Not necessarily in any order:

Silian Rail – each/other.  Emotive post rock with monster drummer and cool guitar technique. Post rock is often a let down but this is post rock at its best. Hypnotizing, rapturous, brooding and smart as hell.

Field Music – Plumb. Nominated for the Mercury Prize in the UK, this record is pop mastery in the XTC vein and is full of catchy complexity. Led to discovering the rest of their catalog, which is all as good as this.

Kelly Hogan – I Like To Keep Myself In Pain.  Exquisitely produced, this is alt-country at its best, with tracks written by Robyn Hitchcock, Vic Chesnutt and other luminaries, all belted out by Hogan with her signature style.

Cataldo – Prison Boxing. Local record here, officially came out in 2011, but only got turned on to it in 2012. Really pretty tracks and deceptively interesting song writing.

Matt Slocum – After The Storm.   Heard him at Tula’s during Earshot Jazz and this CD has been in constant rotation in the car. Imminently tasteful.

Utterly gratifying show, reaffirming faith in post-rock math-rock prog-rock. Good crowd too. Love that Seattle turns out and appreciates this stuff.

Silian Rail from Oakland opened.  Just a two piece, guitar and drums, no vocals, formidable. Big sound, Rickenbacker through a Marshall stack. Compositionally super interesting, eschewing  both conventional song writing and improvisational wandering, instead these songs that were movements, lots of feeling, precision, intentionality. Time signature fun, trippy interpolations, effective uses of retardando.   Cool guitar playing technique with unexpected intervals that lingered and rang. She was in command of the effects pedals to create a lush complex tonality. Drummer was fierce and dialed, way talented. Loved all the bands but Silian Rail stole the show. Ended with the crowd wanting more. Catch ‘em on the rest of their tour:

9/3 TBA, Olympia, WA
9/4 Red Room, Boise, ID
9/5 Holland Project, Reno, NV
9/6 TBA, Davis or Sacramento
9/8 Totally Intense Fractal Mindgaze Hut, Oakland, CA

Had seen By Sunlight years ago with some other fav bands in the scene (Austenitic, Wax Fingers) and was impressed with their newer stuff. Seemed like they are pushing the envelope more, bigger sound.  Again, time signature circus, with interpolations, 5/4 and more. Probably the most distinct thing was the melodies, which recalled the glory days of 70s prog rock. Glad these guys are burning the torch.

Tarfuti from SF was next. Cool vocal set up with three different mics and use of harmonics pedal so she sounded like a choir of herself. Compositions had really tight transitions between segments. Well rehearsed. Some ecstatic metal moments that slayed.  Bass player awesome, big driving tone. Did some upper register playing that filled out the sound. Really cool band.

Pollens finished things out, solid set, harmony-o-riffic.  More trance-like and groove than the other bands. Cool melodies. Vocals big in the mix. Weird time signatures and interpolations again. Also identifiable non-Western influences. 

What a great line up.