Dear Landlord
plus locals
@ the Funhouse (Seattle, WA) July 11/09
When i first heard about this tour hitting Seattle, for 3 shows over 24hours, i just knew i had to make it down. Thankfully my good friend Mike was down for a road trip. We started the trip trying to find a border crossing without a 2hour wait time, and after crossing into America we set our sites on getting to the Tulalip Casino for the buffet. It was only 12noon when we hit the buffet, and 1 hour later we were stretched to the limit as we exited the casino and out into the blazing summer heat.
After some record shopping we started heading to the Funhouse, a little punk bar in Seattle, for the show which was scheduled to start after 4pm. Before we got their i realized that the chocolate i got from the casino had melted in my pocket! Everything in my pocket was coated in chocolate; all the american money i had, my coins, random pieces of paper, etc. As i tried to get everthing out of my pocket i only ended up getting chocolate under my fingernails, on my shorts, shirt, everywhere. Fuckin' hell!! I was using my shoe, a newspaper and my hands trying to scrape the chocolate off. When we got to the funhouse i handed the doorman my chocolate covered money, feeling like the worlds biggest dumbass. Lesson learned, chocolate melts in extreme heat.
I can't remember the name of the first bad, but they were ok. Nothing special, but at least they didn't annoy me. Next up was Dear Landlord, who have just released an amazing album on No Idea called "Dream Homes" that has been on constant rotation in my life. The band loudly blazed thru their set, with barely any breaks in between songs. All the vocals were spot on, just like the record, and surprised me as they can be quite melodic. Their set wasn't even 27 minutes long, and it was perfect! Following them was tour mates Off With Their Heads (also from Minneapolis and also on No Idea Records and share a member with Dear Landlord). I love OWTH, but they just couldn't stand up to Dear Landlord. Don't get me wrong, they were fuckin' great, played alot of songs i loved, but they just didn't rock as hard as Dear Landlord. But i am looking forward to OWTH touring Canada this fall with Bouncing Souls and Youth Brigade. The one thing that surprised me about this show was the insanely small crowd, couldn't have been more than 30-40 people there. Maybe because both bands played the night before as well as a show later that night. But if i lived in Seattle i would've gone to all 3 shows.
After OWTH we decided to skip the last band, go to 7-11 for free slurpee day and hit the highway.
DEAR LANDLORD
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS
