Last night we went to a new venue in Seattle called The VERA Project. This is a small little place on the grounds of Seattle center just north of the Key Arena. We have been going to concerts in Seattle for years and we never knew this place existed. Vera is an all-ages volunteer fueled music and arts venue. There are studios, classes and other areas for learning the music and entertainment production trade for young people in the area. Vera engages thousands in the arts, develops the future of the music industry and supports the vibrant Seattle culture. You can learn more by visiting their website at http://theveraproject.org.
The stage area was actually quite small and for a band with more than 3 members, quite confining and a bit dangerous when aggressively expressing their musical vigor. Lighting was a bit dark making it difficult to take good photographs, but the sounds was decent when the instruments and microphones were leveled properly (it took a while).
Being a relatively small budgeted show meant more to expose these newer bands to audiences throughout the country, all bands with the exception of Ghost Town brought out and set-up their own instruments and did the sound checks live before the crowd. It was actually kind of nice to see the band members in this capacity. I am sure even the Rolling Stones must have started out this way fifty some odd years ago.
The crowd size was very small, with what we estimated were to be no more than 100-125 people on the floor at any one time. But they were no less excited to see the bands and showed the same level of verbal and physical passion to the music as any large arena. There was a small group of 14-17 year old girls who moshed heavier than most of the bigger shows that I have seen this year. I actually thought that they were fighting, but where looking at their faces, they all had huge smiles.
The show was opened up with a band named Say We Can Fly followed by quite a surprising good band named Oh No Fiasco. The guys came out dressed in argyle socks, cardigan sweaters and capri pants. The lead singer (Lindsey Stamey) was dressed like a very proper young lady.. huh? This isn’t the look of metal, but they were very good, with music reminiscent of 30’s retro splashed with rock and a flare of metal. Nicki and Toni actually bought two of their CDs at their Merch. table. We actually met some member of the band and Nicki was able to get her picture taken with a few of them. Following Oh No Fiasco was Modern Day Escape. The put on a great performance, very powerful and energetic. These guys are clearly an up and coming band with great potential. One of Nicki’s music idols (drummer – Sandra Alvarenga) is in this band, and she was able to meet them after the show, talk with Sandra and get her picture with the entire group.. quite an experience for Nicki. On next was Her Bright Skies, who I hadn’t heard before, but also were an incredible band. We also met and talked with them after their set. The final act and headliner for the night was Ghost Town, and of course they ROCKED!. It was clear that this was the band most in the audience came to see.
All in all, this was a great little, intimate show. We were very excited to be able to meet and talk with the bands after their sets. Not too many shows you can do that, even with the smaller bands. Bryan Stars did his thing throughout the show, introducing and presenting the bands (not sure how he got his gig, but I have to hand it to him).
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