Welcome to one of Seattle’s classic summer musical festivals: Capitol Hill Block Party. One of the city’s main “bar” streets, Pike St., is transformed for the weekend into what at first might appear to be a musical playground. True to name, however, Capitol Hill Block Party is first and foremost a very big street party in the city’s perhaps most conventionally “hip” neighborhood: Capitol Hill.
Day one down and the festival (or let’s be real — the party) is proving to be an event with treats for all. While outside on the main drag of Pike Street a seemingly endless stream of pop-driven and dance-ready acts performed, clubs scattered throughout the street play host to the smaller (and frequently more local) acts that stack the festival’s lineup. Regardless of your venue or vibe of choice, there’s something for everyone here. For the first day, I spent time catching up with some of the bands Best New Bands has been a fan of in the recent past: Grave Babies, Young Evils, and BellaMaine.
Grave Babies played Neumos, one of the prominent indoor venues for Block Party. It’s been almost half a year since the Seattle trio released Crusher and we’ve been waiting patiently for them to play their hometown. The wait was fully worth it. They filled the venue with a hazy sentiment that provided a distinct contrast to the Dillon Frances mayhem that was happening just a few feet away on the Pike St. main drag. In this moment, the venue seemed to speak to the seemingly profound awareness of the Block Party. Yes, it is at its core a party for the crowd-driven electronic and pop fans of town, but it also acknowledges the face of the more subtle face of the Seattle music scene.
This acknowledgement was only confirmed with another great set by another local act that we’ve touted in the past – Young Evils. The group impressed us just a few weeks ago at Neumos and when they played that venue’s basement neighbor, Barboza, later in the evening of Block Party, they (par for the course) put on a set larger than the venue’s space. They were totally embracing the party vibe of the weekend and brought a somehow elegantly drunk presence to the stage, which was both quizzical and amusing.
BellaMaine closed out the night with a set at Neumos. While most of the crowd, and perhaps the band, were at this point blithering after long day and night of sunshine and moonshine dancing, there was an impressive turnout for the Anacortes quartet. Still reeling from its February debut album, the band’s popularity hasn’t seemed to spike yet. They were the perfect way to end a long and entertaining day of people-watching, band-watching and general revelry.
Looking forward to more revisits and new finds in the upcoming days!
Websites: Grave Babies, Young Evils, Bellamaine
Crowd photo by Jim Bennett Grave Babies by Brigit Anderson
