magic marker anniversary party
saturday, march 23, 2002 • magic marker records hq, portland or • review by janice • photography by mike


review: I guess it's not really fair for me to "review" this show. After all, it wasn't even a widely-publicized event. The whole thing was kept pretty hush-hush 'cause the Magic Marker boys, Mark & Curt, didn't want a mob scene at their headquarters/home. Hell, we wouldn't have even been there if it weren't for our much-cooler-than-we-are friends, Chris and Arianne. But, well, I thought I would go ahead and write about it so I could share some pics and keep a record of the evening's events and----OKAY! OKAY! I just wanna gloat! NYAH NYAH NYAH! We were there! You weren't! NYAH!

Just kidding. Here's some thoughts:

Lunchbox: I hadn't heard of them before, but I really dug their poppy sound! Plus, the girl's bass guitar was covered with kitty stickers, and she had tons of cool Paul Frank stuff! So they get bonus points.

The Shins: So, we get to the house, walk inside, and there's James, their lead singer, sitting on the couch, surrounded by girls. GAG. Way to live the stereotype, man. Plus, standing up close to him, I could see he was actually nowhere near as handsome as my hubby. (Um, in my Shins album review, I commented that these two gentlemen resembled each other, but I officially retract that statement. Okay, maybe they look a little alike. I kept trying to gather the courage to have James come take a picture standing next to Mike, maybe with their arms around each other like they are best buds. Uh, didn't happen.) But, really, the main thing is the music, and in this case, it ruled! As Mike mentioned earlier, we only got "The 'Ins", as keyboardist/funny guy Marty and bass player Neal were absent. But, James and Jessie made like The Spinanes, filling the room with rock, and looking like they were having a blast, frankly! It must be fun for them to play in someone's living room again, after all the accolades and McDonalds commercials and what-not.

Although they avoided "New Slang" (will Ronald not let them play it without paying royalties?), the boys did treat us to some new tracks. One of which Mike got the impression they had just written that day! It was a short set, but left me very excited for their headlining show here in Seattle next month!






Tullycraft: Now, The Shins may be the ones with the videos being shown on MTV and stuff, but Tullycraft were easily the real winners of the night! Admittedly, the party did clear out after the Shins left the stage, uh, living room, but lemme tell you, the sheer enthusiasm for Tullycraft far surpassed the Shins. My jaw literally dropped watching the flock of popkids jumping up and down with such intense force! I stared with disbelief at the floor, watching it bow under all the pressure, wondering if this would be a night to end in tragedy. Nah. But it was loads of fun! I don't have the new Tullycraft album, but all the songs were fun, fun, fun. In fact, one song got the audience so completely riled up they were shouting, "Again! Play it again!" Later in the set, they did play it again! Only this time, with Sean rolling his eyes up to the ceiling and looking as bored as he possibly could.

Oh, so the other icky thing that happened? In the middle of the Tully's set, James from The Shins walks right in the middle of the stage/living room, following some girl up the stairs. And okay, in the original run of this review, I speculated that there may have been some house-par-tay hanky-panky involved, but then Mike pointed out, that may even be his wife or something. So, I do apologize. But, I won't apologize for thinking it's rude for someone to walk through the "stage" when another band is trying to play. It just came off as really disrespectful.

But anyhoo! All in all, it was a super-fun night! Too bad you weren't there! HA! ; ) (Again, I'm really just kidding!!!)