Show Review & Photos: Black Lips @ Neumos

Holy smokes, I lived through Black Lips‘ show. I went into it knowing it would be a wild event, but when Neumos filled up with super fans crawling all over each other, running up onstage, amassing in a bacchanalian orgy – okay you get the picture. The balcony was closed, not because of ticket sales, but I suspect because fans and band members would use that balcony in some frightening way. And the music? Outrageously great, of course: “Bad Kids,” “O Katrina,” “Modern Art,” “Go Out and Get It,” “Veni, Vidi, Vici,” and was I imagining “Noc-a-Homa” in the encore? I think I kind of lost all sense of space and time toward the end of the show. I found what I call the princess spot (that’s a relatively comfortable spot in a crowd, one where I can get a good view and hear the music) midway through the night and got to see the chaos from another view point. That’s where I got the photo of guitarist Ian Saint Pé swooping in and kissing a female fan in the front row. The entire band kept up a demoniac pace, with love given back to the band over and over. See what you missed, or perhaps if you were at the show you might see yourself in some of these shots.

Review by Dagmar


photo by Marianne Spellman


photo by Dagmar


photo by Alex Crick

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Show Review & Photos: Gruff Rhys @ the Tractor

Two weeks ago, patrons at Seattle’s Tractor Tavern were privy to a rare performance by Gruff Rhys, a true mad scientist of modern music. Better known as the frontman for Welsh experimental-pop group Super Furry Animals, Rhys is an accomplished and innovative artist in his own right, and was in Seattle as part of a North American tour to promote his third solo release, Hotel Shampoo.

Rhys is somewhat of a musical surrealist, and with Welsh surf-rock openers Y Niwl soldiering through the entire set to also play as his backing band, unveiled an ever more playful-yet-absurd host of instruments, from a vocoder to electronic drumsticks to demonstrating his corrugated plastic extension, which when applied by velcro to the body of his acoustic guitar, appears to be an electric – a device he says gives him more confidence in his upside-down guitar playing (yes, he is right-handed, but plays left-handed on an upside down right-handed guitar).

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Photos: Cage the Elephant @ Showbox SoDo

Cage the Elephant brought their tunes from albums Cage the Elephant and Thank You, Happy Birthday to Showbox SoDo on Friday night. Right after the band finishes up some major summer tour dates they hit the road with Foo Fighters. Pretty damn good. Photographer Matthew Lamb was at the Seattle show and offers up some great shots:

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Photos: Architecture in Helsinki & Hooray For Earth @ Neumos

Photographer Simon Krane caught Architecture in Helsinki and Hooray For Earth at Neumos last Monday evening. I love these photos he got. Australians Architecture in Helsinki’s latest, Moment Bends is out now, while Hooray For Earth’s True Love just came out last week. Check out Hooray For Earth’s cool video for the title track here.


Architecture in Helsinki


Hooray For Earth

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