Snake Suspenderz

Earlier this week Kim and I had a small house/garden concert for our neighbors. We invited a local band called Snake Suspenderz who were absolutely perfect for the concert.

This whole concert thing started last winter when Kim decided to build a little deck in our back yard. She and a friend, Brian, worked on it and when it was done Brian stepped back and said, "you didn't build a deck, you built a stage." That got the gears spinning in Kim's head and she had been talking about having an outdoor concert series ever since. Unfortunately, summer arrived very late in Seattle this year, and the series dwindled down to this one performance.

Snake Suspenderz has been around for a while in various incarnations. I knew two of the players, Thadeus Spae (from the Oregon Country Fair and the Moisture Festival) and salamandir (who I used to play with in the Fremont Philharmonic back in my musical days). New to me were Sketch and Howlin' Hobbit. As Thadeus said that night, you know the band has to be special when the guy named Thadeus has the most normal name in the group.

They played a great mix of danceable jazz tunes on tuba, ukulele, trombone, guitar, and drums. I even sat in on one number, All Of Me, on Melodica. A recording of that event may surface some day. In addition to playing, taking photos, and hosting, I also was dragged onto the dance "floor" (actually the grassy lawn) by my 91-yr-old mom for a dance. I still can't keep up with her.

Here are some photos of the band, followed by some photos of folks in the crowd. And ending up with a video of the Snake Suspenderz rendition of Mack the Knife from the Three Penny Opera.

Thadeus

Howlin' Hobbit

salamandir

Sketch

Some of our guests...

Mam Rose, exasperated that I'm
trying to take yet ANOTHER photo of her

Kellie

And part of Mack The Knife (captured via iPhone 4)...