Seattle is a city known to have a lot of love for its local musicians. That’s why Seattle Weekly thought it strange five years ago when we looked around and noticed there wasn’t an all-local music festival dedicated to celebrating the talent that’s already here. So, as we hope you’ve noticed already, we started one. From the first REVERBfest in 2004 (when it was known as SW‘s “Music Awards” showcase), we’ve taken over the streets of Ballard on the first Saturday of October and turned a neighborhood already dedicated to music into a full-tilt sonic playground.
Last year, more than 60 bands performed at 10 venues, with people coming from all over the city (and beyond) to see acts like Grayskul, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, Husbands, Love Your Wives, BOAT, and Laura “Piece” Kelly showcase their skills. Not only did these artists represent a wide variety of genres, but, as always, the festival presented a handful of bands who were locally recognized at the time but have since broken out into a wider arena. The Moondoggies and Truckasaurus come to mind immediately.
This year, too, we’ve done a good job of gathering artists from across a large musical spectrum. But we’ve also made some changes. For starters, we’re branding the festival as REVERB and ditching the “fest” tag. We’ve added some new venues this year (Volterra, New York Fashion Academy), and said goodbye to a couple as well (Market Street Athlete and Lock & Keel). And the Long Winters’ John Roderick—joined by Seattle’s Best Dive Bars author Mike Seely—will moderate what promises to be a uniquely entertaining debate between mayoral finalists Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn at Conor Byrne. But aside from these wrinkles, we’re going to do what we’ve always done: Feature a ton of local acts that we think more people ought to know about.
The number of quality indie (Tea Cozies, Final Spins), hip-hop (Champagne Champagne, Fatal Lucciauno), post-punk (Telepathic Liberation Army, Born Anchors), shoegaze (Fences, Shenandoah Davis), and straight-ahead kick-ass rock bands (Thee Emergency, Unnatural Helpers) on this year’s bill is staggering. We’ve also got jazz (Greta Matassa), world beat (Leif Totusek and Freestyle Candela), and some funny country (Brent Amaker & The Rodeo) thrown in. There’s even a local tejano band, Los Volcanes, that’s garnered far more recognition in other parts of the country than they have here. And each year, there are contenders in the “next big thing” category: This year, smart money is on hardcore band Shook Ones, alt-country group the Maldives, or electro hip-hop duo Fresh Espresso. But it could be anybody; you’ll have to come out and judge for yourself.
Of course, 64 performers playing in one neighborhood is a lot to digest. So we’ve put together a trusty pullout that will give you the lowdown on all this year’s REVERB has to offer. You may be hearing many of these bands for the first time, so our guide will tell you everything you need to know about them, and what venues to check out depending on your taste.
So with so much musical talent set to play, read away—but more important, show up and enjoy it all. This is the best way we know to say thank you to the city, and to all its musicians for being so killer. And if this is your first REVERB, welcome to the party.
