Behind the scenes: PNW spring tour

As it turns out, tour is a lot of loading in, and a lot of loading out, and a lot of looking for healthy food to eat, and a lot of driving, and not a lot of sleeping. In comparison to the rest of the minutes and hours of the days, very little time is spent performing onstage -- which I knew logically, of course? But it's a whole other world experientially. Four-plus days on the road makes an amazing five-week routing overseas look way less exotic, and way more like the work that it is.

I should back up a step. Hi. Barry just got back from Europe, we saw each other for the first time in over a month, had a few painfully short days off together, got married in our front yard, and now he and the band are off on the US leg of the tour. ('The band' being the supporting band for Damien Jurado, The Heavy Light, that I mentioned in that tour rehearsals post back in April.) It's been a bit of a whirlwind!

Between the marriage part and now, we hopped in the car and followed the van for a few days around the northwest, which technically made this past long weekend my first 'tour,' even though it was only for four days. Starting the first night in Spokane -- yes, we spent our wedding night in Moses Lake; no, that doesn't count as our honeymoon, ha! -- I tagged along to the shows in Vancouver, BC; Bellingham, and Portland, before bidding everyone adieu after brunch at The Tin Shed.  

So, back to the opening paragraph: lots of loading in, lots of loading out and such. Here are a handful of onstage and off-stage shots that I captured over those four days on the proverbial road, which are mostly from venues, hotels, and the restaurants in-between. I'm pretty happy with them considering this was technically baby's first tour shoot. 

As always, images are best viewed on a desktop if you have the option!

Behind the scenes: tour rehearsals at CCT

Two *very* full days of rehearsals at Columbia City Theater for Damien Jurado's upcoming EU / US tour, with supporting band The Heavy Light. I won't be seeing the show proper until the band is back in the states (at The Neptune in Seattle, mid-May), but if these run-throughs are any indication, this performances are going to be incredible -- think evolved-yet-classic Damien-style songwriting sensibility + a gorgeous-ly lush, full-band psych-fringe soundscape. With Barry Uhl, Frank Lenz, Josh Gordon, and Courtney Marie Andrews on deck, I'd go so far as to say that this is my favorite iteration of his live band to date.

Noura Mint Seymali at KEXP

One last in-studio at the station for now, a Monday night session on Wo' Pop for the incredible Noura Mint Seymali. I can hardly explain the vibe, all twang-y psych guitar tones and ethereal vocals, so here's a bit from their website to take you a little deeper:

Noura Mint Seymali is a nationally beloved star and one of Mauritania’s foremost musical emissaries. Born into a prominent line of Moorish griot, Noura began her career at age 13 as a supporting vocalist with her step-mother, the legendary Dimi Mint Abba. Trained in instrumental technique by her grandmother, Mounina, Noura mastered the ardine, a 9-string harp reserved only for women. Seymali Ould Ahmed Vall, Noura's father and namesake, sparked her compositional instincts, himself a seminal scholar figure in Mauritanian music; studying Arab classical music in Iraq, devising the first system for Moorish melodic notation, adapting the national anthem, and composing many works popularized by his wife, Dimi. Reared in this transitive culture where sounds from across the Sahara, the Magreb, and West Africa coalesce, Noura Mint Seymali currently drives the legacy forward as one of Mauritania's most adventurous young artists. 

Fueled by the exploratory sound of her husband Jeiche Ould Chighaly’s emotive psych guitar lines, Noura and Jeiche formed their first "fusion" band in 2004.  Jeiche, a master of the tidinit (aka. ngoni, xalam), brings the force of yet another important line of Moorish griot to bear, translating the tidinit's intricate phrasing to a modified electric guitar with heroic effect.  His unique sound, mirroring vocal lines and then refracting their melodies into the either, was born out of years presiding over wedding ceremonies, directing the dance often as the sole melodic instrument.  In addition to his work with Noura, Jeiche remains one of Nouakchott's most sought after guitarists for traditional ceremonies.  

In a rare merger of cultural authority and experimental prowess, Noura Mint Seymali applies the ancient musical traditions of the griot with a savvy aesthetic engagement in our contemporary moment, emerging as a powerful voice at nexus of a changing Africa.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Ringo Deathstarr at KEXP

Another Saturday, another in-studio at KEXP. This time I got to spend the session with Ringo Deathstarr (Austin, TX) and their fringe-grunge alt.shoegaze-ish hybrid vibes. It feels great to be back behind the camera shooting regularly, especially at a spot so near and dear to my heart! Here are a few of my favorite shots from the afternoon:

Diane Coffee at KEXP

I'm a bit late to the party, but it felt great to *finally* stop by KEXP's new spot at Seattle Center and have a look around. Their space is incredible!!

Here are a few test / second shooter images of Diane Coffee warming up in the new live room, while the inimitable Chad Syme formally covered the set:

Best of 2014

As a rule, around this time of the year I find myself laboring intensely over lists, specifically as they relate to cultural intake: best photos, favorite shows, albums that changed my life. This year, though, it was a bit more of a tangible experience than years previous -- I had a series of experiences in the forefront, through which I found myself assembling a soundtrack, as opposed to the soundtrack dictating the series of experiences. It sounds like one and the same, sort of. But for me, they're pretty different.

Almost ten years ago, when a friend first turned me on to KEXP, I discovered a soundtrack that not only narrated my life, but also caused actual motion -- I'd listen obsessively, make mixes, find bands that I loved and bands that those bands loved, spend hours poring over new releases at the record store, and drive great distances on weeknights for can't-miss kinds of shows, meeting scores of people along the way. The music, via KEXP, dictated the paths I chose and pulled me around into countless adventures that shaped the person I am today.

In a bit of a plot twist, for this year at least, the music in my life started to serve as more of an undercurrent than a motion-inducer, as 2014 saw me in the midst of major changes: I came into the year on the heels of a few explosions on my interpersonal landscape, got yanked out of my self-care cocoon by a trip to Maui, experienced reunion, changed my relationship status and moved in with my partner, abandoned a whole cache of personal 'rules' I'd set up for myself, took a big break from social media, and shifted the terms of my dayjob to allow for more (and a new variation on) freelance work. 2014 has been exhausting, exhilarating, unbearably sad, utterly joyful, scary and amazing -- all at once. It pushed me and pulled me and even now, in the waning dusk of the year these last few days bring, continues to refine almost every facet of my being.

The songs that went with these shifts are vast in their range, almost as vast as the experiences themselves, from playful to sorrowful and everything in-between. I'm in the midst of making both new music mixes and new-to-me mixes that cap it all off, but it's worth noting somewhere in the blog world that the only two records I actually wrote about at length (aside from the work I did for Barry's project) were Damien Jurado's Brothers and Sisters and Chad Van Gaalen's Shrink Dust. In a gentle blender, they touch most of what happened to me in the last twelve months, and served as the A- and B-sides to all those changes, embracings and abandonments.

Plenty of other things dot the landscape as well: favorite singalongs from that cover band I never started, old Todd Rundgren releases, Derby, UMO, revisiting the Anthology and taking on Living In the Material World, and old Richard Swift tracks. As soon as the mixes surface I'll post them here, as the goal is to have all of this tackled in the coming days, an effort to leave the year behind with as clean of a slate as possible.

Bon courage, last twelve months. I can't wait to see what happens next.

---

Update! Best of 2014's new releases playlist here, and best of new-to-me (non-2014 releases) playlist here. Happy listening!