It was unofficially ladies night at the Tractor Tavern on Oct. 24 with the girl powered triple bill of Connecticut Four, Visqueen and Shonen Knife and a sold-out crowd was treated to an impressive triple bill of complimentary bands.
Openers Connecticut Four, a Bellingham three-piece led by the spunky Cristina Bautista, opened the show with an impressive 30-minuute set. The band specializes in quick-hitting poppy rock songs and they set the stage for Visqueen and Shonen Knife well. CT4 is definitely worth checking out if you have the opportunity and you may have the opportunity sooner rather than later considering Bautista might have some free time on her hands iin the near future (more on that in a minute).
Visqueen, another band featuring a spunky leading lady in Rachel Flotard, played mostly songs off Message To Garcia, a career-defining album that for my money is the best local rock record of the year. The songs Visqueen’s latest album are as emotionally moving and heartfelt as they are feisty and fun. It is a record I fell in love with on first listen and hearing the songs live in an intimate setting like The Tractor made me fall in love with the music from Message To Garcia all over again.
Speaking of love, Visqueen’s set almost felt like a giant lovefest because it was pretty clear most of the crowd was there to support the band and help welcome them back to the local scene after a hiatus of a couple of years. Flotard and her band were sincerely thankful for the support (at one point she almost teared up) and let the crowd know it several times throughout the set. The thank yous came during witty anecdotes or observations between songs, so they weren’t really all too sweet and sappy, but they were definitely sincere and heartfelt. In fact, Flotard’s communication with the crowd is one of the joys of seeing Visqueen live. Not only do you get a great rock show you get some of the best stage banter around.
Unfortunately Visqueen will go on another hiatus in the coming months when Flotard leaves for Cambodia and Laos on an aid mission. This will be a brief departure from the scene, (lasting only a few months this time, not years) and it leaves her bandmates – Ben Hooker, Tom Cummings and Cristina Bautista – with time to purse other interests for a little while, which is why you’ll hopefully get to see more of Connecticut Four soon. Maybe knowledge of the upcoming hiatus is one reason why the show was so packed, but that’s doubtful as the triple-bill of girl-powered rock really was hard to refuse.
Osaka’s Shonen Knife headlined and a lot of the set focused on Super Group, the band’s latest album. I had never seen Shonen Knife live or listened much to their music. Prior to the Tractor show I only knew Shonen Knife as a band that was name-checked by Thurston Moore and Kurt Cobain but the trio’s Beach Boys-meets-Ramones J-pop style of music meshed well with the other bands on the bill.
Shonen Knife carried more of a cute and cuddly kitten vibe than a rock-your-face-off feeling. Their jokey songs about 1970 supergroups, candy and other offbeat topics were complimentary to the fiery spunk of the openers. Also, it was pretty clear hey’ve been at it for a while (SK has been a band since 1981, this lineup has been together since 2006) as they were very few hiccups in their set. They came out thrashing on their guitars with their hair flying everywhere in a headbanging fury before belting out a hearty “Konnichiwa” to the crowd. It was a fittingly fun and rocking way for the headlining band to begin its set that marked the end of a very fun and rocking night.
