Band: Midnight Pool Party
Song: “If You Were Mine (Baby)”
Why You Want to Listen: Midnight Pool Party (hey, that’s a name I can get behind), a Sydney, Australia duo, gives us some hot disco. “We drew inspiration from legends like Prince, Justice, Presets, DaftPunk and Stevie Wonder-and I think if you listen really closely you can hear all of those flavors in there.” I agree.
Midnight Pool Party
Those original garage rockers, the Sonics, headlined the Moore Theatre in April. The band, formed in Tacoma, Washington, began in the 1960s, and satisfied fans with a new album in 2015. That recording, This is the Sonics, is the Sonics’ first release since 1980, and absolutely deserved a celebration. Seattle’s great Mudhoney and the Intelligence opened the April show. All photos by John Lill:
The Sonics
Mudhoney
The Intelligence
Hard rocking Halestorm headlined at the Showbox SoDo on June 9th in support of their latest album, Into the Wild Life. Fronted by Lzzy Hale, brother Arejay Hale (drums), Joe Hottinger (guitar) and Josh Smith (bass) round out the band. They won a Grammy in 2013 and are well known for their nonstop touring.
Halestorm
One of Seattle’s coolest bands, the Mama Rags, recently did a session at FunkFarm, a Seattle music organization promoting and booking bands right here in the city. We’ve got some debut videos of the performance for you!!
The Mama Rags
The Mama Rags just released their first album, Hectic Electric, in June; here’s a peek of and listen to two tracks (plus “She Thinks She’s Got It”) off that EP: “Hectic Electric” and “Borrowed Time.” If you love the blues, dirty blues, all blues, all rock ‘n’ roll blues, the Mama Rags are right up your blues alley. I’m partial to this band myself, so I recommend you have a listen. Love. And then love some more.
Also, the Mama Rags will get all over you at the Bite of Seattle on July 18th. Or you can get all over them. Either way, do catch them.
Ingrid Michaelson @ the Paramount Theatre, 6/17/15
Show Review & Photos by Kirk Stauffer
This was the 10th time I’ve had the pleasure of shooting Ingrid Michaelson’s show in Seattle. Ranging from the tiny Nectar Lounge (Jan, 2008) to last week at the 3000+ capacity Paramount Theatre, she always puts on an excellent show, to the delight of her fans. The current “A Summer Night Out Tour” is her biggest tour to date. Ingrid commented that things have really changed since her show at the Crocodile Café – referring to when she opened for Matt Nathanson in Oct, 2007. She also mentioned that the Paramount audience was giving her good vibes.
The tour is in support of Lights Out, her most recent album, which was released last year. Many songs came from it and she threw in others from her four previous records. Ingrid’s five-member band, including her longtime sidekick Allie Moss on guitar and vocals, played for 1:15 hours and had the crowd excited from start to finish. “Overboard” ended with the band doing a self breast exam along with other choreographed moves. Another song finished with each of the band members singing a 10-second clip from completely different songs and blending them into Ingrid’s. And with only Chris Kuffner and Ingrid on stage, Chris played that signature bass line to “The Way I Am,” with the audience singing every word. Clever, humorous and witty, Ingrid constantly engaged with the audience and had a good story for the intro to every song.
The encore started with Ingrid’s beautiful rendition of “Falling In Love With You” by Elvis, and finished with both openers coming on stage for “Fire.” Ingrid simply sounds amazing live. The show was in many ways, a Perfect 10.
Ingrid Michaelson @ Paramount Theater
Ingrid Michaelson @ Nectar Lounge, Jan 2008