by LE Francis
This time last year it really felt like I needed to do a roundup. I felt as if I’d seen so many shows & had so many thoughts about my experiences. This year — not so much. This year has been busier, broke-er. I’ve traveled less overall.
But I’ve still seen a handful of shows. In fact, I’ve physically been out as many nights as this time last year — having hit up two stops on The Fall of Troy tour because The Number Twelve Looks Like You is back baby. But as I write this at the tail end of my June concert break, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been out as much. However I’m nerd enough to know, the numbers don’t lie.
So here’s what I’ve gone out to so far this year:
- May 24: Portugal. The Man, Bomba Estereo, Reyna Tropical at Remlinger Farms, Carnation, WA
- May 9-10: The Fall of Troy, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Rhododendron at Dantes, Portland, OR & El Corazon, Seattle, WA
- May 2: Aaron West & the Roaring Twenties, Cliff Morgan, Pile of Love at Neumos, Seattle, WA
- April 23: Starset at Showbox Sodo in Seattle WA
- March 28: KMFDM, Sour Tongue at The Crocodile in Seattle, WA
- February 18: Silversun Pickups, Hello Mary at The Knitting Factory in Spokane, WA
Now before I jump in I want to note that my ranking is based on my overall experience & since I don’t typically go out to a show unless I like the band, even the dead last show was likely to be a great time.
That said, let’s start at the bottom.
Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties
I had a great time at this show but I didn’t know a lot of the music going in & there were a few aggressive dudes in the crowd that pushed me around a little more than I like to be at a chill indie rock show when I’m super buzzed.
& yeah I was drunk & had a gut full of chicken because there’s a barcade called Time Warp directly across the street & a Bok-a-Bok (the best gluten-free fried chicken I’ve had) on the side of the building. Ya girl missed the openers blissfully trying different chicken sauces & drinking.
But the show itself (which has a full column forthcoming Aug. 2) was pretty damn amazing. I’m a newish fan of The Wonder Years (started listening to them after their tour with Hot Mulligan last year & have been obsessed with The Hum Goes on Forever since) & wanted to see Soupy’s other project. & in some ways Aaron West has a more approachable catalog than The Wonder Years but I bought the tickets thinking it was deep in the future & I’d have time to listen to it all & then it was suddenly the day of the show. But even without that connection, the band was thrilling live & ya’ll know I love a band with a horn section.
KMFDM
As I said in my column covering this show, I waited SO LONG to see KMFDM live. I’ve been a fan of this band for over two decades & Lucia Cifarelli is one of the core influences that moved me from passively singing choral music in high school to singing & writing rock & metal music (Lucia, Ryann Donnelly of Schoolyard Heroes, & Corin Tucker of Sleater Kinney were absolutely it for me in the early aughts). & while the band did not disappoint, there were a few drawbacks.
First, I’ve been to a sold out show at The Crocodile before — Hail the Sun’s Divine Inner Tension tour last summer — but this one was 21+, no bar rail, & it was kinda miserable if I’m being honest. I’ve never had issues fighting the crowd to get to the bathroom at The Croc before but the whole floor was a solid mass of people who weren’t too keen on moving. This was one of v few shows in recent years that had me crawling out of my skin with anxiety because of the crowd.
I also am somewhat of an old fan & really wish they were hitting Seattle on their 40th anniversary tour, because while I love their new music I would really love the opportunity to see some of the stuff from the ’90s & early ’00s live.
Overall, it was an awesome show but when I stacked it up against the next one(s), I couldn’t place it any higher in the list.
The Fall of Troy / The Number Twelve Looks Like You
Occasionally, a tour announcement will rip a little screech out of my throat — The Mars Volta coming back in 2022, Sleep Token announcing a tour hours after I spent a long car ride ranting about how great it would be if they’d tour — but this one was a long time coming.
Now, at this point, I’ve been to more The Fall of Troy shows than any other band & damn straight. They’re the home team. I might want to fight Thomas Erak for some of his lyrics, but I listen to everything he releases anyway because it’s consistently good. & Andrew Forsman is not just one of the best drummers in the entire post-hardcore scene, but one of the nicest musicians I’ve had the opportunity to meet. They’re Washingtonians, they have songs featuring Rody Walker & Ryann Donnelly, & my brother once paid Thomas $1000 to have Just Like Vinyl play a show with them only to have Erak later say publicly that they charge significantly less (lol) — they are iconic. & Phantom on the Horizon is the good old days album in my mind. So, I was obviously going to go to the Seattle show.
But when they announced the tour with The Number Twelve I was so fucking in. I didn’t care who was going with me or how I got there, I just bought tickets to Seattle & Portland.
I will get into the rest of it in a future column but I have to briefly look at the drawbacks for the sake of this ranking.
While I’m a fan of classic Number Twelve (I saw them for the first time touring with Protest the Hero in 2009), I got hooked hard on Wild Gods when it came out & walked away from the shows still itching to hear my favorite songs live. Like KMFDM, this just wasn’t the setlist for me. Also, El Corazon & Dantes are not my favorite venues (But Jesse Korman wriggling around in the burlesque cages at Dantes as he screamed his lungs out was unforgettable). So overall, this show just had to land mid-list.
Portugal. The Man
The only reason I was able to go to this show was because my brother bought tickets when he was high on painkillers after surgery & had no inhibition. It’s definitely one of the pricier shows I’ve gone to recently & in this lean year I likely wouldn’t have splurged on my own volition.
That said, Remlinger Farms was kinda worth it on the venue side. While I think they could have done better directing traffic after the show, the venue was spacious, nicely arranged to manage the crowd, & they even had gluten-free options for both food & drink.
Like the last two shows on this list, this is a band with eras & specific eras that I’m more attached to than others — Waiter, It’s Complicated, In the Mountain. But the setlist spanned their catalog really gracefully & landed notes in several albums.
A full column is coming, but while I definitely felt like an outsider in this crowd, it wasn’t a bad experience. I feel like this was maybe the most Pacific Northwest crowd I’ve ever seen — the ‘pit’ was just a dance party of the allegedly insufferable fedora wearing PNW hipsters I’ve seen other reviewers erroneously attribute to crowds of bands they don’t like (my reviewer orgin story). But nobody was rude or pushy. Despite the pissing rain, despite the slippery, progressively miserable physical condition, everyone was pretty chill.
Starset
The old man part of my brain has been begging, pleading, crying for bands to tour every once in awhile on their own. Just put on an elaborate two-hour show, no awkward openers, just be really extra, & let us go home early. Starset said bet.
Listen, I love openers. I found Protest the Hero opening for DragonForce & slowly transitioned from obnoxious power metal nerd to obnoxious nerd. I found Thank You Scientist opening for Protest the Hero & later wrote a poem that was nominated for a Pushcart. Good things come from opening bands.
But shit’s getting ridiculous. How many times must I endure three billed openers plus a local? In my fucking Converse All Stars? How many overpriced venue bar drinks am I going to have to need to maintain my buzz? How many times am I’m going to have to piss in that disgusting bathroom? How late is it going to be when I’m deliriously ripping over the passes to get back home?
I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to go in for Starset, enjoy the whole show, leave early, & hit my bed about 1 a.m.
Also, I went to this show as a favor to my brother because while I knew who Starset was, it was only because my ex’s sister drunkenly admitted to me that she’d earnestly tried to bang someone in the band (& maybe succeeded. I can’t remember. I was drunk too). To me they were always the bang band & that was weird.
But I was missing out. Starset lands on this really interesting intersection of pop, electronic, rock, & metal but still nerdy & theatrical. I’m going to write more on this for my next column, but I was on HORIZONS hard around the time of this show. & though I’d just started getting into DIVISIONS, I cried during Telekinetic because I was drunk & sad & it was beautiful.
This show was a great time & honestly, I thought it was going to be the pinnacle of this list but when I really thought about it…
Silversun Pickups
I’m just going to get this out of the way: HOLY SHIT I LOVE NIKKI MONNINGER.
I wrote about this show already & I don’t want to just repeat myself too much, but I’ve loved this band off & on for years & finally seeing them live was so much fun.
Would I have loved to see more Widows Weeds specifically? Sure. Was the setlist wall to wall bangers despite? Hell yeah.
I’d not consumed a drop of alcohol, yet I was probably more annoying than usual because I knew every song, every word, & I was going to dance & sing along regardless of how stupid I looked. Luckily, the woman next to me was not only cool with it but openly encouraged me to go apeshit.
The result being the first show of the year remains the one to beat. & while my legs hurt for a week afterward as a result of jumping up and down the whole set in my clompy winter boots:
I regret nothing.
Verses on Verses is a biweekly music column from the perspective of a poet. Inquiries can be directed to LE Francis, lefrancis@sagecigarettes.com.
LE Francis (she/her) is the managing editor of Sage Cigarettes Magazine; a columnist & staff artist for Cream Scene Carnival Magazine; co-host & staff editor of A Ghost in the Magazine & The Annegirls Podcast; & the author of THIS SPELL OF SONG & STAR available through Bottlecap Press. She is a writer, musician, & visual artist living in the rainshadow of the Washington Cascades. Find her online at nocturnical.com.
