Invisible Homes And Violent Mae At The Skinny Pancake And The High Breaks At Juniper March 25, 2016

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a great time seeing music last night. I was a little slow to get out the door and arrived at the Skinny Pancake around 8:40. Apparently, they were not kidding about the 8:30 start time and Invisible Homes were on stage when I walked in. I settled in, found a spot to stand and listened. I recognized a couple of songs from their first album, but most of the show was new. The songs ranged through several styles, art rock, jazz, electronic, and likely a few more. All of the songs were well crafted and the musicianship of the band was top notch. At times the music would go out to an edge, then come back and resolve itself into some sweet melodies. One song had a Fripp sounding guitar running all the way through. The show was not super long, but completely captivating for every note. They closed with the song that had been running through my head all day, This Machine, and I was in a very happy place. After the show I saw a setlist lying around and noticed that they had opened with my favorite of their songs, Above The Frequency. Urgh, all I had to do was leave a couple of minutes earlier and I would have gotten to see it. Next time. 

Homes had a lot of gear on the stage so the breakdown took a bit of time. Soon enough Violent Mae took the stage. They are a duo with a drummer and a woman singer guitar player. Their songs had a low-fi indie sort of sound that did not grab me. I really enjoyed the sound of her voice, but wasn’t hooked by the music. I hung out for three songs, because you just have to give a band a chance. It still wasn’t working for me, so I headed out.

I walked up Battery street, turned on to Cherry street and wandered into Juniper as The High Breaks were playing a surf version of Wicked World. I grabbed a beer, got settled and they played another of their cool surf songs then took a break. I chatted a bit with Todd Gevry, Kevin Lynam, and Matthew Bryan Hagen, then wandered around and ran into Casey Merlin Rae. The music started up again so I headed back to the stage and rocked out to a mix of the Breaks own songs and some classics. They played classics like Shifty, A Walk On Ballard Beach, and The Big One. They tossed in covers of Penetration by the Ventures (which was mixed with Sweet Leaf by Sabbath), Symptom Of The Universe, Misirlou, and Wipeout. As they went to wrap up one guy wanted to turn his son on to the music so the Breaks played two encore songs for him. They are such great guys.

After the set I headed out quickly. The walk home was quick and happy.

This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.