Georgetown OrbitsOn the Sunday evening of March 11, I ventured out to the Ballard neighborhood to see the Aggrolites at the legendary Tractor Tavern.
When I arrived, the first band, Seattle’s own Georgetown Orbits, were well into their set. I had seen the Georgetown Orbits last fall when they opened for the Slackers and was quite impressed. This time was no different. Front man, Darryl Grandison, knows how to work an audience. He inspires them into wanting to participate. They sang along, they danced, they chanted when he commanded. Georgetown Orbits play traditional ska, complete with a full horn section. Grandison oozes charisma as he coaxes the audience to dance. At the end he was chanting, We won’t support the NBA until they bring back our Super Sonics. Then he continued to come up with words to rhyme with Super Sonics including, but not limited to Eubonics. Georgetown Orbits are skilled musicians and entertainers and their ska is pure and tonic for the soul. I could have watched them play all night.
Mike Pinto BandFollowing The Georgetown Orbits was The Mike Pinto Band, a threesome from Southern Cal. They played more traditional reggae but with a heavy dose of poppy hooks. I also heard hints of Sublime, but that may be more due to the So Cal influence. Their songs consisted of intelligent, creative lyrics often about misfortune and temptation. The entire band wore black except the drummer who was in blue and all wore matching baseball caps. Singer/guitarist Mike Pinto is a natural charmer. He lamented he didn’t have a horn section, and said he hoped to some day. The band’s music would do well with a horn section, though it stands well on its own. The Mike Pinto Band is worth checking out for those who missed them this time around.
AggrolitesWhen the Aggrolites hit the stage, the audience was thoroughly warmed up. The Aggrolites are a five-piece upbeat reggae band from LA. Their music is funky Hispanic ska with a little sixties soul tossed in, with a a generous slathering of traditional ska/reggae. Their up-beat style immediately made the dance floor into a funky reggae party. There wasn’t a still body in the entire club that I could see. All during the show, some guy made several failed attempts to crowd surf, before finally succeeding to surf the crowd and land on the stage. There he wrapped an arm around Lead singer Jesse Wagner, before taking a flying leap back into the packed crowd.
Things slowed down for a bit when the band played a song called Precious and Few (not the 1971 song of the same title performed by Climax). After that, the atmosphere livened up once again with the highlight being a guest appearance from Lynval Golding of The Specials who has apparently lived in Seattle for the last fourteen years. Together they performed A Message To You, Rudy followed by Monkey Man. The audience went wild. Everyone sang along and danced so hard I soon found myself getting jostled about almost as badly as when I attend a punk rock show. I wished he’d stayed on stage with them for at least a couple more songs. This was a rare treat.
The hour plus show ended and chants for an encore immediately ensued. The fifteen-minute encore ended with a resounding cover of a raucous ska version of the Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down, which had everyone singing along and dancing hard. This was one fun-filled show. All three acts played their own brand of reggae/ska, but complemented each other perfectly. I would recommend any of them.
