Last night Neumo’s celebrated its 5 year anniversary with a free show featuring the soothing sounds of the excellent northwest Sub Pop band The Helio Sequence as well as Grand Hallway and the Palmer Electric Company. The deal was purchase a drink at the Moe Bar; get a free ticket to the show. The only catch was make sure to arrive early because entrance to the show was on a first come first serve basis. I had been meaning to secure my ticket at least a week in advance but for some reason it had slipped my mind when the Saturday earlier a friend and I closed down the Moe Bar for my birthday. I wonder why? Anyways, I decided to show up early per the Moe Bar/Neumo’s owner’s recommendation earlier in the day during a KEXP radio interview and secured a couple hard tickets for my fiancé and I.
It’s weird that Neumo’s has only been around for 5 years, I feel like I’ve been attending shows there for much longer, or even my whole life. Of course, I tend to think of my life beginning at around the time I started going to shows frequently at around age 19 or so (I’m newly 29 now). I could go into my disappointment of missing so many great bands prior to this time, while I have to hear from friends who popped their concert cherries getting thrown out of Megadeth shows at Mercer Arena for crowd surfing while their Mom sits in the audience, or their gloating on seeing Soundgarden, Tad, and Eleven at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in 1994 or other friends who during the 2000 Pearl Jam world tour followed the band around Europe, and saw the same Soundgarden show in 1994 but in Detroit. I think these guys must’ve had really cool Mom’s or something? My point is that it really pisses me off! I have always been a huge music fan since probably around the age of 10 when I started acquiring CD’s (first rock CD = Pearl Jam’s Ten, I begged my parents to buy it for me at Costco) and grunge/metal mix tapes from my buddy who was way ahead of his time making me mix tapes at age 10. For some reason back then I never thought about attempting to see the bands that I played loudly in my room night after night in a live setting. Maybe I didn’t hang with the right crowd, and I didn’t know any rebellious punk rock kids to show me the way. I think my parents just thought rock concerts were dangerous, I do remember asking to go see Gruntruck in Everett but was shot down without hesitation, sighting “there are drugs at concerts” or something lame. I did end up seeing Sweetwater in 1994 at a Pain in the Grass show at the Mural Amphitheater in Seattle Center, which was my first show. It was free; my Mom drove us and hung out in the McDonald’s parking lot for a couple hours. She was right, there were drugs there. A guy next to my friend and I smoked something out of a light bulb, I remember that vividly.
I guess my love for music or live music is one thing that I’m most proud of. I found my own way; it’s ingrained as I was drawn to rock music at an early age. Through the years, with very little guidance from outside influences I have sought out great music, and in turn have probably been to easily 300 shows, possibly more since 1999. I love going to shows, it’s my hobby, passion, addiction whatever you want to call it. It’s who I am; I am a rock guy as my friend Mike puts it.
Some of the many shows I’ve seen, probably a descent percentage have occurred at Neumo’s over the past 5 years. Off the top of my head my favorites have been: MC5 with Kim Thayil, Chris Ballew, Mark Arm, the recent Mastodon show with Kylesa and Intronaut, Brad, Boris, Melvins with Jello Biafra, Neurosis and Converge, Russian Circles, Pelican, The Sword, These Arms Are Snakes, Black Mountain with Yeasayer and MGMT, Jeremy Enigk with Orchestra, Corrosion of Conformity with Fu Manchu, The Cave Singers, The Black Angels, Fucked Up, and I’m drawing a blank. I need to reminisce with my collection of ticket stubs.
Last night was a cool show, The Helio Sequence has a calming, stony sound that is something so refreshing and kind to the ears. Benjamin Weikel’s drumming is superb and his muppetlike facial expressions are sight to see. Brandon Summers’s guitar harmonies and young Dylan-esque vocals style can take you to another place. It was good to see these guys again since the first time was at Sasquatch 2007, amidst a beer haze and I’ve been wearing out my vinyl copy of “Keep Your Eyes Ahead” since it was added to my library last year. Thanks Neumo’s for staying open and booking great bands. Here’s too many more years of rock at 10th and Pike.
It’s weird that Neumo’s has only been around for 5 years, I feel like I’ve been attending shows there for much longer, or even my whole life. Of course, I tend to think of my life beginning at around the time I started going to shows frequently at around age 19 or so (I’m newly 29 now). I could go into my disappointment of missing so many great bands prior to this time, while I have to hear from friends who popped their concert cherries getting thrown out of Megadeth shows at Mercer Arena for crowd surfing while their Mom sits in the audience, or their gloating on seeing Soundgarden, Tad, and Eleven at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in 1994 or other friends who during the 2000 Pearl Jam world tour followed the band around Europe, and saw the same Soundgarden show in 1994 but in Detroit. I think these guys must’ve had really cool Mom’s or something? My point is that it really pisses me off! I have always been a huge music fan since probably around the age of 10 when I started acquiring CD’s (first rock CD = Pearl Jam’s Ten, I begged my parents to buy it for me at Costco) and grunge/metal mix tapes from my buddy who was way ahead of his time making me mix tapes at age 10. For some reason back then I never thought about attempting to see the bands that I played loudly in my room night after night in a live setting. Maybe I didn’t hang with the right crowd, and I didn’t know any rebellious punk rock kids to show me the way. I think my parents just thought rock concerts were dangerous, I do remember asking to go see Gruntruck in Everett but was shot down without hesitation, sighting “there are drugs at concerts” or something lame. I did end up seeing Sweetwater in 1994 at a Pain in the Grass show at the Mural Amphitheater in Seattle Center, which was my first show. It was free; my Mom drove us and hung out in the McDonald’s parking lot for a couple hours. She was right, there were drugs there. A guy next to my friend and I smoked something out of a light bulb, I remember that vividly.
I guess my love for music or live music is one thing that I’m most proud of. I found my own way; it’s ingrained as I was drawn to rock music at an early age. Through the years, with very little guidance from outside influences I have sought out great music, and in turn have probably been to easily 300 shows, possibly more since 1999. I love going to shows, it’s my hobby, passion, addiction whatever you want to call it. It’s who I am; I am a rock guy as my friend Mike puts it.
Some of the many shows I’ve seen, probably a descent percentage have occurred at Neumo’s over the past 5 years. Off the top of my head my favorites have been: MC5 with Kim Thayil, Chris Ballew, Mark Arm, the recent Mastodon show with Kylesa and Intronaut, Brad, Boris, Melvins with Jello Biafra, Neurosis and Converge, Russian Circles, Pelican, The Sword, These Arms Are Snakes, Black Mountain with Yeasayer and MGMT, Jeremy Enigk with Orchestra, Corrosion of Conformity with Fu Manchu, The Cave Singers, The Black Angels, Fucked Up, and I’m drawing a blank. I need to reminisce with my collection of ticket stubs.
Last night was a cool show, The Helio Sequence has a calming, stony sound that is something so refreshing and kind to the ears. Benjamin Weikel’s drumming is superb and his muppetlike facial expressions are sight to see. Brandon Summers’s guitar harmonies and young Dylan-esque vocals style can take you to another place. It was good to see these guys again since the first time was at Sasquatch 2007, amidst a beer haze and I’ve been wearing out my vinyl copy of “Keep Your Eyes Ahead” since it was added to my library last year. Thanks Neumo’s for staying open and booking great bands. Here’s too many more years of rock at 10th and Pike.
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