.jpg)
Photo by Blush Photo, Seattle, WA
I don't know if that's me in the white shirt (pictured) but it very well could be. But that's not because These Arms Are Snakes performance at the Cha Cha Lounge (the hipper, mysterious dark downstairs from Bimbo's Cantina) in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood Sunday night was an easy ticket. It was the fifth show in as many weeks to benefit the late John Spalding, a local music legend who fell to cancer in November of last year.
These Arms Are Snakes are no stranger to the Spalding lineage shared by many young Seattle bands. Spalding recently worked with members of Pretty Girls Make Graves, Snakes' labelmates Minus the Bear and local production guru Matt Bayles, who owns and runs a Seattle recording studio with Chris Common, the Snakes' drummer.
All capable musicians but this past weekend it was the Seattle wall of noise that has been making records since just after the turn of this century. Pessimism, cynicism and full-on jet black comedy hangs over the lyrics and buzz saw sound like a black cloud, and the energy emitted by the band is matched. And although the Cha Cha Lounge may not be set up to support music in general, much less a screaming swirling force that is the thinking man's post-hardcore band, it certainly presents a forum for the punk rock spirit. It's alive and well.
Barely removed from his day job slinging drinks at the Cha Cha, vocal shredder and crowd surfing madman Steve Snere took the chance to get his aggression against anyone that ever sent something back. It sure seemed so, as he was hurling his body at anything that would accept his wiry frame, diving head first into a thick pack of sweating twentysomethings while his bandmates (Ryan Frederiksen, guitar, Brian Cook, bass) offered up the perfect stop-and-start segues for his manic behavior.
Snere spent the entire 65-minute set crashing into a wall of open arms and walls, drum kits, but you can bet its all in good fun. When a bespectacled fan lost his glasses, the show was stopped and the lights were turned on so everyone could look for them on the floor. Occasionally, Snere would drop by the synthesizer to test the limits of the band's sound. But most of his time was spent in the crowd. The set was one long piece of music, similar to last year's Tail Swallower & Dove, the band's third full-length and most cohesive piece of work yet. It looms like a tornado in the distance, and never lets up until it has destroyed all in its path. Like the show, the record starts seemingly mid-song. This was one of the most exciting rock shows I have attended in years. These Arms Are Snakes are one of the most interesting bands and fresh-sounding bands to start cracking out of their shell in the past year. It must be noted though, that they are not a band to be reckoned with. They are to be listened to.
Comments