Sharp Pins’ Explosive Performance at The Moore

Sandwiched between Armlock and Snail Mail, Sharp Pins hit the Moore with the force of a train. I can safely say that I have never seen a show quite like this one before.

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The Moore is never the ideal place for a rock concert. Finding out that your favorite band is coming to the sit-down-only venue is not particularly fortunate news. The last time I saw Snail Mail in high school, they were coincidentally also playing at the Moore. My friends and I ended up standing up front while everyone else spent the entire concert sitting down. Zero standing space is enough of an inconvenience on its own, but coupled with post-pandemic concert culture, it tends to be awkward if you’re seeing anything more rowdy than an orchestra play.

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Australia’s Armlock embraced the calm with their performance. For their first show in Seattle, they graced the stage with shag haircuts and talked about kangaroos. Before Snail Mail ended the night by getting the whole crowd to their feet, Sharp Pins became the perfect bridge between the two openers.

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Sharp Pins’ lead singer Kai Slater commanded the room from the second the band stepped onstage. Slater and his band were dressed straight out of the 1970s, with hairstyles to match it.

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Coming from Chicago, the band actually sounds shockingly British. As they played their first few songs, my friends and I muttered to each other, wondering if we’d possibly heard incorrectly that they were from the Midwest and not England.

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Clearly influenced by The Beatles and other classic British bands, Slater sang in a cadence perfectly matching his old-fashioned look. Through the entirety of the band’s performance, I sincerely never knew what they were going to do next. They moved erratically around the stage, dancing and wagging their arms around in ways I haven’t seen at previous concerts, truly captivating the crowd.

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Slater moved around while playing guitar at a speed suited for a true rock venue. If the Moore’s seating arrangement intimidated him, it never showed.

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Halfway through their set, the mood shifted. Slater ushered his bandmates offstage and swapped his electric guitar for an acoustic one. “Now, I’m gonna play some songs for the lovers,” he announced while bathed in a spotlight.

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Simply by playing a few acoustic songs about love, Slater shifted the energy of the room from funky and wild to intimate — it was as if the 1800-person venue seated two for a riverside romantic dinner.

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Bringing the band back on, Sharp Pins sealed the deal with the chaotic energy they brought to the stage while playing the last songs from their paper plate setlist, finishing with their songs “Crown of Thorns” and “I Can’t Stop.”

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As a long-time Snail Mail fan, I didn’t know what to expect from this band when I went to the show. I didn’t know if they would have a similar sound, or if the crowd would remain sitting the entire performance, like when I attended the Moore in high school.

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While it’s unclear if Sharp Pins inspired the crowd’s collective energy, I can absolutely say that they set the tone for the entire night — they even got people to stand in front of their chairs. As the night ended, people were muttering about the second opener even as they left the show.

- Jaya