9.10.10

The Seattle Weekly organized, with lots of partners, a festival of Seattle music in Ballard, Reverb, on Saturday. I went for a few hours, visiting different venues and seeing different acts. There were more people out at 4pm than I expected, and by the time I left around 7, things were getting busy despite the heavier than normal rains. One highlight was arriving at one venue in time to watch a marimba get set up. Despite taking a while to do, I couldn't look away. At least one woman was photographing the proceedings, and I heard several people murmur about the size of the instrument. The act, Erin Jorgensen, played and sang unaccompanied (though there was a drum machine for the Rihanna cover - that's right, I said Rihanna cover, on the marimba, with the drum machine). Was it a post-modern statement? Does she just not want the music to stop? Is it just fun to do, particularly in front of a crowd who looked unfamiliar with Rihanna's oeuvre? Any way you slice it, it was a pretty awesome cover.