Festival Review: Big Bldg Bash’s Packed Lineup Delivers Bigtime

Festival Review: Big Bldg Bash 2015 – June 6, 2015

Eastern Souvenirs photo by Peter Dervin

Ok, I’ve got to admit, I kind of stumbled upon this festival as I saw several bands that I knew of post that they were playing this festival. The Big Bldg Bash was being hosted at a warehouse near the Port of Seattle under the West Seattle Freeway. With over 50 bands performing over a 12-hour span, this intrigued me to say the least.

In its 2nd year, the Big Bldg Bash, mostly featured local Seattleites and a few out-of-towners. The festivities started at 3:00 in the afternoon and were going until 3AM. Knowing I wasn’t going to make it that late, I wanted to start early and catch as much music as I could.

The first band up was Ole Tinder, a very pleasant rockin’ country band that I had wanted to hear as former Rose Windows bassist Nils Petersen had told me that this was his new project, and being a country punk myself, this was right up my alley. They were a lot of fun and I am looking forward to hearing more from them.

The way this festival was set up, one section of the Big Bldg Bash had stages set up opposite from one another, then walking through the warehouse to another section that hosted two more stages. Then there were a couple smaller spaces for more performances up stairs.

Walking over to the other section of the building, I found myself listening to Prat Attack. Another local Seattle band that provided a powerful rock ballad sound accented with blasted saxophone, groovy stuff. Then it was back to the other stage for a little bit of Tokyoidaho, a very pleasant electro pop duo also from Seattle.

Throughout the day and into the evening, I alternated between stages and warehouse locations. Watching people and listening to new music is always fantastic. What was most impressive with this festival was the amount of exciting and new music being performed. I heard from Gilbraltar, Black Plastic Clouds, TBASA, Joseph Giant, Eastern Souvenirs, Great Grandpa, And Yet, Coma Figura, Low Hums and Cloud Person. My main draw to this festival was local Everett band Fauna Shade, who once again displayed their great energy and talent. I really see a lot of great opportunities for this band.

But the highlight for me was discovering musicians I knew nothing about. The Holy Broke (Kent Ueland from Spokane) stole the evening. When a singer/songwriter can stand on the stage solo with just their instrument and voice and captivate the audience, you know it is special. Kent Ueland sang passionate and gut-punched songs about life. No dancing around, just straight ahead country tinged rock ballads. Everyone, including myself just stood there, taking in every word and it was amazing.

More photos from Big Bldg Bash HERE

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