Last Saturday night at 9 PM I was frantically trying to find something interesting to go within walking distance of my apartment. I live in a $500-a-room slum near the University of Washington, and it's two miles up hill to the nearest consistent music venue. I thought about biking to Ballard for a show at a marginal place called The Josephine; and I considered Ruff Jemz, a long-running dance party nearer to downtown that I never show up at, through I probably should. The time kept slipping by, I kept drinking and not figuring out transportation, and soul-filling music seemed to be less and less possible.
Around 9 a friend showed up and told me he was going to a house party in the University District. Not wanting to go to Ruff Jemz solo, and knowing that the Josephine was still miles away, I consented to go with him on the condition that I would bail and go to the Blue Moon or the Monkey if things got too, um, college. I had spend the better part of an hour pathetically looking through DIY house veunes for a cool show. This party seemed like the definition of defeat.
Much to my surprise, the house party was actually a house show, well attended and featuring a wonderful new country cover band called The Country Lips. Two other bands played, one called The Post Intelligencers, who sounded like entry-level college indie, and other who I barley even heard, let alone identified. But the Country Lips: this band is surely going somewhere, or more preiciecley, going strait to my heart and my liver. The band is esentially a combination of several bands including Song Sparrow Research, The Ragedy Annes, Doctor Doctor, and the Lonley H. I have seen all these bands before, and with the exception of seeing the Lonley H at the OFH a few years ago (being impressed at how young they were), I have not fully appreciated either their muscianship of the showmanship. These kids brought the roadhouse down with classic country tunes at what was essentially a typical undergrad house party. Classic songs like "Behind Closed Doors" and "On the Road Again" sounded as good as I've ever had the provlidge of hearing them. Country musuic in Seattle doesn't always seem like a good idea, but I think it usually is.
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