Day One

Musicfest NW 2011
by Justin Patterson and Joshua Cooke

The Crystal Ballroom was packed with music lovers ready to kick off 2011’s Musicfest Northwest which, in turn, created a sauna-like atmosphere. By the time headliners, The Kills, took stage, it was hot. Very hot. When Jamie and Alison walked on stage, Alison grabbed the microphone and complimented the temperature, “We’re going to sweat with you guys.” Cheers followed and The Kills transitioned to the beginning of their set with hits “No Wow” and “Future starts Slow.” All heat aside, the show was rock as rock should be. Alison’s demanding voice with Jamie’s effortless and heavy guitar let no one down. The venue’s infamous flexible, bounce-friendly dance hall floor didn’t stop until Alison sat at the front of the stage as they performed the sultry Marilyn Monroe cover, “One Silver Dollar.” The ballad-esque song gave the crowd a chance to mellow out for a minute before returning with “Sour Cherry.” With everyone in the midst of anticipating how much fun they’d have at MFNW this year, this was the right way to kick off the festivities.

The Heligoats‘ Chris Otepka skittishly took Bunk Bar’s dim stage Wednesday, playing with a full band to a crowd which had inundated the venue. Lyrically, he was solid, and a short set of songs including “Movie Guns” were delivered smoothly, slightly uptempo and with some milky sweet guitar solos. It was enough to set the stage aglow for Kelly Blair Bauman, whose bassist had recently lost his instrument in a fire; despite this and a sound malfunction involving the bass amp’s sound jack, Kelly’s dreamy, dense texturing of ethereal slide guitar, melty violin licks, and shuffling rhythm section (look for all this on the new album, Gomorrah) washed through the bar and cast a spell of euphoria.

By the time self-described “melodramatic popular song” writer Sean Flinn took the stage with his Royal We, Bunk Bar had become an overcrowded sauna. Outside, the line to get in had quadrupled in length and the open window next to the stage was full of shadowed faces. The band let loose a stream of mellow, straightforward indie rock with gospel organ undertones and major-key guitar breakdowns and then they started swaying. Based in Portland, the band had in attendance a big group of friends who cheered louder than anyone else between songs.