Live Seattle: music in the clubs: Spit In The Well and The Stuntmen at Darrells Tavern 4-1-31

The venue is always great; the company good and the bill was promising. I had high hopes for a full evening of fun, but I faded early and only got to see 2 bands. However, the 2 bands were absolutely amazing so I have few regrets.

Here is my buddy Mark in front of the iconic Darrells Tavern sign.

Here is the event poster:

Once again, I was at Darrells with all my buds. Dan, the owner has assembled a great staff at this long loved institution. Damien King-Talaska has been tending bar here for many moons. He is fast, reliable and pours a great drink. He is also an amazing chemist/mixologist.

Damien is leaving for another great Seattle institution, Bick's Broadview Grill in the North Seattle/Greenwood area. He will be managing the bar. A definite upgrade in some ways, but he won't get to hear 3 live bands every shift.

I will miss Damien. He is smart and is great company. He is also generous; he made Mark and I one of his patented cocktails. This one had Montenegro liquor and an amazing mix of stock and his own home made bitters. It was like nothing I have ever had before. Great finish. Thanks Damien, see you at Bick's.

The place was fairly crowded when we got there and we ended up making camp behind the pinball machine, right behind Scott, the sound tech. I spend most of my time standing near the band so it didn't matter about location much.

Up first was Spit In The Well, a energetic and raucous band from Seattle. The members are: Iris Chamberlain - vox, Erik Cargill - bass, Frank Arriola - guitar and Tony Rodriguez - drums.

You can connect with them here: https://www.facebook.com/SpitInTheWell/?fref=ts

They started right off the bat with incredible energy and power punk. Dramacore is how they brand it. Whatever it was called, it hit you right in the face.

Leading the charge was Iris and her huggy-bear hat with blue locks. Great look, better performance.

There were quite a few of her fans there and knew what to expect. They were all up tight to the stage. She exploded with every note and her delivery was amazing. I am not sure why they gave her a microphone, she didn't need one.

Moving all around her mates, Iris put on one hell of a show. Her voice had phenomenal projection and power. Without screaming she managed to fill the place with a most awesome sound. Between her and this great band, the music was huge.

The band was rocking the place. Heads bobbing, hair flying; all good signs of fun. The drummer was most animated with flying hair (see above) and massive arms. He was the epitome of punk style percussion. A perfect beat with a madman's grin.

Frank, the lead guitar player was fairly static as he shredded the strings. Occasionally he broke out of the corner, but mostly he just stuck to business. He is a great musician. His skill and talent showed through the din of the evening.

Iris was a lot of fun to watch. This show reminded me of some of the great bands I saw at the height of the punk era in LA.

Editor Note, 1 week later: I have had a little break, I am working on a web page for a company I am starting. I have been writing copy for 2 weeks. I am all out of words.

Having said that; see Spit In The Well when you can, they are a true Tour de Force.

The next act was almost over powering. With the volume cranked to 11, they hit the sonic waves with The Big Bang!

The Stuntmen hail from Olympia; they play hard rock and roll. Very hard! Punk rock at it's best.

These three gents caused a minor earthquake as they banged out some amazing rock. This is the kind of music I love. 3 guys, making magic.

The Stuntmen are: Mike Stunt, Jerry Z and Karkass. That is all I could find in the little amount of research I did. They have a Reverb page here: https://www.reverbnation.com/thestuntmen9