Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Julia Massey & The 5-Finger Discount
Last Friday Carrie & I picked up Laura & Christine and headed up to Seattle to catch a concert at The Showbox. There were four bands playing, but we really only went to see Julia Massey & The 5-Finger Discount.
Why, you ask? Because we know one of the fingers:
Yes, that’s Geoff, up on stage performing at The Showbox! I get ahead of myself, though.
We got to the venue before the doors even opened, but luckily they have an attached bar with street access, so we waited in there with drinks. On an interior glass wall they had etched the names of many of the musical acts that had played at the Showbox. Some of the more interesting ones of note were Pleaseeasaur, Squarepusher, The String Cheese Incident, and They Might Be Giants.
We were practically the first people in once the doors opened. We got basically a “front-row balcony” position at the in-theater bar so that we’d be able to see over the heads of the people on the floor.
Joining us soon were @jayseman, @zoewieth, and Jeff the Fish. A while later Geoff & Lisa came by, and introduced Julia to us all. She was very friendly and was on full “mingle” mode.
The first band to perform was Pete Bush & The Hoi Polloi (not to be confused with mid-90s rock band Hoi Polloi). They were a strange cross between early 90s grunge (mostly Pearl Jam) and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Some of it was very interesting.
Julia Massey & The 5-Finger Discount were up 2nd. Here are more photos:
We’d listened to some of her music beforehand just as research, and on her album she reminded us most of Aimee Mann, very light and folky. With the backing of the 5-Finger Discount, though, her show was actually pretty rockin’.
Lawrence took a cab from work and joined us about halfway through their set.
The 3rd act was The Side Project, whose greatest claim to fame was having their cover of a Whitney Houston song be used on So You Think You Can Dance. Their music was actually pretty enjoyable, but they had awful stage presence. It was a husband/wife team, and the man seemed almost completely disinterested in being there, and everything the woman said seemed somehow disingenuous, like she was reading a script that she didn’t really believe. And they talked a LOT, which I don’t like at a concert; I like the music to speak for itself. I dunno, maybe they got into a huge fight right before the show and then had to pretend to be a lovey-dovey couple? Whatever, it was weird and bad. But the music was good.
The final act was the Jake Marsh Trio, but we only stuck around for one song because we’re all old and it was after 11:00 and we were tired. Me especially, and I was driving because everyone else had been taking advantage of the fact that we were seated in the bar area.
We purchased a copy of Julia’s CD, Moons & Stars Convene, on the way out of the theater. I like purchasing music at shows because then I’m relatively certain that the money I’m handing over is going directly to the artists. Like the one time Busdriver handed me a CD of his and I put a $10 bill directly back into his hand. I know where that money went!
But since you don’t have that option if you weren’t there, you should buy Julia’s CD from one of these other methods:
By the way: the photos in this post were taken by Brian Todd Ausdertraum (http://ausdertraum.carbonmade.com/). Go take a look at his stuff and then hire him for your photographic neeeeeds.
Categories: Concerts/Shows, Life, Links, Music, Pictures.
