Through @ 2: Footwork on Knitting, Dance Punk, and the Short Lane

The Situation I'm at Vermillion on Capitol Hill drinking beers with the local dance-punk trio Footwork, which consists of two California transplants--guitarist Taylor Wingett and drummer/vocalist Myke Pelly, along with bassist/vocalist Jim Scheall, who's describing himself to me as "kind of a grandma."

"I have two cats, I have this huge floral Grandma couch, I collect Pyrex and dishware," he says. I ask if he knits. "No. I should, though." Wingett points out that with that many cats, having balls of yarn around might be problematic.

How They Got Here It's a Tuesday, and all three had working days--Pelly and Scheall both work at the same bank doing what they called "mortgage-related stuff." Wingett spends his days working with autistic teens, a job he says he loves and relates to his social upbringing as well.

"I think growing up with a lot of punk ideals, a lot of things I learned in the punk community, instills a lot of altruism in people," he explains. "I think having a cool community, when that's what you grow up caring about and wanting to strengthen, it makes sense that you'd go into that line of work."

Shop Talk Footwork is a relatively new kid on the punk block--the band formed just last fall and has played about five shows since their inception. Of the seven songs they've written, only three have names--including the one track you can listen to on their Bandcamp page, the rambunctious "Jurassic Punk."

"A lot of the intention of the band was--and I think the name ended up embodying this really well--to have a dancey band," says Scheall. "There's lot of really great DIY venues, but I feel like, at least for our style of music, there's been this hole as far as house shows. So when I started this band I had this notion of, 'God, I miss the energy of a house show, of being packed in a sweaty basement and dancing.' And then we tend to sing about drinking and being crazy."

"There's a song where [Jim] and I are playing off each other," says Pelly, "like he's one person at a party coming up and being like, 'Hey, what's up!' And then I go, 'Yeah, I don't remember you at all.'"

BTW I ask for some things that all three of them have in common.

"We're all . . . I wouldn't say short . . . " Pelly trails off. (They're all between 5'5" and 5'6".)

"You can say short," says Wingett.

They're all comic-book nuts as well. Pelly says he's got about 2,000 Superman comics. "I stopped when I was 17, and then I started again when I moved to Seattle because all my friends are nerds and they were OK with it!"

"That's one thing Seattle is really cool about," says Scheall. "A lot of nerds."

Footwork plays Cairo this Friday, May 13. Captain Ahab and Stickers are also on the bill. The show starts at 8 p.m. sharp, is all ages, and will run you $5 at the door.

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