Photographer Hayley Young and local faves Hey Marseilles are throwing a party to show off Young’s new music video for the band’s single “Rio.” I arrive at a six-story building in Pioneer Square and “pull the string that’s hanging down out of nowhere” as it says in the invitation. The freight elevator picks me up; a sunset view of Elliott Bay is obscured by the crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct. Getting off at the fifth floor, I explain that The Stranger sent me to take pictures. “Are you a photographer?” Young wants to know. I shrug. “Don’t take your camera out now. It freaks people out. Wait until everybody’s drunk.”
She offers me a beer. Young’s photos are on display throughout the big, loft-style studio; her rustic-yet-sophisticated images (one shows the band Wild Orchid Children ready to play against a woodsy backdrop) seem the perfect fit for Hey Marseilles’s earnest, pastoral music. Young lets her guests socialize for a while—or maybe she’s just waiting for everybody to get drunk—before starting the video.
Philip Kobernik, the band’s pianist and accordion player, wants to show me his seahorse tattoo. Young makes an announcement and dims the lights. “Rio” starts with a shot of the whole cast clapping along. Ocean waves underscore the song’s relaxed tempo and lush melody. Actors run across the screen throwing silver confetti, and then there’s a sweet capoeira dance scene. The video ends to cheers and applause, a DJ starts spinning, and the party—packed with cool guys and cute girls—goes on into the night. 
Want The Stranger to drunkenly photograph the photos of drunks at your house party? E-mail the date, place, and party details to partycrasher@thestranger.com.
Easily one of the best parties I have ever been to