Wow!  What a great Friday and Saturday it was in the heart of downtown Seattle for the Capitol Hill Block Party.  I had a great time seeing Viva Voce again at Neumo's.  Kevin and Anita brought their all in the sweaty hot venue as KEXP sent their music through cyber and air waves.  Kevin announced that they're working on a new album and may be out by the middle of the fall.  I'm excited to hear that they've got more new music coming.  I wasn't able to stay for Silversun Pickups' set (sorry guys!).  The traffic getting out of Neumo's plus the bodies piled up right beside the main stage didn't leave me any good vantage points to clearly see their performance.  I did see Nikki hitting the bass hard though.

Saturday was a huge revelation for me.  I never thought I'd attend an Against Me! show ever.  The band that has in the past done the Warped Tour is on their own this time supporting what could perhaps be the most groundbreaking album of 2007 in New Wave.  It really helped the band feel energized when the moshpit broke out in the crowd.  I felt sorry for the kid that was right beside me who had a very overprotective mom just right behind him.  I don't think the old lady knew what she was going to be in for when she hung around.  I felt sorry for the teenager because nothing harshes a buzz any more than having your mom at the moshpit.  Lady, maybe next time you should trust your kid to have a good time and meet up with him somewhere after the show.  He'll be fine--punks are known to take care of their own.  I'll blog further about Against Me! in a future post.

Spoon's set was a welcome antidote to the high-energy punk that came before them.  The women in the crowd (as usual) swooned at Britt's hipster hotness as the band powered through a setlist that contained stuff dominated by what was on their last three records.  John Vanderslice even joined the group for one of their songs (strangely enough, I was enjoying the music so much that I forgot to hit the shutter lens for this sit-in). 

The afterparty at Neumo's was a sight to behold.  The bro and I headed for the mezzanine to check out the madness on the dance floor as Frankie Chan, Pretty Titty, and Devlin & Darko pretty much obliterated the crowd with their scorching summer hot DJ sets which featured snippets of Depeche Mode, Justice, Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, Prince, Feist, and many others set to booming house and B-more-style Grime permeating the airwaves.  It was one of the most controlled bits of madness that I've ever seen this side of Studio 54 in Vegas.


Kevin offers Girl Talk some of their beats


Anita channels her inner Jimmy Page


Against Me! shows Good Charlotte how it should go down


Britt, can I have your 335 guitar?


Damage on the dance floor at Neumo's