This last week I went out three times. I’m usually more of a homebody than that.
Tuesday night Faderhead played a show at Chop Suey. I got there fairly early thinking all the Goth kids would be out, and I wanted to get a spot. Turns out that it wasn’t that crowded. Opening band was Pixel Pussy. Not bad music. Awful stage patter. Dude had black and white makeup to look sorta like cat whiskers, and kept on making cat rowr
noises while exhorting people to come closer because he doesn’t bite. Second band was Graverzeit out of Spokane. I wasn’t impressed at all. His outfit and schtick just screamed, look at me cause I’m trying so hard!
Then Faderhead came on. The guy has charisma. His look reminds me of Steve Saunders with a mohawk. I danced most of his set, except for the couple of ballads he played. It’s hard to pull off an industrial ballad.
Thursday night I drove over to Ballard for a board game night that has met at various coffee shops in the neighborhood. They just moved to Ballard Coffee Works, which is officially opening today in the old Tully’s space on the corner of Market and 22nd. I liked the coffee shop, though I hope they get more comfy chairs and something to mute the noise level a little. The gaming group had a couple dozen participants, and at least 4 tables worth of games constantly going. My cousin Sarah enticed me to go by telling me that there were single women there, one of whom she though I should meet. I played a game of Taboo matching girls against boys that we abandoned after 45 minutes or so. The women were kicking our asses something like 30 to 8. We were not going to catch up. Second game was Cloud 9, which had okay game play but I didn’t find it too particularly compelling. As it was I came in third, 26 points behind the winner. I stayed for another 30 minutes and kibbitzed on a couple other games in progress, but decided to bail after that. I get antsy bouncing around from thing to thing, so I can only usually do a couple of activities.
Last night I went to the Sounders match against Houston with Kim. I don’t think of Kim as much of a sports person, but she seemed to dig the experience. That match was fun. The Sounders played decently though not as well as Houston. The home team attempted a lot of combinations and passes that just didn’t quite work. I’m glad they were trying them though, as that’s my preferred style of play. They ended up winning based on some luck and hard work rather than skill.
After the match I went over to the Central Saloon. Two of the guys who occupy the row behind me at the stadium are in Dapper Jones which was playing there. They had invited me to stop in and see. There were four bands playing, and the first three each ran over. The third band started late, took really long to set up, and played an 80s style hard rock which didn’t seem to go over well. By the time they finished, the Central was nearly empty. Dapper Jones was setting up in the aisle so they could walk their stuff up and get going as quickly as possible. It turns out I liked them a lot. They reminded me a little of R.E.M. or Cheap Trick, but faster. And then they did a cover of Cheap Trick’s Surrender which kinda solidified that impression. They told me a bunch of times I didn’t need to feel obligated to stay for their set, but I’m glad I did.