Disappointment Enthusiast

PS. This is the one and only picture I took. I hate getting my phone out at shows and taking a thousand photos. Sorry for the blurriness.

Hi, Paige here. Whenever I go to a show, I always feel delightfully alive afterwards, as if I were asleep for weeks before I arrived. Last night, the final night in the short month of February, I felt awake and ready for whatever Seattle had to throw at me. Here are a few thoughts my brain cooked up after a nice winter slumber about a glorious live music experience.

Giving everyone their time to showcase their creations, all of the opening bands were so sick. Oso Oso went first, with very melodic songs and a very chill atmosphere provided by a calm four-piece. They seemed like naturals up behind the lights, so comfortable but still stoked. I missed half of their set, such a bummer since they were so good, but what I managed to catch was rewarding in its own right.  I will definitely be listening to them regularly.

Next up was another three-piece called Covet. This band was so fucking technical it was almost unbelievable to watch. The female guitarist started just ripping through these intricate riffs as the drums loudened and the basest absolutely murdered the tempo changes and lines. It was magnificent. Hands walking up and down the frets, Yvette Young played with such flow that it almost looked like the instrument was a cello instead of a sparkly pink guitar. As she tapped away, I felt the mood shift from moody melodies to pure rock power chords and back again, no vocals needed while they stuck to emo and hardcore elements with insane technical difficulty. A very cool thing to see in this lineup and the world of rock music.

Next was another highlight of the night, the third opener Mom Jeans. I am a fairly new fan of this band, getting into them close to a year ago, but this performance made me a lifer for sure. As soon as Death Cup started and the crowd started yelling, “What do you want me to say when I can’t tell you the truth? Please tell me how the fuck I’m supposed to deal with losing you”, every single one of those audience members could feel it in the air and in their tiny, emo hearts. All jokes aside, this band and their fans were so inspiring to be in the same room with, let alone hear them perfectly display their art. Just as good or even better than the recordings, members Eric, Bart, Austin, and Gabriel all metaphorically smashed everything in sight as they closed their set with my personal favorite song, “Scott Pilgrim V. My GPA” ripping all of our hearts out with a trombone attack to round-off a fearless set of made up of every punk kid’s daydreams. I swear I could see the stress melt away as everyone started yelling, “I sleep well alone now” in unison. A true sense of beauty and an open love letter to emotional rock and self-awareness that sometimes slips the minds of musicians caught up in it all. Ten out of ten would recommend to any fan of music and especially to fans of rock and roll. Now I continue on to the headliner, a mesmerizing end to what became one of my favorite experiences with live music to this day.

I found an unlikely friend in a wholesome punk band from Minnesota by the name of Tiny Moving Parts. When I first found them, I was fresh into my adventures in adulthood and I couldn’t help but wish high school me had found them a bit earlier. They are incredible musicians that play very technical riffs in what seem like simple emo revival songs. But last night, a minuscule dream of mine became a reality as I watched three dudes from the Midwest completely lose themselves into their creations. As the lights shifted from a happy turquoise to the brightest white, a simple change in perspective took center stage. The entire room lit up and for a moment I could see every single person around me at a different angle. The crowd shifted forward closing the gaps in-between each fan and becoming more personal with every song.  With smiles on the band’s and fan’s faces, we were all so stoked on being there and getting to play. For a fairly small show, I had never in my short life seen such a massive pit compared the amount of audience members. Almost everyone made their way to the middle and started jumping to the lyrics, “My lungs need to act like windows, and open up.” The band brings a new friend up on stage to sing the guest vocals Conor Murphy from the fantastic band Foxing recorded for the album version. He absolutely nailed it and at the end of his moment, he leaned his body into the crowd as everyone lifted him up and transported him to safety like the wave only he could create. It was the most punk rock thing I have ever witnessed and I’m pretty sure only dudes that are this nice could pull off something this rad and personal at a punk show.

The trio continued playing their flawless setlist, eventually ending on a crowd favorite and exiting the stage only to come back dressed in custodian overalls for the encore. Dylan, 1/3 of the band covering vocals and guitar, kindly invites anyone who wants to sing Caution, a single from their newly released record “Swell”. Immediately almost half of the crowd quickly jumps up to dance and jump to the rhythm. As people rushed the small stage, the band flawlessly played along as chaos ensued around them, not missing a beat dedicating the set to the gods of rock and roll, or at least that’s what I got out of it. A thing a beauty and skills that I will think back to often and remember why emo and punk music are a necessity to those that love it and live it. This round of shows will stay close to me as a very found  memory of Seattle and the bands that put everything they practiced and wrote for probably most of their lives into and left it all out there for us mere mortals to listen to and enjoy. This is why we listen, to feel connected and understood by others enough to open up and feel everything we don’t want to feel.

This is my love letter to a genre of music you can feel in the air and see on people’s faces. You can see it in the goosebumps on the arms of the strangers standing near as you listen, feel in the baseboards as the rhythm section takes over the fast-paced or slow-moving tracks flow out of shitty amps and old guitars. Sense it in the run-down speakers of your friend’s car, or when you play your Spotify playlists on shuffle and that one song comes on and you remember how happy you used be but also reminds you that you can be that happy again someday.

Thank you reading this, Mom.

Anyway, Stay Radical my dudes.

Here are some songs you need to listen to even if you hate emo music or bad singing, because I don’t really give a shit.

Oso Oso : Track 1, Side A

Covet : Sea Dragon

Mom Jeans : Edward 40Hands

Tiny Moving Parts : Common Cold