Not one, but two “secret” shows took place last night, and you better believe that LocalCut was on the beat, man! Or, you know, Byron Beck was on the beat, anyway.

Early:
Though it was the one non-”secret” show WW attended last night, Mississippi Studios hosted David Karsten Daniels from Seattle, and that shit was real. Next door (at the attached bar/restaurant Mississippi Station), Pete Krebs played gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt’s many hits and even crooned a swing ballad or two. Gorgeous stuff (as always) from the Portland legend. It’s amazing to me that you can see a guy like that on a Tuesday night, playing to a slightly distracted dinner crowd. It’s like oh hey, there’s Louie Armstrong busking on a street corner, and there are like three people listening.

A low-key opening set from Tim Perry of Pseudosix opened up the DKD show. Perry sings with the world-weary knowingness of a singer twice his age, and had some definite twang guiding his set last night. He could have done the set un-amplified, as there were only a handful of people in attendance and all of them were silent throughout Perry’s set.

Next Up was Daniels, and dude repped Seattle hard and sad. His latest, Fear of Flying, is a deep, rich acoustic-grounded album that talks a lot about death. In fact, every song on the album is about death. Musically, DKD is somewhere between recent Wilco stuff and fellow Seattle songsmith Joel R.L. Phelps. But he speaks his mind on religion and sin and all that stuff like another Seattleite, David Bazaan. The set was intimate (as shows with like eight people in the crowd tend to be), and you ought to check Daniels out on April 22 or 29 at Mississippi Studios. He’s currently in residency there.

Tim playing with DKD:

Later:
I wasn’t among the dancing throngs over at the Converse 100th Birthday party at the Wonder Ballroom, but pretty much everyone I know was there to see Girl Talk, who was the unofficial Best of Show at MusicfestNW last year. Here are pictures and a short video clip (filmed like MTV circa 1992) from that invite-only madness. There are a couple more scandalous photos that will remain unpublished and/or used to blackmail unwitting WW employees.

Later Still:
Weinland/Norfolk and Western’s tour kickoff show at Slabtown was, for lack of a better term, star-studded (these people are stars in my little world, anyway): Eric Jensen from Tractor Operator, Scott McCaughey from R.E.M./the Minus 5, Kathy Foster from the Thermals, reps from Hush and Jealous Butcher Records and more almost famous people that the Sparks made me forget were there and head-bobbing. I arrived unfashionably late, but saw enough to know that Norfolk’s new sound is certainly rocking. Like five-minute instrumentals and sweat-all-over-the-guitar rocking. Frequent LocalCut contributor and new Norfolkian Chris Robley, like pretty much everyone in the band, played musical chairs with his instruments, performing ably on each. Bassist/guitarist/vocalist Dave Depper was lookin’ sexy (more like Dave Dapper! BAM!) with the top button flapping about—that partially explains why all my pictures from the evening are of him. Despite a general chattiness in the crowd (something about Slabtown encourages conversation, I guess), N&W killed.

More pictures:

I apologize for most of my photos being all “Introduction to Straightedge Hardcore Photos 101.” I just don’t know how to use a camera.

So yup. That’s what we did last night. Thanks to Byron for the Girl Talk photos and clip.

Norfolk & Western hits the road with Weinland today. Dates are as follows (and lifted from Norfolk’s ‘Space):

Apr 16 2008 8:00P
Sam Bonds Garage Eugene, Oregon

Apr 17 2008 8:00P
Cafe Coda Chico, California

Apr 18 2008 8:00P
Satellite Bar Reno, Nevada

Apr 19 2008 8:00P
The Firehouse (UC Davis) Davis

Apr 20 2008 8:00P
Cafe Du Nord San Francisco

Apr 21 2008 8:00P
Bordello Los Angles, California

Apr 22 2008 8:00P
TBA San Diego, California

Apr 23 2008 8:00P
Plush Tucson, Arizona

Apr 24 2008 8:00P
Raven Cafe Prescott, Arizona

Apr 25 2008 8:00P
Urban Lounge Salt Lake City

Apr 26 2008 8:00P
Neurolux Boise, Idaho

Apr 30 2008 8:00P
Sunset Tavern Seattle, Washington

May 1 2008 8:00P
Whitworth College Spokane, Washington

May 2 2008 8:00P
Center for the Arts Pendleton, Oregon

May 3 2008 8:00P
Mississippi Studios Portland, Oregon

Links:
Pete KrebSpace
PseudosixSpace
David Karsten DanielSpace
WeinlandSpace
Norfolk and WesternSpace