Harmonic Convergence

Friday we got word that Pufferfish would be playing at Full Tilt in White Center on Saturday night. We e-mailed Jonah back immediately: "OMG we are so coming to this."

Now, we'd never been to Full Tilt before, but it sounded like a self-contained harmonic convergence all on its own: an inspired nexus of pinball, ice cream, pizza, and beer. Add our favorite band into the mix -- for a rare all-ages show, no less -- and we couldn't imagine anyplace else we'd rather be.

So after the big Rollerderby Spaghetti Feed Fundraiser in West Seattle (where we chatted with a magenta-haired dad who (it turned out) also grew up skating the bike path from Santa Monica to Venice, ate our share of the mountain of spaghetti, decorated some experimental rollerskate-shaped cookies, and took part in a slightly surreal Cake Walk) we headed south to check out the Full Tilt scene.

Dude, so awesome! In addition to the aforementioned pinball, ice cream, pizza, and beer (all of which we eagerly sampled & thoroughly enjoyed) they have assembled a collection of vintage arcade games, including PacMan, Centipede, Dig Dug, Super Mario Brothers, and Frogger. Simon's favorite was the Star Wars game -- he put in his quarter, pushed "Play," and moments later exclaimed in a voice full of wonderment, "Am I flying an X-Wing?! This is so cool!" They also had a small collection of intriguing comics for sale (my favorite: "New Tales from the Slow Apocalypse"), and a gumball machine full of hipster buttons, which had swallowed quite a lot of Irene and Josie's quarters before the evening was over.

Somehow the management had managed to squeeze a performance space into the front window, where our Pufferfish pals proceeded to play almost all of our favorite songs (except for "Brake Drum," which drummer James apologetically told us "is just too... big for this space") and a few we hadn't heard yet. Emiko and Jonah started things off, before being joined by the full band.


Simon was a little distracted by an ice cream injustice during the quieter opening songs, but when Jonah revved up his electric guitar, our boy snapped to attention & was all ears from then on. Other parents had come prepared with hearing protection for their toddler:


but it really wasn't all that loud. One of our favorite moments came during "Last Country Song," which contains the following compelling, if ambitious, proclamation:

Gonna write the last country song
The country song to end all country songs
About a man and his truck
And how without it he'd be f**ked.
It's gonna climb to the top of the pop charts
And corner that hip hop market too
It's gonna get me out of this hell hole
And back in good with you.


As Jonah launched into this verse, he glanced over at Simon and hesitated for a second, before deciding that the truckless hero of the hypothetical country song could be safely characterized as "out of luck." This substitution wasn't strictly necessary (we'll admit our son might possibly have heard that other word a time or two...) but it was certainly considerate, and highly appreciated, most especially by Simon himself.

After a lovely "Decoder Ring" finale, we left the warm bright haven of Full Tilt and headed out into the dark streets of White Center, full to the brim with spaghetti, organic ice cream, and haunting harmonies.

And if that's not enough harmonic covergence for you, consider this: a second Full Tilt will be opening in Columbia City this spring! Start saving those quarters, kids!