Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Thursday, November 5th

Hello Dear Readers,

I am so proud of myself. Last night I not only went to a show, I went to TWO (pats self on the back). The first one was the Oregon Ballet/Horse Feathers show at Mississippi. It was beautiful. Horse Feathers make gorgeous string heavy folk music. Love it. The dancers were very graceful and were mostly very tasteful. There was one song where they busted some tired regular people dance moves that seemed a little out of place with the song. I guess it was a wink at the audience letting them know it is okay to lighten up, but it was out of place none the less. It was also nice to see Justin play the piano on one song. I have never seen him play a piano song. He then proceeded to climb a latter to the balcony where the rest of the band was located. Which was a very cute, you had to be there, kind of moment. The best part though, was that it started promptly at 8 and ended about 9:30. I quickly realized that I could make the World's Greatest Ghosts CD release show easily. I huffed it over to Holocene and made it in time to see most of Swim Swam Swum's really good set. Then I was able to see Wampire. They played in ponchos and athletic shorts. They are usually pretty good with their wardrobe. It is always weird to see them out of the house show environment, but I still enjoyed myself and got my dance on. Then Worlds Greatest Ghosts took the stage and me and several other people just lost our collective shit. It was so much fun I danced so much. During the last song there was a lot of confetti released upon the crowd both from the band, and several planted people in the audience. Let me just tell you that confetti loves nothing more than a bunch of sweaty people. You might say that it sticks to them like glue. Cause it did. WGG = one of Portland's finest. Anyway here are the shows that look good to me tonight:

Thursday, November 5th

Mississippi Studios is having the final night of Uprising. i.e. Horse Feathers playing with The Dancers of Oregon Ballet Theatre. This is a very high class kinda show. Let's face facts. The Ballet is classy. But I was talking to Catherine O'Dell, cellist/vocalist for Horse Feathers and she told me that this is not the first time Horse Feathers has played while ballerinas danced. Apparently some blog did a very similar thing this Summer with Horse Feathers. She said that it worked out very nicely. I could not find the video though. Oh and if I have not mentioned, I think that their music is very very beautiful. Like I said, I caught the show last night. It was so beautiful. I cannot recommend enough. The show is $15 and starts at 8 PM.

Dunes is having a show with With Eyes Abstract, Duck Little Brother, Duck!, and Bearcubbin. These bands are all very good fiends and therefore are extremely incestuous. Collectively they call themselves The BroFam Collective. This show is three of the five bands that are officially involved in the collective. They mostly play amazing music that is sometimes mathy, sometimes heavy, sometimes instrumental, sometimes jazzy, but always impressive. They are way cool. Duck Little Brother, Duck! is the band I have seen the most and I just think they are so good. They are a high energetic, catchy, math-pop outfit that is not to be missed. With Eyes Abstract is a crazy riff based kinda heavy band that have difficulty staying in the same place for long. The songs can get kinda jammy but stay pretty interesting. Bearcubbin plays instrumental music that I think is somewhere between Tortoise and Pele (a very big compliment). There music is sometimes jazzy and noodle-y. I guess I should also mention that the drummer from Bearcubbin plays that band Smashing Pumpkins or whatever. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

The Woods is having a show with The Brothers Young and BOAT. This is the CD release show for The Brother's Young's new album "The Sun Says He's God". It is fitting that it is at three of the Brothers Young's brother's venue. Y'know keeping it in the family. They have a pretty unique thing going on. There is a lot of unison singing that is pretty cool and has a very cool effect. It recently occurred to me that I am somewhat reminded of Beta Band when I hear them. They were also very eclectic and did a lot of unison singing. BOAT is a great pop band from Seattle. They just recently released an album called "Setting The Paces" I like what I have heard of it. This is what they claim to sound like, "Reptile boy vocals being sung in the same room with many guitars, a bass, two drum sets, a Wurlitzer, several keyboards, mediocre talent, fragile egos, some soft tacos, a piece of pizza, and several Diet Cokes.". All I know is that they have really good melodies and are not afraid to add some "ba ba ba's " as backing vocals. Always a good thing in my book. The show is $7 and starts at 9 PM.

If you see me at the show, please say "Hi". I will be wearing a green sweater because someone spilled beer on my hoodie and I am too lazy to wash it today.

-Ben


Bearcubbin = Jazzy! They play tonight at Dunes.