Last Friday at the Mars Bar/Cafe Venus was as packed as I have ever seen it. For a smallish neighborhood hangout right next to the freeway in an only moderately residential area, the numbers don’t usually get too high, but this rainy evening had every table taken by the time I’d arrived a little after nine. A wonderful suprise awaited my arrival in the form of the first act, Stuart Valentine from Portland.
Valentine, alone with only an acoustic guitar, accompanied himself with not only an audio recording of himself playing the other instruments (a bass and drum and occasional organ), but also with projected video’s, divided into a four-square on the screen of him playing the instruments along with other related video clips. The video element was just as professional and interesting as Valentines earnest live performance, and with two of the four screens dedicated to a bass and drum (with often only his hands being filmed), the other two screens would add color and relate to the context of the song.
The moment that jumps out at me to explain this is a song which is called “It Always Seems So Easy on TV.” Right when Valentine would sing that line, a picture of Ken Jennings (or “the 2 million dollar man”) would appear behind the famous podium with a $14,000 lead and his opponents both in the red. We know how that ended. These moments added a little bit of extra-humor and emotional depth to each song, and I was riveted once I realized what was happening. I really enjoyed his lo-fi pop set, and along with the aformentioned “It Always Seems So Easy on TV” I also thought “Heard You Twice” was a great song.
Following Valentine was Husbands Love Your Wives, a duo made up of one Jamie Spiess on guitar and her new drummer (who I have shamefully forgotten the name of). Spiess offered up a set of quiet dark folk songs, and brought the nearly full bar to a respectfully quiet murmur.
When the time came, the Sea Navy, with a promised set filled with many new songs, brought the volume level in the room up significantly. The formerly whispy acoustic rumblings were replaced by Jay’s lively strumming and bouncing body. Jay is starting to fit the mold of a great frontman now with snappy comments shot from the hip and a genuine and obvious enthusiasm to be singing songs. This night he was looking positively ecstactic to be on stage and completely at ease behind the mic.
I was interested in hearing the new stuff again after a few months of development, and in my estimation a couple of those songs are sounding really sharp. Songs that I had heard before, my personal favorite so far “Old Haunts,” as well as a song about baseball called “What Curse?” I confirmed as being as good as I had remembered. The songs that really jumped out at me though were two new ones I hadn’t heard titled “Adopt My Load of Luggage” and “Under Protest.” Both songs had loads of energy and showed that Jay hasn’t let his creative songwriting chops slip one bit. The Sea Navy have got some time scheduled up at the Tank in the first couple weeks of March, so hopefully we’ll get to hear some recorded versions in the near future. Needless to say, I am beyond stoked about this news.
It turns out another band was set to play after the Sea Navy, a band by the name of A Curious Mystery. Sorry to say, I wasn’t planning on staying past Sea Navy, and I only gave this band one song, which didn’t grab me right away, so I felt okay about hitting the road. Maybe next time A Curious Mystery. It was Friday, after midnight already, and I was worked. A sweet night overall at the Mars Bar, and a great night for the Sea Navy.
Stuart Valentine (PDX)
Husbands Love Your Wives
The Sea Navy
Flickr: The Sea Navy, Husbands Love Your Wives, Stuart Valentine at the Mars Bar in Seattle, February 8, 2008
All Pictures by Josh.
Digg This!
::
Share
::
Delicious
