Discovering a new band is an excellent feeling. More satisfying is when the new band has an upcoming live date and sound even better live.
After seeing Say Hi on Art Zone with Nancy Guppy on the Seattle channel, I noted their next local date, about six weeks out, as they were hitting the road for a short tour. When I told Carrie, Andy and Corinn about the show, everyone was on-board. The night began with some odd misadventures that I won’t get into but, to summarize concisely, people are strange and this makes life infinitely much more entertaining.
Local band Sea Navy opened with jauntiness. They played harder, especially as their set progressed. With a Pavement-meets-Pixies edge, they warmed up the eager crowd.
By the time, Say Hi hit the stage, the crowd had filled in a bit more. The trio had palpable chemistry, which as an audience member, energizes me. Bands that stand up there, look cool and act like each one of them is the only one on stage are passé (hear that, Ladytron?). Andy commented on their Nirvana-esque vibes. We all agreed. The drumming was raw power at the hands of a bearded man. In fact, all three were bearded, leading to Eric Elbogen, lead singer, to comment on bearded-guys-in-bands night. My favorite song of the night was Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh (love how it begins with a quiet simmer and turns into a rolling boil—I listen to it on repeat). Carrie was pleased her song Northwest Girls was played. Elbogen sings and plays the guitar, bass, synthesizer and drum machines on the Oohs and Aahs CD. For the live show, he plays with two accompanying musicians who bring proper rock energy to the live show. (Elbogen does solo performances using synthesizers and drum machines he dubs ‘his robots.’)
The headliner David Gazan (lead singer of now defunct Pedro the Lion) and his band (which included two of the Say Hi men and mostly bearded men) hit their EMO quick step (or shall I say slow-step), it was time for us folks who prefer harder, more rawking sounds to vamoose and leave on our high note (by this time, Neumo’s was good and packed). I look forward to more Say Hi in my future.
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