Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Saturday October 10th

Hello Dear Readers,

It seems that I have fallen into the trap of only seeing shows that I play. Please give me encouragement to break this habit. I see it leading to bad things. Things like missing one of the best things ever (i.e. seeing good music performed live). Anyway, here is what looks good to me tonight.

Saturday, October 10th

Aladdin is hosting Live Wire!. It is a variety show of sorts. I am excited because the Aladdin is kinda the big time. OPB will broadcasting it too, which is nuts. Here is what the Aladdin website said about the event, " It's time again for the brilliant wit, bright stars, and big laughs of this year's Wordstock edition of Live Wire! It's a radio variety show recorded in front of a live audience and broadcast on Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), and includes original sketch comedy, live music, and conversation with some of the fantastic authors joining us at Wordstock. This year's show will feature literary renaissance man SHERMAN ALEXIE, crime writer extraordinaire JAMES ELLROY, romance novel enthusiast and critic CANDY TAN, world-famour slam poet and publisher DERRICK BROWN with musical guests Tahoe Jackson and Y LA BAMBA. It's going to be a wild and wooly show, so join us Saturday, October 10, at 8pm at the Aladdin Theater. Tickets are $25 GA / $35 Reserved in advance at the Aladdin Box office and all Ticketmaster outlets." I could not have said it better myself. I really couldn't have.

Berbati's is having a show with Jared Mees and the Grown Children, Finn Riggins, World's Greatest Ghost, and Typhoon. Were I not playing a show this would be THE local show to be at. Jared Mees has a nack for bringing together really great bands for shows which in turn makes for a really fun time. His band, The Grown Children, play very uppeat and positive sounding music. The energy and hope in his songs shine through and, I feel that even if not immediately, could make just about anyone a fan. Finn Riggins, part of the Mees family business Tender Loving Empire, is a band out of Boise that makes really progressive pop music. Maybe that is the wrong tag, perhaps art pop? Whatever it is, it is cool to watch these three people make the music that they do. All interesting time signatures and instrument switching and changing of vocals and steel drums lead to a experience that needs to be seen. World's Greatest Ghost is one of the two bands in town that often get compared to Wolf Parade (Southern Belle being the other one). This is mostly because they create very very catching pop songs that marry keyboard and guitar leads in the church of the disco beat. You know kinda like Wolf Parade's "Apologies to the Queen Mary" did. I love this band. You should be dancing if you want to experience the music in it's natural habitat. Typhoon is another beast altogether. They are epic. They have like 12 members or something and they just build the songs into gigantic mountains and valleys. Or sometimes just mountains. It kind of reminds me of some of the stuff that A Silver Mount Zion has done with group vocals. Basically I feel that Typhoon is one of the must see bands in Portland. The ALL AGES show is $6-8 and starts at 9 PM.

The Press Club is having a show with Ritchie Young and Rauelsson. You probably know Ritchie Young as the little fella with the big voice in Loch Lomond (If you don't, you probably should get with it). What you may not know is that he sometimes plays around town all by his lonesome. And truth be told, he is just as good flying solo as he is with his cohorts. Not that he should drop the band, because they are awesome. But, rather this goes to show that the songs are strong enough to stand on their own. I have seen him a couple times by himself it have been very impressed. He usually switches between an acoustic guitar or a violin. Both of which he strums (not bowing the violin for Richie). He has a voice that is usually pretty high and loud and sometimes he goes even higher in what is one of the better falsetto voices I have heard a man make. His lyrics are often based on dreams and memories and thus are often surreal but conjure up very vivid imagery. Rauelsson is the music of the Spaniard and Portlander. He has an ep out on Hush Records and probably not so coincidently has many Hush artists guest. All of the songs are written and sung in Spanish, so I can't comment to much on the lyrics too much. To me his music sounds like the guy who sometimes sings in Blonde Redhead made a gentle folk record in Spanish. Ritchie is one of those previously mentioned guests, so I would not be surprised if you saw a duet tonight. The show is FREE at 8:30 PM.

Backspace is having a show with Annie Bethancourt, Ryanhood (Tucson), and Kaylee Cole (Spokane). Annie Bethancourt, like Rauelsson, is a sometimes Portlander. Also like Rauelsson, when she isn't living here, she is living a country that speaks Spanish (Costa Rica). The difference is that she sings and writes her songs all in English. They are also very well written and often tell little stories and have those metaphors that songwriters are usually crazy about. She tends to treat every show like a VH1 storytellers session which actually is very entertaining. She has control over her audience and makes sure that they have a good time. Pretty impressive for a performer who is backed only by her guitar. Oh, did I mention her voice? Her voice is pretty incredible. To be honest I usually don't think to much of the people she plays shows with, but I do think that Kaylee Cole is pretty good. I have seen her play with fellow Spokane native Karli Fairbanks before. It is mostly her and a piano. Her person and a piano seems to be much more informed by current "indie rock" than most who choose the piano. As her myspace page claims, "mostly I just listen to Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, and The Walkmen". Oh her voice is quite good as well. The ALL AGES show is $7 and starts at 9 PM.

Say, "Hi" to me if you see me tonight. It would be neat.

-Ben


World's Greatest Ghost play tonight at Berbati's. If you see them please be more energetic than this crowd.