Show Review & Photos: Rye Rye @ the Paramount

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Rye Rye @ the Paramount, 6/19
Review & photos by Dagmar


Rye Rye

The Baltimore-based artist Rye Rye opened for Scissor Sisters last week in Seattle, and won over the audience within seconds. This is not easy to do considering how eager Scissor Sisters’ fans were to see the band.

The young (she’s only 21) and multitalented Rye Rye released her debut album, Go! Pop! Bang!, this May. I can’t stop listening to this genius work. As a live performer Rye Rye brought two male dancers and a DJ with her, then danced routines with the guys, sang and rapped with a vengeance, and just charmed in a filthy sweet way. She’s got moves, she’s got a great style and her flow is phenomenal. When she asked for audience members to join her onstage for “Shake It to the Ground” there was no hesitation. People scrambled to get up there.

Rye Rye is a star.


Rye Rye

Gallery of Rye Rye @ the Paramount

Show Review & Photos: Scissor Sisters @ the Paramount

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Scissor Sisters @ the Paramount, 6/19
Show Review & photos by Dagmar


Scissor Sisters

My life is better for having Scissor Sisters in it. When I think about how many good moods their music has contributed to, and all the bad moods their music has helped me get out of, I just can’t say enough how much this band means to me. I can turn to them any time, and on Tuesday night I felt that I shared that experience with the audience at the Paramount.

Scissor Sisters were here to party, and to play songs off their latest release, the brilliant Magic Hour – and to play music from their other excellent albums, of course. I’ve seen this band each time they’ve played Seattle, and each show was a memorably great experience. Tuesday evening was the most recent addition to my Scissor Sisters’ memories. The band has such a large and awesome catalog now that, and while you might have missed some songs (they can’t play everything, every time), every song on the set list was right on target for an emotional experience, whether you were moved during “Mary” or whether you moved to “Invisible Light.” “Invisible Light” was slowed down to a just as sexy pace, and in the absence of Sir Ian McKellen it gave singer Ana Matronic a chance to speak the poem part. The audience especially liked the “sexual gladiators” line.


Scissor Sisters

For the start of the show singer Jake Shears appeared in a casual suit with a pattern of parrots on it. I loved that outfit. I wish more men wore such color. Ana Matronic wore a gorgeous green dress with buckles. The chemistry between these two has always been electric, and it was strong yet again. The whole set hit me hard. “Any Which Way,” “Keep Your Shoes On” and “Baby Come Home” had Shears and Matronic dancing right away, “Inevitable” was beautiful, “Take Your Mama” received a continuous roar of approval, “Let’s Have a Kiki” created a dance party onstage and off – this one taught us a dance we could all do, with Shears dancing so well, and so excitedly – “Comfortably Numb” was a stirring moment of disco perfection, and I loved the harder beat they gave to “Skin This Cat.” For the encore they performed “Only the Horses” and “Music Is the Victim” which absolutely had the audience leaping up and down.

A Scissor Sisters show brings you closer to the music, and the band always does something different with the songs, whether it’s a new music arrangement or a new dance move. Scissor Sisters is a meaningful band that always gets it right, always ready to try something different.


Scissor Sisters

Gallery of Scissor Sisters @ the Paramount

Show Review & Photos: Ume @ Barboza

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Ume @ Barboza, 6/15
Show Review & Photos by Dagmar


Ume

Midway through Ume’s set last Friday at Barboza in Seattle, a guy near me asked his companion, “Why aren’t these guys headlining?” For some reason I thought he might have happened on the show by chance, or maybe was there to see the headliners and had never heard of Ume. I don’t know. And I mean no disrespect to the headliners, The Life and Times, who put on an excellent show (more on them later), but the fellow concertgoer was right. Ume should indeed headline – everywhere they go.*

Ume, a trio from Texas made up of singer/guitarist Lauren Larson, bassist Eric Larson and drummer Rachel Fuhrer, attracted a growing audience at the show. People came in and stayed. They listened. They appreciated. They were awed – I know I was. As performers they’re so into their music I could see it was something they genuinely love doing. I don’t always get this feeling at shows. Lauren Larson has one of my favorite voices, a voice that has a true rock, emotional palette. I am so glad that I found this band. New songs off Phantoms such as “Rubicon,” “Destroyer,” and “Run Wild” are gorgeous.

This band is powerful and though they are all excellent musicians, not once did any of their playing come off as showboating. They’re able to be subtle about their brilliance. This is not easy to do with the huge, torpedo-like sound they make. Just Lauren Larson alone would be a gigantic guitar slaying dream – combined with the rhythm it’s staggering. You want to see someone really, play the guitar? Catch Ume.

* note: this is actually a co-headlining tour.


Ume

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Show Review & Photos: Sasquatch! Music Festival w/ Pickwick, Said The Whale, Portlandia, THEESatisfaction, Kurt Vile, Dum Dum Girls, Metric, tUnE-yArDs, Cœur de pirate, St. Vincent & Jack White

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Sasquatch! Music Festival
Review & photos by Abby Williamson

Two weeks after Sasquatch is over, I am still just buzzing about it, ogling at some of my favorite shots, and still rocking one out of the three wristbands I received on that fateful weekend. The other two came off in the shower on two separate occasions.

Apologies that I have taken this long to actually tell you all what the festival was like. And this will be part 1 of 3. I’ll try to keep it relatively brief.

Since traffic was completely against me on Friday, Saturday was officially my first day this year, and it started off in a pretty big way. One of my hometown favorites, Pickwick played the main stage at noon. The last time I saw this band was at a church in Suburban Tacoma, so this was a pretty epic step up.


Pickwick

Also, one of several new Canadian discoveries – Said The Whale, pleasantly surprised me at the Yeti Stage. I am a bit ashamed to say that I tend to not pay much attention to Canadian bands these days, and Sasquatch is the only U.S. festival that I know of that strives to highlight some of the up-and-coming Canadian bands. Said The Whale was definitely one of the best this weekend.

Once I stuck around for a bit of Said The Whale, I hopped over to the Banana Shack to catch a glimpse of Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, aka Portlandia. I’m still not entirely sure what the segment consisted of entirely, since I left after about 20 minutes. They read funny texts and looked at old goofy photos. Either way, it was precious and I can say that I was an arm’s length from Fred Armisen. That’s pretty cool.


Said The Whale


Portlandia

Local hip-hop duo THEESatisfaction was up next, again on the Yeti Stage. Those girls have a chemistry on stage like no other, and like Pickwick, they’ve stayed humble even in this banner year they’re having (it was recently announced that they’ll be playing Doe Bay Fest in August). I mean, THEESatisfaction played at the University of Washington Tacoma two weeks before Sasquatch. It makes me wish that I had stayed to get my Master’s Degree.


THEESatisfaction

Next up was Kurt Vile, followed by Dum Dum Girls, both of whom brought out a generous crowd to the Bigfoot Stage. Dum Dum Girls were definitely the most immaculately dressed band of the weekend, and they rocked pretty hard too.


Kurt Vile


Dum Dum Girls

I ventured back to the main stage for Childish Gambino, who surprised me so much that I couldn’t stop talking about it all weekend. He was both talented and the most dynamic hip-hop artist I have ever seen (granted, I haven’t seen that many), but his experience with comedy and acting certainly helped his stage presence, taking up that whole stage with just his facial expressions alone. I was thoroughly impressed, and again, I’m not a fan of hip-hop.

I caught a bit of Metric before heading back up the hill, but I hate to say that they were lackluster in the late afternoon. Maybe it was just that the new songs aren’t that good. Hmm.


Metric

But I did make it up the hill on time to catch tUnE-yArDs, whose stage performance is as wacky as the grammar of their band name. While it was wacky, it was completely entrancing , and from what I heard from people that saw their whole set, everyone else felt that way too. It was also a bit of clue that they were going to be good when every photographer at the Gorge shoved their way into the pit.


tUnE-yArDs

Another Canadian gem was Cœur de pirate on the Yeti Stage, the moniker of one very pregnant Béatrice Martin. She took the stage six months pregnant and sang in French, and it was lovely, pleasant, and a perfect calm before the storm that was the last two acts of the evening.


Cœur de pirate

The first of which was St. Vincent on the Bigfoot Stage, who again filled the pit. Annie Clark’s sweet voice is so misleading, you almost think that it isn’t real because she literally shreds. She’s what would happen if Feist and Björk had a baby, well. . . if that could happen. You know that I mean. The pairing of her soft and beautiful voice and the ferocious guitar licks is just like nothing I have ever seen. She made me feel like an idiot for not giving her last two albums a real good listen. Shame on you, Abby. Shame on you!


St. Vincent

However, I was wholeheartedly aware of the next musician’s genius. Jack White was one of the names that when they came across the screen at the lineup announcement show I almost peed myself. When The White Stripes broke up a year and a half ago I was devastated but I should have known better than to think that it meant that Jack was done. He won’t be done with music until he’s dead. Or at least he shouldn’t be. He and his band were dressed to the nines, and the stage was an eerie shade of blue, giving it an unreal feel. It may as well have been unreal, because I was just in awe of Jack White’s talent and passion and stage presence and hair. Not only did he plays songs from Blunderbuss, he busted out with “Steady As She Goes” from The Raconteurs, “Seven Nation Army,” and an updated version of “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.” Yeah, he was OLD school. Granted, it made me feel really old when I thought about the fact that the first White Stripes album came out 11 years ago (!), but it was nothing less than glorious to end the first evening that way.


Jack White

Stay tuned for part 2.

Photos: Japandroids @ Neumos

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The most excellent Japandroids headlined Neumos on Monday night. Japandroids, David Prowse and Brian King from Vancouver Canada, have a brand new album out, Celebration Rock. Just yesterday the album snagged a spot on the nominee list for the Polaris Music Prize, a very cool Canadian music award. Photographer Nicky Andrews attended Monday’s show and brings back some hot photos of the photogenic band:


Japandroids