Watershed 2024 @ The Gorge – 8/3/2024
Photos by Kirk Stauffer
Day two of the Watershed Music Festival brought a new group of 10 country performers, a larger audience, and temperatures (finally) below 100F.
LUKE BRYAN
COLE SWINDELL
ANNIE BOSKO
GREYLAN JAMES
DYLAN SCOTT
MADELINE MERLO
BRIAN KELLEY
ASHLAND CRAFT
AIDAN CANFIELD
SADIE BASS
Watershed 2024 – Photos by Kirk Stauffer
Watershed 2024 @ The Gorge – 8/2/2024
Photos by Kirk Stauffer
The Watershed Music Festival was held at The Gorge for the 15th time. For three days, country music artists performed on the Main and Next From Nashville stages from the early afternoon until nearly midnight. The outdoor venue seats over 27,000 and is consistently rated one of the most beautiful in the country. Here are the performers on day one.
OLD DOMINION
RILEY GREEN
TERRI CLARK
JAKE WORTHINGTON
MADDIE & TAE
ZACH TOP
MEG MCREE
AUSTIN WILLIAMS
MATT SCHUSTER
Watershed 2024 – Photos by Kirk Stauffer
Redd Kross @ the Tavern – 7/8/24
Photos & Words by Mike Mitchell
Redd Kross paid a long-awaited visit to Seattle at the sold out and raucous Tractor Tavern in mid-July. The LA based pop/punk/glam band hadn’t visited Seattle since the fall of 2019 and tickets were snapped up in short order when the show was announced this past spring.
The Redd Kross camp has been a flurry of activity in 2024 with a new documentary, a couple of books on the band, a new double studio album, and a sold-out US tour. It seems farfetched that the McDonald brothers (joined in this band incarnation by lead guitarist Jason Shapiro and drummer Dale Crover) have been at it for 45 years but less so when one remembers that they strapped on their guitars at a very early age. Steven and Jeff got their start in Redd Kross (then ‘Red Cross’) in 1978 at the ages of ll and 14 respectively, opening for early southern California punk outfits such as Black Flag.
The show at the Tractor drew from all eras of their career, including a healthy selection of tunes from this year’s ‘Redd Kross’ (aka ‘the red album’). Redd Kross have a reputation as an exciting, high energy live act and their Tractor performance was true to form.
The quartet returned to the stage after a loud and satisfying set for a two-song encore of ‘Crazy Horses’ (The Osmonds) and ‘Deuce’ (Kiss). The at-first-blush unlikely pairing of songs was a fitting example of the ground that Redd Kross covers, especially in a live setting. They have a talent for seamlessly melding trash pop with the more colorful trappings of heavy metal and the raw energy and volume of punk rock. The show was opened by Redd Kross/Melvins drummer Dale Crover, who spun a selection of tunes followed by a short acoustic set.
MxPx w/the Drowns @ Airport Tavern
Photos by Charitie Myers
Mike Herrera of MxPx – photo by Charitie Myers
Wow, Airport Tavern in Tacoma had its grand opening on July 24th, 2024 with MxPx HEADLINING WITH THE DROWNS. I’m not always one for caps and bold type at once, but man, what a way to open your venue! It’s a thrill and an honor – and I’m not just saying that – to feature MxPx, an awesome and major band Charitie and I have been hoping to photograph for several years now. So here they are! Thank you Charitie and thank you to Airport Tavern for setting this up. New to me (I hate to admit) are the Drowns, and I’d check them out too.
MxPx – photos by Charitie Myers
The Drowns – photos by Charitie Myers
I was not familiar with Adeem the Artist prior to catching a pair of their shows in support of Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit at the Ste Michelle Winery in mid-July. Adeem (who alternately goes by ‘Adeem Marie’) has been receiving a fair bit of recognition for their last couple of albums, and these shows made it abundantly clear why they’ve struck a chord with fans of country, rock, and Americana.
Live, Adeem Marie and band drew heavily from their two most recent releases, 2022’s White Trash Revelry and this year’s Anniversary. The pairing of Adeem with Isbell made perfect sense, as both artists are uniquely sensitive and accomplished songwriters, they each front bands made up of virtuosic players, and they both tap into a similar country vibe. Both Adeem and Isbell present bold and progressive ideas and concerns (at least within the context of the sometimes rather stodgy and conservative world of country music) neatly baked into songs that sound immediately familiar to anyone who’s been paying attention to recent C&W and Americana offerings. They also share the ability to hit the listener dead center in the heart with lyrics that seem at once effortless and profound.
Toward the end of their set on the second evening of the two-show run, Adeem sang a simple line that felt like a very humble self-assessment, but it’s a line that’s been rolling around in my mind in the days since these shows took place: “… a coward called courageous, by virtue of my trade.” I look forward to more music in the years to come from this talented and courageous coward.
