The last time I was at Neumos was for a night of British avant-garde spoken word and industrial post-rock. It was dark and felt like a theater. On June 8, I returned to Neumos for an evening of local music and almost didn’t recognize the club from the music; the doors were open to the Capitol Hill street scene and a stilly observing crowd was replaced by groups of milling pals ready to sing along, making the venue feel more like a small street club than an established theater (the transformative power of opening the doors was definitely for the better). This was the record release party for Seattle’s own Brent Amaker and the Rodeo, with locals The Young Evils sharing the bill.

The Young Evils reminded me of the musical reasons I moved to Seattle in the first place. The band is by no means stuck in indifference of the city’s grunge phase, but has taken that scene’s “we’re in this corner of the country so we’re just going to do what we do” attitude and appropriated it to a more modern sound and setting. Following suit, it only makes sense that The Young Evils are a band who (while similarly great in record) excels live. The occasionally subtle and casual pop rock of their albums explodes on the stage, where they neglect and supposed obligation to play clean. They played with all the edge of the city’s reputation and really just rock.

The first chords of the band’s obvious hit, “Dead Animals” from the 2012 Foreign Spells EP, sent the crowd into a jittered cheer that broke quickly into fevered dancing. In this track, and in all actually, vocalist Mackenzie Mercer sings with this revered rock sensibility that ideally combines the innate beauty of her voice with the punky vibe of the whole band’s set. This dueling dynamic is only amplified when guitarist/vocalist Troy Nelson joins in on the microphone. And while it’s easy to focus on the vocals, who are coming the closest to speaking directly to us, it was hard not to focus on drummer Eric Wennberg, whose loose precision was enrapturing.

In contrast to The Young Evil’s no-glam set, Brent Amaker and the Rodeo put on a country spectacle. The band played in white cowboy get-ups and the alternative country twang (complimented by an extremely talented…xylophonist) took us away from the dark city club in 2013, transporting us to an old-time country bar in some country cow town. It was performance (not a show, not a set, not a gig but a performance) wholly deserving of the quality of the band’s new release, Year of the Dragon.

Photo By Jason Tang