Tonight Kelly and I (and our good friend Miranda) went to see a show at Dante’s in downtown Portland, a double-headliner of both Stellastarr* (link not working at the time of this writing, you can check out their MySpace page though) and Editors. Before the show we met for dinner and drinks at the Shanghai Tunnel, one of the better spots to hang out in the area near the show.
We got to Dante’s just after the doors opened, and already it was filling up. The opening act, Monsters Are Waiting, were really pretty good. The quirky female lead singer’s appearance was similar to that of Emily Haines of Metric, similar haircut, similar fashion sense, small keyboard, etc. However, musically they were a bit harder on the rock scale. I was very impressed with them.
The first of the two bands we were there to see, Stellastarr* came on and by that point the place was packed (really packed, overpacked even) and very warm and stuffy. The band however put on a great show, despite the electrical system at Dante’s. Towards the end of their 3rd song the power to all the gear on stage dies. The band ends up having to leave the stage while 5 or 6 tech monkeys ran around the stage trying to pinpoint the source of the problem. After about 20 minutes, the band returns and puts on a great show.
After a bit of a break, Editors took the stage and they were fantastic! Unfortunately, they too suffered the same power problems that Stellastarr* had. However, the outage was limited to just the lead guitarists half of the stage (including his guitar), and during one of their more popular tracks. Twice! Yup, about 15 seconds or so into the song Munich the power cuts out. The band leaves, things get fixed in about 5 minutes, they return and start again, and about 15 seconds into the song, bam! Same trouble. Finally things get fixed (after the lead singer makes a joke "maybe it’s the song?") and they are able to finish both that song and the rest of the show without a hiccup.
Both Stellastarr* and Editors put on great shows, and I definately recommend seeing them live (if you’re into that sort of thing). One thing I definately don’t recommend is Dante’s as a venue. It was blazingly hot with little to no ventilation, super crowded, and then the ‘technical difficulties’ during the shows. Just crap. The only good thing about the place was the staff. Despite how crazy it was all the bartenders were friendly and attentive.
After the show, when we finally escaped to the cool outside air, we walked down the street to a Portland landmark of sorts, Voodoo Doughnuts. Kelly and I had never been there before (somehow, even though we’d lived downtown for 10 years, we’d never ventured into the place) and tried their doughnuts, and they were delicious! Mmmmm, doughnuts. 🙂
2 replies on “Stellastarr*, Editors, donuts”
Some girl in a class I was in for work brought in some Voodoo donuts. I had one with Froot Loops on it or some such. Tasty!
yeah, they make all kinds of strange things, like one with bacon on it. My friend Michael said he had it one time and it was actually good (like when you have pancakes and the syrup gets on the bacon, that sweet salty thing).