Last Night The Zombies at El Corazon
posted by on July 25 at 16:08 PM
What the fuck, people? WHAT THE FUCK? There were less than 200 people at the Zombies last night at El Corazon. LESS THAN 200! For the Zombies! Those of us standing around in the less-than-half-empty club (including a lot of local musicians and a man who looked disconcertingly like Philip Roth) were appalled by the turnout, if also, on another level, thrilled about getting to see the Zombies in what felt a lot like a private little show, a freak circumstance, a secret from the world. A few of them came out with their goofy haircuts to tune their instruments before disappearing again, and the guy standing next to me, a musician, was stunned at the sight—they were tuning their own instruments! He encouraged the person standing next to him, also a musician, to imagine himself 40 years hence tuning his own instruments in front of this many people at El Corazon.
Unlike the Zombies’ music, El Corazon is not pretty, and the contrast lent the whole evening a flower-growing-out-of-a-crack-in-the-asphalt aspect. If you haven’t read Sean Nelson’s interrogation of the Zombies’ Colin Blunstone in The Stranger this week, do yourself a favor. Nelson talks about hearing Blunstone sing “I Love You” the last time they were in Seattle, mentioning that “when you hit the high note on the line ‘and I don’t know WHAT TO SAY,’ this wave of awe went through the room.” They opened with “I Love You” again last night, and wave of awe is exactly the way to describe the crowd’s response to it. The applause at the end of the song was interminable. A few songs later, one of the Zombies asked the crowd, “Are people here familiar with our album Odessey and Oracle?” and the crowd lost their shit. For a long while. An extended losing of shit. Finally, when it seemed like the cheering would never end, one of the Zombies said, “Well, that’s encouraging. Maybe we’ll do one or two more”—one or two more off Odessey and Oracle than they were planning. Then one of them said the next two songs they were going to play were the first two songs on Odessey and Oracle, and then he gave the titles, which, for this crowd, was entirely unnecessary. The urge to not sing along was quickly abandoned. They loved the love.
At one point I ducked out into the front room bar to get drinks and saw two guys and a chick sitting at the bar. I asked them what the fuck they were doing out here. The Zombies, I informed them, were playing in the next room. The chick lazily pointed at a TV screen above the bar, which was broadcasting what was happening in the next room. Don’t point at that! I said. The Zombies are playing in the next room! Then one of the dudes snarled, “When they stop playing these love songs we’ll go in.” Then I killed them.
After the show—AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING, with a couple unfortunate keyboard solos thrown in—I got to talking to the guy working the door. Tattoos, bald head, permanent sneer. He had never heard of the Zombies. I resisted the impulse to give him a hard time and drunkenly, earnestly, recommended Odessey and Oracle. Unprompted, I explained how fantastic it is, that it’s an album everyone should be lucky enough to have in their life. He looked at me square in the eyes and, with as much tough-guy dismissiveness as he could muster, said: “I’m glad you had fun tonight, man.”
Didn't they play the Bite of Fife last year?
Calm down! Obviously the Zombies are a legendary band, but me and my friends just didn't want to see them playing in that shit hole. If they had played the Show Box or the Triple Door again, there would've been a much bigger crowd.
While it was a travesty that so few people turned out to see the Zombies (How many bands can play a set that's 50% legitimate classics that have inspired a generation of bands?), that great feeling of being at a private performance outweighed my embarrassment. My friend (the aforementioned musician) wondered if, at that point in their career, the old chestnut about how a smaller, more appreciative crowd is better than a bigger, less attentive one still holds true. I sure fucking hope so.
I didn't know they were playing... A bigger venue with more promo would have brought out a lot more people. I don't really get what their management or booking agent is thinking.
I agree with #2...EC is a shit-hole. Bad service, asshole doorman ("jock" douche-bags) and overflowing toilets.
It's not the beloved neighborhood/scene friendly dive The Offramp- it's unfortunately, just a shadow of what it was.
The Chop Suey would have suited them better anything but that place.
EC is constantly having empty showrooms in case you haven't noticed.
It's not a slight to the band(s) that play there it's the venue.
Tell The Zombies booking agent to book at a real industry club, then I'm sure it would be a sold-out event.
You must be an incredibly annoying guy in person.
Boo-hoo, someone had to leave the Hill for a show. Did any of the doormen honestly harass you last night? Did the location of the venue honestly affect how much you enjoyed the band playing? Grow up.
i dont know.....
maybe if they'd promoted the fucking show like the legends they are? or if they didnt play EL CORAZON!?! a venue more akin to Bristle, or Mortis? i WORSHIP the Zombies, and was at their last show at el corazon. the only people in the audience had heard about it like just a few days before, and were very confused.
this is not a problem with us as a missing audience...this is a problem with a fucking clueless promoter.
Classic passive-aggressive Seattle attitude: "I would have gone, but nobody tried hard enough to tell me about it and convince me to go, and there is a chance someone might have been mean to me..."
Seriously... I would have gone had I actually KNOWN about it. I didn't find out about it until I read the interview in this week's Stranger.... today. You'd think with a legendary band, they'd want people to, y'know, KNOW THEY WERE PLAYING. Ergh.
And, yeah, El Corazon DOES suck ass, but I would have still gone there for the Zombies.
Sir,
One cannot work for a paper that relentlessly promotes hipster conformity and pounds the drum for the CHBP, and then excoriate your readership for this happenstance.
More to the point, why do the people who book the CHBP not put the Zombies on their best stage, in the best time slot, of the day? Because the Zombies are *old*, and CHBP has nothing to do with music. It is merely a celebration of how cool we are.
And yes, EC is a hole, with tools for staff. Which did not affect my enjoyment of Earth/SunnO))) last year one whit.
touche, rtm.
to be fair, it might be more entertaining to watch a bunch of young MC5 imitators (guess who!) play block party now rather than the original members of the band - to the uninformed/ignorant. Isn't that what happened to all those blues musicians in the 50s?
there is no justice in pop culture, only some "indie" dance outfit called Justice.
I saw the Zombies the last time they were here. While I enjoyed it, the guitar player they had really took away from things a lot for me with his 2 hand tapping bad Eddie Van Halen inspired solo on "She's Not There" and other things of that nature.
By the time I had endured that stuff, I just wasn't inspired to see it again.
holly shit the zombies played EL corazon! what is this world coming to. they should have played a better venue in seattle or better yet, why the fuck didn't they play the block party. they would have been perfect. now i'm angry. my day is ruined.
Yeah... saw The Zombies in 2006 at El Corazon, and while it was The Zombies it was also pretty disappointing. They played four songs off Odessey and Oracle and then a bunch of crappy 80s songs (remember "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll To You?"). That guitar player was awful too. It was like they hired a David Hasselhoff look-a-like to run around with his SRV guitar and play tapping solos on some of their most well known songs. Since I do like The Zombies' music here is what I suggest they do:
1. Play a better venue
2. Play "Odessey and Oracle" in its entirety
3. Play song's from Colin's "One Year"
4. Hire a bunch young Zombies obsessed musicians to be your backing band.
got to see them two years ago in the same location. how their bookers end up getting them el corazon when they come through town and not the triple door or at least chop suey is baffling. not that el corazon doesn't have a great sound set up, you just envision the zombies in a more illustrious setting. they played nearly the entire Odessey and Oracle record including "a rose for emily" which blunstone sang and nailed beautifully at 40+ and there are some extremely high notes in that tune. argent slayed on his keys, not even an 18 year old prodigy can rip that "time of the season" solo and i am pretty sure they just extended the jam for shits n giggles. argent mentioned very casually something like 'oh yeah, john lennon wanted and offered to produce odyssey and oracle, but we decided we were fully capable of making our own incredible record'
only downfall was phantom planet opened and covered 'friends of mine' which was like, whoa, dudes, i want the zombies to play that track not you yokels.
a major side note to the whole thing was that jim rodford, bass player for the kinks throughout the golden years was accompanying them on bass.
Late into the discussion, but it's not like the Zombies haven't played here several times in the last five years. They are a casino band that had a well-received set @ the Crocodile attended by all the appropriate taste makers in the suit and blow crowd a few yrs back. O&O is brilliant, Care of Cell 44 is one of the greatest pop songs ever written, Tell Her No was my first favorite song ever, but don't blast anyone for not shelling out dough to see a rehash. It's not like it was Ray Davies or anything.
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