On May 10th, a DIY show was hosted at Cowen Park. People flocked to the show, and the poster, featuring bands District Forgotten, When It Feels Quiet, Circa 40, Kenmujo, and Blind Heresy, hit 900 likes. The stage was set in front of the bathrooms, and the audience stood on the playground’s woodchips.

After the rain, bands showed up around 6 p.m. to check out the park.  While adults throw a ball to each other and kids play on the playground, bands and friends find a place to set up the show.  As punks pull into the park, they find a big patch of concrete in front of the bathrooms and take their equipment to get ready for the show. Blind Heresy was running late, and the show started an hour later than the originally scheduled time of 7 p.m. The semi-GP student band, District Forgotten, plays first. The crowd begins to move as they start with an aggressive punk passion, then calm down for the next songs for an indie rock vibe, then end strong with an emo tone.

Then “When It Feels Quiet” plays next, after they come back from a break, they show their new emo songs.  People start crowd surfing as a violin starts to play, happy with their new sounding music.  Then the touring artist Kenmujo played next.  With an acoustic guitar and a pedal board, he strums and yells to the crowd.  The crowd was first uneasy by this noise artist, but started to love his stage presence.  Kenmujo invited people from the crowd to start banging on drums, making a caveman rhythm with this wild sound.  Then people start taking turns on the mic, they yell what their heart desires to the beat.

After is the greatest performance of the night, Circa 40, back from their three-month break.  More people push to the front than before. They start with a new song, emo with funk aspects. Then they go back to their old songs.  People dive into each other, wood chips fill up in shoes, and they scream along.  They showed their true emotion to the crowd, and the crowd loved them back.  After Circa 40 plays, people start to leave, because of it being so late, or being hungry, or Circa 40 having that headliner title now.  Blind Heresy played last, they play the loudest in the darkness of the night.  People come out of their homes and see what is happening at their local park as the crowd 2-steps with the rhythm.  Overall, everyone was tired but still had fun, and that is the most important thing to do at a show.

Setting up the show was a long process, with Kenmujo going on a worldwide tour, one of his stops was in Seattle, contacting Blind Heresy two months before for setting up a show. Blind, wanting to play at a venue, contacted Liviyyuh to help them get bands and a venue for the show. After reciting the rest of the bands, the search for a venue continues, but all the venues for the local shows were booked or 18+.  Not finding a place to play, the group decides to play at a park.  They chose Cal Anderson as their first choice, but then quickly changed due to another DIY show happening on the day before.  They decide to head north at Cowen Park, a high-risk place because there was only one other show hosted there in the past.  It was under the bridge on a hill, which was not ideal.  After setting a location, District Forgotten contacted Dominiclover for a poster, and the show was set and shown in Seattle.

Seattle is known for having a big music scene with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Jimi Hendrix.  Seattle’s punk scene stands strong after the grunge faze.  Seattle bands nowadays haven’t grown to fame as the years before, but names are still being heard.  Blind Heresy currently stands with three thousand followers on Instagram, and their most popular song, “What Are Scars,” has 11 thousand plays on Spotify.  Other bands who are Seattle-based are Kitcalico with 34 thousand plays on Spotify and “My Better Half” with 47 thousand listens.  With new trends, bands have gotten new local fame and are looking to show the world how punk Seattle can be in our current age of music.