Allow me, for a moment, to state the obvious: the weather in Seattle’s winter months can be shitty—rain, wind, dead rats in gutters, the sun peeking out from behind the clouds just long enough to flip you off and spit on your hope, etc., etc.
Fortunately, David Wax Museum, with their cheerful and flawless blend of Latin rhythms, folk instrumentation and energetic harmonies, are setting up shop tonight at Ballard’s Sunset Tavern to inject happiness, bright colors and fun directly into your beating heart, after it has been thoroughly prepped by the up-and-coming Edmund Wayne and local singer-songwriter Ben Fisher.
Provided you aren’t currently on a hallucinogenic substance, check out the video for “Harder Before It Gets Easier” from their newest album, Knock Knock Get Up, for a taste of DWM’s eclectic and full-bodied orchestrations. The video’s use of bold pinks, greens and oranges sublimely fits the emotional tone set by members David Wax and Sue Slezak, whose Latin influences have helped them do an astounding job of conveying color and texture through sound.
DWM’s beats are tactile and imaginative, and the instrumentation is vivid, each source of sound rising up in defiance and diving back into harmony as though they all had minds of their own.
For those looking to earn their “I Saw Them Way Back Then” merit badge, make sure to arrive in time for Edmund Wayne, the hauntingly beautiful folk project spearheaded by Kurt Crause, formerly of Eastern Washington’s Buffalo Death Beam (whose disbanding I recently lamented), which has already caught the attention of both Seattle Weekly and KEXP.
The self-titled EP features Seattle’s own River Giant, and is a sweeping and elegant composition of swaying harmonies, bittersweet vocals and swelling tempos. Tonight’s performance will be augmented by two of Crause’s former bandmates, Tiffany Harms and Sean Knox, which promises a particularly accelerated level of talent.
