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Last night I attended my fifth concert in the span of a month. That is about five more than a normal month for me, and possibly 4 more than my previous record.
Weird Al: I hadn't seen him since the late 90s, I don't think. He always gives a great show, but this was the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour where he only did his original songs. It seemed like something I should go see, and I wasn't disappointed. I had been eager to see what song he selected just for Seattle, as he had been covering a different straight rock song at every show. For us he did Foxy Laaaahdy by the Jerry Hendrix experience. (Foxy Lady but lady is said in a Jerry Lewis style every time. We were one of the few times he didn't do a straight cover.) There is a collection on YouTube of all the 77 different songs he did which is worth exploring. It's quite the range of material!
Bare Naked Ladies: First time seeing them. Also first time seeing Better Than Ezra, who opened for them, and are complete douches. Also, it rained and the show had to be paused because of lightning for a bit. (Outdoor show, btw.) But BNL were great, and it was clear they have a great relationship with their fans. It would be easy to wonder why they're still around, but they obviously have a very comfortable niche worked out.
Janelle Monae: Stunningly great, and the audience atmosphere was just electric. It was the beginning of her tour, with her new explicitly bisexual material, during Pride month, in the Seattle area. The crowd was suuuuuuper queer, and it was awesome.
Special bonus baseball game: I finally went to a Mariner's game. My first MLB game and my first baseball game at all in like 25 years. It was fun enough, but we were in the direct sun for 2+ hours, and that kind of sucked.
Violent Femmes: My third time seeing them, once being just last year. But I'd never done one of the Woodland Park Zoo concerts, and it sounded fun. And it was! Despite being a family-heavy event, they didn't adjust their set list any to accommodate that. Kind of weird seeing families dancing with little kids to some of the songs. One of those weird moments where my internal image of myself is still mid-20s, being confused that all these middle aged people are into the Femmes. They did a lot of material from Hallowed Ground, so that was cool. And even something from New Times!
Decemberists: My third time seeing them, though one of those was a joint show with Death Cab, fundraising for Planned Parenthood. This show was mostly material off their new album, which worked really well live. They've been playing with some trippy 80s synth stylings which are a lot of fun. The encore completely blew me away. First it was the super profane Ben Frankling song that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote for Hamilton, intending it to have a Decemberists vibe, but ended up cutting. And then an extended Mariner's Revenge Song, with the audience first practicing how to scream like we were being eaten by a whale. (I couldn't help adding "OH NO IT SMELLS OF KRILL" and "THAT UVULA IS COMICALLY LARGE" to my screams, but it was too loud for even the people next to me to hear.) Then as the song progressed, the band got more and more goofy, ending with the wonderful wall of noise for the whale attack, ending with them all rolling on the stage playing their instruments as best as possible, with more trippy synth backing. And then A GIANT INFLATABLE FLOATING WHALE came out of backstage and was passed to the audience like a lost Thanksgivings day parade balloon. I was laughing too hard to keep screaming. Just wonderful all around.
Weird Al: I hadn't seen him since the late 90s, I don't think. He always gives a great show, but this was the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour where he only did his original songs. It seemed like something I should go see, and I wasn't disappointed. I had been eager to see what song he selected just for Seattle, as he had been covering a different straight rock song at every show. For us he did Foxy Laaaahdy by the Jerry Hendrix experience. (Foxy Lady but lady is said in a Jerry Lewis style every time. We were one of the few times he didn't do a straight cover.) There is a collection on YouTube of all the 77 different songs he did which is worth exploring. It's quite the range of material!
Bare Naked Ladies: First time seeing them. Also first time seeing Better Than Ezra, who opened for them, and are complete douches. Also, it rained and the show had to be paused because of lightning for a bit. (Outdoor show, btw.) But BNL were great, and it was clear they have a great relationship with their fans. It would be easy to wonder why they're still around, but they obviously have a very comfortable niche worked out.
Janelle Monae: Stunningly great, and the audience atmosphere was just electric. It was the beginning of her tour, with her new explicitly bisexual material, during Pride month, in the Seattle area. The crowd was suuuuuuper queer, and it was awesome.
Special bonus baseball game: I finally went to a Mariner's game. My first MLB game and my first baseball game at all in like 25 years. It was fun enough, but we were in the direct sun for 2+ hours, and that kind of sucked.
Violent Femmes: My third time seeing them, once being just last year. But I'd never done one of the Woodland Park Zoo concerts, and it sounded fun. And it was! Despite being a family-heavy event, they didn't adjust their set list any to accommodate that. Kind of weird seeing families dancing with little kids to some of the songs. One of those weird moments where my internal image of myself is still mid-20s, being confused that all these middle aged people are into the Femmes. They did a lot of material from Hallowed Ground, so that was cool. And even something from New Times!
Decemberists: My third time seeing them, though one of those was a joint show with Death Cab, fundraising for Planned Parenthood. This show was mostly material off their new album, which worked really well live. They've been playing with some trippy 80s synth stylings which are a lot of fun. The encore completely blew me away. First it was the super profane Ben Frankling song that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote for Hamilton, intending it to have a Decemberists vibe, but ended up cutting. And then an extended Mariner's Revenge Song, with the audience first practicing how to scream like we were being eaten by a whale. (I couldn't help adding "OH NO IT SMELLS OF KRILL" and "THAT UVULA IS COMICALLY LARGE" to my screams, but it was too loud for even the people next to me to hear.) Then as the song progressed, the band got more and more goofy, ending with the wonderful wall of noise for the whale attack, ending with them all rolling on the stage playing their instruments as best as possible, with more trippy synth backing. And then A GIANT INFLATABLE FLOATING WHALE came out of backstage and was passed to the audience like a lost Thanksgivings day parade balloon. I was laughing too hard to keep screaming. Just wonderful all around.
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I think Janelle Monae is about to take over. She is simply amazing. (We saw her opening for Of Montreal, four years ago, and even then she was so vastly better than they were that they were a letdown.)