The Cannery: One-Year Anniversary Party
with Thunderpussy, The Mama Rags & Born of Ghosts
The Cannery, Everett, WA
04.11.15
In 2012, Ryan Crowther and Steven Graham set out to establish Everett as a worthy stop for touring acts and create a community platform for local musicians. Their Everett Music Initiative has proved its worth in supporting local up-and-coming artists, introducing the area to new music and filling a perhaps unseen void in the area. With that kind of success, they opened a new home – The Cannery – to host their growing event lineup, and haven’t looked back.
Saturday night saw The Cannery’s one-year anniversary, hosting a triple-threat lineup of local bands and a celebratory crowd. Opening the show was Born of Ghosts, the same band who played the first-ever Cannery show a year ago, essentially rechristening the stage. With their first album Torch recorded just down the street at ButterSound Studios, this is a band that sounds very much like the regional rock lineage they come from. Their blues-rock vibe with driving guitars and some 90’s throwback sounds are nothing to argue with and their stage presence shows they’re serious about the craft.
Next up were The Mama Rags, and if any band out there is pulling off the rebirth of classic rock, this is it. Nostalgia personified, they carve deep grooves with untouchable instrumentals worthy of their forebears, while making their genre bending sound accessible to the millennial audience. As their own site says, they’re “a time machine for your ear holes.” Lead vocalist TJ Kelly has a fiery voice worth listening to, and the unbelievably stunning musicianship on display was prophetic of a young band with all the right ingredients for success. The Mama Rags are on a roll.
And then there was Thunderpussy. Closing out the show was this all-female, Seattle super group that has been making the rounds throwing sexy all over the stage. But don’t go thinking this band is all shtick; they’ve got the kind of rock ‘n’ roll cojones to back it up that other young bands dream of. Thunderpussy own the stage – and the crowd – with unbridled chemistry and seriously gritty, bluesy rock that rips like they’ve been playing together for years. This quartet of vocalist Molly Sides (This Bitch Don’t Fall Off), guitarist Whitney Petty (The Grizzled Mighty), bassist Leah Julius (Cumulus, Sundries), and drummer Lena Simon (La Luz, Kairos) are obviously up there having a ball. And with final cheers for The Cannery, they pop a bottle of prosecco and proceed to pass it around, bubbles flying across the stage.
The perfect end to a triumphant night.
Review by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Sunny Martini
Thunderpussy
The Mama Rags
Born of Ghosts
