The Henry Clay People, Against Me!, and the Silversun Pickups on Friday, July 30th at the Knitting Factory
First of all I just have to say how excited we were about the lineup, that was the first time in a while where I have been to a concert and been super excited about all of the bands playing. The Henry Clay People opened up the evening with a lot of energy even though they were a little under the weather or hung-over from last night in Portland. This was their first time in Spokane and they were ready to make an impression! I didn’t know that the second guitar player was the singers brother; which was funny because I wrote down how they looked alike with their hair and shirts. I love how Joey the singer just sings at the top of his longs but almost like he is announcing a story, very fun to sing along to and it just matches up with the music perfectly. At one point all of the guitar/bass guitar players need to tune so their keyboard player Jordan won the crowd over with a little Supertramp! Also props to the bass player Jonathan, the kid totally sprang his ankle in Portland yesterday and you couldn’t even tell… he still rocked it on stage. Towards the end of their set Joey even hopped down on to the security rail to shake hands. We all counted to 4 and they closed out their set with “Working Part Time.” The band also hung out at their merch table and had a beer, met kids, they said they wanted to hang out it was a Friday night in Spokane. I hope we can see them again – it was riot!
One of the fun things about going to concerts it talking to all of the excited music lovers there! I talked to a few people and each and everyone said the same thing I was thinking… such a stacked lineup. Dave and I met a kid named Colin who was jacked to be at the show and living in Spokane. He used to live in Priest Lake, and loves how there is so much to do in Spokane! I also talked to a kid who had never heard of Against Me! and was so impressed with their set.
Yep Against Me! was absolutely awesome! Their stage set-up included a bunch of handmade posts with bright white light bulbs and their Orange amps covered in phrases. It was simple stage set up but it looked really bad ass. Matt joked about how the lights were their white crosses. They had the crowd singing and jumping around during their set that sounded so on top of it. It was like I was listening to their albums… even the harmonies were perfect! I loved how their keyboard player had a sweet handlebar mustache and also played an accordion! Against Me! played the songs we wanted to hear like “Thrash Unreal,” “New Wave,” “Stop!,” “White Crosses,” “Sink, Florida, Sink,” “I Was a Teenage Anarchist,” and “Borne On The FM Waves Of Heart” where even one of the guys sounded alot like Tegan does on the album! It was a blast to sing along to our favorite songs. I also loved how when they played a few older songs they were like this one is for the punks! I can see why the kid was like um hello who is this band! They pretty much killed it and I can’t wait to see them again!
This was our second time seeing the Silversun Pickups, in two different situations once outside and tonight inside. It was badass to see them inside because of their light show. It looked like they had a big giant sheet that had colored lights moving on it and then they had two light stands on each side of the stage. It was very colorful and lights synced with the music… it just looked cool. At the Gorge they sounded great just like they did tonight! Brian’s vocals are killer and one of a kind. It was kind of funny to hear this older lady in front of me asking her friend if it was a boy or a girl. No hunny, they have a girl bass player that by the way looked darling in white, but that is a guy. This was also Silversun Pickups first time in Spokane and they were sorry they hadn’t been to our beautiful city before! I hope that means they will come back.
The set included a lot of our jams like “Well Thought Out Twinkles,” “Little Lovers So Polite,” “Lazy Eye,” “There’s No Secrets This Year,” “Panic Switch,” “Substituion,” “Growing Old is Getting Old,” “Catch & Release,” and “Sort Of!” But they played for over an hour and it flowed perfectly. Brian was telling the crowd how they could walk off the stage or just play their encore so they just played their encore and had everyone jumping off the walls with excitement. It was a great set, and a perfect lineup for a Friday night in Spokane.
Photos courtesy of Matt Auclair.
