This just in: Glitch Mobsters OOah and Kraddy will be playing at Nectar May 16, and the opening deejay kicks ass too: our favorite local madman Novatron.
Nova plays again the next night (May 17) at the Inner-Dimensional Art Show at the Transcendent Church of Bass with Tipper; there will no doubt be many more talented deejays lined up to spin at this awesome venue.
If you haven’t heard of any of these guys then GET DOWN to Nectar and the Church of Bass and prepare to have your mind blown by the sounds of the future. I am so stoked about these upcoming shows- what great news for all of us alive and kicking out here in Seattle! I wouldn’t think my day could get any better but I’m headed to the Seattle Art Walk in the SUNSHINE in just a few hours.
THURSDAY: After you wander around at the first Thursday Seattle Art Walk in Pioneer Square and Downtown, head to the Tech N9ne show at the Moore Theatre and get served by the great lyricist and rap master. Not a thug? Mulally jams at the Blue Moon Tavern in the U District with opener Amtraque; it’s gonna be a rockin show (I should know; Mulally practices in my living room). For you happy punkers out there, Say Hi brings to Chop Suey a delicious fat portion of indie rock; let’s just hope SPD doesn’t come in and tell them to turn it down. What’s the saying? If it’s too loud, you’re too old…but you’re also wearing a badge and gun so I guess I will adjust the knob just a bit. Damn.
FRIDAY: Ghostland Observatory plays the first of two shows at the Showbox; these Austin boys bring it with passion and without apologies- hey they might even get the hipsters to dance (but probably not). Electric Avenueat the CHAC (Capitol Hill Arts Center) is a dependable dance night; Hyperfunk and company have their priorities straight: they like electro. They like retro. They like ghetto, house, and techno. Bases covered. If you didn’t get enough art on the first Thursday Seattle Art Walk, then go to the Seattle Art Museum for the SAM Remix with KEXP DJ Kid Hops; the mix of art, music, dancing, and cocktails will make you happy.
SATURDAY: KJ Sawka drums like a madman at Nectar in Fremont; if you want to know what the future of music will sound like, come out and join the show. Novatron will also be in the house. The Handslay it down at the Funhouse with their sticky, gritty, 100% ROCK AND ROLL! WOO-HOO! Clothes may come off. KEXP (all over this weekend) broadcasts Audioasis live from the High Dive tonight; the show is all about music from the Pacific Northwest. Check it out. I will be at SPY, the best party in Seattle with the sickest lineup ever this month; it’s all happening at Lo_Fi Performance Gallery from 9PM to 4AM. Seattle loves this dance party so much there are poems showing up on Northwest Tekno. See you on the dance floor.
Nada Surf plays the first of two performances at the Showbox at the Market tonight, bringing to Seattle their laid-back rock style. You will remember their name from the song “Popular” which indeed was popular back in the day (My mom says I’m a catch/I’m popular/I’m never last picked/I got a cheerleader chick). If nothing else the Nada Surf will remind you how happy you are to be OUT of high school.
Not into beach rock? Nine-time Grammy winner Eddie Palmieri spills his particular blend of Latin jazz out onto the piano at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley; if his innovative style doesn’t win you over, his charismatic stage manner will.
Analog VIII takes over Rebar every last Friday of the month; this time it’s house music with several local deejays as well as live painters and the Produkt dancers. Rebar’s dance floor is always packed at Analog events, come and make some friends.
If you think house music is for lam-o’s, then check out some real musicians at The Triple Door with the Asylum Street Spankers from Austin. With rubboards, stand-up bass and heaps of other magic instruments, these cats jam and have a damn good time doing it.
Rockers will enjoy The Cute Lepers (your lesions are adorable!) at the new club King Cobra on Capitol Hill
For a bit of wackiness head to Nectar for the Super Sonic Soul Pimps- they have promised a dog collar, box of crayons, and yes, instruments.
SATURDAY:
The Boss is in town! If you love Bruce Springsteen get your tight jeans and American flag bandanna and head to Key Arena for some good old-fashioned rock and roll.
The King Cobra goes off again tonight with IceAge Cobra, a psychedelic rock band which will no doubt have all the black-leather and silver-chain clad crowd bobbing heads like they really mean it
Jose Gonzalez will mesmerize the Triple Door diners into dribbling their food down their chins; his haunting style on the acoustic guitar just might inspire you to pick one up and learn a few chords.
Over in Ballard Velella Velella will fill the Sunset Tavern with their electro-pop sound; buy a drink and get ready to dance.
Get out there, Seattle! Your city is waiting. I’ll see you on the streets.
Thursday nights are always a phat dance night for us music lovers prowling the streets of Seattle, but this week’s Beatcon Breakdown will be especially rabid as UK’s BreakBeatBuddha comes to the Emerald City to drop his thick, crunked-out, glitch-thick hip-hop style. Unofficially part of San Francisco’s burgeoning glitch scene, BreakBeatBuddha is known internationally for his sticky underground beats and archetypal anthems for those of us embedded in the cultural revolution. The night opens with Seattle scene legend Osiris Indriya, followed by madman Noisemaker who will as usual turn the dance floor into a sweaty mess of bassheads before BreakbeatBuddha takes the decks to wipe it all up.
What cultural revolution, you say? It’s here, the sound of the future is now. 3B’s take on the role of music and dance is eloquently expressed on his Myspace page; he wants “to keep pushing the envelope on the sound, the vibe, the purpose and the movement. World events are reaching a climax. Our modern dance culture is fundamental in providing places to express ourselves, to gather in freedom and resistance to the more-prevailing formations of power. That freedom is currently under attack … if we don’t realize the dangers lurking in the shadows and mobilize the power we collectively maintain, slowly but surely, that core rebellious energy will be marketed to banality or legislated to death. The time to act is NOW.”
You have your marching orders; get off your end and get down to The Last Supper Club on Thursday night. Further fueling the night’s madness is the fact that this month’s Beatcon Breakdown is only $5! Insanity! The floor will be packed, get there early and get down- the future of the world may depend on it.
On Saturday evening at the Pacific Science Center there was not a lecture on chemistry, a school bus tour of the Science Playground, or a 3D show at the IMAX. Seattle’s science museum was instead filled with the kinetic energy of hundreds of dancers, musicians, and artists who came together to raise hell at the annual event Kinetic, produced by Infinite Connections. The night was a living, breathing, dancing mix of beats and butterflies, dinosaurs and digital remixes, tide pools and trance, electronic music and museum madness.
This year’s Kinetic III was a much anticipated party; Northwest Tekno had over 1300 posts (BUMP! SNAP!) devoted to the event, lasting from 9PM to 4AM. The dance party started off with a flashy fire performance and for the first three hours all of the exhibits in the Pacific Science Center were open; everyone ran around like kids checking out the big museum. In the Tropical Butterfly House girls with glittery green hair caught bright blue butterflies on their pink fishnet-covered palms and boys with fauxhawks and chains in their faces gently pet starfish and nudibranchs in the Saltwater Tide Pool. Some of the ravers brought pillows and blankets to lay on the floor at the midnight laser show, and plenty others brought cash for the three bar areas set up, one incongruently in a children’s play area. The outside smoking section was huge and stocked with tons of picnic tables so the dancers could catch their breath and a Camel in the cool night air under the glowing purple arches of the Science Center and spaceship Spaceneedle.
But this party is all about movement, and music and dance dominated the Kinetic experience. In fact the kinetic energy produced by the dancers could probably have powered the museum for a week. The three main stages played trance, house, and electro; everyone could find their home groove and everyone did.
The Uniting Souls animal house was the first music room encountered, and househead deejays Ramiro, Derrick Deepvibez, and Jay West put four on the floor with live music accompaniment from Ari Joshua on guitar and Sklobot on saxophone. The crowd responded well to the mix of electronic beats and live instrumentation; it’s a melange many don’t get to hear too often though they should. Around the corner in the Insect Village was the IOSIS Art Party with an intriguing variety of visual art and all the trance and psy-trance you could ever want to freak out to. Blue Spectral Monkey and Osiris Indriya amongst others kept the dance floor freaking out for hours, only the Madagascar hissing cockroaches seemed indifferent to the progressive sound vibrations saturating the room, which is probably a good thing. For chilling out, the Dinosaur Room was the place to be with floaty, dreamy downtempo provided by the Chickenhed Crew.
I found my home for the night on the dance floor in the Broken Disco Electro Playhouse; the lineup from the four music collectives Decibel, Fourthcity, Sensory Effect, and Shameless was on fire and the dance floor was straight going off for hours. Novatron vs. Shapeshifter was a battle where everyone won; Jerry Abstract and Nordic Soul spun as Abstract Soul and the crowd loved it, especially the glow-stick girls in the back. Headliner Knifehandchop from Toronto did not disappoint but the killer set of the night was delivered at 2AM by Naha, who lathered her side of the museum into a fevered frenzy with her eclectic breakcore style and energetic, inspiring performance. Packed with smiling faces, flailing arms, and crazy legs, the mad delirium on the floor was the best dance riot of the night thanks to Naha’s potent beat flinging. Such was the consensus at the afterparties which raged after Kinetic III for hours and hours; most people’s comments went something like this: “OMG did you catch Naha’s set? It was F*ING INCREDIBLE! INSANE! My legs are so sore now. Can you pass me a beer?” etc. Missed Naha? Catch her this Saturday night at Photosythesis 0.2 at the Transcendent Church of Bass battling glitchmaster Noisemaker which will be a supersick war of whomps, a blitzkrieg of bass and a barrage of booty shakin’. I wouldn’t miss it if my feet were missing.
Parties are always more fun when there is something anarchistic about them, the fun lovers who go out and dance for hours every week aren’t your typical black- and beige-wearing limp celery sticks on the bus going home to watch sitcom reruns. We want unconventional experiences and atypical nights that will add up to amazing, unique lives. Mainstream is a dirty word; average days are unacceptable. Closing a museum like the Pacific Science Center for a giant party is like throwing a rave in a church; bucking the establishment reminds us that we’re not all clones, no sheep here, we are alive and we dance all night to remind ourselves that life is short. Like children, our priority is to play and have fun, and the positive energy and happy hearts produced at the Kinetic III prove that just maybe we are onto something.
And no one at Kinetic III will ever forget that night; most are no doubt already planning to attend Kinetic IV as well as Magnetic IV this fall, Kinetic’s sister celebration hosted by the same music collectives. The party was a bit pricey, $21 presale and $30 at the door, but well worth it as you not only receive a huge musical experience to imbibe but also have the whole Pacific Science Center to explore. My only tiny moan about Kinetic III is this, and I think you will all agree: the party should last until 6AM. Then again, they don’t call me Dance Fever 5000 for nothin’.
Do you agree with me? Think I’m full of it? Whose set did you think was the best, and how would you make the next Kinetic even better? Comment below and let me know!
I don’t know if it’s the sunny days or the upcoming full moon (which will horrifically have an advertisment on it from Rolling Rock’s new moonvertising scheme- can they do that to our moon?), but things were crack-a-lacking last night on the streets of Seattle. Tons of people were out crawling around, dancing, drinking, and howling. The Freestylers were hanging out on the dance floor at Qool, DJ Nyx’s Wednesday night home of Seesound Lounge, jamming to Dylan Rhymes and getting ready for their FREE show tonight at Trinity’s Free Bass night. The floor was hopping.
Over in Pioneer Square Contour is closed for a few days for renovation but Trinity picked up the slack with their new night Pulse; no cover, local house deejyas, and live musicians! Last night Jason Curtis, Lloyd Tatum, Jules V and Derrick Deepvibes rocked it straight through until 2AM. Club Heaven was also bangin’, with $1 PBRs, Von Dewey and Kristina Childs on the decks can you go wrong? Of course the best music of the night was at the Baltic Room as Noisemaker laid down the glitch with birthday boy Loki. Happy birthday indeed. Glitch? What the hell is that? Find out tonight at Tost with Ana Sia, the crunk ass deejay from San Fran who spins the fatty bass, or as she puts it on her Myspace, “glitched-out sexed-up bassy and beautiful global slut psy-hop”. Come and hear what the future sounds like. Ana Sia will be on with Danny Corn at midnight after our boys Marmalade finish jamming with their funky selves. See you on the dance floor.
Make my jambalaya spicy, put okra in the gumbo, fry up the sliced pickles, and turn up the Zydeco! Captain Leroy and the Zydeco Locals bring Cajun music to Seattle on Thursday night at the China Harbor Restaurant, a cross-cultural evening of rockin’ jams and foot stomping, not to be missed whether you are a zydeco fan or have never even heard of the happy dancing music from the South.
Zydeco music originated in the late 19th century on the streets of New Orleans in the French-speaking community which was at the time a melange of Creoles (Francophones of mixed race from the Caribbean islands) and Acadians kicked out of Canada by the Brits (and the source of our word Cajun). The first zydeco song to make it big was about green beans, or les haricots; somehow the English translation of the word became ‘zydeco’, and the name stuck.
You won’t need any translation Thursday night as Captain Leroy and the Zydeco Locals bring music from the wet swamps of Louisiana to the wet streets of Seattle. Zydeco is all about dancing with a partner, and the syncopated beat and clacks of the rubboard will make your toes go off like you were on a porch in the bayou. The Captain sings in English and French as he plays the accordian; add to this the passion and energy inherent in zydeco music, and you’ve got a party at The China Harbor Restaurant. Please pass the green beans!
It was a strange weekend this time around in the city, I think the sunshine last week and warm weather confused us just a bit. How can we think about nightlife when that big hot bright round thing in the sky is teasing us? Add to this the missing daylight savings hour and the overnight appearance of pink trees, and it could be possible, nay, probable, that Spring is just a few more rainy, cold, dreary weeks away.
This is your report from the front lines, from the streets of your city: what goes on, who is jamming, where the party is and what kind of craziness and fun is going down in Seattle:
Wednesday brought musician Ari Joshua back to the SeaMonster in Wallingford with friends Joe Doria, Rois Shorter, and Mesa Taylor for a small going-away party; he had a 26 hour flight to Africa the next day. The SeaMonster is THE BEST BAR IN SEATTLE hands down; with blue-green Christmas light ambiance and a topless mermaid on the wall, could you ever go wrong? Danny Godinez and Pura Fe held a CD release party at The Tractor in Ballard; if you missed it you can catch him at least at TosT in Fremont on Monday. He will rock, for sure. Next up I found myself at the Seattle punk institution The Funhousewhere The Misplacements played their best show yet to a very small crowd of fans; something about being in The Funhouse makes me want to scream and spit when I talk. The punk gets in you, as does the free beer for the band from the VIP room. It rocks. My last stop of the night was the SeeSound Lounge for a stranger’s birthday party (don’t you love that?); of course by the end of the night no one was a stranger. Local photographer Ev was in the crowd and deejay Jason Marble laid it down sick-like for the cupcake-eating crowd: if you’ve never heard “Sweet Child of Mine” mixed with fatty bass beats, you should: it just might blow your mind.
Thursday I chilled at the Harvey Danger show at The Triple Door (read my review here) then headed to Pioneer Square; Trinity is doing a Free Bass night every week now showcasing local breaks and drum and bass talent like DJ Ryle whom I just met this week; let me say the boy can straight lay it down! Free Bass nights at Trinity should be on the list of anyone who is addicted to the bass; you know who you are. Thursday nights for me are almost always capped off at Club Contour, where a sick group of deejays and dancers and friends never ever fail to have a good time and then some. Jisaan, Miguel, Lovevirus, Pressha and others kept the floor bumpin’ until 4AM, as usual.
Friday brought the absolute best party of the week at Fado where the Produkt deejays slayed the weekend night Pioneer Square crowd with the fat beats and hot dancers. I realize that not everyone can go out every night like me, and it makes me smile to see the variety in the crowd which show up downtown on weekend nights. I meet students and parents, too-cool emo kids to not-cool-at-all emo adults, tourists who are always told to go to Pioneer Square for a good time and locals who rarely go there for a bad time, girls in tiny silver skirts and boys in shiny shirts: I meet them all, and they all come for a good time. Yes. The night finished at Studio Seven where some San Fran deejays and locals were spinning to a small birthday crowd; it was too small really for the big venue, and the party never really got started at the all-ages club.
Saturday found me at Pioneer Square doing the usual nightly tour, but this time I discovered a new attraction, a killer sushi place just a couple blocks west of the Square. Nijo is a sushi bar tucked into Post Alley which serves a ridiculous happy hour Thursday through Saturday from 10PM to midnight: $4 Lychee Martinis and Wasabi Bloody Marys and $3 fried calamari, baked mussels, and mmm mmm mmm: sushi. The happy hour dishes are delicious and the music is even better; Saturday night local superstar deejays Danger and Noisemaker dropped beats more head clearing than the wasabi. I will be back. The night wrapped up with The Pirates of Puget Sound, a big all-ages raver party down at Motor in SoDo. It was, by all measurements, a wicked insane party, great visuals, plenty of people dressed as pirates or at least in stripes; crunk beats (especially out of Sonny Chiba and Nyx on the decks), and a great space for the venue. Well, it is until you let way too many partiers in- the place was absolutely, positively, jam-freaking packed. Which is the way a rave is supposed to be, but you also need to be able to get out for fresh air that isn’t 100+ degrees, and at the Motor you had to wait in a massive mob of pushers just to get outside, get out of the crowd, and breathe. It seems too often that this is the experience at underage parties in Seattle, I think someone needs to get these kids to a big, open field under the stars and let them do their thing. Good thing Spring is right around the corner.
..and Seattle slays Bassnectar! Neumos on Capitol Hill last Friday night was the straight atomic bomb action, the dirtiest, stickiest, sweatiest show I’ve seen there since Edit and OOah slammed down back in December. The Seattle music phreaks were out and pumped from the early evening despite the cold ticket line that wrapped way around the corner of Pike, and the energy just grew and grew from there to detonation level: minds blown.
Local homeboy Nordic Soul started the show followed by abstract technoist Lusine who really warmed up the crowd with his minimal beats, to say the least. His throbbing set was the perfect opener and had everyone already bumping up and down on the dance floor. The non-profit Seattle art crew Artifakt provided the live painting, and artist Roman produced a visual display throughout the show, an awesome addition to the creative energy in the room. The painter was clearly boiling over with talent; however the crowd was not at all into the finished rendition of the Seattle skyline. We are not shopping tourists at the Fremont market; we are Seattle and we see the real deal every day. A more abstract piece would have been better appreciated by the most abstract crowd.
By the time Lorin (Bassnectar) stepped up to the decks at midnight the room was already sweaty, and from the first beat he dropped the audience went berserk: yelling, jumping, dancing like maniacs, and taking off clothes. From the front of the floor all the way to the back Neumo’s was packed, even the balcony was shaking with movers, and the positive energy just popped off the walls all night. People weren’t bobbing heads and tapping feet; they were going wild. The club was oversold of course, sweat was flying everywhere and Bassnectar gave the whompiest, sickest beats ever for almost two hours. His original mixes and wide-minded take on electronica strike hard the hearts of music lovers who too often get stuck with deejay mimics and uninspired repeat beats. Bassnectar’s thick thick bass, tempo changes and kaleidoscopic combination of music from reggae to rock created a wicked insane vibe on the dance floor, and the crowd of hard core fans tore Neumo’s down. The show even extended way outside where the unlucky fools who couldn’t get tickets were getting down anyway in the middle of the street, Capitol Hill cops be damned.
Bassnectar was obviously as blown away by the experience as we were, dancing and sweating so much during his set that he had to use a bath towel to mop off himself and his equipment. He even stopped the beats a couple of times to tell Seattle how much we rock. Maybe he is used to the San Francisco fans who are just a little bit spoiled by all the kicking electronic music in that city (oh look, another Glitch Mob show, mmm). San Fran may have a giant freaking scene compared to Seattle, but the energy and passion at Neumos on Friday night matched any crazy party on the West Coast. Everyone in the room needed a bath towel that night, I needed two, and no one left the show without a smile and a soul rejuvenated by the music and dance experience that is Bassnectar.
It is always so inspiring to be a part of the energy exchange between an explosive deejay and a psyched crowd; the positive vibe flow bounces back and forth from the artist to the audience until it reaches a ridiculous level. Your brain melts, your body turns to jello, and your soul flies off into outer space. This is why we dance, this is why we love music, this why we crawl the streets of Seattle in search of electric artists who give it. And Bassnectar gave it.
At the raging afterparties everyone was so stoked about the show that they were almost at a loss for words. By Saturday there were already MySpace comments about having Bassnectar’s babies, and more than one person was seriously considering hopping a flight to Hawaii to catch his next show. Seattle was massacred, slaughtered on the dance floor, killed with the beats, and brought back to life by the music. If you missed the show though, wipe away your tears. Lorin was so stoked by the Seattle response that he will no doubt be back to our town; only next time we’re burnin’ down the Showbox. I will be there on the dance floor, and next time I will bring a towel.
I can’t believe the song Romeo & Juliet by S.O.A.P. isn’t on some version of Dance Dance Revolution. Even better would be if had this Ash & May Romeo and Juliet anime to go along with it. See it on Youtube here.
Best Final Fantasy Romeo and Juliet
Set to the Finnish europop Movetron’s “Romeo ja Julia,” this amazing fan-created Final Fantasy version tells the entire story in a crisp 4 minutes and 43 seconds. Amazing! View it here.
Best 19th century painting of Romeo and Juliet: Ford Maddox Brown
As many as one-fifth of all literary paintings done between 1760 and 1900 were of Shakespeare’s plays. Emory University’s Harry Rusche has cataloged many of them for his class called “Shakespeare Illustrated.” This one by Ford Maddox Brown depicts the famous scene on the balcony
Best Romeo and Juliet Movie: The Franco Zeffirelli version (1968)
With all due respect to the stunning acting abilities of Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet (cough, cough), the 1968 version directed by Franco Zeffirelli is the gold standard of movie versions. Starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, both young teens at the time, Zeffirelli cast this well and brings the right intensity to the story, while staying true to Shakespeare’s vision.
See this great blog post about the “where are they now?” story of Hussey and Whiting.
Best Falsetto Sock Puppet Romeo and Juliet: Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre
Best Ballet Romeo and Juliet: Angel Corella and Alessandra Ferri
I’ll bet you thought I’d go with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn in 1966 at the Royal Ballet or perhaps Nureyev at the Ballet de l’Opera National de Paris. If you want to go really old school there is always Maya Plisetskaya. But I had to go with Alessandra Ferri and her performance with Angel Corella. How many ballet superstars have their own MySpace page?
Best Electronic Book Version of Romeo and Juliet: Google Book
I’m partial to this 1913 version that comes complete with notes and is free to download from Google Books.
Best Romeo and Juliet Musical Adaptation: West Side Story
Duh! I like this comparison between West Side Story and the real play.
Best Stage Production of Romeo and Juliet: 1935 Old Vic
After Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet has probably been performed more than any other Shakespeare play. So it would be difficult to come up with the ultimate production. But the 1935 Old Vic production with John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft has long been considered to be one of the greatest.
Big Collection of Romeo and Juliet Videos
Here’s a collection of the videos mentioned above as well as several more:
