A Message From The QSNTPSC

     I wanted to write a year-end top albums list, but to your relief I've talked myself out of it. To be honest, I can never seem to get around to listening to music the year it's released. Plus, why write about something someone else is getting paid to write about better? So, here's a favorite from this year that, I think, deserves a listen. 

Tank EP - Qualcomm Stadium

      My bandmate Nik and I are the founding members of the Qualcomm Stadium Needs To Play Shows Committee (the QSNTPSC). Meetings are biweekly, Thursday afternoons in the fall, and mostly consist of us sitting in our living room listening to the Tank EP and Demo back-to-back several times, being the criminally short releases they are. 

The Demo EP - Qualcomm Stadium

     The QSNTPSC formed in Summer 2017 at The Wormhole. Nik and I were there to see a favorite emo revival remnant band. I guess Itemfinder was there, too, but during this time in my life I was convinced public transit was The Solution and I took the Light Rail and missed most of their set. Qualcomm Stadium was set to finish out the night; after the touring band loaded out the attendees were rallied for one last band.

     What greeted us inside the home astonished us: two full bass stacks surrounded the drums like a mighty Tonehenge. Max's voice was already queeking softly through monitors - "the sign haunts / the parking lot where / the restaurant once stood" - while both bass guitars thrummed chords and a counter melody high on the neck, reverb hanging each note in the air until it was thick with sound. 

  Stepping back from that wonderful narrative I just painted for you to make a few things clear:

          1) I know bands can have two bassists, I know it isn't necessarily a huge deal, and I know some purists who will be up in arms over this. Qualcomm Stadium executes it very well on their demo; playing traditionally guitar parts with a bass (chords, namely) can get messy, but they're more about melodies and counter-melodies than a melody over a chord, anyways (and if you still can't get over it, Max plays guitar on the Tank EP, anyways). 

           2) I might be overselling the wall-of-tone thing, but that's just how live sound in small rooms always is. Something appeals to my lizard-brain about being shook to my core by tones so loud I can't hear my thoughts torturing me. Live music should demand your attention, you know? Don't believe anything Kane says about me excitedly texting him from this gig something along the lines of "hey! i'm seeing this band that sounds like duster!!"  On their recorded material, there's a lot more of that loud/soft dichotomy all of indie rock has come to love over the years. 

     Ok, so they had two bassists and it wasn't a shitshow, so what? Any idiot can play in key with any other idiot, what makes this band so special? Ultimately, it's got to come down to the songwriting, and Max's blows me out of the water. The lyrics and their lilting placement within melodies feels, if not fresh, then at least welcome; the destructive images of King Dome '93, the obscure metaphors of 49°. Some folks don't like obscurity in their lyrics, but I do. Max gives us just enough clarity to visualize a scene or empathize with an emotion, and leaves us (and the guitars) to fill in the blanks.

     Qualcomm Stadium has, to my knowledge, played two shows, ever. This is a true tragedy. I understand their members may all live in different states. I understand it's hard to get motivation to take time off from a career-level job to go around rockin'. But please, I'm begging you, throw some money at their Bandcamp. Maybe, just maybe, they'll see some money float in from Our Most Honorable Digital Streaming Site and decide it's time to pack it up for Seattle and record some more of that good-ass rainy day music. Or, download it for free and we'll see you at the next QSNTPSC meeting.