The headliner for this night was See Me River. See Me River is the newest project for ex-Das Llamas frontman Kerry Zettel. The band has had a revolving rotation of respectable local musicians, including ex-members of Band of Horses, Tiny Vipers and Charming Snakes, but now the brainchild of Kerry Zettel has transformed into a full blown band with a steady lineup. The first See Me River song I was drawn too was "Don't Pray For Blood" off their first LP "Time Machine". This song showcases their sound very well and is probably where the "Doom Folk" descriptions for their music came from, as acoustic guitars, Zettel's eerie baritone vocals and all sorts of odd instruments (i.e Glockenspiel) dominate the song.
In March of this year they released an EP called "The Great Unwashed", on this record is probably their most known "single" and their most played song on KEXP. The song is called "Ed Jackson". The Seattle Rock Guy has a weird connection to this song as it is about that fateful October morning on Capitol Hill, when the Marion Apartments on the corner of Bellevue and Pine was set a blaze. My good buddy Mike, a groomsman in my wedding in two weeks had lived in that building for over two years, Ed Jackson was the apartment manager. He was a crotchety, stubborn old man who loved running around the building chasing vagrants away and collecting garbage with his shopping cart. He was also known to be a major pack rat as well and I witnessed this first hand when his door would be open on Mike's floor and stacks of old newspaper would be ceiling high, not mention the two vehicles in the parking lot completely packed with treasures from his lifetime of hoarding. The old guy had lived in that building for around 40 years. Months leading up to that day he was repeatedly warned that the building had to be evacuated and he must move out. He decided he didn't want to leave or maybe had nowhere to go, so he took matters into his own hands. He lit the building on fire and shot and killed himself. It was a raging fire, I remember watching the news and it looked like firefighters were being swallowed by flames, though nobody was seriously hurt. It's a really sad story, but knowing Ed Jackson in passing for those 2 years, I'd say it was a victory for the stubborn old guy. He got his way, half his life was spent there in those apartments, and I guess there was no way he was going to leave.
The song tells the same story as Kerry Zettel hears it on that day including a phone call from his father telling him that a large fire is burning in his neighborhood. Every time I hear the song I get chills, because I knew the man in the story. It also makes me laugh thinking of the New Years Eve that he chased my fiance and her friend up and down the upstairs shouting at 3am thinking they were intruders after we had stumbled back from closing down the old Pine Street Cha Cha.
This was a good show despite the small-ish Thursday night crowd. If you are a fan of anything that Spencer Moody or Kerry Zettel have done in the past, you'll appreciate Triumph of Lethargy and See Me River. Overall this was an excellent showcase of some very talented local artists and their most recent projects.
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