Search Party Highlights the Evolution of Rock for the Benefit of VERA
The Vera Project Presents Search Party
The Darkness, Murder City Devils, Black Pistol Fire, Pink Parts
July 6, 2019 @ The Seattle Center in Seattle, Wash.
By Andy Bookwalter
I kind of accidentally took in the evolution of rock, in the form of Search Party, an afternoon of music to benefit Seattle’s non-profit all-ages venue and music education organization The Vera Project, but oddly enough is not an all ages event. I sadly missed openers Pink Parts, an excellent local punk band that we included in our yearly list of emerging Seattle artists in 2017 (#41for2017), so the beginning of the day’s festivities for me was Black Pistol Fire, a duo from Austin and I think also Canada. (The accents were WAY more Austin than Toronto!) BPF plays stripped down garage rock like bands did in the pre-effects pedal days, although I did notice that their bass player was a small box taped to the stage. As a bass player myself I was a little hurt, but as a not very good bass player I kind of get it.
The next stage in the evolution of my tortured metaphor was the organ driven punk noir of the almighty Murder City Devils, the band that more than any other I was here to see. I’m old, so I remember seeing MCD in way smaller places to way fewer people, but 20-ish years has not diminished Spencer Moody’s ability to own a crowd. They absolutely killed it as I knew they would.
The Darkness represent the decadent end days, with white leather jackets and midair splits and the phrase “HELLO SEATTLE!” Or maybe they should be in the middle, so that Murder City Devils or even Black Pistol Fire can rebel against them. Either way they’re a goddamn good time, and guess what? They have a lot more songs than “I Believe In a Thing Called Love,” although that’s the only song that was used to battle giant space squids, so I guess we should be grateful for that. Overall it was a nice way to do something for the kids. (I got in for free, I did nothing for the kids, but appreciate everything The Vera Project does for the Seattle music community nonetheless.)