Tuesday Night Music Club

Credit where credit is due: Seattle Weekly really hit one out of the park with their “Tuesday Night Music Club” feature in the issue currently (until the end of today) on newsstands. It’s so refreshing to read these words coming from John Roderick, a successful local musician, in the pages of a major weekly paper:

When my own band finally gained a little profile, I chastised the reporters and editors I met, still smarting after years of feeling as though the bands I loved and the scenes I came up in had been laboring in obscurity. “Why the hell didn’t you write about my band two years ago?” I groused. Their sudden fascination with me seemed proof of the fundamental dishonesty of the system, like the way Jack Nicholson gets his meals comped in restaurants. Why the hell does Jack Nicholson need a free dinner? Writing about a band only once it got popular seemed like a fundamental misapprehension of the job.

Anyway, in the spirit of this piece, I thought I’d call out a couple shows going on tonight that might be worth your time:

Zebra Mirrors, The Comet Tavern, 9:00 p.m.
I just stopped by this Bremerton band’s Myspace page, and found the acoustic-guitar-based indie pop I heard there to be pretty darn nice, and the singer’s voice to be strong, dark, and emotive without being strident or grating. Looking forward to hearing more from these guys. Guthrie Scarr, also playing tonight, sound pretty good too: ranging from upbeat country rock with tons of reverb and shuffling drums to sweet acoustic ballads (or at least that’s what the two songs I heard sounded like). Should be a night of diverse local talents at the Comet, just as a Tuesday should be.

Fox and the Law, The Sunset Tavern, 9:00 p.m.
I will admit to having something of a bias against a lot of blues rock. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some ZZ Top, and grew up on mainstream rock radio and loads of Stevie Ray Vaughan. But generally the new bluesy bands I hear just don’t do a lot for me. Something about the thick, crunchy guitar tone on Fox and the Law’s song “Awake” won me over, though, and I included it on the most recent volume of Ball of Wax. I’m very glad I did, because their set during the Volume 23 release show was really impressive: loud and heavy, with a high level of musicianship, and guitar solos that impressed without veering into utter wankery. So, yeah, I highly recommend you check them out tonight or some other night, even if you think you’re not into blues rock. Blues Hammer they ain’t.