Through @ 2: So Pitted on Occupy Seattle, Ministry, Keanu Reeves, and Keanu Reeves

The situation I'm sitting on Linda's back patio with the punk quartet So Pitted--that's Tyler Everett, Liam Downey, Nathan Rodriguez, and Spike Taylor. So Pitted was formed late last year when Rodriguez was homeless and sleeping on Everett's couch. (The two now share a house in Beacon Hill where Rodriguez has his own room.) Halfway into our chat, Taylor has to leave us--he's a cook at Linda's and is on the clock.

"All right, now that he's gone, let's talk about him," says Downey.

"He needs to shave his beard," says Rodriguez of Taylor's folksy facial hair, shaking his head seriously. "It's getting out of control."

How They Got Here Everett joins us a few minutes late--he's just walked up from Westlake Park, where he's been working as a volunteer serving food to Occupy Seattle protesters every day for the past week. "It's a great community, and I've learned a lot," he says. He's even stayed overnight--"I slept there on Sunday night, if you can call it sleeping."

Shop Talk Taylor's a new addition to the band--he's actually been filling in on bass for Everett, who broke his arm skateboarding a few months ago and hasn't been able to play his instrument. Now that he's on the mend, though, the band is incorporating Taylor as a second guitarist. "We're going to be doing a lot more wailing sounds," he says.

The band's been closing their shows with a cover of "Stigmata" by Ministry, one of Downey's favorite bands--"[Ministry's] version is, like, seven minutes long, and it has all sorts of electronics, and our version has no electronics," says Downey. "It's only, like, two minutes long. I think it's a good cover because we play it like we would play one of our songs." So Pitted's still never released any proper recording (they have two rough demos, "Heaven Sent" and "Party Boyz Anthem," each under two minutes long, on Bandcamp), but they're hoping to change that by recording a full-length sometime this fall.

BTW: So Pitted's Halloween costumes for their Comet show are still undecided. But they're not without ideas--cats from the musical Cats; a flock of birds; Rodriguez as Keanu Reeves in Speed ("Will you be my Sandra Bullock?" he asks Downey); four Keanu Reeves characters from four different movies ("The dentist from Thumbsucker!"); Keanu Reeves' band Dogstar; Keanu Reeves and three other Matrix characters, for which Downey claims Trinity.

"Cross-dressing is such a stereotypical thing," says Rodriguez, "especially for a punk band."

"I've never cross-dressed," says Downey. "I really want to."

So Pitted plays the Comet with Angelo Spencer et les Hauts Sommets, Orca Team, and Boats on Sunday, October 30. The show starts at 9 p.m. and costs $8.

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