Category: Music

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. 🙂

Kelly and I attended the CD release concert for a really great local band, Talkdemonic, at Holocene (yup, where Kacey and Ryan got married last weekend) with our friend Miranda.

Before the show we went for dinner and drinks at Lucky Lab, a great local brew pub, which aside from having great beers and great food, is also a super dog friendly place (where you get to pet a lot of other people’s dogs, yay!).

Next we went to Holocene and waited in line a bit before 9pm. We finally got in, got a couple drinks and then the first of two opening acts went onstage, Horse Feathers and they were really good. Very mellow acoustic music. The lead singer reminded Kelly and I a little of David Gray. We ended up buying their EP during the show. The band consisted of a lead singer / guitar player, a girl on keyboards singing harmony, and another fellow who alternated instruments from violin to banjo bass. During their set they announced that they have a full-length album coming out in June. Looking forward to hearing that, as the EP is very short and sounds very homemade.

The second opening act was another local band called Wet Confetti. They were good, but there were two things that both Kelly and I couldn’t get past. First, we couldn’t get get away from how similar they were to Blonde Redhead, both in the band’s composition (two males, and an asian female vocalist) and even their sound. Second, the sound of the room where the concert was held at Holocene was less than great. It made it hard to hear the female vocalist at times, and at other times it was just a mess of noise that made it hard to discern anything other than than the drums.

Finally, at about quarter past midnight, Talkdemonic took the stage. We’d seen them once before at the Doug Fir, and as before, they were fantastic. The ‘band’ consists of two people, a guy who alternates between drums and keyboards, and a girl who plays the violin. They perform with a pre-recorded track (off of a computer) of some beats, bass lines, and/or guitar riffs, and the guy of the duo (Kevin O’Connor) drums or plays keyboards to it, while Lisa Molinaro, the violinist, beautifully plays over top of it all. It is truely beautiful music, and really fun to see live. Despite the fact that it’s not your traditional rock show (there are no vocals of any kind) they really do rock, and they have a sound that is very unique. I’m listening to their new CD Beat Romantic now, and it is really really good. I highly recommend it.

That said, they too suffered from the same sound issues that Wet Confetti did unfortunately. Early in the show you could hardly hear Lisa’s violin playing, and the pre-recorded backing track was so loud that it was all you could hear most of the time. Fortunately having heard them before (both live, and via their first album) I knew enough songs to know what they sounded like and was able to get past some of the mixing board issues, but overall the sound was less than great. I’m still glad to have seen them live, and to have been there to support them for their release party for their second album. Oh, and Holocene was totally packed full. Yay for Talkdemonic! 🙂

Kelly and I saw Metric perform live (at the Wonder Ballroom) last night with our friends Ty & Aymie, Miranda, and Kristen. We met at the Wonder Cafe, which in the basement of the ballroom, for dinner. The evening with Metric started there because as Miranda walked up to where we were seated she said "by the way, the band is sitting right over there" pointing across the room. Cool! Anyway, we ate dinner (I had the meatloaf, which was delicious) and chatted well into the set of the first opening band, End of Fashion. We got upstairs to catch the end of their set which wasn’t anything to speak of. The second opening band, Islands, were a lot of fun, and totally nutty. Islands has a couple members from another good (though defunct) band, The Unicorns. There were a total of 7 people on stage, and the range of instruments was all over the place (guitars, keyboards, violins, oboes, maracas, banjos, etc) and the music was very fun. I ended up picking up a CD of theirs while at the show.

When Metric took the stage at about 10pm the crowd went nuts. The show was fantastic, with the lead singer Emily Haines strutting around the stage, totally in control of the audience. After the first copule songs she helped the crowd pull out the poles that divided the underage & overage sections, which left the Wonder Ballroom staff scrambling to put them back up. So punk rock! The band was tight, and the whole performance was great. They played everything from their latest album ‘Live It Out’ and nearly all the tracks from ‘Old World Underground’ but two, I.O.U. and Succexxy. Both of which were missed my Kelly, Miranda and I. Towards the end of the show they invited the audience onstage during the extended jamming of Dead Disco, which ended up getting about 30 or so people crammed onstage while they were trying to perform. Couldn’t even see the band.

The only complaints I had during the show were as follows: I think every guy that was over 6′ tall was at that show, and all standing around or in front of us, AND, the goddammed crowd surfers! A few times during a show like this is expected, but by the time the 20th person was up in the air I found myself secretly hoping that the crowd would just start dropping people. I know, I’m mean, but sheesh! However, both Emily the singer jumped into the crowd (twice!) and Josh the bassist surfed once. Far less annoying when it’s the band members doing the surfing. 🙂

The first time Kelly and I saw Metric was at the Doug Fir a couple years back. The Doug Fir is a much smaller venue where no matter where you are you are very close to the stage. On one hand I’m glad that they’ve moved up to bigger venues, they rock and their fanbase has grown considerably, however I miss the more intimate shows like the one at the Doug Fir a couple years back where I was able to meet and get autographs of the band as they were dismantling their gear. Ah well, still happy as hell that they’re getting the attention they deserve.