Sit on This
BY KATHLEEN WILSONSome people see it as a testament to talent; I see it as a folly for the ill-raised, but cross-legged floor-sitting endures at shows even in the stylish country of Spain, where Saltine recently wrapped up a six-day tour. All was fine and upstanding until band member Paul Mumau went all agro one night and punched a van and a cigarette machine, breaking his paw and leaving frontman Ken Stringfellow to play a solo set on the last night of the stint. A witness account said Stringfellow had the crowd eating out of his hand as he played much-loved Posies tunes and some Saltine material, and they had no reason to feel homesick because the pop-lovin’ Spaniards were parked asswise on the floor, just like they do it in the blasted, ill-raised Pacific Northwest. Floor-sitting: #52 on the list of things that annoy me around here.
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Speaking of annoying, I don’t care how “New York Hip” John Zorn collaborator Elliott Sharp is, the guy cleared the room last Saturday night at the Breakroom. Taking the better part of an hour to set up a table loaded with electronic gizmos and a computer, the 50-ish Sharp rewarded the audience for their patience with a noisy set of screeches and bloops and guitar noodling that sent most of the crowd running for the Sea Wolf next door. The only folks who remained, enraptured, were the fawning gear geeks who spent the whole set draped over the stage barricade, rubbernecking at the fancy equipment. I call bullshit on that, however, because Octant’s Matt Steinke was nowhere in the house, and I doubt he’d miss a gizmo showcase if it was worth going to.
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More news for gizmo geeks: Pearl Jam‘s acoustic set scheduled for Neil Young‘s upcoming Bridge School Benefit will be broadcast live over the web. The webcast will likely use a combination of RealAudio and Windows MediaPlayer for the Oct 30 and 31 fundraiser. Brian Wilson, Lucinda Williams, the Who, Green Day, Billy Corgan and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins, as well as Young are also scheduled to perform.
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And now for the question on everyone’s tongue: What’s happened to all the cute indie rockers? The Minders/Elf Power show Sunday night at the Breakroom was conspicuously bereft of flood-length pants and black-rimmed glasses, despite the show’s “Elephant 6” indie-cred seal of approval. The small crowd did boast its share of star power just the same — Built to Spill’s Scott Plouf and R.E.M/Minus Five/you-name-it band member Scott McCaughey were there, along with Elliott Smith, whose girlfriend Joanna played in the Minders.
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Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty and Olympia chanteuse/Stranger writer Lois Maffeo will be in Avast! studio next month recording their CD, The Union Themes. Canty and Stuart Hallerman will be engineering; the disc is set to be released on the Kill Rock Stars label on March 14, 2000.
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The rock stars have been letting me down lately in the bad behavior department, but I did manage to find one behaving questionably: Seattle’s own Man in Black Gerald Collier was caught with his pants down recently at the Crocodile. On a dare, Collier stripped down to his skivvies after his set with Supersucker Eddie Spaghetti when they opened for Wayne “The Train” Hancock. The sober Collier stood on a chair in the bar as friends stuffed money in his boxers. Who dared him? Dan Bolton! At least someone’s keeping this column running.