Every once in a while Carrie & I look around us and realize, y’know, we’re just a little too old for this. Oftentimes those moments happen courtesy of Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount.
An example: Hempfest. Yeah. We didn’t really feel like we fit in there so much.
Last weekend was our 7th wedding anniversary, but there was way too much going on to do anything about it then. So the weekend before that we decided to celebrate. We learned that JM+FFD was going to be doing a little outdoor festival along with The Jesus Rehab and Terrapin Productions. So that sounded like fun. Only thing: it would be a camping trip.
I don’t camp. I’ve never enjoyed it. I worked hard for my amenities and my comfortable mattress, and I’ve never understood the appeal of roughing it. But Carrie loves it, and we gathered enough comforts (like a tent and a cushy air mattress and a sleeping bag) from camping-oriented friends that I thought I would give it a try.
So we set out for the mountains (with a stop at Scott’s Dairy Freeze in North Bend for lunch—yes, the North Bend where they filmed a bunch of Twin Peaks).
When we got to Roslyn (yes, the Roslyn where they filmed lots of that Northern Exposure TV show), we thought we might walk around for a bit. But it was so frikkin’ hot that we decided just to get back in the air-conditioned car and try to find the venue.
The “festival” was very vaguely organized; we didn’t even learn where it was until the night before. There was a guy at a gate who said that the person running this “festival” was supposed to have provided him with a list of guests, but never did. He just let us in and directed us to drive to another point farther into the forest with basically a “good luck.”
So when the pavement turned to dirt we had to back up a bit until we got cell phone reception and were able to call Julia to get directions the rest of the way. This involved driving past a shirtless man named “Troy” who asked us for our email addresses before giving us directions the rest of the way to an uneven clearing with a wooden stage (still under construction) at one end and an outhouse at the other.
This was about when Carrie & I had that “we’re too old for this” moment.
Fortunately it actually turned out to be quite a bit of fun hanging out with JM+FFD and Jared and Neighbor Gary, even though Carrie & I were practically the only people in attendance who weren’t a member of one of the bands… and a lot of the bands were much more metal \m/ than the bands we usually see. And the camping was actually pretty comfortable. Who knows; I might try it again some time.
The next morning we couldn’t wait to get outta there, though. We had breakfast at the Roslyn Café then headed back home.
Here are some very blurry pictures taken from my phone:
Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount: "Is There Room For Me?" CD Release Party
Carrie & I will be there! We hope you can be there, too. If not, though, Julia has said that she’s planning on doing another CD Release Party in Tacoma sometime later…
The Black Lodge is some semi-secret venue at the corner of Eastlake & Republican in Seattle. Try and find it if you can!
Remember when I posted about how famous my pal Jason is? Well, he just keeps gettin’ more and more famouser.
After his appearance on the Today Show, that TV show 20/20 flew him back to New York to interview him. And they lubbed him so much they actually agreed to fly a film crew out to Seattle to film him performing his musics as Three Ninjas.
So @NatheLawver and @tacomachickadee and picked me up and we drove the 40 minutes up to West Seattle to see Three Ninjas & Tangentbot (and special guest Pop Star Shannon O’Brien) perform their tiny open-mic set at the Skylark Café with a 20/20 film crew filming it, then we drove all the way back to Tacoma.
From left: Tangentbot, Three Ninjas, Pop Star Shannon O'Brien
Total drive time was 1hr 20min. Total show time was approx 20 minutes.
TOTALLY WORTH IT.
So there’s a slim chance that I might appear on a soon-to-air episode of 20/20 in an audience reaction shot. No biggie.
Busdriver started his set with a very cool visual effect: all the lights were off, but he had a blacklight that also emitted lasers in such a way that they made a starfield on the background. Then he stood in front of the blacklight and starfield wearing all white. He made Tangentbot very happy by rapping over an Aphex Twin song for his encore.
Two of the opening acts were women hip-hop artists, Night Fox and Katie Kate. They were both very good, though I kinda liked Night Fox’s energy a little more. They were unlike many women hip-hop artists that I’m used to, in that they weren’t full of “even tougher than a man” bravado (even though there was a fair share of cussing). Night Fox’s voice periodically had an almost-Billie-Holliday warble in it, and at times sounded like an American Miho Hatori. Plus she was tiny and kinda adorable. Katie Kate was a much more polished performer and technical musician — I learned later that she’s a classically-trained pianist and graduated from Cornish with a music degree! Anyway, the point is they had a really fascinating style of hip-hop. I almost want to call it “Cutesy Hip-Hop” but that sound a little degrading. The point is, it was fun and inviting instead of angry and aggressive.
As for the Chop Suey show the next week, Threeni & T-Bo (as they will now be referred to in the rest of this post because it sounds awful) were the opening act for the Fake Four tour, which is the same tour that Open Mike Eagle opened for last year. Good company! And Carrie actually got to come with me because for once she didn’t have to teach on a night where there was an awesome music show!
They completely killed their set. The highlight of the whole night was when Threeni and T-Bo performed an absolutely epic cover of Jewel’s “Foolish Games.” For realsz! Ch-ch-check it out!
Like what you heard there? About to commit seppuku because you missed it? Stay your blade, I say! For Three Ninjas & Tangentbot will be performing a Mardi Gras party at the Skylark Café on Tuesday the 8th! THAT’S TOMORROW, HOMESLICE!
Carrie & I didn’t stay for the whole show because:
We live in Tacoma
I had to be at work at 8:00 the next morning
We’re old
But another excellent act that we got to see was Abadawn, a rapper with an extremely young countenance (he looked like he was 15) and a fascinating style. He had two vocalizations: a hip-hop voice that had inflections and flow that reminded me somewhat of Eminem, and a full-on death-metal screech/growl voice. He switched freely between them. Also, his songs were short, which I really appreciated (a couple were only like 45 seconds long, I swear). They were like a little nugget burst of energy, like a hip-hop haiku of rage.
Here’s the really cool thing: With the exception of Busdriver’s show, I personally know someone playing in each of these shows!
Grr… now that I’m looking at that list I’m pretty positive I left something out. I can’t think of it right now, though.
*EDIT* Tangentbot pointed out in the comments that I forgot to mention that he’ll be providing the music for Three Ninjas at the Chop Suey show. SEE!? I KNEW I’D FORGET SOMETHING!
