The Slackers, The Georgetown Orbits and Pascal Briggs at the Highline, By Holly Homan

Last night, September 6, 2011 I ventured out to a little club called The Highline. It’s a very friendly, cozy little place up a flight of stairs on Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. There I had the pleasure of viewing three great acts.

First up was Pascal Briggs. This is my second time seeing him — the first being at Soundfest and he seemed much more on top of his game this time. He’s currently based out of Essen, Germany and still looks like a young Woody Guthrie. Briggs performed a lot of slow, intense songs that were sometimes folky and sometimes more bluesy. He was very charismatic and amiable. Most his songs were slow and sensual as he strummed his acoustic guitar with fierce intensity. But he did up the tempo a few times. One of those up-tempo songs was an intriguing song called “War Party.” Which contained lyrics like, “Everyone’s inviting me to a war party, but I don’t want to go. I heard about the last one so thank you, no.” This was a great way to get an anti war message across without sounding preachy.

One of the last songs he performed he dedicated to all the punk rockers in the audience then proceeded to sing, “I’ve got a safety pin stuck in my heart for you.”

Pascal Briggs has a bright future ahead of him as a vagabond who’s a bit punk, a bit Woody Guthrie, a little bit Jonathan Richman and even a little Dylan tinged with punk. He did a great job of getting things roasty toasty for what was to come.

What was to come was Seattle’s own The Georgetown Orbits. If Pascal Briggs warmed things up, this eight-piece ska outfit lit the room on fire. They burst on the stage with some slam it down your throat rhythms and beautiful three-horn harmony. Front man Daryl Grandison came out dressed in a distinguished looking suit with a white shirt and suspenders. I have no idea how he managed to look so cool dressed like that as it had to be about 100 degrees in that club. Grandison had energy and charisma oozing from every pore as he moved all over the stage and on more than one occasion, jumped onto the dance floor and schmoozed with audience members. Georgetown Orbits play pure, unadulterated Jamaican ska and were the perfect choice to heat things up for The Slackers.

If Pascal Briggs warmed things up and The Georgetown Orbits set everything on fire, New York’s Slackers burned the place to the ground. The Slackers also play that pure Jamaican ska that’s as smooth as a good Jamaican rum. At one point they played a ska version of “Like a Virgin” with a guest singer who came out and did the grind against a mike stand and performed other suggestive moves while singing. When there were some technical difficulties, the keyboard player came out and told a very corny, but very funny joke. The technical difficulties were fixed and the show continued. This is also a very energetic band that never stops moving about. After playing for about an hour, they returned for an encore and played at least another forty minutes, ending with the horn section jumping off stage and dancing through the crowd while still playing away. WOW! This is my second time seeing The Slackers and this was a much more energetic show. I will see them again in a heartbeat. They didn’t play my favorite “Watch This” or “Rude and Reckless” despite several requests from the crowd, but they know how to put one fine show. Unfortunately the lighting was so bad it was impossible to get decent pictures even using a flash. Both The Georgetown Orbits and The Slackers are a must see for any ska fan.

– Holly Homan