Ben Meyercord's Live Music for Sunday, February 28th

Hello Dear Readers,

Last night I got home from work at like 10:30 in the pm. I could not bring myself to see any of the shows despite their inherent awesomeness. Instead I fell asleep watching Robocop. If you have not seen Robocop recently, it is crazy how not real some of the special effects are. Anyway, there are some good looking shows today:

Sunday, February 28th

Kennedy School is having a show with The Builders and The Butchers, Shelley Short, The Cardboard Songsters, and DJ Anjali. This is all part of the "You Who" monthly Children's variety rock show. This how the website describes You Who, "A monthly children's rock variety show created by Seann McKeel and Chris Funk in cooperation with McMenamins. It's a half hour-ish of variety entertainment featuring DJs and interactive dance parties with giant barn owls, musical guests, stories, skits, sing a longs, cartoons, artists, puppets, parades and performers. The second half hour features a live rock, hip-hop, or dance band!" So it kinda sounds like one of those fun for the whole family type deals. All of the hip parents will be there. I have played a show with the Builders & The Butchers. It was an all ages show. The kids went crazy. The kids today might be a little younger, so they might go even crazier. Plus I am deeply in like with the music of Shelley Short. The ALL AGES show is $10 for adults, $5 for walking age to 12 yrs old, and Free for non-walkers ( I assume they mean babies and such and not very lazy people). There is stuff happening starting at noon, but the show doesn't start until 1 PM.

The Wail is having a PA benefit for The Wail. It will feature Kathleen Keogh, Sustentacula, White Rainbow, Hammer of Hathor, Romancing, and Pete Swanson (of Yellow Swans). This show has several projects that I have written about before but have not seen. I have seen and liked White Rainbow before. He creates pretty and sometimes droney sometimes beat drivedn music created by layers of loops created by keyboards and pedals and samplers, and guitar and drums and a chaos pad and whatever else happens to be in his vicinity. Susentacula is a duo that makes "experimental" beat music. I do not know how best to describe it, but I do know that I like it. Hammer of Hathor play a a weird offspring of jazz. I am a fan of Jazz's weird spawns, so of course I like this. Romancing is a noisey project of Charlie Salas-Humara and Magge Vail. They are also both in a band called Leti Angel which is less noise based. You may recognize Charlie as formerly being in Panther and The Planet The before that. He does good work. I have not seen Pete Swanson solo yet. But his previous band Yellow Swans, was the loudest band I have ever seen. The ALL AGES show is by donation and starts at 6 PM.

Valentine's is having a show with Ages & Ages and AAN. I have seen Ages And Ages once and I liked it they had a lot of vocal stuff going on. But that was when they were just starting. Then I saw they more recently, a month ago?, and they were short a member but sounded pretty good. I think they will have every band member in attendance tonight, so I am planning on being there to see how it goes down. AAN is one of my favorite bands in Portland. They know how to rock the crap out of a song when it needs it, and how to barely be there and still maintain an effective intensity. I love it. It has been far too long since I have seen them. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Rontoms is having a show with Joe Manis Trio, Why I Must Be Careful, and Lindsey Stormo & Ben Darwish. Rontoms is pretty reliable in their Sunday Night shows. I am not familiar with most of the people tonight, but I freaking love Why I Must Be Careful. They do not have much music online to hear and it does not live up to their live show. It is a drums and rhodes combo. But both members are insanely good at their instruments and make kinda spazzy and yet totally awesome jazz rock or whatever. You will want to see them at some point. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

If you see me at any of these shows say, "Hi".

-Ben


Hammer of Hathor will be playing The Wail tonight.