I did get to witness a return to the sounds of the Reagan era later on in the week (the same week, incidentally, that Robert Palmer died). Saturday night, September 27, Pho Bang's glam-fabulous Jackie Hell and Ursula Android hosted a show at that awesome sliver of a gay bar, the Crescent, where the Vanishing and local boys Chromatics played to shirtless bartenders and gyrating punks. San Francisco's Vanishing are a self-proclaimed "sci-fi horror disco" act on GSL who played their best Seattle gig to date that night--a performance heightened by the house-party vibe of the space. Their gothy no-wave vibrations combined the dramatic doom of '80s art punk with a frontwoman who occasionally played the saxophone and sounded like a young Siouxsie Sioux. Their bass-and-drums lineup left the sound incredibly bottom-heavy, and sexy as all hell.
The retro-motion continued that night when Interpol's Carlos Dengler DJed one of two after-show sets at Chop Suey. The swank bassist threw down recent hits like "Danger! High Voltage" along with oldies like Real Life's "Send Me an Angel," while most of the club took to the dance floor. Everyone, that is, but the guy giving impromptu makeovers in the women's room. After Interpol's flawless, stylish set of swooning rock the night before at the Showbox, the DJ set was a pretty cool way to see members of the band in more intimate quarters--including frontman Daniel Kessler, who was there with a member of sleepy opening act the Stills. (Despite two well attended Seattle shows and glowing press in every major music publication in the world, a possibly press-spoiled Kessler still had to complain about not getting a big enough write-up in the Seattle rags. Not to worry--I don't think the lack of big features every time the band comes to down will dent Interpol's increasing fan base.)
Congress' Year of the Blues may have started in February, but last weekend the focus on the genre made its multimedia impact on Seattle. I heard the "Birth of the Blues" program on Public Radio International and watched part of the PBS series created by various acclaimed directors, including one film by Martin Scorsese, who followed musician Corey Harris' explorations of the blues' roots to West Africa. Last weekend also marked the opening of EMP's Sweet Home Chicago: Big City Blues 1946-1966, the museum's largest exhibit to date, and an impressive one at that. It's a collection of guitars, photographs, archival video, show posters, and media labs following the biographical, cultural, and sociological factors that contributed to the rich music scene in that city. Because it's hard for me to connect with cased-in artifacts--even if they do hold great significance--my favorite parts of the exhibit were the oral histories and the interactive lab on how the blues has influenced select tracks in other genres, and the interesting tidbits on the musicians themselves. I'm no expert on the blues, and especially now that there are a ton of punk and indie bands mining the genre, this show is a good way to increase your knowledge on the subject.
And in other Seattle Center-area news, word has it the "new Zak's" (AKA the Fun House) is planning its grand opening on Halloween, with shows already booked there. I can't wait to see how the revamped bar turns out.
