On Wednesday night I went to a benefit show at the Showbox that raised money for Northwest Medical Teams that is working in southern Asia on relief from the tragedy. The show as a whole was great. The opening band is now my new favorite band. Well OK I would not go that far I have to give up some props to the two sisters in the band Smoosh. One plays drums while the other plays keyboards and sings. I am sure you are asking yourself, yea – so what? Well the drummer is only 12 years old and the keyboard player is 10. The thing is that they are fairly talented. Many of the lyrics in the songs are fairly catchy, my favorites being the stuff that breaks into more of a rap than the more dramatic stuff. Also the keyboard sounded like it was being played in more minor cords and it gave them kind of a cool dreary sound – in a good away. Their website had a link to a write up on Spin magazine’s web site. Here is a link.
After Smoosh was the local (well really Bremerton but that is close enough to be Seattle) favorite punk band MxPx. Even though they have been around for over 10 years for the life of me I do not remember ever seeing them before. I know a bunch of their music and it was fun to see it live. Of course my favorite song was when the did a cover of Bryan Adams’s Summer of ’69. The show was all ages and I there were a lot of kids there (I am guessing 14-16) and they had no clue about that song. I went to the show with a friend from college along with one of my brothers and my sister. During MxPx we left the bar area and headed out to the crowd and to do a little moshing. The problem is that with it being all ages many of the younger crowd things moshing is all about just getting as close to the stage as possible even if it means just pushing forward on the person in front of you. I really did not take kindly to that and after a few warnings I could do nothing put push back even though I was like twice their size. Conveniently enough I ended the set about five people deep from the stage before the final band.
By the time the Presidents of the United States of America took the stage I was 2.5 people deep from the stage and wedge in good enough that no one was going to get ahead of me and trust me many people tried. I was all set up to stand right in front of Dave Dederer and enjoy the show but he did not come out to play. Instead it was Andrew McKeag who I now know is filling in for Dave on many of their concert dates. I kind of thought that it was only on shows on the road but I guess that it makes just as much sense that Andrew also play at home. The Presidents as usual rocked. I think I had more fun when I saw them about a month ago – who knew I would seem them so soon again? only because their set was much shorter this time and they had a better balance of old and new songs. I think in the last show there was even a claim of it being the first time they had played a couple of the songs live, ever including a song or two from the fan club album that they release on their own a few years back.
Overall it was a fun night. It is great that a few Seattle bands got together and raise some money for a good cause. I am also glad I got the chance to see Smoosh. I had heard about them awhile back and I wanted to see them live. On the way out I picked up their CD for $10 and it has a bunch of songs on it which is great plus the money was supposed to go to the charity. My brother and buddy picked up two Smoosh buttons for $1. What a bargain! It is kind of goofy. I bet they never wear them out but I could just see my brother put it on a backpack or something and walk around with it on.
A digital recording of my life 