Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for january 17th and 18th

Hello Dear Readers,

Well shooot. I saw another good show the other night. This time it was the Tender Loving Empire show at the Doug Fir. It featured TLE artists Finn Riggins (from Boise) and Jared Mees and the Grown Children (Jared is one of the head honchos over at TLE). It also featured TLE buddies World's Greatest Ghosts. Man it was so much fun. World's Greatest Ghost started the night with a bang. They are are really good at layering their guitars and keyboards in various arpeggios and scale running. Plus it is cathy as hell. Finn Riggins was up next. I had only very briefly listened to their myspace page. So I was just expecting some pretty good pop rock. What I was not expecting was the proggy-ness that they mixed in with their pop. Let me just say that their drummer had a steel drum (and he actually played it on more than one song, pushing it past a novelty instrument) and instead of a bass player they had a dude who sang behind a mountain of keyboards. And let me tell you a little story regarding Jared Mees and the Grown Children. I saw him play a show once and I thought it was good. Afterwards I told him so, Jared looked at me in the eye and apologized he said that he wished he could have brought more energy (it was the night they returned from a good length tour). Seeing as to how they had a good amount of energy at that show, I did not know what he was talking about. Thursday night they brought the energy that Jared had referred to. It was so fun. I danced and sang and clapped along which left me sweaty and satisfied (is that dirty?). Anyways, I am remembering why I go to see live music.

Here are some opportunities for you to remember what live music is all about.

Saturday, January 17th

There are a bunch of good shows today

• Aladdin Theater is having absolutely great local folk line up of Blind Pilot, Loch Lomond, and The Old Believers. I was totally stoked about this show last month (it was canceled due to the freakish snow of last month), and I am still totally stoked now. These are some of my favorite bands. Do yourself a favor and see this show. It is ALL AGES with a cover of $12. The music starts at 8 PM.

• East End is having a show with Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Pure Country Gold, DJ Hwy 7. I think Blue Skies is one of the better pop bands and Portland. Plus, I have nothing but good things about Pure Country Gold. The show has no listed cover and starts at 9 PM.

• Green Dragon Bistro is having a great indie-pop show with the excellent Someday Tricycle and New Century Schoolbook (shout out to CIMTB blogger Amber Dawn!). Very good indie-pop played very well. This bad boy is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

• Backspace is having a show with Truckasaurus (Seattle), Atole, and Breakfast Mountain. So break out your dancing shoes, because I'll be damned if you go to this show and are not moved to spaz around the place (aka dance). The ALL AGES show is $5 and starts at 8:30 PM.

• Berbati's is having a School of Rock show. They will be performing Radiohead. So if hearing a bunch of snot nosed kids playing The Bends appeals to you (and I admit it kinda appeals to me) then you might consider going down to Berbatis tonight, The cover is $10-12. The ALL AGES show starts at 6 PM.

Sunday, January 18th

• Rontoms is having another one of their Sunday night shows. This time they have a very good line up of Autopilot is for Lovers and St. Frankie Lee. Both of these bands are good and even better to see live. If you missed St. Frankie Lee when they played earlier this week, this is your second chance. If you didn't miss them you might go to see what Sunday night's theme will be. They always have a theme which they will talk about between songs (Monday's theme was trees). This shoe is FREE and starts at 9:30 PM.

• The Hush is having an incredible show with a butt-load of great artists: Down South Sallie, Saw Whet, Somersault, Grey Anne, Dhani Champion of the World, and Y La Bamba. I know. You see a bill with this many acts and one's immediate reaction should be, "it sucks". But in this instance you would be wrong. These are some of the best Portland has to offer. The ALL AGES show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.

• The Artistery is having a show with Flaspar, Spenking (Brunswick?) and Ruth Allison (Oly). It is an interesting mix to be sure. Spenking is just a dude with his acoustic guitar. Ruth Allison can do that, but sometimes has a band. Flaspar is dance. Nutty. The ALL AGES show is $5 with doors at 7 PM.

• Valentine's is having a folk night with Maymay, Sworn Virgin (tjo + ilyas ahmed = new project), and Daniel Sparks. Perhaps you noticed that I mentioned it is TJO in anew project. I shouldn't have to write anything else. That is all you need to know. But I will add that Maymay is very good as well. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

So there you have it. These are the shows that I think look amazing, good or interesting. If you see me at any of them, do not hesitate to say "Hi".

-Ben



Blind Pilot will play this song kinda like this tonight at the Aladdin.
thanks to KEXP