While going through the archives, I came across photographer Alex Crick‘s photos of Motion City Soundtrack. These are from very early this year, and I apologize the lovely photos did not reach light of day on Back Beat Seattle until now. Panic Stations, the new release from the Minneapolis, Minnesota band, was produced by John Agnello. Agnello has also worked with Andrew W.K. and Sonic Youth.
~Dagmar, editor
Motion City Soundtrack
DIR EN GREY, a fantastic metal experimental band from Japan, visited Showbox at the Market on Monday evening. The group put on a tremendously entertaining and vigorous performance for some of the best fans I have ever seen. The audience had huge smiles and pumped fists during the entire show, and enjoyed songs such as “Merciless Cult, “OBSCURE,” and “UROKO.” While many of us may not have understood a word of most songs (most lyrics are in Japanese, and singer Kyo sure can howl), it was a performance to marvel at. Thank you, DIR EN GREY, for an awesome evening, and a fantastic new album in Arche. My only regret is that I couldn’t get photos of drummer Shinya.
DIR EN GREY – photos by Dagmar
ZZ Ward and her band brought their Love and War Tour to the Neptune Theatre on October 9th. The bluesy R&B singer played the sold-out show in support of her recent EP, Love and War, as well as her upcoming This Means War LP. ZZ mentioned they almost cancelled the show because she was sick, but you’d never know it – her soulful voice sounded as strong as ever during the high energy set. Opening were San Diego-based The Young Wild followed by Marc Scibilia and his band.
ZZ Ward
Marc Scibilia
The Young Wild
Colleen Green, and her band, came up from Los Angeles to play the Lo-Fi this September. With a self-described genre of “Whatever U Want,” Green released I Want to Grow Up on Seattle’s Hardly Art label in 2015. Fans and future fans in Seattle, be on alert: Green returns for a show at El Corazon on December 21st.
All photos by Casey Brevig:
Colleen Green
In the mood for some Japanese metal? Then you’ll need to catch DIR EN GREY at the Showbox tomorrow, Monday, November 2nd! The band will bring the first date of their Never Free From the Awakening tour to Seattle, and it means it’s an evening with DIR EN GREY. No openers, no waiting, just what you want: DIR EN GREY!
DIR EN GREY
With a huge and beautiful sound mixing speed and melody, DIR EN GREY is also known for their cool live shows. While singing predominantly in Japanese, they also have songs in English. Either way the songs are accessible in their intensity and mood. All these things explain why DIR EN GREY has now been around for sixteen years, and perhaps why they’ve maintained their original lineup (this is very, very difficult for bands to do)! To celebrate their 15th anniversary, the band released Arche, DIR EN GREY album nine, which reached number 4 on Billboard Top World Albums’ charts. Excellent!
And this witch ended up taking a couple days off around Halloween, so apologies there was no show alert for this show earlier.
The Showbox has tickets and more details available on its DIR EN GREY event page.