Well refreshed after a sweet 2hour nap (I literally crashed and burned into a deep, deep slumber until I was thankfully woken by my roommate mosey-ing about the room), it was time to check out the Seattle nightlife.
It was THE one essential thing I had to above all else while here, and that was to check out some live music. I didn't really have much of an idea of what was on, or where, or how much, or if a particular band was crap or good or not, so I just wandered around town, taking random streets left or right without any particular notion of which way I was going or where. This I find is a great way of finding your way around town, and inevitable bumping into some scene or event you'd never find otherwise.
Before i knew it, i'd wandered about for 2 hours, and found myself on the rise of Capitol Hill overlooking the main freeway entrance to the city and the brightly lit night skyline of Downtown and the Space Needle (which dwarfs everything around it).....just as well I had my camera with me also!!!!
Finally, I made way to Belltown and ended up, after covering a good 10Km on foot, at the Crocodile Cafe (http://www.thecrocodile.com/)- 5 blocks away from my hostel!! The Croc, it turns out, is quite the famous little bar, having hosted little known bands like, oh...NIRVANA!! and PEARL JAM!! in their early, early days before world domination beckoned. A small bar, with an even smaller sign at the entrance declaring its maximum capacity of 381 patrons. The closest I could equate it to would be Melbourne's former Punter's Club, or a much smaller Whelan's of Wexford Street in Dublin. But like both of those bars, I LOVED this place - no frills, no pretensions, LOTS of history and nostalgia and an all-in-all rollicking good vibe! My kinda bar.
This Saturday night, there were three bands on for $15. I missed the first one completely, but I then caught a very, very good local Seattle punk rock band called The Cops (http://www.thecopsmusic.com/), supporting an old English tripped-out, folky guy Robyn Hitchcock (http://www.robynhitchcock.com/), who apparently was famous in the 70's and 80's fronting a band called The Soft Boys. These two acts were as far apart on the musical spectrum as you could possible get, but both were excellent, and this kind of eclectic line-up is typical of a Croc gig. I bought The Cops excellent 5-track CD for $5, and the one lyric resonating in my head several days later from Robyn Hitchcock - quite a favourite with the crows going by the numbers singing along with him, went along the lines of "Viva Viva Seattle, Viva SeaTac, this city has the best computers, coffee and crack". Make of that what you will.
An easy short wander back to the hostel, I caught up with the girls and a few more of the hostel long-termers, and picked up where i'd left off the previous night. One fella in particular who was as good a laugh as anyone i've ever met in my life, was Dee, this Afro-American wide-boy with a cutting sense of humour and kick-arse laugh, who had us all in continuous stitches thru the alcohol-infused early hours of the morning. I could have kept on keeping on further into the wee hours with these guys, but I had a minor dose of the sensibles at around 3am Saturday night/Sunday morning, and went to bed. There was another incredibly full day ahead on Sunday, and I wanted to be somewhat compis-mentis for it.
Fast-forward to 8.30am, and I'm up and ready to go, already showered and breakfasted,....but where were the girls???? Getting thier girly shit together still it seemed, but by 10am we were all good to go. Fun-loving Fremont was the destination of choice this morning, for the Sunday Flea market, a haven for the hippy/alternative/hipster/retro/altogether wierd and wonderful people of the Seattle scene.
A good couple of hours here, a prime opportunity to pick up a couple of mementos from Seattle, some cool funky bits that weren't of the touristy tacky variety that had SEATTLE emblazoned all over it. I had lost another of my precious crocheted beanies recently, and found a more than suitbale replacement, along with a edgy, goth-rocker style leather wrist-cuff (no, I know Chelsea, it's not a 'bracelet'!!).
Fremont is also famous for its public sculptures and street art, and most famous of all is 'the troll under the bridge', a massive concrete installation of a troll devouring a VW bug - a prime fun-pic opportunity, the best of which was looking up his nostril pretending to search for boogers (I know, I know...how old are we????!!!??) Sooo much fun.
It was after the market shenanigans that I had to say goodbye to my newest buddies, as they were off to sunny San Francisco (jealous I am, girls, jealous), and I was left to my own devices from then on. So, another bus ride in search of a beach apparently "20minutes away". Yeah, 20 minutes on a bus, then a 2mile walk. Nevermind. While wandering thru Golden Gardens park on the way to the beach, i happened across a small group of people playing hacky-sack. Now, those who know me well, know that i CANNOT walk past a Hack without joining in.It is simply the most sociable of sports, and is anathema to the Hacky Code of Conduct to refuse a passer-by's request to join in. So, another group of friends, Casey, Crystal and Justin from Seattle, and I hack away for thebest part of an hour when the inevitable question arises...
"so Tony, do you Smoke?"
"why, Yes I Do!"
"well, lets take a walk into the woods up the way, and have a Puff"
"Okaaayyy!"
This is another of those Les Higgins "doesn't get much better than this" moments. Sitting in the woods up on a hill with Seattle's Puget Sound away in the background, with the sun out and beaming down, talking about music, and bands, and movies with a bunch of strangers-cum-new friends, sharing a puff of the Pacific North West's finest green. I do distinctly remember saying, "yep, i'm pretty content with life right now". I also got a ride part way back into town, saving me that 2mile walk back to the nearest bus stop. Nice. These guys in Seattle are just too friendly!
Anyway, back to the hostel, more than a little stoned, another power-nap,and another night to spend out in Seattle checking the band scene. I opted to head back to The Croc, if for no other reason than laziness - it was 5 blocks away, whereas the other venues were upwards of 10blocks away! Besides, I loved the bar, and knew that whatever I saw was bound to be good.
Once again, I missed the first band, but the second support act was a 5-piece Swedish grungy power-pop with a very, very sexy blonde on keyboards, called The Shout Out Louds (http://www.shoutoutlouds.com/).
To pinch a paragraph from a local magazine review:
"The Shout Out Louds, an up-and-coming but been-around-forever quintet from Stockholm, are the grungy by-product of their concrete utopia. They have five o'clock shadows. Their bangs swoop over their eyes. They drink beer. Their videos are set in sleazy laundromats. They don't belong—and they want you to know it."
They were supporting a Sunderland, England outfit called The Futureheads, a group I'd never heard of, but are apparently one of the new darlings of NME Magazine, which means they are either going to go supernova, or they'll crash and burn. Kinda sorta along the lines of Franz Ferdinand in parts, but rock out harder with fuzz and distortion, and manic energy and stage presence, I can just see all the teeny-bopper girls getting dreamy ga-ga eyes and falling at their feet. Oh, by the way, they were very, very good!
So, once again, great rock n roll in a more-than-decent venue makes Tony a happy boy. Exhausted, but happy. Straight to bed. No late night shenanigans tonight.
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