Seattle, 1999
After 16 months in Europe, traveling and playing music, I finally went "home" to Seattle. A long overdue visit to visit friends and put my life in order back there. Seattle was having the wettest winter in recorded history and that was my welcome. Definitely a case of the blues! The city was the same as I remembered it but growing more andmore. I did manage to see lots of friends, especially my good friends Chris & Carla from The Walkabouts. They are in the middle of recording their next record (to be released on Glitterhouse!) and so they were very busy but we managed to find time for beer and stories.One thing about Seattle that I found very impressive was the vast variety of music that you could see on any night. Tons of bands and good quality too! Here's a list of everyone I saw in the 5 weeks I was there:
Red Stars Theory - space rock with a great drummer.
Joel R. Phelps - acoustic show from Silkworms singer.
Bill Frisell - absolutely an amazing show from a tremendous guitarist! I'm not sure how his records sound but you got to check this guy out!
Chris Ballew - Presidents of United States front man in an acoustic evening. Lots of energy and with a great smile.
Eddie Spagetti - Super Suckers front man. Check out their last record "I Must Have Been High" Excellent.
Howe Gelb - Giant Sand - You know Howe. This night he was solo and the best show I have ever seen him do!He was really relaxed, funny and always on the edge.
Analog - This is an ambient kinda band with my old band mates Bruce Wirth and Jon Hyde plus Tucker Martine on drums and loops and "What's His Name" on trombone and keyboards.Total stoner music but really great musicians who can pull it off.
Ten.go.jack - A 3-piece rock band from Japan. Total balls to the floor rock and roll from 2 men and a woman drummer. They must be huge in Japan. No excuses were given and we all laughed and were totally entertained.
The Smugglers - From Vancouver. Kinda like the Ventures or Girl Trouble. Very tight with lots of guitars.
Seaweed - Post Nirvana Seattle grunge from Tacoma. Very loud and a drunk fest.
Super Suckers - Here they are again. I couldn't get enough of these guys. A real Seattle treasure.
Gully Jumpers - Acoustic bluegrass for rockers. John Renberg - Solo show from the front man of the Model Rockets. Bluegrass bluegrass.
Picketts - Christie McWilson and Blackkie singing their countrified rockabilly songs. Christie is a really talented songwriter with a wonderful voice in the style of Patsy Cline or EmmyLou Harris.
Bad Livers - A total rave up of roots music played by a duo. One man playing bass or tuba (!) and the best banjo player I've ever seen live! Danny Barnes is an amazing musician who can do it all. I'd love to play with this guy one day! So that's it for the music. As you can tell it's really amazing the variety and it's not to expensive for any show either. I guess $5 to $10 will get you in the door on any night. I hope the people there in Seattle realize just how lucky they are. There does seem to be a lot of attitude around that city though. People just being too cool for their own good. That's the only negative part that I felt. All in all I had a great time there and it was a good trip for me. I saw my family and friends, put my house in order and now I'm back in Europe and ready to play my own music. See you on the road!
