Photos by Holly Homan
It was a warm Friday evening on April 25 when I ventured out to Vera Project to see Escape From the Zoo. I saw Escape From the Zoo last year at Punk Rock Bowling and was blown away so I was excited they were playing in Seattle.
Their scruffy looking singer wore a ball cap over his long scraggly hair and equally scraggly beard which made him look like a garden gnome with a guitar.
They were down a few members from when I saw them last year. Although they started out slow, things picked up later on. They played a catchy brand of ska punk with catchy guitar hooks and equally catchy saxophone. Part way through, Rosie the sax player from the previous band (Hans Gruber & the Die Hards) joined them and she was a fireball. She moved about the stage constantly, hammed up to the audience and oozed charisma.
For the finale, the band had volunteers from the audience (including some members of the opening bands) come on stage one by one to sing verses of a song, before leaving the stage and letting the next person come up to follow suit. This probably went on for fifteen or twenty minutes and was highly entertaining. Many in the audience knew their songs and sang along, so this is a band that has a following in Seattle. I even saw young kids in the crowd who ranged in age from maybe eight or nine to twelve. I’m heartened to see a new generation getting into alternatives to the mindless drivel corporate serves piping hot over the airwaves.
For their final act Rosie and front man fell backward into the audience and surfed the crowd.
This was a super fun night.
Prior to Escape From the Zoo was a band from Texas called Hans Gruber & the Die Hards. I saw these guys about a year ago when they opened for Koffin Kats. I was wowed by them then and I was wowed again. Front man Kurt wore only a pair of Fruit of the Loom boxers. He sometimes sang, often screamed and growled and never stayed in one spot while alternately blowing a large trombone. One of their highlights was the formation of a human chain on the dance floor. Led by Rosie, they danced around the floor never breaking the chain. Shortly after that, Kurt brought out a bag of athletic socks and tossed them into the crowd so everyone could use them as sock puppets. Hans Gruber & the Die Hards were non stop fun.
Prior to Hans Gruber was a band called Moray. Hailing from Tacoma, these guys played a unique brand of folk (hillbilly) punk with a lot of left wing politics in their music. The Moray shared band members with the openers Guillotine Gambit only this time the bass player for Guillotine Gambit now played acoustic guitar. They shared the same drummer. This is a young band. I doubt they were 30, but they were very comfortable and proficient musicians with great stage presence. Their instruments bore stickers that said protect trans youth and a swastika with a circle and slash through it.
Opening the evening was the aforementioned Guillotine Gambit. These guys were amazing. They had great vocal harmonies and even got a steady circle pit going. Their accordion player gave a shout out against Trump’s no due process policies which brought approving cheers from everyone.
The show drew a pretty good crowd and all four bands were outstanding. I would recommend any of them.
