Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Tuesday, June 8th

Hello Dear Readers,

Sometimes I just don't understand. Last night I went to see Padriac Finbar Haggerty Hammond at Ella Street Social Club. I am a huge fan. I apparently am one of the very few fans. I counted myself and another person who came to see the music. Granted it was a last minute show. But come on. The bartender brought in three friends and I think there was maybe three other people who were there. What I am saying is that it felt empty. Too bad for all of you suckers who didn't go because the music was awesome. I always seem to forget that because Padriac Finbar Haggerty-Hammond is backed by Mat Vuksinich, that it is essentially the same line up as The Sarcastic Dharma Society. Which means that they tend to split their sets. Since Fin and Mat are my favorite songwriters in Portland, I am always tickled that I get to hear them both. Plus it seems that they are always fine tuning their songs and making better and better arrangements. And The Sarcastic Dharma Society's newest song is so good. It is soooo good. Since David Bazan is playing a with a band that I can't imagine seeing based on name alone (Mewithoutyou) and at the worst venue in town (Hawthorne Theater), these are the shows that I kinda wanna see:

Valentine's is having a show with Orca Team, The Taste, and Festa L'Animale. This is the album release show for Orca Team. Holy Crap. I wanna go. I wanna have that album. I still haven't seen the band. Because I am a straight up chump. I plan on going to this show and getting this album tonight. Why? Because I predict it to be the perfect soundtrack to the summer. Assuming that the summer season should be sound tracked by reverb-y lo-fi surf pop goodness. And it should, right? Festa L'Animale have two friends on myspace. They also have two tracks up. I have no idea what is going on with that. I also could not find a band called The Taste that is playing this show, show decided to link to this band instead. Look at what they wrote about their influences, "We are our own influence. Yes, that's right. WE are our OWN influence. There was a time traveling accident in one of our gigs from the future and we became stranded in the past. So we decided that we teach ourselves the ways of METAL and ROCK!". Sadly you will have to travel to Jersey to see them. The show at Valentine's is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Ella Street Social Club is having a show with And And And, The Shivas, and Whqles. And And And is a band that has grown on me since I started listening to the CD they gave me a while back when AristeiA played with them. It is indie rock with the kind of indie rock vocals that you either can deal with or that you hate (think Clap Your Hands Say Yeah). I think that the songs are pretty good. And there are a lot of them and they are still all pretty good. I am impressed. The Shivas play rock and roll. They have a bit of a sound that reminds me a little bit of The Velvet Underground. Maybe it is the lackadaisical vocals. Whatever, this show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

Holocene is having The Rumble with Chasing Kings (LA), Priory, and Blood Beach. I am writing about this show because The Rumble seems like a cool idea. You know have a FREE show with a touring band some cool local acts that you probably are not too familiar with. I ran into my friend Shane (the front man for Blood Beach) the other day and he told me about this show. He was told that Chasing Kings sounded kinda like Kings of Leon. He seemed confused as to what that meant. His music seems like garage rock put through a crazy lo-fi/psychedelic filter. It is fun and I would imagine even more fun to see live. If only to see how they get some of the crazy sounds that you are hearing. Shane used to play as Tex Winters where he would put folk music through that same filter. Priory are a indie pop band. They sound pretty good. Pretty darned catchy. It reminds me a bit of Seattle's BOAT. Which is a compliment. As you may or may not recall the show is FREE and starts at 8:30 PM.

If you see me at any of these shows please say, "Hi". Perhaps we can exchange names. Tell you what, I will start. "My name is Ben".

-Ben


Orca Team will play Valentine's tonight. They will have their album. They have a video. They are legit.