Seattle

So good they deserve their own goddam post: The Saturday Knights filled in for another band's cancellation and played a triumphant sunset set. Last year they appeared in the same spot--the Fisher Green stage--and had to resort to playing the same song twice for lack of material. This year, on the strength of Mingle, the most brilliant unsung record of 2008, they played a grip of irrresistable tunes that swung from true-school hiphop to gutter punk to Muscle Shoals soul to electro indie rock. Totally useless trying to categorize this truly homegrown phenomenon--they are what they are, and they're as fun as beer and trampolines.

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The trio of MCs Barfly and Tilson and DJ/producer Suspence played with a three-piece horn section, a guitarist, and drummer Tyler Swan of Truckasauras, another Seattle favorite on the verge of widespread underground glory. "Turn around and look at that Space Needle, people," Tilson told the crowd. The crowd turned around and looked. "I feel as big as that right now." Barfly--the Saturday Knights' X-factor and potential Achilles heel during shows--performed with equal stature. The pair nailed their cues and traded lines like the old pros they are. When they're in that mode--which, admittedly, isn't always--they're unstoppable.

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An example of their brilliance that's not taken from the brilliant Mingle: Tonight Suspence flipped the opening vocal harmonies of Seattle it-band Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal" so Barfly and Tilson could turn it into a mock coke-slinger's anthem. After getting the nod for the gig late last week, they probably came up with that idea on the spot. Total trainspotters' move, but everyone in the crowd paying attention was laughing along with the band. I heard they later did something similar with Band of Horses' "The Funeral."

Like the Beastie Boys, the Saturday Knights thumb their noses at hipness with one hand while high-fiving it with the other. 

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