Weekend Review: Musical Mystery Tour
This weekend marked a tour of musical diversity in the City of Destiny, where I hopped around from venue to venue to see the range of what Tacoma has to offer. I found depth.
The first stop of the city tour was Cork to hear Suzanne Brewer, an angelic pianist and composer who can best be described as Norah Jones with talent and an impish vibe about her. She was the perfect mood setter for the wine-and-cheese crowd as she tickled out covers and original works punctuated with witty banter along the way.
Brewer’s semi-autobiographical songwriting have been comparabled to Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell, and Billy Holiday for good reason. The Seattlite’s cute-as-a-box-of-puppies looks and velvety vocals mix well with jazz, piano pop and folk ballads.
The tour got a dose of energy with a quick walk up the street to Jazz Bones to see Tacoma’s up-and-comming ColdNote. This funk-rock fusion band pounded the ears of the gyrating crowd with some soulful, bogger-nose funk mixed with the energy only found in a meth head after a two-day bender. This is a band to hear, or better yet, see live, the next time they take to a stage.
A tour of Tacoma’s night scene would not be complete without a trip to see Kry at the Swiss, since the place is always packed with tight-skirted ladies and jeans-wearing gents trying to get their numbers. The scene is always a sociology buffet of human behavior as dancers feed of the high-energy performance as they engage in their courtship rituals.
The night ended with a trip down the street to Hell’s Kitchen to see My Life in Black and White and Beautiful Mothers. What makes these punk rock bands stand out is that they can actually play their instruments in tight sets instead of just amping them up in hopes that distortion and yelling will hide any missed chords.
While I didn’t hit any country and western bars or queer friendly dance halls, those niche locations certainly add to the texture of the city. The night is only so long after all, I can’t hit everywhere.