But let's get started! I'm here to tell you how my two days were blow by blow with pictures and videos and MP3's! Pretty great, right?
Friday:
I already expected this day to be a warm-up day but it was still a blast. I went in with one of my closest redhead friends, Fiona. We expected to meet up with more people, we kinda did, but it was very much just our thing that day. Her dad's super cool, he gave me six dollars which bought us pretzels! We browsed some booths (got free Sno Con shirts!!! and way too many freebies then we could deal with.) and waited for Natalie Portman's Shaved Head to start up. We met up with our friend who also volunteers at KEXP with me, Justina and headed over to the Vera stage for some fun.
Natalie Portman's Shaved Head:
What else did I expect? They put on a great show like they always do. For those unfamiliar, they're a great local dancey pop... I can't really pin down their sound. It's fun and magical, I guess that's how they'd describe it. There were some annoying people that thought it was appropriate to try and mosh (people like this popped up all over the place. With some acts it's understandable but at a show like this it gets really annoying). They just returned from a trip to L.A. to record a debut full-length which is really exciting. David has some keyboard problems and Commander Slam Dunk came out and busted a move with Shaun. Good fun. Unfortunately this was the time I realized I had brought my camera but had left the battery at home! My brother took a few pictures today though, so I'll post them up. MP3's:
Sophisticated Side Ponytail (demo)
Beard Lust (Demo)
Next up was...
Matt and Kim:
We ran over immediately after NPSH cause they had already started. We caught the end of Yea Yeah which was really the only song I knew. I didn't think their sound varied too much and it was pretty fun. I liked watching Kim play the drums, she looks so focused and happy and she has a really straight-forward and interesting style that I really dug. And Matt's pretty funny. He talked to the crowd without seeming pretentious or annoying. They seemed like they were just happy to be there and their basic keyboard/drums pop went perfectly with my mood. But then he took off his shirt which didn't really fit... Oh well, whatever floats his boat. I think they'd be way better at a house party or something small. Playing on a stage with a barrier didn't really suit them.
Yea Yeah
5k
During Matt and Kim, Justina introduced us to some of her friends and we stayed with them for awhile. We got a pretzel and some water and realized we were reaaaally tired. We leaned against a window in the back and watched...
The Blood Brothers:
To be honest I was not really excited about them. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I just don't really care for that kind of noise, but I was really impressed by their set. I got really into a lot of the songs. It was a different kind of show for me than it was for the people in the pit. I would have liked to go in to the crowd but I was just so tired, so was just about everyone else. I recognized a few songs (very few). Those dual vocals things, man that's a lot of energy going on. I was pretty sure they had more members though... I'll put some more time into listening to them, I don't think I gave them a fair enough chance when I listened to them before.
Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck
Laser Life
Blue Scholars:
Oh boy! I get to see these guys for like the fifth time! Not that they're terrible but they play everywhere in Seattle, it's hard not to see them if you live here. We started making our way up cause I kind of wanted a good spot for Silversun Pickups. It's funny how much taller hip-hop fans are than all the scene kids who were just there for Blood Brothers. As soon as the Blood Brothers ended everyone got about a foot or two taller and made it really difficult to see. More rambling from politicians trying to be cool by introducing bands for the "youngsters" and then Sabzi came out. It bugs me how little he does as a DJ, live. A scratch here and there and then he just stands back and adds backing vocals. There'a a whole lot of equipment onstage that seems really unnecsarry cause all he really needs is a truntable and mixer to scratch and another to push play. It was pretty much like every other time I've seen them. There's a ton of people rapping along with the lyrics and a lot of good energy. It was an OK show, I guess, I'm just a little tired of it. Their new album sounds a lot better, not to say I dislike their other stuff.
sorry... I'm too lazy to find some MP3's or convert the songs I have. go look on Hype Machine if you want them so bad.
Silversun Pickups:
When Blue Scholars ended, Me and Fiona pushed to the front, or as far as we could get but we accidentally forget to tell Justina and co. and I still feel a little bad about that. We got kinda close and I saw my brother. Then we realized we were still tired and we had to wait for the set-up, which was really ugggggh. It smelled like muffins and then it smelled like body odor. When the politician came out he was even more unwelcome than usual. When he said how are you doing tonight some guy behind me shouted "Your Moms!!!" and even though he was drunk, I don't see it making much more sense when your drunk. Then out came SSPU.
I still think it's wierd that they were headlining a day. It would have made much more sense for the Blue Scholars to headline cause people seemed way more amped to see them. They were OK. Pretty good, I guess. They played last year and the sound was terrible and they were just a filler band on the mainstage, so it's funny to see the atmosphere totally change. The lead guy is really the head of the show and is totally comfortable stealing the spotlight from the other members, which is OK cause he's actually kind of funny and really good at talking to crowds. People thought it would be fun to swing waterbottles around and get water on everyone, which might look cool but is really uncomfortable when you get hit with water on a comfortably cool night. A lot of dumb people were doing that moshing and clapping at times when you shouldn't mosh or clap. Is it just me or is the whole mosh pit thing really out of place at shows now? I just feel like a lot of people make a fool of themselves and bump into a ton of people and get on their nerves. Some shows, I guess it fits but it's really starting to get on my nerves when people think moshing is what makes a good show.
But the show was good. They played a lot of standards from Carnavas which was predictable but I really don't like that one as much as their EP, but for the encore they played all songs of the EP which was really great. They did All the Go In-Betweens, Comeback Kid, and Creation Lake which perfectly ended the night.
Kissing Families
Creation lake
Common Reactor
But I was aware how much more Saturday was going to rule, and it did!
But soon... I'll get Saturday's blog up. Way better bands so better MP3's, and also I've got better pictures and videos.
