Home Share Tweet
Next Story CHBP 2018 Recap: Friday, July 20
Shows

CHBP 2018 Recap: Saturday, July 21

From hip-hop to pop, Saturday's lineup out shined Friday's

Dan Ray July 22, 2018
Share Tweet
CHBP 2018 Recap: Saturday, July 21 July 22, 2018

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).

If Friday’s Capitol Hill Block Party theme was EDM, Saturday’s was definitely hip-hop. Jamila Woods, Parisalexa, and Falon Sierra were among the daytime performers, and headliner Brockhampton packed a crowd that I have only seen rivaled in its sardine-ness by G-Eazy’s 2016 Lollapalooza show. Fifteen minutes into the set, the hip-hop group asked the audience to make a circle: drunk girls cried, puked, and got kicked out, and a fun time was had by all.

Jamila Woods stands quietly confident behind her mic. // Photo by Dan Ray

Woods, on the main stage at 4:45 p.m., was one of the standouts of the day. Standing simply at a center mic, all Woods needed was her voice to transfix the audience. It was impossible not to watch her. A true artist, her set was vastly different from her recorded tracks, and she was also one of the only performers to actually use her full time onstage.

Parisalexa, at only 19-years-old, is already a pro. // Photo by Dan Ray

Similarly, on the Vera stage at 6:15 p.m., 19-year-old Parisalexa commanded her audience. The seasoned rookie, who has over 150,000 Spotify monthly listeners, had the crowd with her the whole time. When she wanted to sing happy birthday to one of her bandmates, the audience sang with her. When she told the audience to get low, they got low. Paris’s stage presence is impeccable, and it’s easy to see why she’s known locally as an artist to watch.

Keeping with the hip-hop theme, Neumos hosted Lions Ambition at 4 p.m. The seven-piece — two of which are rappers — was perhaps not the most musically complex band of the day, but was definitely the most infectious. It was readily apparent how much fun each of the band members was having, and the audience fed off of that energy. A not-so-serious group (with songs titled “Cream Cheese Hot Dog” and “Sick Day”) to be taken seriously, Lions Ambition brings much-needed joy to a world that can take itself too seriously.

Ayo Dot & The Uppercuts, who performed at Barboza at 4:45 p.m., deserves an honorable mention; this group brings together incredibly talented musicians in their own right to create a sort of rap-punk fusion, but they didn’t really perform as a group. It seemed as though all the musicians were doing their own thing, and while the music sounded great, there wasn’t enough energy flowing between them to create a meaningful live performance.

Spirit Award gives off early Stones vibes. // Photo by Dan Ray
Claire George performs on the Vera stage. // Photo by Dan Ray

With a much more solid lineup than Friday, Saturday CHBP also offered a lot more than hip-hop: psych-pop trio Spirit Award opened the main stage at 2:15 and exuded early Rolling Stones vibes with their long hair, quiet confidence, and impeccable chops; Claire George, on the Vera stage at 3 p.m., danced around the stage like a beautiful fairy while cooing along to her backing tracks like a pro; The Dip, a septet with a similar vibe to Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats that performed on the main stage at 6 p.m., filled the street with their three-team brass section; and London duo Oh Wonder had the crowd singing along on the main stage at 9 p.m.

Kuinka, a foursome that has been featured on an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert and features members who play multiple instruments and who rotate lead vocals, showcased their raw talent, but the group was a little too squeaky-clean for the Neumos stage during CHBP at 9 p.m. The folksy performers’ chops were on-point, but the band would have been a better fit for an earlier set on an outside stage.

Betty Who smiles at her band members. // Photo by Dan Ray

Also seemingly misplaced in the lineup was Australian-born Betty Who, who rocked the main stage at 7:30. Arguably the best performance of the festival so far, Who drew her audience in with her bubbly attitude, spot-on vocals, and sensual dancing, and she could have easily taken the headliner role. Obviously a veteran performer, Who talked with her audience and seemed to genuinely care about and appreciate the onlookers in the crowd, even telling a girl in front that she loved the girl’s pink crutches. For the first minute or so of her set, her mic wasn’t on, and either Who didn’t notice or didn’t care, because she kept going like it didn’t matter, and it really didn’t. Her talent, genuineness, and professionalism made her the highlight of the day.

Comments

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).