Seattle Weekly says the "Best Show in Town" is in Tacoma Tonight...
I take very little stock in tired truisms of Seattle/Tacoma rivalries, since they often deaden appreciation with the constraints of comparison. But when I saw Seattle Weekly’s Reverb blog yesterday, I couldn’t resist sharing the headline with our readers: The Best Show in Town Tomorrow Night is Happening in Tacoma. Of course, we are meant to infer that such a situation occurs once in a blue moon, and then either bristle or chuckle, depending on our zip code.
Despite the somewhat condescending title, the story that follows makes an excellent point: there’s a very good concert occuring in Tacoma tonight (Wednesday, October 27) at 7:30 p.m. at Beyond The Bridge Cafe. Goldfinch, Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives and Kelli Schaefer will be playing. The show is all ages, and tickets are $8. These Northwest artists are not household names by any means, but they’ve been generating quite a lot of local buzz.
Goldfinch, as many of you know, is a Tacoma band. You can hear their music here and read about their goings-on here. It is very, very difficult to dislike their song “Go Easy On Me,” and harder still to miss the earthy humility of their new video for “Elephant.” Listen to those two songs at your own risk: you may end up at Beyond the Bridge Cafe tonight.
Filed under: General
11 comments
T tornado October 28, 2010
Portland didn’t used to be much more of a force in the music world than Tacoma is now. Things can change — in fact, I believe one of low bar’s alter egos thinks a big SXSW-like music festival would change everything here.
Anyhow, thanks for letting Exit 133 readers know about tonight’s show. Very cool that Beyond the Bridge is hosting this sort of thing. Even on the same night Deerhunter plays in Seattle.
C crenshaw sepulveda October 28, 2010
If only Daniel Blue could be here for this.
A Altered Chords October 29, 2010
Liverpool was not London. Great music comes from the soul of the artist not the Town the artist is from.
Where was John Coltrane from?
L low bar November 4, 2010
Lakewood
T Trashtown November 4, 2010
No venues means bands can’t be noticed in Tacoma. Coffee shops and art gallerys are not good enough.
C captiveyak November 4, 2010
unless you’re amongst the “there aren’t enough ‘under-21 venues’” crowd (who happen to complain about every city in the country, incidentally) – there’s New Frontier, The Den, Hell’s Kitchen, Bob’s Java Jive, Urban Grace…
L low bar November 6, 2010
bands can get plenty noticed on music blogs and myspace, and by the old fashioned way: sending out demo’s. but if i.e. subpop ain’t having it, then perhaps the band has to do some better song writing maybe?
the blogs are full of great music and i don’t any local bands need success on the national stage if they are happy just playing what they play for the home team etc. subpop is still putting out quality i.e. tiny vipers. and venues like new frontier actually have quite the eclectic programming i.e. ulrich schnuass beside the local “if we just play loud enough, and the crowd is drunk enough, no one will notice our songs really suck otherwise”.
i would say bands have more chance to get on a stage to rock in places like tacoma than places like LA. I still think a SXSW thing in Tacoma would kick major ass. but it’s not going to happen in this economy:(
R russell holter November 6, 2010
What do you mean, “It wont happen in this economy?” The best time to remodel your business is when times are tough, not when resources are scarce. When was Hollywood’s Golden Age? It was during the Great Depression when times were tough and war was looming on both shores simultaneously.
Someday, there will be NXNW Festival. Do you want to see it in Seattle, Portland or Tacoma?
Never let a defeatist beat your dreams down. Start planning now.
L low bar November 7, 2010
sxsw mainly got its boost during the dot.com bubble era. though i do agree that good entertainment during rough times can sell, i just think that a movie ticket during the depression and a nxnw ticket during the recession are to different things. i mean, really the only way to get people to buy into it is to pit the two festivals against each other a la il palio style.
L low bar November 7, 2010
and want to see it in tacoma of course. like, something has to provide this town with real bragging rights. right? seattle has whatever, portland has cool bridges and tacoma, well, it’s got a full on fuking volcano. pretty clear to me what’ll have the most visual impact on visitors.
D Dash November 8, 2010
From today’s Austin American Statesman:
“South by Southwest pumped $113 million into the Austin economy this year, according to an analysis commissioned by organizers of the music, film and interactive events.
Counting both the formal and related events, such as a guitar show, more than 197,000 people participated in SXSW this year…”
It keeps getting bigger every year. This year AT&T had to put up mobile cell towers to handle the iPhone streaming videos and massive traffic.