hootenanny for haiti

my pain is self chosen
at least i believe it to be
i could either drown
or pull off my skin and swim to shore
now i can grow a beautiful shell for all to see.
mad season, river of deceit

i've said it before, and pardon me while i say it again, but i LOVE living in seattle. what i witnessed last night at the showbox is reason number 25433 why. or reason number 1, i can't decide which.



you know that feeling that you get before a show you've been looking forward to FOREVER? that feeling of nervous anticipation, like butterflies in your stomach? yeah, i kind of love that feeling. and i had it all weekend. i wish that i had a good camera that could really capture what the stage looked like at the showbox - there were a couple of big couches, some stools, some music stands, and a lot of candles. basically, it was like a living room. and right above where i was standing, there were microphones pointed at the crowd.

according to wikipedia, a hootenanny is an informal, festive performance by folk singers, often including audience participation. that's really the best way to describe the night. all the musicians - too many to count, but i'll try: mark pickerel, kim virant, kristen ward, duff mckagen, jeff rouse, tim dejulio, mike mccready, star anna, gary westlake, chris friel, matt cameron, and other people i'm forgetting - sat on the couches with their instruments and each came up front one at a time to sing a song while the rest played along. mike did a rolling stones song, for example, kim virant sang neil young, mark pickerel did tom petty, star anna sang a FATASTIC version of what i think is an otis redding song (watch me be embarrassed that i'm wrong) which makes me want to immediately run out and purchase her records, and etc...

a definite highlight was when kim warnick, formerly of the fastbacks, came out and sang belinda carlisle's song just like heaven. i can't believe i'm admitting this, but i knew literally every single lyric to that song. somehow the music pulled that out of the deepest recesses of my brain. it's sort of frightening to think about what portion of my mind is made up by song lyrics. plus, she made a somewhat dirty joke when she said she had come out of retirement "only for one night.. and that's what she said."

brad, who i wrote about in my last post and who will be playing at the showbox in april (!!), played buttercup. and i suppose this is as good a place as any to write about shawn smith coming out later to sing crown of thorns with mike, stone, et al. despite the guy singing off-key in my ear (or, heck, maybe because of him - he sure seemed to know all the lyrics to EVERY song and his enthusiasm was kind of infectious), i don't think i'm exaggerating to say that this was one of the best moments, musically or otherwise, i have experienced since seeing pearl jam in philadelphia last october. SERIOUSLY.

... but only one of the best. another of those moments was to be had at this show when mike, duff and jeff rouse (who i also now feel the need to find out more about) played the mad season song river of deceit. the song that i quoted at the beginning of this post. the song that i remember first hearing on the pearl jam radio show self pollution radio in 1995, sitting in my bedroom listening to with the volume low so that my mom and dad wouldn't hear. earlier tonight, i found a video of this song on youtube, and i told myself i would only watch it once.. well, now it's 2 and a half hours later, and i've been pretty much listening to it nonstop. seriously. and i have an overwhelming urge to dig out above, the mad season record. perhaps the best thing i can say about this entire show is that it makes me want more. i want to listen to mad season for the first time in about 10 years, i want to go see brad in april, i want to hear more of star anna's (and kim virant and mark pickerel, and everyone else honestly) music, i just want. music.

here's that video of river of deceit

i want to live my life with the volume full

pearl jam, seattle (9/21 and 9/22) and portland (9/26)

i have seen this band live every tour since my first show in augusta, maine in 1996 and, while it's impossible for me to objectively rate their live performances (as an example, any other show i see, no matter how mindblowingly awesome, automatically ranks below every pearl jam concert), the three shows i saw last month have to be up there as among some of the best i've witnessed.

i've been trying to write about these concerts for 2 weeks, and nothing i can put on paper has come close to describing how i really feel. i'll try starting at the end this time: as a i type this, i am looking at the new picture frame next to my computer that contains a ticket stub and eddie vedder's guitar pick. in portland, my fanclub seats were in the 3rd row but, as it turned out, there were no seats in front of ours. so, basically we were in the front row. at the end of yellow ledbetter, in what is easily one of the best musically-related experience of my life, eddie pointed at me and handed me his pick. that moment was one that i won't forget, and i think the surreal feeling i had about the whole thing pretty much sums up these shows. for me, music is so much more than a fun diversion; it is honestly an essential part of my life. and days like this remind me just how true that is.

i'm not exaggerating when i say that there were multiple moments in all 3 of these shows that literally made my heart want to leap out of my body. i think it's pretty amazing that happens even after 16 years. i've had so many great pearl jam experiences this year, from seeing eddie in tennessee and hawaii to listening to backspacer with hundreds of other people on release day at easy street. yeah, i'm a pretty lucky girl.

this post is about nothing

this post brought to you by: megan has entirely too much time on her hands while she waits for her laundry to dry.

for all that i love to complain about work (doesn't everyone??), i do really enjoy it most of the time. in the middle of a particularly hectic afternoon (kids screaming at each other, fighting over blocks, running inside, etc...), a father who likes pearl jam and knows that i do too says, "so, megan, did you catch the secret show they played at the showbox last weekend?" immediately (and showing what an obsessed nerd i am) i started to panic and thought, oh my god, PJ finally played in seattle again and i missed it. but then i realized that he must have meant the video they were shooting at the showbox. (unless i happened to overlook some news). but i was a teensy bit jealous there for a minute.

my nashville ticket came in the mail today!! *happy dance* i told a co-worker today that i would be on vacation june 17-19, and she asked where. i told her, and she knows me all too well, and said, "are you going to a concert? is it pearl jam or the frames?" hehe. i LOVE that people ask me that (and i kind of wish that it was the frames, but oh well... ed vedder will have to do ;D

this weekend (as i do many weekends during the summer), i went downtown and had lunch at pike place market where, unbeknown st to me, they were having their annual street fair. they had a "busker's stage," showcasing some of the market's street performers. first up, were these guys who usually stand outside starbucks and sing songs like my girl and down on the boardwalk. they're really good.


next, were a group that i see a lot at festivals and at the market, and stop to listen to every time. they're called the tallboys, and the singer said that they have a twice-monthly square dance at the tractor tavern. that sounds fun! anyway, they are a string band and, as the fiddle player said, play "all the rock-n-roll hits from the 1800's." ha! and the guitarist dances a jig while she plays - which cannot be easy. i heart them.

wave to all my friends

this is for kristine, who told me that she misses reading my blog, although i can't fathom why. i am a very uninteresting person i think. but.. anyway, here are a few things i'm liking lately.

goodness/kim virant/and others at the tractor 5/23


i had so much fun seeing these guys on saturday night at the tractor tavern in ballard. kim virant is awesome - i highly recommend the song love ain't for the weak, i'm a little obsessed with it at the moment. goodness is also incredible - i'm sure i've written about them before. i adore the lead singer, carrie akre, and devour almost anything she puts out - be it goodness, hammerbox (her pre-goodness band, which i have started listening to a little... 'tis good, in my humble opinion), the rockfords, or, especially, her solo albums. an aside that really has nothing to do with anything is that when i moved to tacoma in june, 2001, the very first show i saw in seattle was kim virant and carrie akre at local 49, which was the vera project's all ages venue at the time.

plus, during most of the show, i was standing behind rick friel. if you've seen my posts about shadow, you probably know how much i like him. my inner teenager was excited by this. (i have no idea what that means, but it's late so i'm just going with it).

here's someone's video of superwise from the show. i think whoever made this must have been standing right next to me. you can see rick friel playing the air guitar. heh.


folklife and, sunny weather
i went to folklife today, which is a free festival at seattle center that basically kicks off the summer. to me, anyway. my favorite thing about living in seattle is probably all the summer festivals. and, it was sunny and warm today! bonus! here are some pictures:



perhaps my favorite part of folklife is the rhythm tent, where people go to basically sit in a big circle and play drums. there's just something about being part of that that is great. i spent about an hour there when they were doing west african drumming.

i also love the street performers; i don't particularly like the artists that play on the stages (just not my musical cup of tea), so i prefer to wander around and let whatever happens happen. really, at what other festival can you listen to a man playing the didgeridoo, walk ten feet and see a band playing the steel drums, and be passed by a guy carrying a washboard? heaven, i tell you.

eddie vedder
not only have i been on an into the wild soundtrack kick lately, but i have decided to see him not once, but twice next month. i had already planned on seeing him in memphis with my fanclub tickets. but as i was contemplating booking plane tickets and making hotel reservations, i had a crazy idea that i could make the whole thing into a mini roadtrip and also go to nashville. so off i went to ticketmaster with this hare-brained idea in my head, and lo and behold, a ticket for the 6/18 show in nashville came up! of course i had to buy it. so, that's that story. plane tickets to nashville are actually quite a bit cheaper than tickets to memphis. who would think that? i'm even more excited for this trip now than i was before. less than a month!!

(more) things that make me happy

kristine and i went to one of my favorite places in seattle, discovery park, today. the weather was perfect for walking in the woods - it was a great fall morning; not freezing cold, but there was definately a chill in the air. we walked in the woods to the beach and then out to the lighthouse. in the afternoon, we went to another of my favorite places in seattle - easy street records. i restrained myself and bought only 3 used cd's, which is pretty impressive for me.

i love this time of year for lots of reasons: i love wearing comfy sweaters and corduroy pants, i love walking through leaves, i love the fact that days are shorter, i love halloween movies and tv shows, i love pumpkin spice lattes at starbucks (one of my many weaknesses), i love the (all too rare, here) sunny, chilly days and i even love (well, okay, like) the rain.

something that makes me unhappy, however, is the fact that the red sox lost tonight and won't be in the world series. no good! i even missed most of the amazing race so that i could watch what i hoped would be their big comeback. i am going to cry now.

this band will change your life x2

i will upload all my pictures of bumbershoot (and i have a lot! i think i have found a new hobby - taking concert pictures. i may suck at it, but hey.. it's fun) during the week, but for now suffice it to say that i have had the best weekend in a long time. i have been going to bumbershoot since i moved to washington in 2002, and i can never remember seeing so many good bands. usually, i may see one or two that blow me away, but this year every single group that i saw was incredible! (that's due to the fact that i only went to see bands i was interested in, of course, but it's also owing to the line up bumbershoot put together this year)

today was perhaps the best. i started out with vince mira, a kid (i think he's a teenager?) who sounds exactly like johnny cash. i mean EXACTLY. i saw him last year at the pike place market 100th anniversary, and i was sure to get to bumbershoot by noon so that i could check him out today.

next up was mark pickeral and his praying hands who i absolutely adored. the guidebook thingy described him as "alt country." hmm.. that description seems to be thrown around a lot. but, whatever, he was great.

then i pretty much stuck to the stage under the space needle, which was clearly the best stage of the weekend (all of my favorite bands, with the exception of band of horses, were on the stage). first was blitzen trapper, who i am completely in love with. last month, i said that they were my favorite group at the sub pop anniversary festival, and today they were ten times better than they were then. seriously, i can't say enough about them. you know how every once in a while you see a band who completely and utterly floors you and makes you want to go home and buy all their albums and see all the shows that you can? this was that band.

another one who i loved today was john vanderslice. i've heard him before, but never gotten a chance to see him live. he was really great, and had some excellent banter with the crowd about the restaraunt at the top of the space needle. i've heard that it sucks and charges 11 dollars for a hamburger. i think someone told him that it was called denney's. ha. that would rock, actually.

i made the decision to forego seeing death cab on the mainstage - actually not a hard decision; although i loved them at one time, their last two albums (with the exceptions of 2 songs - marching bands of manhattan and cath) have left me feeling like something is missing. incidentally, once their show started, i noticed an absence of the annoying teenagers (not that all teenagers are annoying, but, i have to say, many are) that had been, well, annoying me all day. i don't know if that is some kind of remark about death cab, but there you go.

anyway, instead of seeing them, i went to see minus the bear, and it turns out that was by far the best choice i could have made. WOW. i've never had a chance to see them live before, and i was completely mesmerized. from the second they took the stage to the second they left, i was utterly transfixed. there are very few bands in the world who are so good that they can make me cry (a cookie for you if you can guess who two of them are), but minus the bear surpisingly did just that. i cannot believe i have wasted my time not being a fan of them before, a situation that i will remedy as soon as possible. it was kind of funny to watch some stupid kid try to crowd surf only to fall flat on his butt when no one wanted to play along. ha.

a note: iced coconut mochas from dillentante chocolate (i think i spelled that right) are really, really good. yum. so good that i got one both sunday and monday mornings. mmmm...

sigh. back to real life. why can't this be real life?

you've got to hear this band, they'll change your life

sometimes, i think music can do just that. at least for a little while.

just a quick post to say that i apologize for complaining a few weeks ago about how there is no new music that i like. the problem is mine for not taking the time to seek out more new-to-me bands, because i have already seen so many good performances at bumbershoot (and i still have a full day tomorrow!). in no real order, we have: band of horses, nada surf, the walkmen (i will note that i think it's hilarious that their lead singer's first name is the same as my last name), tapes n' tapes (WOW. they blew me away), the whigs (likewise. WOW. they won me over once and for all with their cover of the kids are alright. i do love a song i can sing along with), and the blakes (although i liked them better last year when they were on an outdoor stage and had an awesomely enthusiastic tambourine player). i had doubts about seeing band of horses in this setting (they were playing on the mainstage), but they were so great that i remember thinking during their set that it was the best mainstage performance i've seen since wilco/REM four years (i think) ago. not only is ben's voice suited for the outdoors during sunset, but who can help but love a singer who yells "woooo!" after every song and calls the audience "dudes"? i've seen them five times now, and i think every time is better than the last. tapes n' tapes (who were the last band i saw tonight) had me leaving the seattle center on an absolute high, loving life and feeling like i don't have a care in the world. they kind of reminded me of the frames in a way, not so much because they sound alike but because the songs just build and build until the musicians are on stage going insane and i just want to close my eyes and enjoy it. and how have i not heard the whigs before? they were INCREDIBLE. and they're from athens, georgia, like my beloved REM.

i am already dreading going back to work tuesday. ugh. i love bumbershoot, but it's always kind of sad when it's over. oh... i had time today to browse flatstock, the poster exhibition, and i am salivating over a swell season poster. it is a deep orange (it would match my PJ LA 2006 one!) with a big swan in the middle and the words "swell season north american tour 2008" on it. it's only 20 dollars, but i'm sure that if i got it, i would do what i have done for all my PJ posters, which is order a custom frame for it which ends up costing more than the poster itself. so i don't really need it. except for if i do, in a moment of weakness, tomorrow.

superwise

i find it amusing that someone googled "meeting josh beckett" and found my blog. i guess i've written all those words, although certainly never together. (josh beckett, by the way, is my baseball boyfriend, although he doesn't know it... yet. heh)

anyway... back to your regularly scheduled programming. last night was the last of the four free concerts KEXP has had at the mural ampitheatre. i went to two - rocky votolato last week, and ms. led and goodness this week. due to a very tramautic dentist appointment, i missed most of ms. led's performance, although their last song was really really good, i thought.

but goodness was wonderful. a few entries ago, i wrote about seeing them at the showbox. that was one of the best shows i have seen in a long time (ok, ok, i have a horrible habit of saying that about every concert i see). it was great to not only see them again, but to be so close. *warning: i am not a very good photographer, obviously.





i couldn't really find many goodness videos on youtube, but i did find this one by the rockfords, which includes several members of goodness (including carrie akre, an incredible singer who i can't say enough about). if you have an eagle eye, you might also spot mike mccready (pearl jam).


speaking of mike, on wednesday i have a date with him at the tractor tavern. yay!

my weekend

i went to see goodness at the showbox last night. goodness is a band from the mid-late 90s who i found through carrie akre, who i'm sure i have posted about here before. she is an AMAZING (and that is an understatement after what i witnessed last night) singer who i first heard in 2000 when the rockfords, a band that included mike mccready from pearl jam as well as chris and danny from goodness, released their album (if you go to the link, do yourself a favor and listen to distress. wow). i LOVED that record, and started listening to carrie's solo albums because her voice impressed me so much (there are 3: home, invitation and her newest, last the evening). since moving to washington, i've seen carrie live 4 or 5 times and the rockfords twice.

despite not knowing all of the songs goodness played, they were wonderful. i can't remember the last time i saw a show at the showbox full of such energy from both the band and the audience. every time i've seen carrie live, she does this weird, charming kind of robotic dancing and jumping around the stage. during superwise, the last song of their main set, she told the audience to jump up and down, and by golly, i think that everyone did. the entire band was amazing.. i especially loved watching garth reeves, the guitarist, and fiia mccann, the bassist.

i was right; goodness will be playing at the mural ampitheatre on the 23rd (and it's free!) and then they're going to do another show nov. 22 at the tractor tavern.

there were two opening acts - the first one kind of cracked me up because his name was "buddy." nothing else, just "buddy." despite having my hands on the stage for most of his set, i could hardly hear him through all the chattering in the bar.

the second band definately did not have that problem. their name was, i think i have this right, "my life in black and white." they obviously had a big following (i think they're from portland). i liked them okay, but i kind of hate them for one of their lyrics that is stuck in my head: goodbye, farewell, i'll see you in hell. i don't remember the rest of the song, just those lyrics.

i slept in today until 9:30 (which is really late for me, even on a sunday), had breakfast, read the paper, and decided to go downtown. since they close the streets in pike place market to cars on sundays (as far as i'm concerned, they should do that every day of the week), i ate lunch at a little cafe there and listened to a man outside who was playing bob marley songs. afterwards, i went to a coffee shop and read some more of i capture the castle , a surprisingly good book that is the first novel for our book club at work. a lovely way to end a weekend that has, surprisingly, felt more like fall than summer.

at the moment, i am listening to the free cd subpop gave away at their festival a few weeks ago. it has a bunch of songs from albums that were released this year on it. have i mentioned that i am in love with blitzen trapper? they'll be at bumbershoot september 1. my favorite song on the cd, though, is by the gutter twins, who i sadly (and, again, speaking to my musical ignorance) did not pay much attention to until now. it's made up of greg dulli (afghan whigs) and mark lanegan (screaming trees), the latter of which has got to have one of the most interesting voices in rock music.

got me a big wave...

this time next week, i will be in boston! ahhhh...

i am spending my evening listening to a live stream from the telluride bluegrass festival, where the frames are performing later tonight. (believe me, i thought about going but turns out it's kind of complicated to get to telluride).

i went to the fremont fair today; the highlight of which is the solstice parade, with it's wacky floats and, my personal favorite, naked bicyclists!


(the rest of my pictures are here)