Terry Radjaw of Mad Rad, Krist Novoselic, and Pearl Dragon of Champagne Champagne at the Crocodile last night

There are certain advantages that come with living in Seattle that none of us should take for granted. Last year, when President Obama was campaigning for office, he called out his “big guns” to help engage the arts/music community by enlisting Jay-Z and DJ AM (RIP) to play shows throughout select urban markets across the country. And in more rural areas, he had Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band playing shows on his behalf. I didn’t catch the Boss, but I did go to two of those Jay-Z concerts and can tell you that neither held a candle to the inner joy that was experienced last night as the Presidents of the United States (PUSA) took over the Crocodile alongside the Maldives, DJ Supreme, SW’s Krist Novoselic, and a handful of music celebrities to help celebrate and support candidates Dow Constantine, Mike McGinn, and Pete Holmes who are running for public office. Considering how stiff most of these fundraising affairs go, I figured even the musicians wouldn’t be able to turn this event into something worth sticking around for until the very end. But the music was livelier than anyone could have anticipated and so was mayoral candidate Mike McGinn, whose music knowledge I personally put to the test and was fairly impressed. At one point, when all of the schmoozers and boozers were getting on his nerves as he sat at Via Tribunali, he goes, “are the Maldives still playing… man I gotta go see the Maldives, I’m out of here.” Fair enough. This was a music related fundraiser after all. Almost 30 minutes later, we passed each other again once the Maldives finished and I asked him what he thought. He paused, paused some more, leaned in, and said: “you know, they’ve kind of got a Lynyrd Skynyrd thing going for them. They’re part country, part rock.” So he was listening. And that alone was good to see. But boy did he drop some great one liners throughout the night, and many of them were music related. When I was first introduced to McGinn as SW’s music editor, I said, “hey, you’re coming out to debate at our music festival on Saturday.” His reply: “I am?” Worried, I said, yes! His answer: “Man, when I wake up, I look at my iPhone in the morning and go where it tells me to go. I don’t know!” But then he started getting into the idea of debating his mayoral adversary, Joe Mallahan, in a music setting.”Man, you should ask us some music questions. Or have us bring our top five albums on vinyl.” My response: “You still have vinyl?” McGinn’s reply: “Oh man, I’ve got a ton of vinyl at home. We should go genre for genre and bring our five best rock albums, reggae albums, soul, etc. I’ll beat him no question” I asked him his favorite reggae artists (Bob Marley excluded) and his reply: “I like Horace Andy a lot. And Gregory Isaacs.” Seriously?For hip-hop, he started singing Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” and “White Lines.” Now I don’t think any political candidate should be singing “White Lines” in public considering it’s about cocaine, but he quickly interjected that the message of the song is “don’t do it.”As for the music, DJ Supreme started everything out nicely with lot’s of soul grooves mixed in with pop and rock tunes. He knows how to work any room and could probably DJ a funeral if he needed to and make it a good time. The Maldives blew everyone’s faces off once they started playing. But the highlight of the night was when the Presidents took the stage around 11:30 and got the whole building to loosen up and have a good time. It was around this point where the stiffness faded and everyone fully relaxed. Not 10 minutes into their set, they introduced a special guest. And out walked Wilt Chamberlain. No, not really. It was our own Krist Novoselic, but he’s tall enough to wear that title. And that’s what Chris Ballew kept calling him. “Wilt Chamberlain everybody, Wilt Chamberlain. Eight time Grammy nominee, Wilt Chamberlain” They all jammed together for awhile, played “Peaches” together and made sure everybody had a good time.