I slept on PBJam Fest 2019, y’all, but it’s totally a music festival worth your time, money, and excitement.
Nectar’s inaugural event features 16 Seattle and PNW-area funk, jazz, improvisational rock, and bluegrass acts spread over two stages (a main stage and a “tweener” stage) and two days—today and tomorrow—plus “festival style” lights and visual production (i.e., vibrant, dazzling, wondrous), food vendors (Kaosamai Thai, Andrea’s Grilled Sammies, and Jamaican Island Cuisine NW), and a beer garden.
Oh, yeah, and that band lineup is pretty sweet.
It’s powered by sax-juggling shredder, experimenter, and avant effects master Skerik, an all-around beast on an instrument traditionally known for it’s smooth, sexy tones. You won’t find anything smooth about Skerik’s emissions, but you will find a whole lot captivating about them, and sexy, too, depending on your taste. I’ve compared him to John Zorn, as he has a similar way of using his jazz chops in completely outside-the-box techniques—like his trademark “saxaphonics” style of applying effects that makes his instrument sound like a screaming guitar or a howling train or anything other than what it actually is.
For this show, Sherik will be flexing his talents in a few of the many groups he’s currently active in: Skerik Band, with guitarist Andy Coe, bassist Damian Erskine, and drummer Tarik Abouzied, in which he plays three decades worth of music culled from Critters Buggin, Dead Kenny G’s, Garage a Trois, and various other projects he’s led and contributed to over the years; and grungy “jazz de-constructionists” Crack Sabbath (with Mike Stone on drums, Keith Lowe on bass, and Ron Weinstein on organ).
Also of note: A “Midnight Horns” set featuring New Orleans big band-inspired Super-Krewe, who claim to explore “the rhythmic and melodic realms of pocket, groove and space”; two sets by jazz-fusion power trio Living Daylights (Jessica Lurie on alto/tenor sax and flute, Arne Livingston on electric bass, and Dale Fanning on drums); and “Grateful Singalongs” (of Grateful Dead music if you couldn’t tell by the name) led by Colin Higgins and Paul Moore. Complete weekend lineup and schedule below as well as a few Skerik video clips.
FRIDAY, JULY 12th
MAINSTAGE
5:30-6:40 Buzz Brump
7:00-8:10 Fresh Track
8:30-9:40 World’s Finest
10:00-10:45 Skerik Band (set 1)
11:15-12:00 Skerik Band (set 2)
12:15-1:30 Crack SabbathTWEENER STAGE
5:00-5:30pm The High Seagrass
6:40-7:00pm Danny Barnes
8:10-8:30 The High Seagrass
9:40-10:00 Danny Barnes
10:45-11:15 “Grateful Singalong” lead by Colin Higgins & Paul Moore
12:00-12:15 “Midnight Horns” feat Super-Krewe & moreSATURDAY, JULY 13th
MAINSTAGE
5-6:10 Unsinkable Heavies
6:30-7:40 Cytrus
8-9:00 Living Daylights (set 1)
9:20-10:30 High Pulp
10:50-11:50 Living Daylights (set 2)
12:10-1:30 SwindlerTWEENER STAGE
6:10-6:30 Spare Rib & The Bluegrass Sauce
7:40-8:00 Great American Trainwreck
9:00-9:20 Spare Rib & The Bluegrass Sauce
10:30-10:50 “Grateful Singalong” lead by Colin Higgins & Paul Moore
11:50-12:10 “Grateful Singalong” lead by Colin Higgins & Paul Moore
