Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for November 7th to the 9th

Hello Dear Readers,

I tried. Good lord, I tried but I didn't make it to any of the shows during the week. Though I did America elect a new President Elect (yay!). Looks like there is a good and busy weekend of music though.

Friday, November 7th

Here's what's going down tonight.

• As I mentioned in a previous blog, The Siren Nation festival is going today and tomorrow at The Wonder Ballroom. Tonight will feature some local Portlanders including The New Bloods, a band who seem to be pretty popular despite me being not all that impressed by their live performances (granted that was years ago). I am interested in the Parisian Lisa Papinneau and I think it would be fun to see Ghosts and Mysteries and the Philosophy Dads is having a house show with them and Cars and Trains and Silence Dogood, Hello Electric, and Brainstorm. These bands are all pretty different, but this should be a good show. I really like Cars and Trains. The show is ALL AGES and FREE (though you might want to bring a little skrilla for to buy something from the bands). The show starts at 8 PM.

• The Modern Age, PSU's ALL AGES on campus venue, is having a show with Cower, Lanterns (San Diego),Street Plant, and Weatherbox (San Diego). The thing is these are bands I normally wouldn't seek out. But that's the cool thing about The Modern Age. They curate shows that almost gaurenteed to be cool. This show is $5 and starts at 8 PM.

• Rotture is also having a good show today as well. Theirs features Oh Captain My Captain, 1090 Club (Billings, MO), Crosstide, and Michael Zapruder (Bay Area). I like what I have heard of Oh Captain My Captain. I don't particularly like what I have heard of locals Crosstide or 1090 Club. But I also enjoyed what I heard of Michael Zapruder. So half of this show be good, while the other half will be whatevs. The Show is $7 (worth the two good bands) and starts at 9 PM.

Saturday, November 8th

A ton of shows. One night.

• The Hush, located right above Tube, is hosting a Boy Gorilla showcase. If you are not familiar with Boy Gorilla, then I suggest you do so now. They are a local music label of mostly younger Portland Musicians (mostly born of a Salem music scene if I am not mistaken) who put out really good records. This evening will have Doubledutch, The Old Believers, and What Skulls Can Tell Us. This will be a split release show for both of the other acts, Elec Morin (Corvallis) and Dawnzerlylight. THe Old Believers are excellent. Doubledutch and What Skulls Can Tell Us have the potential to be very good. And I do not know much about the other acts but at $5 it will probably be worth checking out. The ALL AGES show starts at 8 PM.

• It is night two, and final night, of the Siren Nation festival at the Wonder Ballroom. This night again is all about women, art, and community. Unlike Friday night, Saturday is all local musical acts. They are Felina's Arrow, Amelia, Scout Niblett, Laura Gibson, and Laura Veirs . It should be pretty great. The show is ALL AGES and begins at 8 PM (doors at 7 PM).

• Rotture is having a cool electronic based music show with a bunch of North West artists. Truckasaurus (Seattle), E*Rock, DJ Introcut (Seattle), , and DJ BJ are all set to do sets. It should be really fun, if you like to groove. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.

• The Funky Church is having a show with Denison Witmer, Day of Lions, and Kelli Schaefer. I heard of Denison Witmer a looooong time ago. I don't really remember what I heard but I am pretty sure it wasn't negative. I like Day of Lions, but have not made it out to see them in a very long time. I am sure they are even better now that it has been an official band for a while. I first heard of Kelli Schaefer on the PDX Pop Now! 2008 CD. I have come to meet her in real life since. She is very nice and makes good songs. This will assuredly be a solid indie folk pop or whatever show. If you that sort of thing (I do), then you will like this show. There is a donation based cover for this venue. I think it is ALL AGES and it starts at 8 PM.

• There is a venue called Green Dragon which I have never heard of, but on Saturday they will be hosting Shoeshine Blue, and Lonesome Radio Heart. If you have not heard Shoeshine Blue yet, you are missing out. I find him to be very good. He was at the first local cut curated Lounge Series show that I ever attended. It was awesome. Anyways, this should be good as well. Lonesome Radio Heart's myspace page claims that the show will only cost pennies. Since I see no actual cover listed anywhere else, I suspect it may be even cheaper than that. The show starts at 8 PM.

Sunday, November 9th

Not as much going on Sunday, which not really a shock.

• Rontoms, one of the venues that regularly has good shows on Sunday, will be having Jared Mees and the Grown Up Children. Jared and his kids/ band or whatever have been on the road for the last several weeks. This will be a nice home coming for them. There is at least one, maybe two, other acts that will be part of this bill. Since Jared is one of the ones behind the Tender Loving Empire, well um, empire he shouldn't have a hard time securing a great band. This show will be FREE and will start at 9 PM.

• Rotture will be having a heavy show on Sunday. It features The Funeral Pyre (La Habra, CA), Moths to Flame, Nanda Devi, and Early Graves (San Francisco). All of these bands sound like they will be dark. It will be at night which is usually dark. If you listen to their myspace pages you might notice that you were correct in you initial assesment that the bands are dark. They are. Anyway, besides being dark, I find that Nanda Devi is pretty kick ass. You might wnat to check it out, if you are not afraid of the dark. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.

So there you have some shows for the weekend. I know there are a ton that I am leaving out. Some that I even wrote down but left out because I ran out of time. Let me know what you think should have been on here. Maybe there is some awesome Porland or Vancouver band that I am not aware of. Let me know! And of course if you see me at any of these shows, please come up and say "Hi".

-Ben


Jared Mees and his Grown-ass Children will be playing on Sunday at Rontoms!