Seattle’s all-ages concert guide You don’t need fake ID to have fun.

For our very second Three Imaginary Girls show review (they have begun booking all ages shows in addition to their past 21+ ones!), I am very pleased to share about what turned out to be a very dandy show at the Chop Suey this Thursday night. The indie-pop bands were sweet, the summer sun was setting gorgeously, and the venue was comfortably full, exceptional for a Thursday night.

First up was Tullycraft, something of an institution for both TIG and Seattle, whom I had never seen before. Even though I knew very few of the songs though, they played the kind of music that makes everyone just smile while they listen: fans and the band themselves. The reason for this, I think, lies in my theory that Tullycraft sounds exactly like summer would if it had its own album. With perky melodies and guitar riffs, and vocals that sound just like that cute neighbor boy who’s got a surprise,...

Read more

Idiot Pilot finally returned to Seattle and they got one warm welcome. They didn’t return alone though; they brought with them Team Sleep, The Start and Scene Index. My friend Rachel and I arrived at El Corazon around 6:20 after getting off work and were giddy with anticipation. Rachel had never seen Idiot Pilot live before so she was extremely excited for the show, as was I, a long-time Idiot Pilot fan. I happened to see a few friends from school, and they were there to see Team Sleep, so we chatted with them while waiting for the doors to open, and they opened late as usual.

Once inside we made our way to the front only to find a large obstructing effects board in the middle of the stage and I was pissed. It stayed there for the course of the whole show because it was for the Team...

Read more

The Alkaline Trio show started at 8pm but some fans waited outside The Showbox as early as noon to catch Matt Skiba and get photos with him and autographs from him. I showed up at about 3pm as he was leaving to get food and probably wander Pike Place Market with two men who looked ever so slightly like bodyguards. The excitement only escalated from there as the guy keeping the line in order exchanged jokes and mock threats with the kids in line and SOLD OUT signs were scattered onto the building. Some of the more unfortunate people raced up and down the block with cardboard signs deperately searching for spare tickets.

Once packed inside, some crowd members started complaining about having to wait through Death By Stereo’s set to see the other bands while others were there for the openers and left before Alkaline Trio played. The crowd was obviously divided concerning musical taste. Death...

Read more

The successes of Geek Rock (think: Weezer’s “Blue Album” or Aqueduct’s “I sold Gold”) are bringing out the inner geek in everyone. I myself can confess to pulling all-nighters watching Star Trek reruns, being an honor student (In a program of which Jonah Bergman is a graduate), and even going to the bookstore at midnight for the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
However, Harry and the Potters, who were at a bookstore in Chicago for the book’s midnight release, put all of us to shame when it comes to geek-rock cred. Featuring brothers Paul and Joe DeGeorge as Harry Potter (year 4) and...

Read more

I didn’t expect to see many people at El Corazon on a Tuesday night, but I was definitely wrong. Houston Calls, JamisonParker, The Rocket Summer, and Hellogoodbye were able to pack that place no matter what night it was: the concert was amazing. Well, it was more of a party than a
concert.

Opening the night was Houston Calls from New Jersey. This was the first time pop-punk band had ever played in Seattle and I’m sure the crowd made it a night they won’t forget. Their music is just the kind of music that gets people jumping around and from the first song;
everyone was into it. Although they are still a fairly young band, they all knew what they were doing on stage and they sounded great. They even threw in a few stories from the tour in between songs.

JamisonParker...

Read more

Hey all! We are now in our 5th month of existance, and still having a blast. We apologize that July hasn’t been the busiest months, but our staff have been vacationing worldwide (Italy, Germany, and Mexico are some of our destinations), settling into our summer jobs, and lazing in the sunshine. Enough apologies.

We were seen somewhere near page 37 of the Stranger this month! Special thanks to Dana Bos for writing about us and being fabulous. If you missed it, make sure to check it out in the Stranger’s online edition.

Our forums have also been redesigned, and are still in the process of being tweaked. Make sure to voice your opinions. Alec and Mirth need as much feedback as possible to make sure everything is as useable, comfortable, visible, and interesting as possible. If you haven’t...

Read more

One of my favorite things about doing Mercurial Sound so far has been getting demos. Sometimes they stack up, but when I sit down to listen to them, there’s an exciting exclusivity to them. Oftentimes the tracks are unreleased to the public, and the reason I get them is that people want me to love them and share them. And sharing music is only one of the most fabulous things to do! So, without further adue, I present our very second sampler, a track sent to us by a band named Trepan.

Trepan is a four piece grunge group that’s been seen around Seattle lately, scoring most of their all-ages shows at Studio 7. They manage to maintain their “grunge” connection, with all the energy and catch attatched, but enough emotion to connect to the listeners. Their cover sheet provides the term “stoner rock” but there’s too much passion in it for them to really steal that term, either.

They’ve got one cd...

Read more

This show marked the first all-ages show ever at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard and was quite an experiment for this normally 21+ music venue. Unfamiliar with any of the music I was completely open to the experience. The show was quite early beginning shortly after 4pm which was quite different but not bad at all. Being their first show like this they decided that there would be no alcohol and no smoking — this made for an incredible all-ages experince. I found it to be a great all-ages venue with great house lemon-limeade and a comfortably intimate and good sounding room. Also, the audience was perfect for the venue. At most I would guess there didn’t amount to more than 50 people and everyone seemed really nice and glad to be there to enjoy the musical talent of the three groups on the roster.

First up was Blue Checkered...

Read more

Schoolyard Heroes, Kane Hodder, and Mon Frere? I’ve seen this lineup at least once before, but it certainly seems to work, considering it delivered a packed (I think sold out) house at El Corazon. This time the new flavor to the bunch that I’ve seen remixed all around town for one kickass show after another, was Post Stardom Depression, right in between Mon Frere and Kane Hodder. The energy in line alone was incredible. With devoted fans and amazing bands packed into a full music venue, only exciting things could come.

Mon Frere kicked off with one of the best performances I’ve seen from them. They were energetic, excited, and they interacted with eachother and the audience. The audience wasn’t quite as responsive as Mon Frere deserved, but I hope the audience is now enlightened to their awesomeness. Mon Frere played a good set, and...

Read more