July 25, 26, 2009 Saturday and Sunday Night Shows At the Aladdin Theater Saturday Jason Collette Songs about highways and Lake Superior. The Weakerthans Sorry for no pictures: got hassled by security about the camera. John Sampson looks less skinny than 2003. Married life I guess... Setlist: Night Windows Tournament of Hearts Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault In Paris, 1961) Benediction Reconstruction Site Aside Relative Surplus Value One Great City Sounds Familiar Bigfoot! Plea From A Cat Named Virtue The Reasons Elegy for Elsabet Left and Leaving Confessions of a Futon-Revolutionist Virtue The Cat Explains Her Departure (Manifest) encore: My Favorite Chords Wellington's Wednesdays Pamphleteer Sunday Ottmar Liebert and Luna Negra

To Waken An Old Lady Old age is a flight of small cheeping birds skimming bare trees above a snow glaze. Gaining and failing they are buffeted by a dark wind- But what? On harsh weedstalks the flock has rested, the snow is covered with broken seedhusks and the wind tempered by a shrill piping of plenty. as if the earth under our feet were an excrement of some sky These are the desolate, dark weeks when nature in its barrenness equals the stupidity of man. The year plunges into night and the heart plunges lower than night to an empty, windswept place without sun, stars or moon but a peculiar light as of thought that spins a dark fire- whirling upon itself until, in the cold, it kindles to make a man aware of nothing that he knows, not loneliness itself-Not a ghost but would be embraced-emptiness, despair-(They whine and whistle) among the flashes and booms of war; houses of whose rooms the cold is greater than can be thought, the people gone that we loved, the beds lying empty, the couches damp, the chairs unused- Hide it away somewhere out of the mind, let it get roots and grow, unrelated to jealous ears and eyes-for itself. In this mine they come to dig-all. Is this the counterfoil to sweetest music? The source of poetry that seeing the clock stopped, says, The clock has stopped that ticked yesterday so well? and hears the sound of lakewater splashing-that is now stone.

This Is Just To Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold At our age the imagination across the sorry facts lifts us to make roses stand before thorns. Sure love is cruel and selfish and totally obtuse- at least, blinded by the light, young love is. But we are older, I to love and you to be loved, we have, no matter how, by our wills survived to keep the jeweled prize always at our finger tips. We will it so and so it is past all accident.

Practical to the end, it is the poem of his existence that triumphed finally; a wisp of feathers flattened to the pavement, wings spread symmetrically as if in flight, the head gone, the black escutcheon of the breast undecipherable, an effigy of a sparrow, a dried wafer, left to say and it says it without offense, beautifully; This was I, a sparrow. I did my best; farewell. - William Carlos Williams

Saturday Night Show

At the Wonder Ballroom

Ages
Here's a theoretical question: What do you get when your seven person band could easily be trimmed down to the useful parts, which might number three or four? Some band I think was called Ages, lots of straggling harmonies and lots and lots, possibly too much auxiliary percussion. Serious, no one needs more than one tambourine per band, ever.

Cut Off Your Hands
Back in the day when bands like the Killers were burning up the charts, labels were tripping over themselves to find yelpy Brit-pop Franz Ferdinand clones to push on the masses. Thankfully the heyday of skinny man-jeans and fashion hair has seen its full wax. Or so I thought. Enter twitchy New Zealand band Cut Off Your Hands. (no, YOU cut off YOUR hands! no, you!) Frontman Nick Johnston channelled a little Morrissey, surrounded by the Skinny Twins on bass and guitar just long enough to irritate and not enough to infuriate. Interesting PDX note: Cut Off Your Hands was once called The Shaky Hands, but were forced to change to avoid legal action from another band with the same name, hailing from nowhere other than Portland. Excellent. Portland = win.

Viva Voce
I woke up to the sound of stars.
Crashing to the ground like broke guitars.

There are times when husband/wife duo Viva Voce kick so much ass it's just silly. Kevin and Anita Robinson moved to Portland a few years ago, when it was the cool thing to do, and since then have done their best to leave. But their tour van always seems to bring them back to the land of bicycles, beer, and rain. Their newest album Rose City is a sort of homage to this town of ours. It is my impression that these two used to perform their set with just the two of them, but they have recently doubled in size, adding another guitarist and a drummer to fill out their live sound. Multi-tracking in a basement can be hard to duplicate live. Ask any serious but unsigned musician you know. Their set list included tracks from three previous albums, but showcased a majority of songs from the new album. Don't keep it to yourself.
Devotion
Alive With Pleasure
Octavio
Midnight Sun
The Slow Fade
Red Letter Day
Lesson No. 1
Good As Gold
Wrecking Ball
So Many Miles + coda freakout
encore:
Rose City
From the Devil Himself

Friday night show

Paganfest at the Hawthorne

Swashbuckle
We showed up somewhat late and only caught the tail-end of this act. Which is kind of shameful. Swashbuckle somehow managed to fit different pirate clichés into every song. There were glowing inflatable palm trees and a 300 pound singer in a puffy Jerry Seinfeld shirt. Yo Ho!

Blackguard
The singer for Blackguard was some sort of irritating micromanaging ex-soundman. Things went on at soundcheck a little longer than usual, a little longer than acceptable. That is, until the band started rolling. I was awestruck. Probably the quietest, most balanced sound I'd ever heard from a band engaging in a five-man synchronized-windmill. There was the occasionally squeaky keyboard and the here-and-there crack about Portland being the most beautiful city the Quebecois band had seen all day, but take note, this band is worth seeing.

Moonsorrow
Moonsorrow indeed. Other than the drumming, the guitar parts were un-hooks, the headbanging was herky-jerky, the keyboards were bad. So bad. I sat down and fell asleep.

Eluvitae - no show

Primordial
Black/death metal from "the People's Republic of Ireland". The singer might have said this particular phrase four to five times during the band's set. I would have yelled something witty back, but his facial tattooing intimidated me into silence. Related sidenote: if you don't have tattoos on your face, maybe you just aren't ready for a career playing metal shows. Think about it. Then go get your face and neck tattooed. And I don't mean that permanent makeup business either. Reference: Kerry King.

Korpiklaani
Hooray! We made it through the bands we had very little desire to see to see this band on their sixth album tour/first American tour. It is a beautiful thing to be in a mosh pit whilst an accordion-fiddle duet lulls us into a spin ten men across. This band was as much a visual effect as musical with their bright-eyed grandpa/gnome-ish bass player to the mic stand constructed from deer bones complete with skull and antlers. The set included old favorites like Journeyman, Cottages & Saunas, Hunting Song, Wooden Pints, and newer songs like Vodka and Happy Little Boozer. Beer Beer drove the mostly underage fanpit into a frenzy. At that point I started thinking about a theme that was becoming present in all Korpiklaani tunes. But then I raised my plastic pint and forgot all about it.

Sunday Night Show

At the Hawthorne

Tombs
This show was preceded by a trip to a brewery down the street, so we sat during the Tombs set. Which I think was okay, because the music was ho-hum, the sound was ho-hum, even the crowd was mouthing to each other "Ho-hum." Some of the riffs were decent, but the singer ruined them. He got better as the set progressed, but man, vocals are an important element in a band are they not? Even if I don't agree with the content of the lyrics, the tone is vital. Hence my new favorite black metal band: (see below)

Wolves in the Throne Room
With a minimalist stage setup of candelabras (with real candles!) and fog, WITTR brought the fast-picking wild-shrieking to the party with epic progressions and stormy atmospherics. Hailing from Olympia, WA, this band is rumored to live in a collectivist commune that has been living in a cave, or alternately keeps getting shut down by the police. Either way, they played three songs from their seminal LP Two Hunters and one other new one. We dug it.

Pelican
Holy cow, four songs? If they weren't averaging 12 minutes each, I might feel ripped off. Two songs from their early LP Australasia, one new song called Ephemora, and a cover of Earth's (see previous entry) Geometry of Murder filled the entire set list. The brutality of tuning a guitar down to C, playing a Les Paul into a Marshall stack via a TubeScreamer was first seen in the early 90s before the dual rectifiers changed metal into nu-metal forever. Pelican remembers those days. Mmmm.

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Last Weekend in February Show

At Dante's

Sedan
Experimental drums and keyboard duo. Fairly self-explanatory, loud but decent.

James Blackshaw
One man with a 12-string acoustic. Good sound, lots of re-tuning.

Sir Richard Bishop
Another one man acoustic showpiece, Sir Richard was all acoustic bitterness and soundman-baiting. Not that the crowd was spared his barbs, mind you. It seemed he would have been more comfortable at a concert hall recital, ignoring the unlikelihood of this considering how nominal and identical his songs were.

Earth
Cobain fans will remember Dylan Carlson forever as the man who bought Kurt the gun with which he blew his life inside out. Stoner/Doom metal fans know another side; frontman in the ultra slow, lightly distorted, monstrously ponderous weight know as Earth. This man/band is single handedly responsible, with his countless imitators (see Sunn O))) for the revival in popularity of the massive physical bass sound of Sunn Amplifiers. Sticking mostly to material from the latest album The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull, Earth was realized not only by drums and bass in addition to Carlson's trademark Telecaster, but a cellist as well.

Engine of Ruin
Omens and Portents II: Carrion Crow
Hung From the Moon
The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Junkyard Priest (bonus track on Bees vinyl)
Rise to Glory

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February Saturday Show (3 of 3)

At the Roseland

Lonely Dear
On a whole, there aren't that many bands that employ whistling in nearly every song. Therefore, the odds of hearing two bands in one night that do are fairly slim. Lonely Dear, who opened the Feb. 21 show at the Roseland for Andrew Bird will take those odds. Traveling from Sweden can be pretty exhausting. Tempos slow down, crescendos crescend, general lethargy takes hold. As is par for the venue, the bass was extraordinarily loud, which is a shame since it covered up much of the decent singing, but also a blessing as it drowned out a lot of off-key falsetto from the backing band.

Andrew Bird
Sometimes two distinct rounds of microphone checks aren't enough. Sometimes even three aren't. When enormous victrola-style horn amplifiers dominate your stage setup, you have to be pretty sure, especially if several of them are whirling like a Leslie speaker in front of a single mic. With wild hair and hipster band in tow, Andrew Bird took the stage after exaggerated preparations. Because after all, even the best-laid plans...well you know. Especially when half of the band is a looping setup that allows Bird to play pizzicato and standard violin as well as singing, whistling, and filling in various guitar and glockenspiel parts in any order on any (read:most) songs. The story goes that this used to be his entire stage setup, no drums, no bass, just one man and an army of talent in his magician's fingers. One can't help but be jealous of the members of those 40-person audiences. Regardless, the albums have drums, so the stage will too. The show must go on! Drawing material from four solo albums, two albums with his previous band Bowl of Fire, and a b-side or two to boot, Bird reworked songs, clipping and embellishing until several songs were nearly entirely new pieces with only recognizable lyrics to tie them to old Andrew Bird songs we used to know some time ago.

Self Torture
Masterswarm
Opposite Day
Natural Disaster
Effigy
Oh No
Plasticities
Fitz & the Dizzyspells
Not a Robot, But a Ghost
Armchairs
Anonanimal
Fake Palindromes
Imitosis
Tables and Chairs
encore:
Why?
Some of These Days
Don't Be Scared

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February Saturday Show (2 of 3)

Valentine's Day at the Roseland

Constant Lovers
This band shared a similar method with the nominal late-90's band Slipknot; that is to say, if you play enough drums with enough volume, no one will be able to tell that you aren't any good. Each member of the band had either floor toms or marching snares set up next to them. Granted, it was a cool look, but Arcade Fire does it better. It didn't help the sound that the bass player couldn't hear anything over the drums and was playing a half-step higher than everyone else.

Past Lives
I don't remember this band at all. I had 2 1/2 hours of sleep, some wine before we went, and two whiskeys during the first band. Promptly fell asleep. Thank you earplugs. Rachel apparently enjoyed this band.

The Murder City Devils
Woke up to this crazy little bearded guy screaming something about people in the balcony yawning "at this very moment." All argyle sweaters and Usher-mic stand tricks, singer Spencer Moody lived up to his name. Swapping choruses for verses and howling all the way, he jumped from the bass drum into our ears. At one point he got down on his knees and declared, "I'm doing the rest of the show from here, on my knees! With no dignity!" Maudlin. Also amazing to wake up to. The Devils covered songs from each of their three full lengths and several from their major EP: Thelema. Say can you point to Murder City on a map? It's here. It's in my heart.

Get Off the Floor
It's In My Heart
Dancin' Shoes
Somebody Else's Baby
Press Gang
I Drink the Wine
Left Hand Right Hand
Dear Hearts
Bear Away
Bride of the Elephant Man
I Want A Lot Now (So Come On)
Idle Hands
One Vision of May
Rum to Whiskey
Johnny Thunders
Dance Hall Music
encore:
Midnight Service at the Mutter Museum
Murder City Riot
18 Wheels
Broken Glass

February Saturday Show (1 of 3)

At the Hawthorne

The Faceless
This band jumped right into their first song. No sound check, no posturing techs, nothing. Highly impressive. Now, granted, they might have done all this in the extra 25 minutes we waited for the doors to open. All progressive metal and chromatic solos, this band was really getting off on the right foot. Rachel was even into it. And she hates opening bands like a Slayer fan. Suddenly, this guy ran out and screamed in his tough-guy amateur metal voice, "SEATTLE!" We looked at each other, who is this guy? It dawned on us simultaneously; up to then, there had been no singer, the band had been doing instrumentals. It took him a whole song to realize his NW faux pas. He apologized several times between staggering around dizzily after a few headbangs and ruining several awesome riff-jams with his silly screams-lyrics. This band has the potential to be great. Get rid of the pre-recorded keyboard parts, and the laughably bad vocals, keep the raging guitar solos. I don't even care if you call your songs black metal titles like Sons of Belial and Legion of the Serpent. Keep on rockin'

Cynic
This band broke up in 1993. I heard about some bizarre combination of death metal and jazz fusion when I was listening to a lot of heavy metal in early 2003 . I tried for years to find a copy of their only CD Focus on eBay for less than $5 (my usual max. on used CDs) and couldn't find one for less than $25. The band re-united for a show or two in Scandinavia in the summer of 2007. I heard about it and briefly considered attending Wacken Open Air. In August of 2008 I learned that a new CD was in the works set for release in late fall. I think I told at least three neighbors. Needless to say, when I saw they were coming to play a show around here I didn't really care where or with whom. Rachel bought me Focus for Christmas. We listened to it for 3 days. Needless to say, the show was awesome. This band can play live. I mean, seriously, the singer/guitarist and the drummer were both in the seminal band Death for awhile. The setlist was pretty balanced, though a little heavier on the excellent new material from Traced In Air. Went kinda like this:
Nunc Fluens
Space For This
Evolutionary Sleeper
Veil of Maya
I'm But A Wave To
Adam's Murmur
How Could I
King of Those Who Know
Integral Birth

Meshuggah
Ever seen a band use 8-string guitars? Now we have. Why even have a bass player? Unless of course he has a 5-string bass and you want an already tricky live sound to get even muddier. Which it was. We might have stayed longer to watch this band but no band should make you wait 30 minutes plus to get onstage and start playing. Final note: if you want to impress me with synchronized headbanging, at least take the time to windmill now and then (see earlier Amon Amarth review).

Wow, another year. Didn't see that one coming.

This page has entered its seventh year. Which may explain why I don't post much to it other than books and album purchases. Blame Xanga. Blame Facebook. Maybe next year, I will have a myspace account. Don't laugh, I'm serious. So. 52 albums. Including 8 33rpms. This year I easily outbooked that at 64. I'll try to get the 24 hour plus days up soon.

Getting Better All the Time 24+ hour days for 2009

01-05-08 01-08-08 01-24-08 02-03-08 02-15-08 03-07-08 03-15-08 04-27-08 07-11-08 08-25-08 09-25-08 10-31-08	25 hours 27 hours 24 hours 28 hours 25 hours 29 hours 27 hours 24 hours 24 hours 25 hours 24 hours 27 hours	cell phone + work + CD shopping + groceries unknown reason day + work work + church + Super Bowl meeting + house + work work + house closing day + work + washer/dryer breakfast + ComicFest + battery + work Derek/Jill + work + Slurpee day + work + oil change books + day + work deliveries + work + not tired
A mind of machines and metal.