For weeks I’ve been waiting for this show: Meth Teeth are one of my favorite Portland bands, Best Coast is one of my new favorite groups, and Vivian Girls are definitely in my top five all-time faves. Words can not express how excited I was for this show. Anyways, I wasn’t about to let the typical arms crossed Portland concert goer get me down, so I went into the show ready to go crazy — regardless if I was the only one.
The downside of getting all liquored up heading out to a concert is that you don’t really make for a good journalist. I can’t really tell you much about Meth Teeth as I only own one album of theirs, but they put on a pretty damn good show. As for Best Coast, Bethany Cosentino steamrolled through most of the material on her plethora of 7”s, even playing two new tracks and a cover song in the process (sorry, didn’t have my video camera). Teaming up with longtime guitarist Bobb Bruno and Vivian Girls drummer Katy Goodman, Best Coast’s live incarnation is a sight to behold — not to mention “When I’m With You” and “In My Room” have never sounded better. As for Vivian Girls, they played most of the material from Everything Goes Wrong as well as a few sprinklings of past hits. Also, they played that bad ass Chantel’s cover and Bethany joined them onstage for two tracks.
Although I don’t remember much, I did snag the Vivian Girls setlist and took some photos of the show which you can check out below (or see the full set here):
There was a sweet show yesterday featuring recently crowned Best New Music inductee Real Estate alongside future Underwater Peoples labelmates Pill Wonder with Northwest homegrowns Rainbow Bridge sandwiched between. Holocene, the very slick venue where the bands were playing, also had a DJ spinning some 80s-tastic tracks in between sets with acid washed stock video footage playing on a huge projector screen — mixing nicely with the “chillwave” vibe of the acts.
I was excited to check out openers Pill Wonder just because I noticed they had a 12” in the queue and was hoping that they played some of their new material (a man can only gauge so much from four tracks on their myspace). I wasn’t disappointed as the seven piece (!) band exceeded their 30 minute time slot churning out their patented psychedelic tinged garage rock for a crowd of about forty. They ended strong with a solid funkadelic/r&b number with bassist Hans doing his best James Brown impression. All-in-all, it was a lively set.
Next in line was the male/female guitar/drums duo Rainbow Bridge. With a set of trolls on stage and the drummer donning a fake beard, I was halfway expecting a quirky kitsch act. Much to my surprise, they played some kick ass garage rock tunes which made me think about how Jack & Meg White probably started out playing to similar crowds in Detroit in the late 90s. Undeniably the crowd pleasure for the group (and arguably the whole night) was their hit track “Big Wave Rider“. With simply sung lyrics “big wave rider / try and ride a little higher / you’re a glider / smile wider” over sparse instrumentation, it didn’t take long for the audience to join in and sing out the chorus.
By the time Real Estate took the stage at 11pm, the crowd had swelled to around eighty or so folks, mostly clad in skinny jeans and eighties regalia of some sorts. In response to the size, the band said this was one of the best crowds on the tour — something that I am sure Porlanders hear quite frequently. Any questions about whether this band was overhyped or undeserving of a constant stream of buzz since their SXSW showing were put to rest when they opened up with the infectious guitar line on “Beach Comber”. Now most reviews I’ve seen of Real Estate tend to follow a madlib like recipe: “Their [adj. / wobbly] guitars invokes a sense of [childhood story of the beach] — with the repetitious [instrument] enforcing that feeling”, however, when you see them live you get a sense on how much more this group is than some band riding the “chillwave” fad of ’09.
Through the glimmering tautophony lies these bluesy syncopated guitar solos that Matthew Mondanile (aka Ducktails) and Martin Courtney shine on — not to mention the commanding power bassist Alex Bleeker has on his instrument (something that will surely translate over to his “solo” work with The Freaks). As time elapsed, you couldn’t help but be swept away by their performance and get lost in their sound. This partly affected my determining of the setlist, as I tended to loose interest in knowing the exact song they were playing and got caught up more with the feeling they were invoking through their tunes:
1 // Beach Comber
2 // Pool Swimmers
3 // (?)
4 // Fake Blues
5 // Suburban Beverage
6 // Black Lake
7 // (?)
8 // (?)
9 // Atlantic City
10 // Fake Blues
I think it goes without saying that if you get a chance to see this band play in an intimate venue, do it because these guys are just going to get more of a following as time goes by. Here is a video of them playing “Fake Blues” at SXSW this past year along with some songs of theirs:
Before taking the stage later in the evening at Doug Fir Lounge (one of the hippest venues I’ve been to), San Francisco based ungoogle-able lo-fi group Girls graced the citizens of Portland with a free show at Jackpot Records. Although the quarters were small and the stage was even smaller, Christopher Owens and company put on a very pleasant sounding show for the cramped crowd.
The group performed six songs from their critically acclaimed debut, including favorites “Laura” and “Lust for Life”. Owens, dressed in an 80s looking magenta and teal track jacket (one can assume to match his painted fingernails) was hindered throughout the set due to space constraints, allowing for more shoegaze than I can imagine is in a typical Girls set. Energetic numbers, like “Morning Light”, fell a little flat performance-wise, however, they nailed it sonically as each song was almost an exact replica of the album. Here is one more shot from the show of bassist Chet “JR” White who has some of the most bad ass chest hair I have ever seen.
When it comes choosing the “best of” garage rock, Jay Reatard should be at the top of any respectable list. His music is like an assault on tempo – regularly going over the 100 beats-per-minute mark, his live set is relentless going continuous for forty-five minutes to an hour without coming up for air once, and his personality can best described as “keeping it real”. I was fortunate enough to catch a recent show of his at 59:1 in Munich, Germany.
Opening for the night was Munich’s own Mondo Ray which, if you recall from previous shows, proved to be a nice set-up to the Wavves show a while back. Although 59:1 is small, it definitely isn’t as small as the coffee shop sized Kafe Kult where they performed last. This provided a not-so welcoming atmosphere for them as the dreaded European force-field extended about ten-feet from the stage providing an awkward buffer from the crowd to the band. Regardless of the weird dynamic, Mondo Ray put on a hell of a show with their high energy garage rock/punk that would have fit in nicely with anyone’s SXSW line-up had they been there. Oh yeah, and the drummer is ridiculous, beating out hard-driving tempos and slamming downbeats like there was no tomorrow.
After they left, it was only a couple of minutes before Jay and the crew (bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes) took the stage for a non-stop fifty minute set where even switches between instrumentations were filled with heavy noise guitar providing absolutely no relief. The antithesis of banter-filled bands, Jay Reatard only spoke (or more like shouted) the names of each track prior to playing them. And play them did he ever…
In an effort to work the kinks out of her new material live, Neko Case put together a brief European tour before Middle Cyclone drops on March 3. I was fortunate enough to catch an intimate show of theirs (approximately 100 people) put on at the Orangehouse – a venue more known for bringing in obscure metal and hard rock acts than critically acclaimed alt. country groups.
Still reeling from the effects of jet lag, Case & Co. was more laid-back and subdued than taking charge as their new awesome album cover would suggest. Although an inordinate amount of time was spent having to tune after every song (one of my personal pet peeves) which gave way to some of the most bizarre banter I have ever heard, when the band got their act together and actually started to play some music, it was heavenly.
The band opened with one of the Fox Confessor favorites “Maybe Sparrow”. If there was any doubt in my mind that Case couldn’t replicate her singing in a live setting, it was squelched within the first opening bars. I was surprised that after such little warm-up during sound check Case was able to belt out album-quality vocals throughout her complete range with not so much as a hint of uneasiness. It was absolutely stunning. (more…)
Last night I was able to catch a really good Wavves concert (with a great opening act Mondo Ray) that I wrote about for The Llano Idea. Here is an excerpt you can find in full here:
Instead of trying to recreate the cacophony of sounds associated with every Wavves song, Williams opted instead to sift his live music through a coarse audio strainer, leaving out the harshest of elements to better highlight the more melodic parts. Although noise punk purists would probably scoff at such a move, the clarity in sound made the vocals more distinguishable, allowing fans next to me to utter to each other “so THAT’S what he’s saying!”
There was no dull moment the entire show with Williams filling his 40 minute set with future hit after future hit. With Ulsh’s powerful drumming (especially on the catchy-as-hell opening), “So Bored” was the opposite of malaise – jolting the crowd out of their nonchalant funk. Williams went especially berserk on “No Hope Kids”, excitedly jumping around on stage and shouting used-to-be-truthful lines like “Got no job / Got no money” between pauses from headbanging. Although most of his songs center on high intensity and speedy tempos, Wavves isn’t a one-trick pony. Exhibiting his ability to slow it down, Williams shined vocally on “Weed Demon” – making his “oohs” and “ahhs” sound about ten times creepier live.
You can check out my photos and videos from the Wavves concert and also jam out to some tunes below.
Who would have thought that of all of the concerts I’ve witnessed in Europe so far, an Islands show in Prague would be the one I would have the most difficulty getting into because of the dreaded word “capacity”? I arrived at the “club”, or more accurately the basement of a college dormitory, a good half hour before Islands took the stage for, surprisingly, an opening act time slot. Already the place was packed enough that their meager coat check room was filled to the brink and standing room only was the norm. Low ceilings and dense cigarette smoke (I guess one of the few EU nations who don’t care about 2nd hand smoke) was a trademark of the venue making me relive all of the horrific news ticker “Dozens Die in Horrific Club Fire” headlines from thepast.
All concerns and emergency exits plans were forgotten once Islands took the stage. Playing their patented crisp indie-pop grooves, the band was able to work around their claustrophobic inducing small stage quarters to give the audience a great show. Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t return the favor posing instead to be more nonchalant than excited, something I definitely didn’t expect from such an overflowing group of college kids. Regardless, Islands were able to churn out hit after hit (I’m looking at you “Creeper” and “The Arm”) while keeping the crowd between “arms crossed” and “nodding level” of entertained. (more…)
A lot of emphasis has been placed recently on the emergence of noise rock/punk bands. Mostly hailing from the West Coast, acts like No Age, Mika Miko, and HEALTH have rejuvenated a long line of distortion-happy groups stemming from the shoegazers of the late 80s and early 90s. Although it seems like every other new act these days aim to destroy melodies with raucous guitar in the hopes of being labeled the “most noisy”, Long Beach natives Crystal Antlers flip it around and produce some well thought out music that is on the brink of being more psychedelic than punk.
Pretty much every noise band that I’ve witnessed always seems to put on an energetic show representative of their music taste. Crystal Antlers were no exception to this – demolishing even my substantial expectations with every track. Although the crowd was of a meager size (saying there was 20 people there was probably generous), they were still able to put on a great set that gave me more enjoyment than the riot-like atmosphere of the Black Lips just a couple of nights before. Graced with an allotment of new music from a recording session prior to their European tour, there was no doubt that the band has been enjoying playing something other than the six tracks off their EP. One of the highlights in fact was a “never performed live” song off of their about-to-be-released LP Tentacles which had a four minute guitar interlude reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine’s patented thrashing. If the rest of the album is like that, it will be one of the most talked about albums of the year. (more…)
Odds are if you’ve heard about Black Lips it’s most likely due to seeing one of their crazy live shows are talking to someone who has. Stage diving, nudity, urinating and countless other acts done for “shock value” can be expected at a typical Lips set. Although they’ve claimed that they have cut down on their on-stage shenanigans, their recent stint in India where they subsequently got banned from the sub-continent after their second gig (the final slot in an Indian Metal “Battle of the Bands”) proves that their new-found “maturity” seems to be intermittent at best.
After the dust settled, the Black Lips caught a plane to Germany to record an EP with fellow, and equally volatile, King Khan before heading out on a European tour, sans Khan. Needless to say after hearing the news from Asia, I was amped to be able to see their act in person at a small venue in Munich. After an energetic but overall flat opener HARA-KEE-REES, the crowd braced for the main event by compacting themselves close to the stage. This was probably the most excited I’ve seen a European audience since my arrival a year ago. (more…)
