Since reopening back in April, the Olympia All Ages Project flagship venue Northern has seen its fair share of great performances, and Sunday’s bill will be no exception. The bill features three bands with long ties to the underground movement, Chain & the Gang, the Hive Dwellers and Spider and the Webs
Chain & the Gang’s Ian Svenonius is an explosive, seasoned performer who made his name off of a pastiche of highly energized live performances and pseudo-satirical political hyperbole.
As a prominent member of the D.C. punk/indie scene since the early 90s, Svenonius has been at the epicenter of the spotlight since bursting on the scene as “the sassiest boy in America,” and with his latest group Chain & the Gang, Svenonius explores the idea of cool through a folk-blues tinged proto-punk lens.
But Chain & the Gang isn’t a one person show, with the addition of Katie Alice Greer on the band’s third album, In Cool Blood, the group began a more binary approach to their subject; less monologs and more duets.
In a 20-plus year career that has yielded some classics such as Ulysses’ Play Pretty for Baby and the Make Up’s Save Yourself, Svenonius and company have hit the core of what makes a cool, hip record feel organic and amazing, and it is only stands to translate into a very, VERY good performance.
Hot off the heals of a two month long North American solo tour, K Records founder Calvin Johnson rejoins his latest project, the Hive Dwellers, for the evening. Johnson is, without equal, a local legend in Olympia, a town whose music scene could be largely attributed to him and his peer’s groundwork. But there are also very few performers who can engage an audience as directly and as captivating as the main Hive Dweller; in this regard Hive Dwellers serve as the perfect counter-balance to Chain & the Gang’s somewhat-revivalist approach.
Rounding out the show is Spider and the Webs. The group featuring Tobi Vail, Chris Sutton and James Maeda has been quiet for the last few years has been more active of late; this is their second performance in Olympia this year!
Spider and the Webs blend primitive garage rock effortlessly with C-86 style indie rock filtered through Tobi Vail’s feminist take on contemporary and personal politics. If their last show is any indication of what to expect, I would not miss a minute of their set; simply it was that good.
It is all too fitting that the evenings festivities begin with a band featuring another one of Olympia’s enduring and prolific performers. It is a mark of distinction that this show exhibits both the past and present sense of what is great in the indie rock underground.
You can catch Chain & the Gang, The Hive Dwellers and Spider and the Webs at Northern (414 ½ Legion Way) on Sunday, Sept. 9. The Show starts at 8 p.m., is all ages with a $6 cover.