Ahem, okay. Enough with the childish outbursts (but I'm so good at it, no matter how old I get!). Really, there's a more legit reason why this show is important, besides the utter self-centeredness of my plugging it, and that's the fact that the three bands on the bill are three different kinds of amazing. They're young, they're local, they're the epitome of all-ages action! (They wouldn't be playing otherwise.)
Mon Frere are the winners of EMP's 2004 Sound Off! competition. The Mount Vernon trio takes a dancy brand of keyboard-infused rock to a whole new level, incorporating guitar and drums with some powerful, kick-ass female vocals. I know how people like to show up "fashionably late" or whatever to see bands, but don't. Mon Frere starts the party at 9:00 p.m., and missing them would be stupid. Yes, stupid.
Idiot Pilot were also finalists in Sound Off!, and while they didn't take home the grand prize, their ballsy mix of electronic atmospherics and rock intensity quickly gained them respect in the music community--both here and at a major label as well. Their recently released record, Strange We Should Meet Here, already made an appearance on The Stranger's NW Top 20 list, and the ink is still wet on a deal with Reprise Records (a subsidiary of Warner Brothers), who will re-release the new record later this summer. It's a noisy collection of experimental effects and keyboard background textures, with crazy, distorted guitar. Vocally, beautiful harmonies are juxtaposed against insanely energetic, hardcore-style yelling (you know how I'm a sucker for some good screaming in my rock).
Wrapping up the whole shebang is Kane Hodder, and well, haven't I said enough about this band? Seriously. But I'll say more. The Bremerton posse is prepping for the late-summer release of its debut full-length (titled The Pleasure to Remain So Heartless), and once that hits, I'm pretty sure the force of the Hodder will be unstoppable (trust me, I've heard pieces of the record, it's crazy good).
So consider this your invitation to my party nation, because I would love nothing more than to see the Paradox filled to the brim with friends and fellow rock fans. Silly? Self-indulgent? Oh, to be sure, but dude, it's my birthday! So we gonna party like it's my birthday.
