Day 2 of the Watershed Country Music Festival had eight artists performing on the Main and Next From Nashville stages. The pleasant Saturday was filled with music and activities for the many thousands of attendees. The photos are shown in reverse chronological order – from the headliners in the evening on each stage, to the openers in the early afternoon.
Capitol Hill Block Party – Fri. 7/19/19
~ Show Review & Photos by Lisa Hagen Glynn
Capitol Hill Block Party returned to Seattle on Friday, July 19th. For the uninitiated, CHBP is an annual three-day event that transforms six Seattle city blocks into a multi-stage indoor and outdoor music festival. What started in the late ‘90s as a neighborhood gathering has morphed into a destination party attended by about 30,000, replete with beer gardens, backyard games atop a green turf lawn, and street dancing. CHBP has earned a reputation as a place to catch up-and-coming local bands just before they hit the national scene.
Here are some Friday highlights:
At the Vera Stage, this four-piece L.A. “tenderpunk” band brought lots of energy and cute lyrics (“you’re alright but I wanna keep yr dog”). They’ve been featured on Pitchfork and NPR already, so stay tuned.
Vancouver, BC producer EKALI (Nathan Shaw) had fans waving their hands to his orchestral electronic beats on the Main Stage, while onlookers dangled their legs out upstairs windowsills and pelted the crowd with OtterPops. The festival tends dancey these days, and this set was well-attended.
Rising Seattle band Red Ribbon played the Neumos Stage with a recently updated lineup. Their sound is notable for sometimes-gloomy lyrics, persistent drumbeats, flute flourishes, and Emma Danner’s gorgeous vocals. Their 2018 album Dark Party is one to put on repeat.
New York City singer and performance artist Mitski modern-danced across a foggy Main Stage. Wearing kneepads, she performed aerobics while singing and dancing atop a table and chair. A couple of tunes in, Mitski quipped to those unfamiliar, “This is the set.”
At the Vera Stage, Montreal producer–vocalist–DJ Robotaki (Preston Chin) played some catchy remixes that got the crowd jumping. Then I left to catch two competing shows that hour.
Back at the Neumos Stage, a large crowd was enjoying Seattle DJ Rudy Willingham’s beats, projections, and colorful lights. Although I didn’t stay to dance, the upstairs balcony was a great place to people-watch and cool off.
Little Wins
Two floors down at the Barboza Stage, Seattle singer and multi-instrumentalist Little Wins (Andrew Vait) sang a good-vibes pop set with plenty of ‘90s nostalgia. You might remember Vait as the saxophone half of SISTERS, who played the Main Stage at last year’s CHBP. The basement was packed with a cheery crowd that swayed and sang along to his triumphant vocals. (Outside, I stopped at the hot-dog cart for a vegan sausage with cream cheese and grilled onions, which is apparently a Seattle invention.)
Again at the Neumos Stage, Shaina Shepherd led Seattle garage-rockers BEARAXE in a powerful 45-minute set. She brought soulful booming vocals and expressive dance moves, draped in northwest flannel, and the band added funky beats and wailing guitars. They also had a great onstage dynamic. This was my favorite set of the evening, and based upon the cheering crowd stretching to touch Shepherd’s hand, BEARAXE won some new fans with this performance. Side note: I was fortunate to first see BEARAXE at a wonderful neighbor’s backyard show last year; this band is even better with a whole stage for shredding and grooving.
In another excellent set at the Neumos Stage, Seattle twins Eva and Cedric Walker led the rocking Afropunk trio The Black Tones. Eva explained that their first tune was “about sex,” before launching into “Ghetto Spaceship” with bluesy vibrato and guitar. They also showcased other tunes off their recent album, Cobain & Cornbread. The twins were animated and playful together, and there were some fun surprises on “Welcome Mr. Pink.” I left too soon to see Eva crowd-surfing, so fortunately there is a video . Word of the Black Tones is starting to spread outside Washington, but you can still see them at the new THING festival in Port Townsend in August.
By late night, many thousands of fans stood between me and the Main Stage with headlining upstate New Yorkers Phantogram (Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter). I waded forward in search of a better view, and in the meantime enjoyed soaring vocals, synth-rich beats, and jangly guitar.
CHBP Atmosphere
This year the sun shone brightly on Friday afternoon, and there was a mood of anticipation for the beautiful weekend ahead. Overall, the crowd skewed under-30, trendy, and a little tipsy. Folks were there for a party, so I had no shortage of enthusiastic groups of friends willing to pose.
Chase Atlantic & Lauren Sanderson @ the Neptune, 7/3/19
~Photos by Casey Brevig
Australian trio Chase Atlantic – that is, singer Mitchel Cave, guitarist/saxophonist Clinton Cave (they’re brothers) and guitarist/singer Christian Anthony – headlined the Neptune on July 3rd. Fans especially got to celebrate new music from the band, probably hearing some tracks off this year’s PHASES, live for the first time. That’s always cool. Singer-songwriter Lauren Sanderson opened.
The Wiggles‘ Party Time Tour! @ the Paramount – 7/27/19
~ Show Review & Photos by Josh Daniels
I’m a dad of a 3-year-old whose 2nd birthday party was Wiggles-themed, so you can rest assured that I was anxiously sitting at my desk, mouse hovering over the Ticketmaster link in the sweaty seconds before sales for the group’s first US tour of her lifetime went live. Months later, here we were: her in her yellow bow-and-tutu combo and me lugging my camera gear, both of us almost equally excited to finally witness the spectacle of these international superstars live and in-person.
Hailing from Australia, the current iteration of this world-renowned children’s music group is in its 6th year performing together, but I would believe you if you told me they’d been doing it since they were children (that’s actually a spin-off series, but I digress). Through what had to be a grueling 90-minutes of acrobatics, singing, instrument swapping, costume donning and child entertaining, Anthony, Lachy, Simon and Emma Wiggle never seemed to break a sweat through their blue, purple, red and yellow outfits (respectively).
The Wiggles crossed the Pacific to kick off the Party Time Tour! at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Seattle on Saturday, July 27th in support of their newest release of the same name. Their 17th album together, Party Time! is an excellent compilation of new tracks and fresh, Wiggly takes on some classics. It’s all of the regular high-energy stuff we’ve come to expect from the group, with a fun familiarity that promises to keep the kids engaged as well.
While we weren’t sure what to expect from their traveling performance, my family has been exposed to many a live recording of the group, as those videos made up a significant chunk of their first big series together Ready, Steady Wiggle!, which is nearly all of the Wiggly content we were able to get our hands on, aside from a couple more recent (and dare I say, Avant Garde) releases: Wiggle Town and Carnival of the Animals.
Turns out, they are nearly identical.
In a lot of ways, seeing the Wiggles live is similar to watching Taylor Swift or any other pop megastar on an arena tour. You immediately get the impression that every single second of the performance is perfectly scripted and choreographed, and that the well-oiled machines that these artists have become are just running on auto-pilot, cruising through their massive sets with the muscle memory of a professional that has already put on a hundred shows this year.
Where the experience differs from artists like Swift is when, surprisingly, each member of The Wiggles let their polished façade slip, if just for a second, to make a quick joke, play a lighthearted prank on one another, or be caught up in the emotion of a sentimental letter from a fan as they read it onstage.
When Anthony asks Lachy to do a “Seattle accent” right in the middle of a skit, it’s immediately clear the purple wiggle did not see that request coming, his uncontrollable giggles growing with each failed attempt at masking his thick Aussie accent. Another time, Simon employs a favorite Wiggle game, “Simon Says”, to request the Paramount staff raise house lights so the group can see the fans that dressed up in costume for the show. Unprepared, the staff takes a bit longer than expected, which kicked off a reoccurring bit between them and the Red Wiggle that brought laughs from kids and parents alike. And of course, there was the lovely middle section where the other three Wiggles not so subtly lamented Emma’s popularity with the fans during a segment where they brought up gifts and signs from the crowd to show off on-stage.
These human moments introduced a level of intimacy to the performance that eased one of my bigger concerns about the show, that it would essentially be just a live-action Xerox of the content that most of the parents in the room have likely seen and heard on repeat for years now. Yes, their robust setlist covered dozens and dozens of their hits, and they made sure to include all the important Wiggle skits (“Wake Up, Lachy!”) and characters (Wags the Dog, Dorothy the Dinosaur, and newcomer Shirley Shawn the Unicorn), but the joy that radiated from the group throughout the entire 90-minutes meshed so well with the skill and polish we’ve come to expect from these consummate professionals, that I would have believed that this was their single Stateside performance and it was curated just for this audience.
But nope. Seattle was just the first date on this massive tour, and they’ll be pulling out all the stops to give additional costume-changing, cardio-heavy, multi-instrumental performances across North America before heading home to pick up right where they left off,. If this performance was any indication, I believe every child in every one of those shows will be treated to the same polished-yet-personal production that my daughter got.
