FRIDAY, JUNE 6-Tonight is not a normal Friday night at Neumo’s. Instead of a crowd of smokers or panhandlers, on the corner of Pike and 10th is a card table manned by a squad of clipboard-toting young people. They’re asking passersby if they’re registered to vote and giving away campaign buttons for both Barack Obama and Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire, who is up for re-election in the fall. As one eager staffer explains, tonight Neumo’s is hosting an event for her, a concert featuring the Cave Singers and an appearance by Gregoire herself. “The governor’s going to speak. She’s going to be up there on-stage, rockin’ out.”

Inside, PWRFL Power plays an opening set to a small crowd of devoted fans packed in close to the stage. Behind them are clusters of seemingly indifferent, older people who must all be here to see Gregoire, right? Three middle-aged women explain that they actually came to see opener Telekinesis!. “I’ve followed him since he first started in music and he’s really talented,” says one. Do they care that Gregoire is here? “No,” says another. “I think it’s a good show and she’s just here. I think she’s trying to appeal to younger voters. Not us, we’re old.”

Kaz of PWRFL Power, on the other hand, seems excited to be playing for Gregoire. “When I got this gig I told my parents,” he explains to the crowd. After the show he affirms his support for the Governor. “I checked her out and she’s legit. I can’t vote over here though,” he admits. If he could, would he vote for Gregoire? “That’s exactly what I was going to say on-stage, but I forgot.”

After a hyper-enthusiastic Obama staffer plays hype man for a couple minutes-Gregoire’s campaign is trying really hard to link her with Obama, a savvy campaign move-Neumo’s owners Mike Meckling and Steven Severin appear on-stage to introduce the Governor. As Gregoire takes the stage, the crowd begins chanting “Four more years!” It’s quite obviously the doing of the numerous Gregoire staffers in the audience, most of whom are easy to pick out from the crowd drawn by the Cave Singers. As one concert-goer remarks, “I feel like all the douche-y-looking frat guys are here for Gregoire.” One is making the rounds with a clipboard, signing up volunteers for Gregoire’s campaign and saying things like, “This guys sounds like Bob Dylan!”

Governor Gregoire keeps her remarks short-”I know I’m standing between you and the Cave Singers”-and even manages to get the crowd fired up a little. “You are the answer to what we need in America,” she says. “We’re from the place where great bands begin. It’s part of our culture, part of our economy. And one of the great new bands is the Cave Singers.” She wraps things up political-rally style to enthusiastic applause: “Are we ready to vote? Are we ready for President Barack Obama? Are we ready to elect Gregoire? Are we ready for the Cave Singers?”

The Cave Singers display a wry, humorous attitude toward the night’s political proceedings. After they open their set with “Helen,” frontman Pete Quirk tells the crowd that, “We’re not necessarily a political band, but we love it when ladies announce us.” A couple songs later, it seems they might get a little more serious. They don’t. “I know you’re wondering, why are the Cave Singers and Christine Gregoire here together?” asks Quirk. “Well, we just started dating. We’re trying to keep a low profile. We’ll be at 13 Coins after the show.” The Cave Singers proceed to roll through a foot-stomping, washboard-scraping, finger-picking barnstormer of a set highlighted by crowd-pleasers from their debut Invitation Songs like “Dancing On Our Graves,” “Helen,” and-how could they not?-”Oh Christine.” They end the set on the same light-hearted note they started with, introducing their encore with Quirk announcing, “We’re not used to all this political stuff. We’re from the backwoods of Appalachia. We do like oversized Looney Tunes shirts.”

All in all, the night seems to have gone well for Gregoire. There are a lot of people in the crowd who obviously work for her in some capacity, but the house is pretty full and there are a lot of young people there for the music who don’t appear too indifferent to the politics. Audience member Linnet seems to speak for most of the crowd when she explains, “I would have come to see just the Cave Singers, but Christine Gregoire is a bonus.”

Photo courtesy of Blush Photo. For more photos by Blush of the show, check out Neumo’s flickr photostream.