The end of the June Tour of Seattle Festivals

Last weekend we started off our June Tour of Seattle with a lovely afternoon show at the Fremont Fair where a very enthusiastic gentleman danced to a good portion of our set in a style which I will call The Rooster Ballet. A few of our friends joined him in a dance or two, after which my friend Mel said, "He touched my chest."

That night we played in a pure rawk-n-roll line-up with SHIM and Pipsisewah. There was no chest touching reported despite the dancing that I witnessed.

So, what's in store this weekend? Here's the agenda:

- Saturday, June 27 at 7:30 PM - we're playing at the Georgetown Music Fest which is a part of Seattle Weekly's Aropia Festival. There are many quality local bands playing that day, so you should bring your camping chair, grab a beer and a bag a peanuts, and check the whole thing out. The Seattle Weekly wrote a nice little piece about the show and the Hellgate Club for Musically Advanced Ladies and Gentlemen - read it here.

- Sunday, June 28 at 7:15 PM - I (Jamie) am playing a solo acoustic set at the Bend-it Festival at the Vera Project. What's Bend-it? In their words, "Bend It is a queer artist activist collective that makes the world a more fabulous place by building welcoming, liberated spaces, strengthening community, and creating meaningful alternatives for queer young people and their friends. " Sounds nice, yeah?

So now that the June Seattle tour is wrapping up, what's next for HIFH? Glad you asked - we're going to record Issue 2 of the Club demos in my garage, experimenting with micing in the vaulted ceiling. It will either sound cool or like we're playing in an empty morgue. I'll keep you posted. I'm hoping to have Issue 2 ready by our 7/11 Anacortes show, but we'll definitely have the new goodies for you on 7/23 at the Comet.

I'll leave you with a couple more pictures from last weekend:

And for the longest day of 2009...

We're going to take full advantage and play TWO SHOWS!

For folks who like their music during the day, especially at a festival fund-raiser, we'll be at the Fremont Fair Waterfront Stage from 5:15 - 6:00. What's the Fremont Fair about? Glad you asked:

The Fremont Fair is a grass-roots community celebration that is now in its 38th year. In addition to providing a forum for a diverse spectrum of arts and the creative spirit of Fremont, the Fair also serves as a fundraiser for Solid Ground — a service organization dedicated to achieving a just and caring community free from poverty, prejudice and neglect. Solid Ground’s 30 programs give 30,000 families a year in King County the services, resources and support they need to overcome homelessness, hunger, domestic violence and other traumas associated with poverty.

Please come down, donate non-perishable items at the Comcast booth and be sure to leave a donation for Solid Ground in the orange boxes!

For you night owls, we'll be getting all hot n' sweaty at the High Dive in Fremont at about 9:00 PM.

We're running low on the Hellgate Club For Musically Advanced Ladies and Gentlemen Volume 1 Issue 1 CDs (containing new, unreleased goods) so if you want one, you should show up this weekend before they're gone forever!

And as if all of this wasn't exciting enough, we have two brand new songs for you:

- Desaturate the Gyroscopes - our first fully instrumental face-ripper with Jon

- League, Fathom, or Stone - a little dark shuffle

HOORAY, SUMMER!

Seattle P.I. wrote about our demo club

Local band joins others in simply giving music away The Seattle trio H is for Hellgate has decided to forgo traditional record releases and instead give away their music as they record it. They're part of a growing trend of giving music away.

Check out the full feature here.

In the comments section, there are a lot of people chiming in and asking the questions, "How do these kids expect to pay the bills by giving away their only source of income?" Here are some things to know about H Is for Hellgate that the article may not have pointed out:

1. We are going to continue releasing full-length albums; the demo club is a bonus for our fans because we wish to offer an extra "thank you" to our most dedicated supporters.

2. Although I wish it were otherwise, we've never sold enough CDs to consider quitting our day jobs.

3. We make much more money from shows, t-shirt sales and licencing than from CDs and mp3 downloads. This trend is true for almost every other band at our level in our careers.

4. If you're interested on professional opinions on the future of music, you should include The Future Of Music: Manifesto For The Digital Music Revolution, co-written by the President of Berklee School Of Music, in your research.

5. We do, very much, have day jobs that pay the bills and buy the gear. You'd be surprised at how many of your favorite Seattle bands, even those getting national attention, playing on late-night TV, etc, are checking groceries, serving you food, or behind a desk off the rock clock.

6. At the end of the day, we're not delusional enough to think that some slick lawyer is going to pick us up in a town car, shuffle us down to the local office of whatever major label, and hand over a suitcase of money for what we're doing. We're doing this because we love music and to quote one of my favorites, Gillian Welch, "We're going to do it anyway, even if it doesn't pay."

Hellgate out!