchKa. It was one of those sets I went into knowing that it would be good, being a newer fan and somewhat familiar with the albums, and riding on everything I'd read and heard about their live performances. But none of that could have possibly prepared me for the level of swoon that commenced as they began to play. It seemed then, and still now, completely impossible that so much could be pouring off the stage and through the speakers from four people. Four. If I closed my eyes (as I did, a few times) I would have sworn there were a dozen performers in front of me, for the sheer amount of energy and orchestral bliss that was created.

I fell completely, totally, head-over-heels in love with DeVotchKa. Not with the lead singer, not with the drummer, not with the tiny lights strung inside the tuba -- but with the thing that happened when they began to play. I mean, seriously. At one point, as I was shooting the first few songs, my knees actually went weak during a particularly sweet spot during "Queen of the Surface Streets". It was amazing.

So, here's to ending 2008 and starting 2009 with a show that makes my top ten (for both years) hands down. Cheers!

A seemingly eclectic line-up rings in the new year just right for this imaginary girl.

The Long Winters: Live at the Showbox DVD, view & re-view

imaginary victoria — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:33:25 +0000

TLW_DVD_Showbox_cover.jpg

As a photographer, especially in the context of a live performance, I perpetually want to capture that stellar snapshot - that one moment to show the world what the night with a particular band meant, and how it all felt. Some nights it's an angle of a guitar neck, some nights a fan mid-swoon or a singer backlit by a halo from a can light... something that makes us able to feel the very dirt of the stage under our fingertips, and to hear the notes ringing out through the venue. Photographs, while limited in their two-dimensional capacity, give us the power and ability to share that, at least on some levels. It lets us pass around a thing to each other, and go, "Here. Here it is. This is the bliss we all experienced. Look. It was so delicious."

From time to time people come along, and they do that thing just right. And this time, it's courtesy of Adam Pranica and everyone over at Dorsia Films. This very slice of deliciousness - a sold-out show, a perfect night in Seattle, the reason we live here - has been captured both flawlessly and organically in The Long Winters: Live at the Showbox. Filmed on an April night back in 2007 as part of Through With Love (the Long Winters documentary that's currently in process by the same folks), Live at the Showbox translates all that bliss to us in a beautiful, finely-tuned package.

This limited release DVD is everything that's right, real, gritty, messy, sweaty, and amazing about a live show - specifically, a live Long Winters show - in a band's hometown. The lights of the Showbox marquee on the interior of the perfectly sparse packaging basically bleed into the opening scene, as you go from the dark sidewalk outside the venue to the shine of the front row. There's a palpable joy in the song and stature of the band as they begin to serenade the crowd - singing to us, to Seattle - the most fitting opening lines, lines like "Can you wait? Can you stand it?" and "You set us both on fire."

Fans and casual listeners alike will appreciate the thoughtful framing, ranging from singular close-ups to full-stage shots to mid-floor, side-stage and back again. There's even real-time flare from the can lights in the lenses. And the sound - The Sound - whether it's huge guitars or clear, quiet ballads; regardless of instrument or microphone: this film has sound quality that can't be beat (and had us stopping to rig up our stereo speakers one song into the set because anything less would have been an injustice). There's so many perfect little moments, cover tunes, kazoos, a horn section... There's even a few guest appearances - most notably by Ben Gibbard, where the split-screen view we've had thus far of Nabil Ayers and John Roderick pays off in a huge way, and the now infamous stick-dropping scene from the preview is captured in a way you'd swear had been choreographed. It's that good.

Even as someone who's not acquainted with the Long Winters, you'll do yourself a favor to pick this DVD up, not only for the spectacular songwriting and performance that the rest of us know this band consistently delivers, but also for a snapshot into a truly stellar night in our sparkling city. If you are a fan, and are debating whether to add this to your library, please allow me just a moment here to gush: you guys, seriously. What a ____ing good show this is! I danced in my living room, I swooned briefly, I turned it up so loud that my neighbors (and their neighbors) could hear every guitar wank and every extended adjective. The lead into "Sky Is Open" practially had me removing various undergarments and throwing them at the screen (it's true, that's a direct quote from my notes) and "Unsalted Butter" might just do you in permanently. By the time the set got around to the encore - a Chicago song!!! - forget about it. I was actually clapping, sitting on the floor of my apartment, with total unabashed glee.

Ahem. To wit, here's the set list:

Scared Straight / Fire Island, AK / Stupid / Scent of Lime / Rich Wife / Unsalted Butter / Sky is Open / Clouds / Seven / Cinnamon / Car Parts / Honest / Blue Diamonds / Fresh Emotion / Teaspoon / Departure / The Commander Thinks Aloud / New Girl / Feeling Stronger Everyday

As if all of this weren't enough, there's a great commentary track, as well as a trailer for the DVD, and a featurette for Through With Love. And again, with the thoughtful design - you can even configure the high quality sound to your specific settings, for a fully customized listening experience.

In short, and in closing: all the stars, all the thumbs, all the affirmative review standards ensue. Pick it up soon, as previously mentioned, because this pressing is limited, and you're going to want to say you had it when. The Long Winters: Live at the Showbox will be hitting record stores next Tuesday, December 9th, and of course will be available for ordering through Barsuk. And as is customary, here's all the gratuitous additional linkage: you can keep tabs on the progress of the Long Winters documentary here, and you can hear John Roderick talking with Cheryl Waters on KEXP's Midday show next Tuesday (the same day as the Live at the Showbox release) here. Don't forget about this show coming up at the Tractor next Saturday, and of course, all things Long Winters can be found here, here, here, and here.

See you out at the shows, where I'll be in the front row trying to do the bands I love one-tenth the justice that's been done in this film. The ground will, in fact, be proud just to hold these people up.

The ground will, in fact, be proud just to hold this up.

Why Squeeze Matters

Chris Estey — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:24:07 +0000

Everyone I knew owned Singles 45 & Under because it was one of the best deals you could get; for the cost of a single LP you had about six or seven singles that would never lose their flavor, ever.

In defense of Robin Williams

Chris Estey — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:17:25 +0000

Look, he annoys the hell out of me, too...

Colin Meloy goes it alone

elle — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:53:53 +0000

2 May 2008

colinmeloy08may3.jpg

Replete from all musical accompaniment save for his own voice and an acoustic guitar, Colin Meloy proved to be one of the few regarded figures missing from modern society--a true storyteller, full of conviction and speaking in the truth of human nature. While he was once a key entertainer and keeper of histories, the verbal storyteller has gone to the wayside for television and quick to digest tidbits catered for the common affliction of "ADD".

Let us get the record straight here: I cannot get into the Decemberists, no matter how hard I try. There's nothing notably wrong with them per se, but I have not been able to sit through an entire one of their songs. Yet, the one thing I agree with in all the ravings is the masterful way a story is told through the lyrical talents contained in the songs. Taken out of the elements of which I do not enjoy them and put in the single hands of their creator, the tales written by Colin Meloy performed in such a bare way as his solo set were gripping to my heart. Watching him perform for a sold-out Showbox on a Friday night, it seemed the whole world was twinkling, although I'm sure the candlelit bar had nothing to do with it.

Meloy's inflections are curious; aside from reviving a near defunct form of narrative, his voice is not from this era either. As his prose filled the air, I felt moved to inwardly reflect in a darkened moment or be out away from civilization taking in the beauty of the natural world. Across the open room, the younger in attendance were captivated, lingering on his every word. It was said he was flawless, and truly, despite forgetting some of the words on nearly every other song, Meloy could not do the crowd wrong. Any mistake was laughed off and covered up with the crowd already singing along, picking up the errors.

Much to my dismay he did not play "We Both Go Down Together," the eternal love story I fell for while listening to his solo NPR recording. He pulled out three part "The Island: Come And See/The Landlord's Daughter/You'll Not Feel The Drowning." The crowd was held by the time keeping on "The Perfect Crime," undoubtedly the best part of the set. Laura Gibson, who was the entrancing opener and also not of this world, joined him for a duet just before the closing. Ending just around the hour mark, Meloy treated us to near expected encore, the first song a cover of Joanna Newsom.

Near the back in the seating area, I watched as older couples fell in love over the spirits, both the ones you drink and the supernatural entities he had created, they too caught up in the twinkle.

The B-52s' most welcome comeback

ChrisB — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:32:19 +0000

I've been meaning to post something about this for a couple of weeks now, but I am thoroughly enjoying Funplex, the first proper album from the B-52s in 16 years.

The album sounds exactly like you would expect a B-52s record to sound - it's a dance/pop/rock party with no pretension or inhibitions.