Tinariwen @ the Showbox – 8/9/24 Photos & Words by Mike Mitchell
Nomadic Toureg legends Tinerawin took a sold out Showbox audience on a trip to the Sahara last Friday night. The African sextet wove a tapestry of intricate guitar interplay, call and response vocals, and percussion that was at once trance-like and propulsive.
My western ears detected flourishes of Delta blues and psychedelic rock mixed in with the band’s more obvious African influences, but the show was not so much an academic exercise as an invitation to dance and communicate with no shared tongue required (beyond the universal languages of melody and rhythm).
Tinariwen’s Showbox set was, for me, the rare performance that prompts one to ponder whether we all might get along a little better if we were able to gather as one and share such a unifying and life affirming experience.
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.
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.
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.
