Shaprece, Lucas Field and Prom Queen at Columbia City Theater

December 8, 2011

Shaprece ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

2011 was a year full of navel gazing about a time two decades past, a golden age that’s redefined the city’s identity for all time afterward. Seattle wants to think of itself as a music town. And it is, but probably no longer in the strict way most people imagine in their heads, a mecca of garages and long-hairs to damage your ear drums night after night. If anything Sub Pop ushered in an era of interest in music-making in Seattle, an era that hasn’t ended yet. Sub Pop itself in the last year has signed Shabazz Palaces and the Head and the Heart, two diametrically different local bands who are decidedly not grunge or anything close. This fact itself speaks to a local shift in interest away from any specific aesthetic; quality music and musicians are coming from across the board. Continuing to name other nationally notable acts from our area in the last five years reveals no particular pattern at all. Or maybe the pattern is that each artist has developed their own space to exist in, independent of expectations. Last Friday’s bill at Columbia City Theater was a chance for us to make a showcase that quality in the area of R&B and Soul, a local angle we’re admittedly still discovering so much about ourselves.

With a looper and a few backing tracks Prom Queen set a mood from the very beginning. Prom Queen Leeni’s covers were well adapted, “Wicked Games” to start and “November Rain” to close were sultry and just as likely to appeal to men as women. Next time I’ll be laying down my money to hear her do originals though. Presenting a stylized retro elegance with a fur-detailed pink gown, sparkling shoes and hair done up in a tower of jet black, the forthright topics of her own songs reveal hardly a delicate personality. Don’t let the pink guitar and dress fool you. There’s a shit-kicking songstress in there.

Lucas Field never quite had a proper CD release show for his debut solo record Conquest of Happiness that arrived two weeks ago, so this night acting as a proxy had him pulling in a healthy crowd to cut a rug. Bandleader, entertainer, songwriter, soul singer. Each of these descriptions were highlighted at various times as Field, sporting heart-shaped sunglasses, shined in the spotlight and had real fun with his music, his band, and his audience. The ace pipes of duet partner Tiffany Wilson has to be acknowledged as integral to his songs, but Field’s own energy is itself contagious as his Rhodes playfully vamps and his voice flits about Wilson’s rich and steady tones.

When Shaprece and her 7 piece band took the stage ‘elegance’ was once again the operative word, and she wasted no time in showing us what she was capable of with her new single “Dangerous.” Backed by a 7-piece mini orchestra, she’s got an accomplished Gospel voice with a sassy personality to match. Mid-way through the set she asks “Who likes 90’s R&B?” leading into to back-to-back covers of Erykah Badu’s “certainly” and Groove Theory’s “Tell Me” that afterward probably had the mum crowd re-thinking their underwhelming answer. (At least it should have had them rethinking. I always fully endorse 90’s R&B covers.) Shaprece isn’t afraid of ballads either, though her take on a ballad often still fits the bill for bump-and-grind. Ballads in generally aren’t usually my bag, but she kept me interested. “Man of My Dreams” and “Waiting” both had folks finding a solid groove as the night closed out and demanding an encore.

This night was about proving that the likes of cover boy Allen Stone and the rise of Pickwick in our area is just the tip of the iceberg, and that the now popular perspective of pigeonholing Seattle as dominated by an “indie-folk genre,” whatever that amorphous designation (or under-the-breath epithet in some cases) means, is a mistake. The night proved all of that and more. I’ve got to agree with Tony Kay’s lede in his fantastic and lengthy review of the night:

It’s too hasty to really say that Seattle’s in the middle of some sort of original soul-music renaissance, but the groundswell’s right there for everyone to see and hear.

Indeed.