Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Saturday, August 21st: part 2

Hello Dear Readers,

Last night I did double duty as a member of Tragos Amargos aka Y La Bamba then as a member of AristeiA. The Tragos show was at The Alberta Rose Theatre. It was my first time to go there. I liked it. It is essentially a baby Aladdin Theatre. The stage was pretty big and the audience was very respectful and for the most part, a little but older. Which is to say that it was seated and the sound was good. I have not seen many shows that I have been interested in, but I want to go there again. Then over at Dunes we played to a pretty full crowd. It was loud and fast and I had a really good time. Anyway, here are the shows that look good tonight:

Mississippi Studios is having a show with Damien Jurado, Dan Bern, Dolorean, and Duover. The show is part of the Portland Folk Festival. I have not seen Damien Jurado play in almost ten years. It is crazy. I got really into him my freshman year in college. He put out two great albums and then I felt his output started getting kinda spotty. I eventually stopped listening. So for all I know, he has gotten better. He probably has. Dan Bern writes kinda funny folk songs. Or at least I think he does. I remember when I first moved here, my first job was working for something called America Coming together or ACT. We had a strong anti-Bush agenda. We listened to the Dan Bern song "Bush Must Be Defeated" about a million times. Dolorean is a good Americana band. They are not the most exciting band live, but they are good. Duover is one of the best named duos I can think of. It is Nathan Jr. (he has played in many bands and you have probably seen him around) and Rebecca Rassmussen. It is acoustic folk with boy/girl harmonies at it's best. The show is $14 and starts at 8:30 PM.

Backspace is having a show with DoublePlusGood, Wishyunu, and Pocket Knife. I have been writing about DoublePlusGood for a while. I have not seen them in a long time. I met Eric from the band the other day at a BBQ. He was a really cool dude. Anyway his band is playing tonight and they should, if they don't (I really have no idea), rule the Portland electro-pop scene. The stuff is good and will undoubtedly get stuck in your head in no time. I saw Wishyunu for the first time recently. They are great. The duo ranges from kinda dreamy electro pop numbers to almost jammy looped kraut rock-esque numbers. You should see them live. I keep seeing the name Pocket Knife. I just listened to it. They too make the electro-pop. The ALL AGES show is $5 and starts at 8 PM.

Failing House is having a house show with Archers, Matthew And The Minervals, Mannequinhead and Duck Little Brother Duck. I wrote about Archers very recently and I liked the fresh sounded indie rock that seemed well versed in what I am now calling classic indie rock (Pavement etc...). I want to see them. I couldn't find anything on Matthew An The Minervals. Mannequinhead seems pretty interesting as most genre blenders are. But what initially caught my eye was Duck. I have not seen them in such a long time. I bet that they are even better than I remember them being which was awesome. The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.

If you see me at any of these shows please say "Hi". Or whatever. I am just saying be cool.

-Ben


Wishyunu play Backspace tonight.