I feel bad saying bad things about bands, but I really don’t understand the thinking behind having Graves play this show. I’m not a big fan of dinner jazz, so they’re clearly not my thing, and I have no idea why someone thought they’d be a good band to open for BOAT and Aquaduct. Anyway, we spent most of their set outside, wandered off to get some drinks, etc., then went back in for BOAT. They played as a four-piece (with Ricky on guitar, sax, and keys), but this was probably the first time I’ve actually been able to hear the sax parts (most likely because I was standing about one foot from Ricky). It’s a nice touch, and I look forward to hearing the sax-enhanced tracks on the upcoming album. Didn’t stick around for Aquaduct, since it was late and I’m old.

We showed up just in time to catch the last half of the opening band’s final song. Sort of too bad, as they sounded pretty decent, but they’re local so I’ll presumably have future opportunities to see them. Anyway, a fairly fun BOAT show. They managed to get nearly the entire audience on-stage for “Lately I’ve Been on My Back,” which is perhaps the best song they’ve written to date. Again, not to second guess their business acumen, but seems odd to do a huge crowd-pleaser like that to close the set but not have it for sale. Perhaps they’re just laying the groundwork for the next album…

Since the other show we were attending was showing signs of starting pretty late, we ducked out to catch Katy Davidson playing in someone’s basement. When we got there Ash Reiter was playing. I have no idea how many songs we missed, but she went on for quite a while. Not bad. Very reminiscent of Jolie Holland. She seemed intent on playing endlessly though, which, given that we were under the impression the show was supposed to be over at 11 and she was still going strong at 10:50, made us a little grouchy.

Katy eventually chased her off-stage and began tuning, which turned into some guitar freestyling, which turned into her set. She did maybe four or five songs as a medley, mostly material I wasn’t familiar with. She was apparently operating on about two hours of sleep, so seemed a little out of it, but still a pretty good set. Playing solo seems to keep her from doing the really lengthy psych jams that have occupied much of the last two times I’ve seen her. I’m debating whether to go see her again on Friday.

I was sort of on the fence about this show, given how lousy the sound was at Slabtown last time we went, but ended up going. I missed the first band, but the Brilliant Channel were profoundly boring. There was maybe one song that actually had a chorus.

Phil Wilson took the stage quickly and played what might have been a good set had I been able to hear anything. Slabtown’s sound is awful and, since both vocals and all the backing tracks were going through it, everything just sounded muddy and thin. He had the Brilliant Channel come on to play backup for “In the Rain” which was significantly better than listening to Phil’s ipod running through a crap PA. It’s going to take a pretty impressive act to convince me to go to Slabtown again.

This was enough of a lineup that I pretty much had to drive up to Seattle to see the show. Drive up was easy, and I managed to find the Sunset Tavern without getting lost (amazingly). I arrived just before Fishboy started. I had been told earlier that it was just going to be a solo show, which almost dissuaded me, but it ended up being the full, four-person lineup. They opened with a couple of songs off Little D (including “Cheer Up, Great Pumpkin” which is one of my favourites), then launched into Albatross. I enjoyed seeing them perform Albatross in Portland, but seeing them do it with a four-person lineup in a club with good sound was incredible. I’m kind of amazed to say it, but they were pretty much the best band of the night.

I hadn’t seen Tullycraft since the SF Popfest in 2003, so I was pretty excited to see them live. Sean seemed to be kind of bitter that anyone was there (since the Vaselines were also playing in Seattle the same night), but a pretty enjoyable set. Heavy on newer material, but I suppose that’s to be expected.

BOAT were excellent. This was the first time I’d heard them do “Topps” live (since they had a couple other people to help out with vocals). I’m not sure it entirely makes sense to go on tour to support a single that’s extremely hard to pull off live, but what do I know?