Australia’s Wolfmother hit the Neptune in Seattle on July 31, 2014. The very rocking trio released its first album in five years, New Crown, also in 2014. Welcome back, Wolfmother! We missed you. With them was Electric Citizen, a Cincinnati, Ohio band including husband and wife Ross and Laura Dolan. All photos by Monica Martinez:
Wolfmother
Electric Citizen
Artist: Johnny Marr
Song: “Dynamo”
Why you want to watch: “Dynamo” features Marr in a salmon colored top and what, I think, has become one of his things: silver nails. The song is off his second album, Playland – another of my favorite albums of 2014.
Details: Johnny Marr had to cancel several North American tour dates last year, but here’s a bit of what he is like live = awesome!
Seattle was the first stop on Brooke Fraser’s Brutal Romantic Tour. The sold-out show was also her first show in three years. Brooke and her three-member band played songs off her new album, Brutal Romantic, which was released last November, as well as alternate versions of her older songs. The style of her music has changed and she sounded great on every song – new and old. There was a lot of interaction with the audience and early in the set Brooke commented that her leather outfit was very comfortable and referred to them as “cow pajamas”. LA-based Dark Waves, fronted by Nick Long, opened.
Brooke Fraser
Dark Waves
You can never get too much of a good thing. This was the fourth time I’ve enthusiastically covered Lucy Woodward for Back Beat Seattle – but who’s counting. It started with a one-hour scenic ferry ride across Puget Sound from Seattle to Bremerton. The audience at the Admiral Theater had just finished dinner when Lucy came on. They put down their forks and listened intently through both her sets. Great rapport with the crowd. She’s been on the road for the past year as a backup singer for Rod Stewart and now has some time for her own headlining tour. Backed by a six-member band, Lucy sang songs off her most recent album, Hooked!, as well as prior albums and covers. “Babies” got the biggest laugh of the evening as Lucy sang the final line. . . “Will someone knock me up now.” Stay tuned for her new album, which will be released early this year. I’m always impressed with your performance – thank you Lucy.
Lucy Woodward
Seattle Skyline
Chain and the Gang, Pony Time, wimps, Listen Lady @ Black Lodge, 1/10/15
Show Review & Photos by Victoria Holt
Chain and the Gang
D.C.’s Chain and the Gang were the epitome of calculated cool at Black Lodge on January 10th, decked out in matching silvery suits, neutral button down shirts, and pointed black stomping boots. Singer Ian Svenonius (of such D.C. greats as Weird War, The Make-Up, and Nation of Ulysses) whipped around, shaking his mane of black hair and yelling various political and personal insights on the world and life in general. While he railed against the dangers of freedom and praised the use of censorship (perhaps ironically?), the band were stoic, unemotional, blank-stared. It added a measured control to the otherwise rowdy show, and gave the crowd something to hang onto while the singer shed his inhibitions. The music operated in the same way, through simple basslines and steady drumbeats. It was infectious, and each and every body had to move.
They opened with an extended, stripped down version of “Chain Gang Theme (I See Progress),” building momentum to get the crowd going. Another catchy number was “Certain Kinds of Trash,” with Svenonius layering over the female bassist’s clear voice with his gritty inspired mutterings. It had the perfect clanking garage groove, and the crowd broke into a mosh pit, always returning to that nodding backbone beat between the swells. The vocals in “Mum’s the Word” were frenetic and fast-paced, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Svenonius and the bassist traded off vocals, repeating lines, encouraging the crowd to sing along. During, “What is a Dollar?” he preached to the crowd about the danger of the dollar, pausing for effect, as the crowd spontaneously hummed along “ooohhhs.” It was super fun to be in the crowd during that moment, cooing along, responding as the singer imparted his wisdom. They destroyed Black Lodge, in the best way possible, and everyone left feeling thoroughly spent.
The rest of the bill featured three fantastic Seattle bands. Listen Lady opened up the night with their attitude-driven pop punk. A personal fave was their last song, “Hey Listen,” all about the perils of verbal harassment towards women. It ends with the question, “What makes you think you can talk to me like that?” It was great to see a bill with a good presence of powerful women, and this band started it off right.
Pony Time members Stacy Peck and Luke Beetham make low grumbling punk jams with danceable drum lines and blistering bass. Beetham sings clever lyrics with the occasional exhilarated “Woo!” and the crowd loves it. Opening track, “Tacocat Scraps,” pokes fun at the band’s humble beginnings taking Tacocat’s spot on bills they couldn’t play. They’ve since made a name for themselves, but the bands stay closely linked, with drummer Peck playing in the band Childbirth with Tacocat’s bassist Bree McKenna (and Chastity Belt’s Julia Shapiro). They’re fantastic performers who never finish a set without sweating like crazy, and the tiny Black Lodge at capacity was no exception.
Pony Time
Always a fun time, wimps played high energy punk with catchy, bright lyrics. Songs like “Dog Pills,” “Old Food,” and “Distraction” offer questionable advice on warding off ennui with random hiijinks, like deciding to take your dog’s medication on a whim. The video for “Party at the Wrong Time” features wimps interrupting Pony Time’s practices and keeping them up late at night. Singer and guitarist Rachel Ratner rocks a penguin costume, while drummer Dave Ramm blows smoke into Beetham’s face. The song was great live, but alas, no attempts at revenge were made by Pony Time.
The members of wimps always have a great sense of humor. At one point, an unexplained piece of fried chicken landed on the stage. Ratner picked it up and held it in front of her face like she was going to eat it, deciding instead to hurl it back into the crowd. They closed with their album’s eponymous single, “Repeat,” which ends with Nyce singing a slow chorus line while Ratner speaks the repeating lyrics. She uses the live version to talk about something at the show, and this time said, “When you go to the show and you eat some fried chicken. . .” Ratner’s fun banter was a great precursor to Svenonius’s eccentric ranting.
Chain and the Gang
Pony Time
Listen Lady
wimps
Atmosphere @ Black Lodge