Of all the activities I could have partaken in on this year’s Halloween Eve, I decided to dawn my best Molly Ringwald duds and head out to the newly-established Columbia City Theater for what promised to be a “costumed dance party” with Seattle’s own Hey Marseilles and Fences.
I’d never been to the Columbia City Theater, but seeing that it only reopened in June and was already named one of Seattle Weekly’s “Best of Seattle” after being open for two months. I was expecting the best.
Not only is the parking cheap in the Columbia City district, but the theater proved to be as wonderful as it sounded. Standing in the queue, the walls lined with photos of local musicians, I saw all kinds of costumes walk in. There was everything from Jack White to Flo from the Progressive Insurance commercials, the Bible to Doctor Who – and most of the cleverest costumes were put right on display when they posed for the photo booth set up on the floor before the bands began.
Fences took the stage first, just after 9:30 – all decked out in their costumes. At first glance, you wouldn’t expect Fences to be the pleasant indie-pop they are, as front man Christopher Mansfield sports tattoos on most of his upper body, and the skeleton costume also gave off a hard exterior (no pun intended). Mansfield stood earnestly in the middle of the stage strumming his Rickenbacker to songs like the peppy “Girls with Accents” and beautiful ballad “Sadie,” while guitarist/keyboardist Johnny – dressed as Harry Potter – provided more of the energy on stage, but all four of them had lovely charisma and great songs.
Fences is surely a band I will see again, and seeing that they’re from Seattle, there is a definite possibility of that. I suggest you see them too. Or at least go to their MySpace and listen to their songs (one of which featured the Sara half of Tegan & Sara).
After a long intermission – made less long with bands like Spoon and Neutral Milk Hotel playing over the PA system – all the guys in Hey Marseilles made their way to the stage via the catwalk that lined the right wall. At first it was easy to identify some costumes – but some slightly more complicated than others. But I’ll get to that in a little bit. Starting the show off with “From A Terrace” off their debut album To Travels and Trunks, Hey Marseilles played to an incredibly loving (and slightly inebriated) crowd that night. There were women standing next to me shouting all the words back (which at times got annoying), but I can’t blame them too much, because the songs are so catchy.
The whole place was littered with Halloween décor, cobwebs on the walls, random figurines hanging around, and a jack-o-lantern sat on the piano on stage. I can’t forget to mention the impenetrable fog machine, being that I was right up in front of the stage. It definitely smelled like Halloween once the fog went into overdrive, and you could literally see the fog move if you blew it upward.
Hey Marseilles played a relatively short set, but they managed to fit in a lot of new material, which was awesome, because that means that a whole new album is probably in the works. In fact, the whole set list was half old with the rest new songs and a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You In The End,” which could easily fit into their catalogue with its romantic waltzy melody. I swear all of Hey Marseilles’ music makes me feel like I’m in the film Amelie, but most of it could be attributed to Philip Kobernik on the accordion. When do you ever get to hear the accordion anymore?
Like I said earlier about the drunk ladies up near me, they weren’t the only ones singing along. During “Cannonballs,” the crowd of a couple hundred people in ridiculous and awesome costumes sang along to the charming chorus, “these days are not fast, times will not last, so they say but I’m having trouble believing.” And during “Rio,” naturally everyone started to clap along with the guys and shout out the infectious hooks.
Nearing the end of the set, cellist Sam Anderson set down his cello and grabbed a microphone.
“We’re gonna do a little bit of a guessing game. Who can guess what this guy is?” And he pointed to trumpet player Patrick Brannon. As Patrick’s costume was perfect, some instantly someone shouted out “Richie Tenenbaum!” Next was violist Jacob Anderson, whose platform shoes, bright glasses and fake gap-tooth gave us plenty of hints that he was Elton John. Philip had taken off his mask earlier, but his costume was the Fantastic Mr. Fox (that’s two Wes Anderson characters), drummer Colin Richey was Scooby Doo, guitarist Nick Ward was a Mummy, lead singer Matt Bishop was dressed as Super Matt, but there was one more person to guess.
“You get extra points if you can guess what I am?” Sam said, sporting a dark turtleneck and a tan sport coat. A few people shouted out different names, but it definitely took longer for anyone to guess, until a guy finally came up with “Carl Sagan!” As in the famous astronomer Carl Sagan. Really.
“I’d just like everyone to know that this is the first time these shorts have been worn,” Matt said as everyone laughed, “…by me.”
“And that’s bullshit,” Sam interjected. More laughter ensued. It was nice to see the guys laugh, because as wonderful each and every one of them are at their craft, they can sometimes get a little serious. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more focused front man of a band than Matt Bishop. But being at the front of such a talented 7-piece, you’ve gotta have a lot of drive. And it shows, especially in all the new songs, as they kept with the dreamy travel theme and showed the band’s impeccable musicianship. I couldn’t even read the names of some of them, but “Café Lights” was one that stuck out.
The final song of the night was the joyful “Hold the Morning,” which is one of the best songs off the album so that made for a nice finale (even though it technically wasn’t the finale). I would have liked to hear “Calabasas,” the strong and building epic 7-minute ballad, but the dance party that took place after the last song was definitely a nice trade-off. Seriously, as soon as they finished the final song, the PA system started playing Michael Jackson, and people jumped up onto the stage and started to boogie. Not everyone could fit on the stage obviously, but the whole room was a virtual monster mash.
So fine, Sufjan Stevens was playing a sold-out show at the Paramount the same night, which I was a bit gutted to have missed it. But I’d forgotten all about it once Matt walked on stage in his makeshift leotard, Philip in his fox mask, Jacob in his light-up platforms, Nick in his torn rags, Colin in his Scooby suit, Patrick in his headband and sunglasses, and Sam in his sport coat. Seriously, Carl Sagan. It was definitely a Halloween party I won’t forget.
Set list:
- From A Terrace
- Intro
- Café Lights
- Cannonballs
- New New
- Rio
- Cities
- True Love Will Find You In The End
- Old New
- To Travels and Trunks
- Another new song that starts with a B (illegible penmanship for the win!)
- Hold the Morning
Of every single 
