Capital Hill Block Party
July 2002

My second year at the Block Party
June 13th & 14th I spent long days at the Capital Hill Block Party! It was nice to be back in my old hood, surrounded by all of the freaks and the fabulously image conscious people. I saw lots of greats bands both days!

Peter Parker
I met Parker's front man Matthew after a show they played last spring. We chatted, and I was able to help him find a summer job working with me at YVC. We got to be team leaders together for a month long project and he's quite a smart, funny guy. (Typically over intelligent, bitter, with lots dry humor... I totally enjoyed my time working with him). He spotted me in the crowd during the show and turned to me between songs to wave. I was amused to see half the crowd turn to see what girl he was waving at...

Jackie & the Control Tops
Punk drag queen whose music is intentionally horrible, and her dirty jokes are even worse. :) She's fun!

Ursula & the Androids
Punk trannie whose music is better, and humor more biting. Very fun!

The Simians
They played at the Vera stage, and had a good crowd! I'd never heard of them before but wouldn't mind seeing them again.

Pretty Girls Make Graves
PGMG is a very popular punk band in the Seattle music community. Lookout Records says: "While many musicians outgrow the rough and furious genre of punk, one thing that makes PGMG so special is that the musicians involved honed their playing for many years before returning to reinvent what they initially loved about punk music. Always keeping sincerity and emotion as a primary force guiding their music, but combining that with stellar musicianship and exciting song writing, PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES are a punk band to watch."

Mudhoney
Mudhoney put on a good show as expected. While many in the crowd were big fans, I think most were just there because they know Mudhoney is an "important" Seattle band (the "Grandpappies of Grunge," playing punk and rock before Pearl Jam or Nirvana made the Seattle scene).

Hell's Belles
Dieter joined me after work for the Hell's Belles show and it was pretty rocking! Seattle loves this all girl AC/DC cover band! The crowd Saturday sang along, beat their fists, and got very excited when the bassist striped off her jacket, shirt, and skirt playing the majority of the set with only a bra, panties, and her bass.

Jake
During the Hell's Belles show, I spotted Jake and his sister Rachel in the crowd. Yeah! I love running into friends around town!

Me (and Dieter behind me)
Sadly, Jake had backstage passes, while Dieter and I were stuck behind the fence with the rest of the general admission folks.

Sunday

Sunday Jake and I hit the festival together. He was able to get us in free to the event (with VIP passes none the less)! After some shopping at Value Village and some lunch at Dick's, we hit the festival around 1pm and stayed till around 11pm... long day! We saw Dead Low Tide (a washed up metal band from Portland), 764-HERO (power pop, good stuff), and others.

10 Minutes Down
The boys looked pretty young, but they played some great ska at the Vera stage! The crowd was dancing all over and loving them! Later in the day, back at the Vera stage, I ran into my old neighbor Cheyenne... small world! It was good to see her and catch up.

More Ursula Android
She and Jackie Hell were the hosts for the whole weekend... playing songs between sets, telling bad jokes, and introducing guest speakers. Yeah!

Dan Savage
After the 764-HERO set, I spotted one of my own heroes just standing in the crowd chatting with his friends! This person is amazing, intelligent, has a way with people, incredibly influential, and an absolute idol of mine! And, he lives in Seattle! To see him in the crowd, I knew I needed to jump at the chance to introduce myself and thank him for his contribution to society. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this weekend I got to meet the one and only Dan Savage! Those of you not yet fans of the man, well, I encourage you to read one of his books or start checking out a paper that runs his weekly column. Dan writes "Savage Love," a no-holds-barred syndicated sex-advice column that runs in papers across the US and Canada. He's kinda the Ann Landers of the sex world. :) Ingram says, "An original and funny thinker, trashing around in the playground of human sexuality, Savage advises on a wide range of titillating topics." So true, so true! He's just a great guy all around!

The Catheters
The Catheters played more loud rock (quite a weekend for loud music... punk, metal, rock... thank goodness for ear plugs). These boys were living the rock star life on stage, jumping around, knocking over mic stands, climbing on speaker towers, etc. The music was solid, and so was their performance. Nice.

Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney is the band Time magazine calls America's greatest rock band! They're yet another local all-girl band turned famous and were definitely my favorite of the day. Erin joined us for that show. These women rocked hard, chatted intelligently and humorously with the crowd, and I loved it! My applause to the little girl who got on stage and danced the whole set! Quite impressive!