Woo-eee, babies! That's right, sit tight: it's time for more mesmerizing MEDIA-RICH coverage of all that is PIZZA FEST VI, featuring some of the best punk, garage, psych, and power pop bands this nation provides! Also -- and this is vital to understanding the spirit of Pizza Fest -- there is PIZZA, for PIZZA is EVERYTHING! My friend and creative colleague AJ Dent handled duties for Day One of this 3-day extravaganza at The Funhouse. and I insist that you view her stellar work RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. I'll wait here with Shannon and Jordan of Gazebos while you're gone.
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WASN'T THAT FRIGGIN' GREAT?? Yes, it was! OK, so now we are up to Day Two, moving over to the newly-renovated Chop Suey for another round of gooey goodness! Because I was enjoying myself at Day One the night before, I got to the venue a little late and missed Patsy's Rats, which you must admit is a fine band name. Please patronize their Bandcamp and buy their summer-shiny brand new single...which is not a cover of "Ben," by the way.
Next on the bill was Susan, which was not at all Susan Boyle, and was instead three youthful ladies from Los Angeles whose identical outfits and beachy-keen garage bop made me want to skip school with them so we could hang out on the sand with the cute bad boys and eat french fries. What? It could happen.
Susan, Pizza Fest VI, Chop Suey, Seattle 8/7/15 Flickr set
San Francisco's Scraper continued the California vibe reminiscent of our good pals Thee Oh Sees and White Fence, but with lightning strikes of sinewy psych guitar, gravel-grit vocals, and a propulsive rhythm section, drowned in jet-noise.
People here in the USA don't know jackshit about other nations, that is a FACT. Well, thank goodness for Australian natives The Gooch Palms, who recently moved to Los Angeles in selfless cultural service to our clueless country. Dressed in traditional Australian garb, Leroy Macqueen and Kat Friend gently offer their hands in musical friendship to us. I gratefully accept their kind gifts of peppy punk, sparkling smiles, and bare buttocks. Don't be afraid to look, eager scholars of Other Lands, it's educational!
AT LAST! I said to myself, AT LAST I get to see Gazebos! Several times I had made plans to see this new Seattle band as their members are made up of talented people whom I like very much, and Dumb Life Crap thwarted my attempts to do so. Well, this time I had the frontest of front row placements, and I discovered that my excitement and anticipation were well-founded and my patience rewarded.
Gazebos are made up of four charismatic presences, Shannon, Shane, Jordan, and TV, any one of whom could front a band and easily earn total attention. But it is vocalist Shannon Perry who is the natural focal point here; a whirling being from another planet, all flying hair, tiny tattoos, grand gestures, and dramatic expressions, larger than life in performance, shy in the breaks.
I'm rather delighted to say that Gazebos don't quite sound like anyone else. Intriguingly, they mix aspects of early art punk with sheer melodic pop, grabbing elements from the unexpected musical inspirations everywhere along the line. Shannon's throaty soulful howl is balanced by TV's clean, sweet vocals, the blend somewhat reminding me of X's Exene and John Doe, if Exene sounded more like Amy Winehouse. It all worked beautifully in this cracked kind of cohesion, like a mosaic or a Picasso, or a mosaic of a Picasso. Dig them now.
Gazebos, Pizza Fest VI, Chop Suey, Seattle 8/7/15 Flickr set
Sadly, even the very last slice of delicious pizza from the Wicked Pies truck parked outside Chop Suey could not provide me with enough fuel to carry on to see Useless Eaters and headliners Mean Jeans, although I heard nothing but absolute raves for both bands from several people who stayed. Buy things from these fine bands to make me feel psychically better and to provide them with money.
But this is not the end, my friends! Stay tuned for coverage of the giant third and final day of Pizza Fest VI, same Bat-Browser, same Bat-blog!
© Copyright 2008- Marianne Spellman