It’s been too long since Kirkland Teen Union Building, one of
the Eastside’s all-ages “big three” along with Redmond’s Old Fire House
and Bellevue’s Ground Zero, has gotten some love in these pages. These
suburban spots have long acted as a farm system for some of Seattle’s
brightest future talents, and this Wednesday at KTUB is a free showcase
of just such rising stars.
Whitney Ballen‘s gentle voice and subtle acoustic guitar are
calming and reassuring, wrapping you up like a security blanket on the
stormiest of nights. Ballen may be 17 and a native Washingtonian, but
her sweet, youthful delivery is reminiscent of similar-
minded
Swede popsters El Perro Del Mar and Lykke Li—not
only its high pitch but also its delicate beauty. By the time she’s
ready for college, Ballen should be giving weepy songsters like Tiny
Vipers and Husbands, Love Your Wives a run for their
proverbial money.
Hailing from Issaquah and also playing the show is wunderkind
Jeffery Stillwell’s Deer City. Highly skilled in home recording
and obsessed with rewriting the love songs of Paul
McCartney and Brian Wilson, Stillwell uses his
versatile talents at guitar, piano, and beat-making to create pop music
that sometime in the not too far off future is going to break a lot of
young girls’ hearts.
Fri Nov 28: H Is for Hellgate, Wah Wah Exit Wound,
Panther Attack, the Curious Mystery at the Greenhouse,
8 pm,
$5.
Sat Nov 29: Hip Hop Period at Hidmo, 8 pm,
free.
Wed Dec 3: Whitney Ballen, Deer City, Rachel
Wiegand at KTUB, 5 pm, free.