Introducing Chop Suey.

On Saturday we went to my first Seattle club, Chop Suey, to see Stellastar. Chop Suey reminded me a bit of the Lava Lounge in Chicago, probably because it was almost completely red, but with lots of Asian accents. The bar was exceptional, and featured lots of local brews, along with the evidently required PBR on tap. I'm pretty amazed how often you see that here...it's really become quite a phenomenon. Of the local beers, the best seems to be Mack and Jack's (African Amber). There's just a certain flavor quality about it that is really remarkable. None of us can seem to put our finger on what it is. I'll have to bring some back to Indy sometime, if I can find it in bottles. Apparently it's a Redmond company, and they do offer tours; I'll definitely have to track them down. Anyway, Nathan and I had a couple of these, and I also had a Dick's Danger Ale, which I bought for the great name alone! Fortunately it was quite tasty as well.

The two opening bands were pretty awesome. The first was Joy Wants Eternity, an instrumental band who combined the best of Mogwai and Spiritualized, but added a keyboardist. They were very mesmerizing, and featured a plastic model wearing angel wings, a tv for a face, motherboards for a skirt, and Christmas lights. Definitely a band to watch out for (they informed us that they were local). The other band was Every Move a Picture from San Fran, who obviously need a new moniker. They were an excellent band, however, with kind of a Britpop-meets-The Faint sound; sort of a fresh take on 80s and 90s retro combination. Their singer reminded me of Gene's Martin Rossiter. Stellastar was pretty good, although I only recognized a few of the songs (I need to listen to them more, certainly). They put on a good show, but made us wait until the very end for "My Coco", dammit.