8 Bands 1 Day - A Synopsis of SP’s National Record Store Day

“Hey mark April 19th on your calendar as National Record Store day, were going to be having a few bands do in-store performances during the day… are you interested in running sound?” emailed the current Marketing Manager of Silver Platter’s record store to me sometime in February.

“Sure,” I replied, “Just lemme know how many.” Little did I know that the 3 confirmed bands at the time would turn into a 9 band bill for the first annual National Record Store day celebrated by record stores across the country last Saturday. I had the pleasure of mixing sound for most of the 9 acts booked at Silver Platter’s Queen Anne location. One band didn’t show and the headliner brought a hired gun to run sound so technically it was 7, and this is my story.

1:00 - The Mary McPage Band
The whole band showed up about an hour early, hung out, got to know me a little while they set up. And killed it with a terrific blues set. Mary McPage is a seasoned veteran of blues music in Seattle. So much so that The Mary McPage band, Mary McPage herself, guitarist Jevon Powell, and drummer Bill Page were all nominated for best-of category at the 19th Annual Washington Blues Society Awards show at the Triple Door on Sunday. Her band is full of rippers and Mary is full of the blues, a great way to start the day off for sure. They are playing again at Monahan’s in Everett April 25th if you wanna catch em.

2:00 - Matt Jorgensen + 451
You know a jazz player once told me a joke; a jazz musician plays thousands of notes to only a few people, and a blues player a few notes to thousands of people… In this case both blues and jazz had only a store full of peep but the jazz of Matt Jorgensen and 4-5-1 (separate letters as in chord structure) was really good and a nice second up to bat. A sax, drums, upright bass (which I love), and a Fender Rhodes keyboard brought me back to my days at the Lionel Hampton School of Music where jazz was the subject and we all studied it. Nice fills, good transitions, and solid playing with a cocky little jazz attitude to boot made for a good show. Their at the Sunset Tavern on the 23rd.

3:00 - Pat Monahan
Remember Rex Manning day in the movie Empire Records? Well Pat Monahan was Rex Manning on Saturday (although I don’t think any of the staff slept with him). If your not familiar with his work he was the lead singer for the Grammy winning band Train and wrote songs Drops of Jupiter and Meet Virginia. It was like asking The Eagles to play a song you don’t know… impossible. Regardless of my pre-disposition about his top 40 work in the past, the crowd was big and he had a certain magnetism and charisma about him which drew everyone in and laid them out with his ever recognizable voice. And whether you like the music or not, major label songwriters at this level are actually really good at what they do on stage, and he was no exception. His guitarist and keyboard players were badass to say the least, and he separated the pros from the ams in what I will continually reiterate on this blog… the delivery. It was flawless, and that made the show, with 5 fuckin songs… I have no idea where he plays next, you’ll have to look that one up for yourself.

4:00 - Kim Archer Band
So the Kim Archer Band was good, really good actually… except they were late and went on 20 minutes after they were scheduled, missing the still in-store Pat Monahan crowd completely. Which sucked for them cuz in order to keep everyone on time I had to cut them after 3 songs, right about the time it was gettin good. In their defense they drove from Tacoma and were very humble and gracious about playing even 3 songs. They play next at Dawson’s Bar & Grill in Tacoma May 9th & 10th.

5:00 - Bee Simonds
Bee, what can I say? I’ve written about Bee before, she’s hot, she’s sexy, she’s super talented and plays a mean guitar. Her band are killer musicians and are sincerely nice. And Saturday they killed it… They showed up early and put on a supurb performance which captivated the crowd that came to see her, and drew people just shopping in with her gravitational pull. Bee is a rising star and I can’t say it enough. I’m lucky enough to be a peer and fan of hers (and visa versa) that it makes it kinda magical to be a musician on the scene these days. Buy her album cuz she’ll probably thank you personally, and they play next at the Tractor Tavern May 1st… go see her you won’t be sorry.

6:00 - Speaker Speaker
These guys have gotten alot of press lately and were the loudest band of the day… thank fuckin god! Finally some seriously loud rock-n-roll that bit the heads off the meek and satisfied the savvy. Speaker Speaker reminds me of The Valley, The Earaches, The Hands, and oxicoten. Solid badass riffs with good hooks and heavy tones. I like everything these guys are doing and they just released an album “Call It Off” February of this year. They play Bob’s Java Jive (C-leb’s first gig) in Tacoma April 26th, bring earplugs if your a puss or don’t if you wanna wear a hearing aid when your old.

7:00 - Low-Fi
Straight outa Boise, Idaho these boys were in the middle of traveling to support their recently release album “Where Are You” and it was great. Todd (guitar) and Josh (bass) played here in Seattle in a band called Spyplane for years before it disbanded and the two members transplanted to Idaho to start a new project. Todd is a seasoned player, writes great lyrics with revolving hooks that repeat like Bob Marley’s early works (structure wise only, they are not reggae). I even let them play extra (for reasons I’ll explain in the next paragraph) and they tore each song to shreds. If I had to give them any crit at all it was they left long akward silent pauses between songs that could have been filled by sweeping into the next number. I caught them later that night at Solo down on Roy in an acoustic set which was (in my opinion) even better than the electric, very intimate, very real. They play The Big Easy April 24th in Boise.

8:00 - The Pharmacy
They decided not to show. Apparently they contacted SP earlier in the week on myspace and left an email saying they canceled but thats after $$ had been spent promoting them for the bill in ads and on flyers. So fuck the Pharmacy, I may have been tired from all the bands at this point, but I’m even more tired of prima bands that leave their fans standing there waiting for them to go on only to disappoint them with fucking nothing at all. It’s one thing to fuck the venue, but its another to fuck you fans, its bullshit and so are they. I’ve seen em live before, and their ok, not spectacular, just OK. They are not the Stones so don’t act like em. Way to burn bridges, I’ve already waisted too much space writing about their bullshit… NEXT!!

Preempt to the last band… I’m beat at this point, no breaks, had to drink a couple beers to keep going, and everything sounds the same…

9:00 - How and Lightning
These guys were probably some of the most grateful and humble groups of the day. They wanted to play so bad they went on early and played a little late thanks to some extra time. The musicianship was really good, keys, guitar, fret less 5 string bass, drums, and second guitar made for type of prog rock that was a little mathy but didn’t go over the listeners head. Their promoting their album “Numinous” currently and are working on another. However it was kind of like listening to the Doors, System of a Down, and Tool all at the same time without the visual special effects. Musically the band was fantastic, but vocally the songs all sounded the same. I’m not trying to slam anybody, it’s just what I heard at the time. They are on tour now and in Spokane at Brooklyn Nights on June 6th.

8 bands, 1 day. Kind of like going to a music festival and hoping the last band of the day sounds as good at the 3rd or 6th… eventually its music overload… Nah it was fun, can’t wait for the Second Annual National Record Store Day, just hope we still have record stores.

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