Picking up where I left off from my previous post, in June I was fortunate enough to visit the musical center of the south: Austin, Texas. Although I was in town on some other matter, I was able to sneak out and watch Sunset Rubdown tear down the house at Mohawk. I won’t gush too much about the greatest band on the planet, but let’s just say seeing them play tracks off of Dragonslayer, especially their perfect performances of “Idiot Heart” and “You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)”, was one of the most awe-inspiring things I have ever experienced. On a side note, lead singer and all around bad ass Spencer Krug mentioned the performance to Pitchfork.
July sneakily crept on me and before I knew it I was celebrating my Jack Bauer Birthday (24) with Rhode Island alt-country act Deer Tick and LA barnstormers Dawes. Knowing nothing about Dawes, I was pleasantly surprised with their act. Lead singer Taylor Goldsmith confidently spit out vocals throughout, climaxing when Deer Tick’s frontman John McCauley joined him onstage for a powerful rendition of their song “When My Time Comes”. When it came time for McCauley to shine with his group, I have to admit the performance was rather lackluster. Although all the classic songs were played and they performed past their allotted hour and a half time slot, I got the impression that they shipped in their set from the get-go. Fortunately, listened to Dawes in my car on the way home got the sour taste out of my mouth.
Unexpectedly, later in the month when I visited my friend at Penn State, I noticed that Deer Tick and Dawes were performing in Montreal. After exhausting everything to do in State College, PA (which was pretty easy to do in the small college town), we decided to road trip it up to Canada for the weekend. Again, Dawes kicked ass with their performance and Deer Tick sort-of floundered throughout (McCauley cut this performance short because of a sore throat).
Once arriving back into Lubbock via Pennsylvania, I had three days of relaxing before jet setting again; this time to Portland, Oregon. Although I was there to scout out an apartment, I would be lying to you if I said I had no intention to check out the music scene. As fate would have it, I saw a guy in a KTXT T-shirt at one of the bars I was in who just so happened to be the drummer for Thao and The Get Down Stay Downs. He invited me for a non-publicized “secret gig” at the newly christened venue The Woods later that evening. Needless to say, I took him up on the offer and was completely taken aback by the whole show.
Opening was Portland’s own Horse Feathers, which is essentially a more delicate version of Iron & Wine. Lead singer Justin Ringle captivated the crowd so much that you could literally hear a pin drop. Saying it was an intimate setting would be an understatement. The quiet atmosphere was unbecoming to Thao, leading her to plead to the audience to stand up and “come and dance with us”. By the time she busted out “Bag of Hammers” for her second song, everyone shed their cautious skin and started to at least do the “indie-sway”. All-in-all it was a great performance that had the one-of-a-kind Portland feel to it.
That concludes the second part of my catching-up series. Here are some mp3s from the mentioned acts:
Sunset Rubdown // Nightingale/December Song
Horse Feathers // Hardwood Pews
Thao and The Get Down Stay Downs // Big Kid Table (Daytrotter Session)
