Capitol Hill Block Party, Part 2

DAY 2

Hey Marseilles

I started off my second day at the Block Party by catching a few songs from Hey Marseilles, a local band who featured a cello, violin and accordion player. They had a bit of a Decemberists-lite vibe going on. If that’s not glowing praise, I don’t know what is…

The Moondoggies

After a short ice cream break, I returned to the main stage to catch a chunk of the Moondoggies set. They played some solid country rock, with some good ol’ southern, religiously bluesy overtones. While nothing grabbed my immediate attention, it was nice to hear some electric guitar after the instrumental excess of Hey Marseilles.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

The Pains were the first band on Saturday that I was really excited to hear. Their self-titled debut album this year has held its spot in my 2009 Favorites valiantly and I was very curious to hear how their sunny, exuberant indie rock held up in a live, festival setting. The answer: awesomely! The five-piece band rolled through a confident set, while their palpable charm and general adorableness spilled off the stage. Singer Kip Berman opened the set by dedicating the first song to his mom, who was in attendance, and keyboardist Peggy Wang gave a shout out to an old friend later in the show, talking about their former band, who were apparently named Turtle Search. Adorable, I tell you.

But things would get even better! After the Pains’ set ended, my friends and I retreated to a local sandwich place for dinner. To our general amazement, ten minutes after sitting down, four-fifths of the Pains walked through the door and ended up getting seated right next to us. We complimented their set, to which they responded in the most humble, “aww, shucks, that’s nice, guys!” kind of way. I’d like to say we all pulled up tables and shared sandwiches together, but that wouldn’t exactly be true. Instead, I’ll just savor the fact that I (more-or-less) ate dinner with the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart.

The Thermals

The Thermals are a poppy punk band from Portland who I’ve seen several times before. They’ve always put on a good show, although I’ve never left one of their shows feeling like my life has been changed. However, their set at the Block Party this year was the strongest I’ve ever seen them and I’m very glad I didn’t skip them. Part of the difference was their new drummer Westin Glass, whose role in the band didn’t seem limited to just rhythm, since he also seemed to be their unofficial cheerleader and hype man, guiding clap-alongs with the audience and generally looking like the happiest person on Earth. Meanwhile, frontman Hutch Harris tore through the band’s catalogue with gusto, raining power chords down upon the pogo-ing masses while the clouds above threatened to actually rain on us. Unexpected covers were mixed into the setlist, including Nirvana b-side “Verse Chorus Verse” and, inexplicably, Green Day’s classic “Basket Case”. The highest point of their show was the title track from their latest album, Now We Can See, which I correctly predicted would be absolutely killer live. Wordless choruses are awesome. “Ohhhh ahhh oh oh! Ohhhh ahh oh oh! Ohhhh ah ohhhh ohhhh!”

Gossip

The Gossip chunk of the evening’s festivities ranks as one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had with live music. I’ve never liked Gossip’s songs on record, since they sound fairly mechanical and thin to my ears, but live, they are transformed into dominating, stomping dance anthems. After the punk pogo-ing of the Thermals, this honest-to-God dance music was the perfect reason for hundreds of Seattle hipsters to just start boogieing away. Guitarist Brace Paine (what a name…) played vicious, meaty New Wave riffs and drummer Hannah Blilie was nothing short of unstoppable. Of course, singer Beth Ditto was incredible, switching from downbeat romantic blues to passionate, indignant rage at a moment’s notice. I still can’t really listen to their studio material, but holy fucking shit can Gossip put on one hell of a live show.

Sonic Youth

In past years, the Capitol Hill Block Party could have only dreamed to have headliners as prominent as Sonic Youth. For whatever reason, things changed this year and this legendary, important band was there Saturday night, playing in the middle of a street in Seattle to a delirious crowd of Seattleites who spent most of the evening waiting not-that-patiently for Sonic Youth to take the stage. When they finally marched out a bit after 10:30, the place almost erupted. A few words were exchanged, the front lineup of Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon (officially the most attractive fifty-six-year old woman on the planet) took their places and the band launched into “No Way” off their recent album, The Eternal.

Nothing can prepare you for how loud Sonic Youth are live. Words can barely describe it. All I can say is, while the songs on their records rock, when played live, they drop on you like the world is falling down around you. Listening to Sonic Youth live means you’re desperately trying to hold your ground against a hurricane of noise (and force, from the drums and bass). Yet, somewhere in there, you can hear beautiful melodies that you remember from their records. They played a set heavily drawn from The Eternal, pausing only to add two gems from 1988’s Daydream Nation in the form of Ranaldo’s “Hey Joni” and closing with “’Cross The Breeze”. The new songs more than held their own with these old classics, though, especially “Anti-Orgasm”, which was transformed live into a fiery torrent of crunching sound, pushing the limits of what human ears can tolerate. A brief encore featured the new song “What We Know” and, incredibly, an ancient gem in the form of “Death Valley ‘69”, which was greeted by howling approval from the assembled masses.

However, my real story of the Sonic Youth show is one of survival. The crowd, whipped into a frenzy by the noise and songs, literally almost knocked over walls. I had decided early on to watch the show from a vantage point next to the barricade fence to the side of the block. However, the surges of movement and momentum of the crowd proved so strong that I, along with everyone near me, was pushed back against the fence so hard that the whole thing threatened to buckle and collapse. Security was eventually forced to drive a delivery truck alongside the other side of the fence to reinforce everything and keep the crowd from spilling out into the night. Trying to stand between all these opposing forces was a very intense, not-always-enjoyable experience for me. However, I must say I had the perfect soundtrack. The waves of static and noise and riffage coming off the stage are something I won’t soon forget.