Freakout Fest 2022: Thursday Recap
Freakout Fest
November 10-13, 2002 in Seattle
By Naomi Cooper
Excited to cover Freakout Fest last Thursday night with both words and drawing, I hustled to the box office near the new “Freakout in the Streets” outdoor stage and managed to catch a bit of Chris King and the Gutterballs before totally-not-speedwalking over to Hotel Albatross for The Kathy Moore Super Power Trio (KMSPT) with special guest Jessica Lurie.
I put both KMSPT and Lurie in a special class I think of as “musicians who pull music up from the center of the earth” and was excited to experience them joining forces. I wasn’t the only one – there was an impressive turnout for their early Thursday night set. I enjoyed the first half of the set from the front and then found a table in the back to draw to the music for the second half.
Along with KMSPT Drummer Faith Stankevich and Bassist Alyssa Martini, Moore and Lurie created magic that lingered in the air at Hotel Albatross all the way through the Acid Tongue show that closed out the night.
I ran into friends and Seattle music staples Michelle Searle and Katrina Kope at the KMSPT show and afterwards we headed over the Sunset to catch Maya Marie. She commands the stage with her voice and guitar as much as any full band. Her voice is made of 100 percent truth. At one point she unapologetically says “I have no idea what this song means, but it means a lot to me,” and then launches into it with no further explanation. I snapped a picture of our group outside the Sunset with Maya, which you see at the top of this post. Everything had a great local, collaborative feel.
I made my way back to Hotel Albatross for Acid Tongue by the end of the night, along with a whole lot of other folks. Instead of pressing forward for a better view, I just took a seat in the back and did some drawing. Inspired by the unapologetic Maya Marie, when people ask me what I’m doing I just say “it’s like I’m dancing, but with pencils.” It’s handy that I don’t need a view of the band for this, just a place to soak up the vibes and do my thing.
Acid Tongue closed the night with the cathartic “The World’s Gonna F**k You,” which has all the angst while still goading us all to “make it a good one” anyway. It certainly feels like that’s what we’re all doing tonight at the Freakout Festival.
Naomi Jean Cooper is a regular contributor to NadaMucho.com as well as Weird At Night, a live streaming variety, arts and sketch comedy show that broadcasts on Twitch and the Converge Media Facebook page. Connect with her on Facebook or Instagram.