This show was a cool one to go to. Jake ended up buying tix off his brother for this show so I got to go for free! woohoo!
I drove to the venue and found parking right on pike place market which was cool. Not sure I’ve ever found space down there before, especially for free. We grabbed 2 beers at that bar down there, I forget the name but it has a perfect view of the market sign. After all the talk of the Showbox shutting down we were anxious to get there so we headed out a little early in time to catch the opener, William Elliot Whitmore
The opener, W.E.W was a little generic folksy for my taste but he was good. I’d never heard of him before, I guess he had some hits back in 2009 so that makes sense, right when the big Mumford and Sons explosion hit. It was just him up there but he did a good job entertaining the crowd. I did enjoy the song “hell or high water”.
We had decided since it was Sunday we were going to get home early. At least early for us. J Roddy was surprisingly playing second so that worked for us. I guess the headliner was a band called Murder by Death? I tried listening to them but was not into it at all. Anyways, back to the show at hand…
W.E.W finished and J Roddy hit the stage. I had seen them once before 3 or 4 years ago at the Crocodile. I absolutely love J Roddy. His brand of rock is honestly what I consider perfect rock music to be. Edgy and cutting and gravelly and raw…but with a perfect amount of pop thrown in to make it catchy and singable.
We moved up from the bar to catch the show at a closer vantage point. I stopped drinking since I had to drive so it was a nice change to actually be able to comprehend the show with a clear mind. He played all the hits I had seen last time.
His energy was just as high as it always is but I could tell his voice was bugging him. He wasn’t pushing it completely and couldn’t go as high as he does in the recordings. Thats bound to happen when touring! The whole crowd was into it. Really the only thing I can say bad about it was they didn’t play any new material. Other than that the show was great an he sounded great as ever. If you want a guaranteed good night out I’d highly recommend J Roddy!