Built to Spill last night at Pyramid

The ticket fairy dropped two passes to the “Get Snowed In” show into my filthy hands yesterday. Hadn’t seen the band since a Sky Church show with J Mascis in 2001, so why not?

Doors were to be at 9 and there was an opener so we decided not to get there til 10:30ish.

Crossing First Ave from Safeco, we could clearly hear BtS. “Great, show’s underway,” I thought. But according to another show-goer, they’d been on since before 9:30! The rocked out the hits, and even though it was in a heated tent out behind the brewery, and we were all wearing ski caps, the sound was way better than expected. Plus, there was a ton of free Snow Cap being poured into my face.

Lotsa great songs: “Sidewalks”, “Goin’ Against Your Mind”, “Big Dipper”, and two of my all-time favorites, “Carry the Zero” and “You Were Right”.

I’d sorta burned-out on them after the “Perfect From Now On” and “Keep It Like a Secret” LPs and couldn’t really get into “Ancient Melodies”. A few of the last shows I saw after ‘98 were too jammy and wank-y. (Check out the “Live” album when you have to kill a really long hour or so.) But last night really erased those last few bad shows.

Thanks for a great show, Doug & Co. And thanks, Ticket Fairy.

Strangely, on the way home, some kids that had just exited the Fun House, and hence, the Bloodhag show, got on our bus and did a sweet poetry reading out of some sci-fi dime novel that they had apparently been given by the band.

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