Concert Review: Undertow Music Collective House Tours

Imagine Bob Dylan playing an acoustic show for you and thirty of your closest friends – in your living room.

That is how it felt when I saw Anders Parker and Will Johnsonn play at a small house in the Central District on a rainy Friday evening. The musicians made their stage in a very large sun room, lit by candles and white Christmas lights. The audience circled around on chairs, sat on stairs and one guy even perched on an exercise bike which, as Johnson pointed out, was the best seat in the house due to the cup holder built in for his beer. A very nice pit bull wandered the crowd, greeting everyone, and once or twice a cat meowed at the door to be let in, to no avail. 

Read the full review after the jump.

Parker and his Will Oldham-style beard played first. He performed an intimate set of songs with only a little banter in between. At one point he ran into trouble, having accidentally set his lyric sheet for new songs on a wet chair. But if he couldn’t read them, I couldn’t tell. His closing song blew me away with dramatic shifts and building rhythms, telling an epic story of creation and destruction. 

Will Johnson took over shortly after, also playing acoustic guitar and also sporting a beard, albeit a far more trimmed affair. Johnson told stories between songs, one about living in a small Texas town near Austin, which is also the home of pro wrestler the Undertaker. He apparently embarked on a quest to find the Undertaker at the local grocery store, but never had any luck. Johnson’s songs were more vocal-heavy and he even encouraged a sing-along at one point, managing to get just about everyone in the house singing “ahhhhh aaaaahhh.”  No small feat in Seattle. 

There was a lovely moment in the middle of his set when the rain picked up again, as if mother nature wanted in on the action, too.

Before this night, I was completely unaware of Parker and Johnson’s music, and I’m grateful to have gotten such a pleasant introduction to their it. 

Parker and Johnson are headed to California next for more of these unusual  house shows. Undertow Music Collective  is responsible for organizing their tour. Tickets are about $20 bucks and audiences are very respectful of the hosts. Undertow has sent out many great singer-songwriters (Rosie Thomas, David Bazan, Rocky Votolato to name a few) on house show tours, although I don’t think they have signed up Dylan yet. 

Check out more Undertow Music Collective shows a their Web site.

Image: Molo's camera wasn't really working out in the space, so he drew a picture of one of the musicians instead. Don't you just love artists?