Live Review by Dave Liljengren

On Friday, June 11, 1999, at precisely 8:32 am eastern time, Ricky Martin mania took the streets of New York-- and, within hours, breakfast nooks across the republic-- when the sexy "La Vida Loca" phenom performed live on the Today show. During the same week in Rain City, five sexy phenoms, many with less hair than Ricky Martin, all with more unadulterated rocking talent, were unleashing a citywide artist mania of their own.

Night after night the Built to Spill faithful shoehorned themselves, flushed cheek to sweaty jowl, into a sequence of overheated, overcrowded, clubs to hear songs from the band's recent disc, Keep It Like a Secret, adorned as they had never been before and perhaps would never be again. Between June 6th and 12th, an augmented version of BTS-- regulars Doug Martsch, Brett Nelson and Scott Plouf, joined by Jim Roth of the Delusions and Brett Netson of Caustic Resin-- played six nights of packed houses at the Crocodile, Breakroom and RKCNDY.

Each night BTS was joined by the Delusions, Seattle's iconoclastic rising stars who, because of guitarist Roth's multi-instrumental gifts, expand the palette and spectrum of alt-rock and alt-country to an alarming and exuberantly laudable degree. With Roth on lap steel and pedal steel in addition to electric guitar, and cellist Anne-Marie Raljancich doing occasional double duty on the keyboards, the rocking D-train rolled through songs from their 1998 disc, I Hope It Dies On a Sunny Day, (My Own Planet).

Opening acts varied from night to night, but my personal favorites were the Crabs, who played on Saturday at RKCNDY, and Stella Maris who opened on opening night, June 6, at the Crocodile. The Crabs play an easy farfisa folk loaded with quirky Olympia touches. Stella Maris is a new Seattle band featuring a former member of Tool.

When BTS took the stage, they were joined at first by Jim Roth of the Delusions. He'll be accompanying them on the European portion of their tour. Later, Brett Netson of Caustic Resin would join them as well. This three guitar army would then charge through most of the songs from BTS's recent disc, "Keep It Like a Secret." Roth and Netson allowed BTS to build a wall of screeching, powerful, quirky alt-rock sounds. Roth's slide guitar and lap-steel playing gave depth, volume, and innumerable new textures to familiar tunes like "The Plan" and "Center of the Universe." Each night the band would add a Caustic Resin tune, which Netson would sing, and a song from Seattle's Love as Laughter, which Martsch would sing.

To say the week of shows was excellent would be an understatement. The music was excellent to be sure, and beyond that the excitement which BTS was able to generate around themselves and extend to bands like the Delusions and each of the warm up acts was important in itself. Now that summer is here and nationals will be flooding Seattle like November rains, it was good to have a week where all that mattered here in music city were some local and regional acts.

Click Here for Claude Iosso's March 1999 Review of Built to Spill and the Delusions