This show was bumped from Tuesday night after Seattle Mayor Paul Schell and Washington State Governor Gary Locke teamed up and declared martial law in Seattle, subsequently suspending the constitution of the United States of America in a 15 square block area of the city.

I've never been to a concert in an occupied zone before. As I arrived at the Showbox, several police officers (each dressed like Darth Vader without a cape) were checking people's IDs to verify who had tickets to the concert. Those unable to prove they were in this part of town to see the previously scheduled event were ordered to leave the area and head to the cerfew perimeter (several blocks away) or be arrested. These cops were in no mood for a debate. I was worried they'd hassle me for not having my will call tickets on my person but I made it into the venue without incident.

The show opened with solo performances by folk singer Jim Page and another folky dude from New Orleans whose name escapes me (please e-mail me if you know his name -- I thought he quite rocked!).

Then Jello Biafra took the stage and did an off the cuff lecture/performance about the events of the last two days. He referred to the demonstrations and skirmishes as "The Cardboard Turtle Insurrection" (making reference to the dozen or so protestors dressed as sea turtles). As he spoke, Krist Novoselic (formerly of Nirvana), Kim Thayil (in his first performance since Soundgarden broke up) and Gina Mainwal (Sweet 75) took the stage to supply a background groove to Mr. B's manic mantra. As Jello finished exorting the crowd to destroy the "new feudalism" on planet Earth and to help find the cure for "wealth addiction", the No-WTO Combo kicked into the Dead Kennedy's "Let's Lynch the Landlord". The crowd went nuts. Seeing Jello back in action was a wonderful thing. The band did two original tunes: "New Feudalism" and "Electronic Plantation". I'd love to hear more polished versions of these tracks some day. The No-WTO Combo closed their far too brief set with an updated version of "Full Metal Jackoff" a plodding, dirgy song Jello originally recorded with punkers DOA almost ten years ago. During that last track, Krist Novoselic broke Seattle law by donning a gas mask (Mayor Schell had outlawed gasmasks earlier in the day) and old man Jello dove into the crowd for a short surf.

When Spearhead took the stage, Michael Franti also opted to start the show in spoken word fashion. He read a poem he had written during the L.A. riots of '92, a poem he had lost and only recently recovered. With a tweak here and there the poem was now about what was happening in Seattle '99. The band gave him a beat to work with and then the party started. Highlights included "Crime to Be Broke in America," "Water Pistol Man," a new track called "Sometimes," the always reliable "Of Course You Can," and a sped up version of "People in the Middle." Where Jello's No-WTO Combo was angry and political; Franti's Spearhead was decidedly loving and celebratory. On several occasions, Franti allowed stage crashers to dance or sing with him for the duration of an entire song... giving them big hugs before they left the stage.

Unfortunately, I was only able to see about 90 minutes of Spearhead's set and had to leave before they went into encore mode. Spearhead is known for playing long awesome sets well into the next day's morning.

As I left the show, I got the feeling that Seattle's "martial law" was really just an amateur Police State. There seemed to be plenty of people out and about that night and police presence seemed minimal before and after the event. The subject matter of the show turned out to be as anti-police and anti-WTO as it could possibly get, yet it was allowed to continue without interference. Let's hope the mostly peaceful Pacific Northwest never gets any better at throwing a Police State.

Of course, the good people of Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood have a slightly different perspective on martial law in Seattle (read Raptorial's other WTO tales for some of that story). Much of the TV footage you've seen of cops going bonkers with the tear gas and rubber bullets was filmed on the streets of Capitol Hill.