A few lucky people caught U.S.E’s fuse-blowing, body-rocking,
don’t-call-it-a-comeback sold-out show this past spring at the Comet
[“Since U Been Gone,” Megan Seling, May 10], but, sadly, I wasn’t one
of them. Thrilling as that show must’ve been, U.S.E have been
relatively quiet since, keeping busy with other projects (such as
singer/guitarist Jason Holstrom’s surprisingly rich, island-inspired
pop group Thieves of Kailua) and finally releasing their debut
album, long out in the U.S. and Japan, in the U.K. and Australia this
November. For Seattle, though, or at least for those of us who didn’t
make it into the Comet back in May, last Wednesday’s Dewar’s-sponsored
“Repeal Day” party at Neumo’s and the Friday, December 14,
all-ages show at the Vera Project mark the real return of U.S.E,
complete with plans
for a new album.
But first, that show at Neumo’s: Repeal Day may be a fake Hallmark
holiday, but I could deal with more invented holidays if they were
about drinking and partying rather than chocolate and gift buying. The
liquor company outfitted the crowd with felt fedoras and feather
boas (for that end-of-prohibition atmosphere); the band hung their
crafty, cut-out, light-up letters behind the stage; the room was packed
with loud, drunk revelers. Everything was primed for a peak U.S.E
performance.
U.S.E can definitely light up cramped venues such as the Comet or a
house-party basement, but their ebullient
Daft-Punk-meets-the-B-52s-meets-J-pop routine, not to mention the sheer
size of their band—two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer,
keyboards, backup dancers, singers, various friends—is
outsized enough to fill up much larger stages, and Neumo’s gave
them the space to really get into it. They played their hits (“Emerald
City,” “It Is On”), but more exciting was a handful of new songs debuted by the band: “Get That Feeling,” “Look at the City,” “Gimmie
Mo’,” “K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” “Dance with Me,” and “Beat of My Heart.” The
band also dug up one cover and dropped an interpolation of Funkadelic’s
“One Nation Under a Groove” into U.S.E standard “There’s Always Music.”
The new numbers were, of course, ridiculously cheery and upbeat, but
they occasionally toned down the Euro-disco gloss in favor of
sweatier, looser funk. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G” was the most immediately
anthemic of the new songs, with its chorus of “Nothing’s gonna break
your heart,” but none of the new material let the party down for a
second.
All this new material means a new
album is finally in the
works, according
to drummer/vocalist Jon E. Rock.
“The new album’s working title is either World Record or
United State of Everything,” Rock says by e-mail. “It has the
new songs on it, and we’re hoping to release it in the spring of
’08. We’ve been recording it at Jason’s (our guitar player’s) cabin
in Oregon, in his studio in his basement called ‘The Cabana,’ and at
Orbit Studio. We’re lining up more time in January/February at various
studios with as of yet to be decided engineers (we tend to have Jason
do our production while we breathe down his neck). Once it’s done we
have plans to return to Japan as well as every other square inch of
the world who wants to dance.”
For the show this Friday at the Vera Project, U.S.E play with
Seattle bit-crushers Truckasauras and Portland’s
Strength.
It’s all-ages, which means no free scotch, but
you’ll hardly miss it with U.S.E and friends onstage.
* * *
If U.S.E are dedicated to partying, then
Chicago MC (and moped
enthusiast) Hollywood Holt is fanatical about it. Holt and
DJ/producer Mano were scheduled to play Sing Sing this past
Friday, but on Wednesday night in Vancouver, BC, Holt fell through a
window and severed an
artery in his right arm.
“He was rushed to the hospital, where they almost had to
amputate his arm,” says Sing Sing’s Clayton Vomero. “He underwent
surgery, was released on Friday, took the train to Seattle, and
insisted on playing.”
Holt and Mano rocked a less-crowded-than-usual Sing Sing, Mano busy
on the turntables, and Holt rapping at breakneck pace and leading some
call-and-response (Seattle was, typically, a little weak in the
response department, though the dancing was enthusiastic). If he
hadn’t stopped the party to tell the crowd about his accident, nobody
would probably have guessed that the man had just nearly lost a limb.
