*photos by Steven Friederich

Them Crooked Vultures should consider billing themselves as the second coming of the Monsters of Rock.

Sure Monsters of Rock was a long-running festival that featured several groups and TCV are just one band, but this one band features John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin on bass, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters behind the drum kit and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on vocals and lead guitar. And this one band delivered a monstrously epic set of rock to a capacity crowd at the Paramount Theatre Saturday night. On record TCV sounds like a glorified Queens of the Stone Age thanks to Homme helming the vocals, but in concert Them Crooked Vultures comes across like an unstoppable monster of a supergroup.

Homme’s fuzzy stoner-rock guitar sound soared through the venue. His frontman duties were also admirable, especially when he took the microphone off the stand and gallivanted all over the stage during “Interludes With Ludes.” Jones’ bass held down the low end during the 90-minute show but it wasn’t until the third song of the set, “Scumbag Blues,” where he really made himself heard and from then on it was all JPJ all the time. Grohl’s presence was felt the entire night, from the opening drum hits of “No One Loves Me & Neither Do I,” which was the first song of the set, to show closer “Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up.” He should consider giving up his day job fighting foos because it’s clear he belongs behind a drum kit. And touring guitarist Alain Johannes made his presence known by adding slight flourishes to Homme’s distinctive style while the band played through its entire self-titled debut. As an added treat an unreleased song, “Highway One,” made the set.

Almost every face in the crowd was wearing a smile as concertgoers reveled in the pure joy of watching these titans of rock together. But the faces in the crowd weren’t the only ones having fun. Homme, Grohl and Jones flashed smiles at one another throughout the show, making the concert almost feel like a mutual admiration society of rock. I walked into the show thinking it would be a one-off performance considering Homme, Grohl and Jones have other obligations involving other bands (Hey JPJ when are we going to get that Zeppelin reunion?) and although there was no encore, their smiles combined with the performance of “Highway One” hinted that Saturday may not have been the last fans will see of Them Crooked Vultures.

Them Crooked Vultures set list:

No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
Dead End Friends
Scumbag Blues
Elephants
Highway One
New Fang
Gunman
Bandoliers
Mind Eraser, No Chaser
Caligulove
Interlude with Ludes
Spinning in Daffodils
Reptiles
Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up

Local photographer Brittney Bush Bollay took some photos at Mt. Fuji Records’ label showcase featuring Virgin Islands, The Whore Moans, Black Whales and others on Saturday night. Here are a few choice shots with a slideshow of her full set of photos from the show below.

The last time I saw Detroit disco-rock outfit Electric Six live was in 2004 in 111-degree heat at Coachella where they put on a great set inside a dance tent. I was very curious to check them out five years later in a dark nightclub on a cool rainy night to see how they’ve improved. Here’s what I thought about their show with The Gay Blades and Millions of Brazillians on Sunday night at Neumos.

Electric Six :: by Travis Hay

Millions of Brazilians: This trio came off sounding like a Detroit-flavored Arctic Monkeys. Lots of squealy guitar effects and some pretty updeat dance-friendly numbers. Not too bad for a three-piece that features two guitarists and a drummer.

The Gay Blades: I really wanted to dislike this band based solely on the premise of the fact that their band name sucks. Then I walked past the merch booth and they told me off in the form of band shirts that say “No, your band name sucks.” They get points for having a sense of humor. Jokes aside (you’ve got to admit that band name is pretty lame), as much as I wanted them to suck, the band was pretty good. They rocked as hard as two people could without being, say, Death From Above 1979. I was impressed with how easily they went from making the crowd move with fun, upbeat pop numbers to making the crowd mosh with loud, screamy songs that almost bled into heavy metal territory. Continue reading →

Sometimes a little exposure can go a long way when it comes to launching a band’s career. Case and point: The Bravery.

The last time The Bravery performed in Seattle they were on the big stage at KeyArena opening for Green Day. Last week the band played to a sold-out crowd at Showbox at the Market. Selling out the Showbox is something the New York band would’ve eventually done without the exposure because their brand of new wave rock is contagious and fun, but I’m sure sharing the stage with Billie Joe, Tre and Mike helped speed things up a bit.
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As mentioned yesterday, I filed a review of Friday night’s grunge spectacular at Neumos featuring Mudhoney, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth and Unnatural Helpers with the folks over at Crosscut. Here’s a snippet of the review. Click the jump to read the full review.

Brothers of the Sonic Cloth :: by Alex Crick
 

Seattle’s music scene is fast becoming known for its bearded folk rock and burgeoning hip hop, but Friday at Neumos the flannel flag flew high once again with a triple-bill featuring Unnatural Helpers, Brother of the Sonic Cloth, and Mudhoney.

The show was in celebration of photographer Michael Lavine’s book Grunge, and the lineup did a great job of capturing the essence of the book, making it feel like 1992 all over again. Lavine was one of two photogs hired by Sub Pop to visually capture the bands that helped define a musical movement. He spent the late 1980s and early ’90s living in Olympia and later moved to New York where he shot various Sub Pop acts (TAD, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Fluid, Skin Yard) along with other important alt-rock bands of the time (Sonic Youth, Hole, White Zombie, Pearl Jam) as they passed through town.

The book features photos of all the aforementioned bands and dozens more, and is a striking visual document that chronicles the culture and look of an era. It is similar to what Lavine’s colleague Charles Peterson, who also shot for Sub Pop during the grunge days, did with his book Touch Me I’m Sick a few years back. One of the main differences between the two is that Peterson’s style emphasized the action on stage and in the crowd; Lavine’s shots are more candid and playful band photos.

Although the Neumos show was technically a book release party, aside from Lavine being on hand signing and selling copies of his work there was not real emphasis on Grunge the book; rather it was more about grunge the sound, which felt appropriate considering the book visually represents sound. And what better band to have representing that sound on stage than Mudhoney?

“These photos are mind-blowing for those of us who are old enough to remember,” Mudhoney frontman Mark Arm told the crowd before starting the band’s set with a cover of Fang’s “The Money Will Roll Right In.” It’s a song the band has covered previously, and astute grunge scholars will know it’s also a song Nirvana covered during its famous 1992 Reading Festival set as well as a song Arm performed onstage with Kurt, Krist and Dave (check out the video here).

From there the grungiest of grunge bands blazed through a near two-hour set that spanned its 21-year career. The set proved once again that Arm is still capable of commanding the stage like the proud graduate of the Iggy Pop School of Frontmen he is, and that guitarist Steve Turner can still shred with the best of them. Plenty of new material from the band’s 2008 release The Lucky Ones made the set including the title track, “I’m Now,” and “Tales of Terror,” which was a late highlight. An earlier highlight was Turner tearing it up on the one-two combo of “Suck You Dry” and “Oblivion.” The performance was one of the best Mudhoney sets I’ve witnessed out of the dozen or so times I’ve seen the band, and according to UC Berkeley’s Mudhoney Tourbook it was the longest set of the band’s career. It was an impressive showing by one of the most important bands to hail from the Emerald City.

Tad Doyle, former frontman of TAD, a lesser known but still very important grunge band, played with his new band Brothers of the Sonic Cloth before Mudhoney’s set. Brothers of the Sonic Cloth’s songs combine ground-moving drums with deep, bowel-shaking bass while Doyle’s dark and heavy guitar cuts through it all. There are not a lot of vocals happening with BOTSC but when Doyle screams it is a scream that makes you pay attention.

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Local rock photog Dave Lichterman rocked out with his camera out in the photo pit at the Pixies Doolittle concert Thursday. Here’s a slideshow of his photos along with a few choice photos from the show below. You can read my review of the show here.