Capitol Hill Block Party Part 2

Here it is, my eagerly awaited (completely ignored) report on the second day of the Capitol Hill Block Party.

July 25th
I got to the party around 2 o'clock and the madness started immediately. I started off by heading over to the Awesome Color concert happening at the Neumo's Stage.
The concert was Awesome as was promised and included many sweet ass break downs like this one:

Sometime in the middle of the show while I was hanging out enjoying the music, a middle aged man wearing sunglasses indoors came up to the front of the stage and started headbanging wildly. He was obviously skunk drunk and had a friend trying to keep him under control. While Awesome Color has a loud and fun show, they did not merit the sort of 'I'm a fucktard and listen to Korn' or 'I'm a juggalo' kind of headbanging that this man was doing.
During a short break, he asked the band what their name was and when told did not understand and expressed great dismay at them not being this other band he was excited about. I recall him later saying that he thought that this band was great and that oxycodone is a great name for a band. The bouncer laughed and told him to shutup.

I hung around there for Hotels. Hotels is nice new wave-esque kind of band. They were fairly good, but i wasn't hooked.


The next band I saw was surprisingly good. I'd never expected to listen to a band that admitted that it was emo and say, "wow, i could listen to this a few more times and not hate it." PELA is what emo was before MTV killed it and has carried on the old emo tradition. PELA has no whiny vocals and has a sound closer to a slow hardcore than to fallout boy. The main problem I had with them was that they all dressed like bros, but I'm willing to let it slide.

Next I saw the Maldives, a sort of bluegrass/folk/country rock band. Being a sucker for bluegrass and folk I loved the band. For some of their songs they had more of a Classic Southern Rock sound, another diggable type of music.

I don't know if I'll buy their album, but their concert was good.

Next was Truckasaurus, a band I'd been hearing about for a good while and was pretty excited to see. Every several months I become obsessed with 8 bit for less than a day, purists make me cringe because the sounds a gameboy make are grinding to listen to. I was one of those who welcomed standard electro into the 8 bit world and feel that the genre has improved because of it. If I were taking massive quantities of speed and/or coke, regular 8-bit would be pallatable, but seeing as I don't, it isn't. Check out Truckasaurus if you get the chance, their show packed Neumo's and had people dancing in the balcony. I hear that is hard to do. Also, I apologize for the camerawork, I was drunk.

Next was the Gossip. This band has roots where I live, down in Olympia, WA, and that would make most locals think that I would like them. Wrong. The Gossip was okay although maybe it was just the hundreds of people jammed together like sardines making my life a living hell.


The last band I saw was probably the main reason I decided to go to the concert in the first place. Sonic Youth is a great band that I've been into for a while now and I jumped at the chance to see them in concert.

They played mostly new music, but thats okay. If you've read my review of their new album you know how I feel about them. Even though they are an older band, they still play as well as if they were still in their twenties. You should've seen the mosh pit.

Capitol Hill Block Party Part 1

Last weekend, I went to a two day, 3 stage music festival. Capitol Hill Block Party, sponsored KEXP, KNDD (better known as The End), and The Stranger, attracts less well known bands than Bumbershoot (the other big Seattle music festival) and so I find them much more interesting. This is a 2 Part chronicling of my times at the festival:

Thursday, July 23rd:
Hitched a ride up from Olympia and got to parents house around midnight, went to sleep.

Friday, 24th:
Got to the Block Party just after 4 and tried to get my bearings. I had just walked all the way from downtown Seattle and was catching my breath. It was really hot out there. I could hear The Dutchess and The Duke playing from where I was sitting and was not impressed. I wandered looking for good music until 5:15 when I found and caught the tail end of Band of Skulls. I wish I had caught the full set; They ended up being really good.
I went to check out Bow + Arrow next, I wasn't digging it so I ended up heading to the first show I was really excited about for the day. Black Lips was playing at the mainstage and was sure to draw a crowd. I was determined to get up close, but got stuck pretty far back.



I bought their album after the show. Their punk vibe with some of the markers of their southern psychedelic rock sensibilities created a sound I wished I came up with myself.

Deerhunter followed immediately after Black Lips and played well. I’ve been excited about Deerhunter since I picked up their album about a year ago and was really jazzed when I saw that I could see them in concert. They were a full quarter of why I came to the Block Party.



Their vocal effects broke within the first 5 minutes of them playing and they still did a great set. They are definitely more of a recording-centric band, but their live show is still worth seeing. I recommend picking up their album, Microcastle. It has a nice flow from beginning to end.

After Deerhunter, I headed over to the Vera stage and found nice place to sit and recuperate for the final show I’d be seeing that night. Another quarter of the reason I went to the Block Party was Starfucker.



Besides the obvious attraction of the name, Starfucker is good local band from Seattle. They come through Olympia periodically. They play really mellow synthpop, I recommend giving them a listen sometime, it might change your life.

I went home to my parents house around 1 in the morning and got a good nights sleep. I would need it for the next day.