Last Friday: Seaweed, The Whore Moans, and The Redwood Plan

Seaweed

Let me tell you by Friday night after staying up late 3 nights in a row and getting to work by 7am each morning and then banging my head against a wall for 8 hours building up a Unix system for my development team (actually it wasn’t that bad, just requires me to be a little sharper than I was)….I was wiped! I even had thoughts of blowing off Seaweed, The Whore Moans, and The Redwood Plan. Man was I glad I powered through, because the combo of these three bands made for one of the most energetic and chaotic nights of music I had seen in sometime. It was a vast difference from the doom and gloom of the Southern Lord shows, which needed to be the case for me to make it.

First up was The Redwood Plan, who I have heard quite a bit about but hadn’t put myself in a position to see until this show. The Redwood Plan burst onto the Seattle scene in 2008 with their brand of dance punk and have gained a major following with their dance party inducing hooks and pure energy. Front woman Lesli Wood’s extremely charismatic presence and strong vocals along with the stylish riffs and heavy groove from bandmates Syndey Stolfus, Betty ST, and Billy Stultz have pushed this band into position to really blow up. The show Friday was in celebration of their newly released EP called “Movers Shakers Makers”. They played a riveting 30+ minute set, and gained a new fan in me.

The Redwood Plan

Next up was The Whore Moans, who are probably the best live band in Seattle and that could be an understatement. They absolutely killed it with their insane punk rock show. These guys were all over the place never slowing down for a minute top take a breath. With flying guitars and flashy foot work they blasted through a 40 minute set of material from their 2 albums “Watch Out for This Thing” and “Hello from the Radio Wasteland”. The set was anchored by the fast and loud “The Holy Fucking Moment”, as guitarists Jonny Henningson, Nick Anderson, bass player Ryan Devlin all traded off vocal duties and killer drummer Jason Kilgor skillfully laid the framework. The show was full of all sorts of chaotic moments with Devlin probably being the most erratic, charging back and forth across the stage, and he even at one point put down his instrument, got a running start, and leaped up to the upper bar area for a moment. It was just one of many intense moments of their incredible live show. Watch out for these guys they are headed in the right direction, and will be gracing the EMP stage during Bumbershoot this year.

The Whore Moans

Last but not least was Tacoma’s own Seaweed. I was very excited to finally see Seaweed. “Spanaway” was one of those records that stuck with me over the years and was one of my favorite records from 1995, which at age 15 was a time of great local discoveries including “Straight Freak Ticket” by Love Battery, “My Brother the Cow” by Mudhoney, “Superfriends” by Sweetwater, and the first PUSA record. Grunge was almost dead after Kurt died and different kinds of bands were being thrown into the national spotlight. I’m sure everyone loves the song “Start With” and when they played it Friday it brought me back to my 8th grade room where I spent hours rocking out to this band Seaweed. It was great, and they are a great band. I was very happy to hear that they decided to get back together in 2007, though I missed their Bumbershoot performance. I didn’t quite know what to expect from them especially because the first two acts sounded like they were the headliners. I was thrilled when they began because Seaweed’s sound was big, bigger than I expected. They played many familiar songs off “Spanaway” including “Drug Free Zone” and “Crush Us All”. Singer Aaron Stauffer was energetic and his voice was strong, he being the only member that didn’t look their age. I am currently revisiting their other albums right now, I got into “Four” back then but nothing else. I’m still convinced that “Spanaway” was their legacy and it will continue to be up there in my favorite albums list.

This was a killer night of local music past and present, The Whore Moans and The Redwood Plan are great newish bands that have a bright future ahead of them but the old guys with their powerful set of familiar favorites won out. I mean they caused a mosh pit at the Croc and security didn’t know what to do, it was great!

Seaweed