The Tractor Tavern has been the host of many alt-country/folk/indie bands, and I love to hear a genre that is sometimes ignored by some of the “indie” press. The Heligoats, one of the openers for Clem Snide on Wednesday at Tractor Tavern, did not fail to represent an indie-fied New Country that I definitely like. The banjo pickin’ that complemented frontman Chris Otepka’s Bellingham snarl was delightfully twangy, and the band put on a strong show. In their music I heard a lot of the Long Winters and Fruit Bats …

Sunday’s show at Neumos on May 15th was a frolicking good time. I got in towards the end of the first opener, Our Brother The Native, which was a good introduction of what was to come. Maps & Atlases really blew me away, as I had never seen them before but merely sampled their music online. I’ll just say it right now: raggedy progressive folk-rock is making its way both in Seattle and nationally, it seems. We’re coming back to our indie roots of classic, singer/songwriter folk, with strong lyrics, …

The Antlers’ show at Neumos on Wednesday started right on time – 10:00pm, after the dreamy, dance-pop openers Phantogram. Their timely arrival on stage foreshadowed the feeling of the entire evening – a tight and apt performance that, I feel, may have actually worked to the band’s detriment.
Maybe it was due to the fact that it was the Antlers’ last show on this tour; maybe they were tired of playing the same songs night after radio show performance after night. All good bands experience burnout, and if anyone deserves to, …

The Crocodile is always a nice place to take in some delicious music – especially on a weeknight, when it is relatively easy to get a good viewing space. Parking in Belltown for free can take a good twenty minutes, but after enough near-rear-endings, I got my spot and settled in for the Barr Brothers. I was not disappointed, though it took some time for the Brothers to settle in themselves.

The Brothers hail from The Low Anthem’s Rhode Island, but one would expect all of these groups to be from …