Hello Dear Readers,
Umm…I just realized that it seems that I never go to shows anymore. I feel I have been coming up with excuses a lot recently. The one for last night? All of the sudden we are in second winter. Plus I worked a split shift and forgot to eat properly. A convenient store muffin, bag of chips, single graham cracker, and energy drink do not provide enough energy to sustain a person through a late night show. Lesson learned (hopefully). Anyways, here are the shows happening tonight:
Jade Lounge is having a show with Alina Hardin and Raquel Nasser. Alina Hardin is an folkster that I came across when she put out a collaborative album with her good friend Alela Diane aptly titled Alela & Alina. Then I saw her play at The Woods solo a while back. I forgot what show it was, but I remember her performance. It was sparse quiet and beautiful. I bought the CD-r that she was selling. I remember later finding out that Eric Early (Blitzen Trapper) had recorded it. It puts me in a very calm place. In a very good way. Raquel Nasser is "just a nice girl from the east coast". Or so she claims. She also contributes some to The Mercury's End Hits blog (a musician who blogs about local music? That nutz). Her music sounds like slower acoustic based ballads. Sometimes folky, sometimes bluesy. The recordings sound like they were recorded on a laptop. She listed her label as Garage Bandits (I get it). Neither of these women play out too often, so I suggest you check it out if you want to slip into the evening nice and slowly. The show is FREE and starts at 6 PM.
Doug Fir is having a show with Typhoon, And And And, and Brainstorm. This the Portland release party for Typhoon's latest release The Honest Truth. I love this band. I remember seeing for the first time, years ago in Mississippi Pizza and being completely floored. And then they kinda disappeared and returned even better. Then they recorded their debut and in the process learned stripped away the fat and emerged even better. When Y La Bamba went on tour last year it was awesome to see how good they consistently were. We also got to see the songs that make up this latest EP. Very much a companion piece to last years Hunger and Thirst. If you have not seen this band, you are missing out. And And And is a band that I have have been writing about for sometime. I feel like in the last year they have rapidly been getting more and more attention. They recently released the cassette Life Ruiner which is equal parts pop greatness that I have come to expect and equal parts very demo type pieces. How very Guided by Voices of them. Brainstorm is a band that I have seen and been very impressed by. The duo have a very A.D.D. sound that seems as much indebted to math rock as it is indie pop. They were one of the performances I still can remember from PDX pop last year. Probably because the music is so engaging but also it is fun to see that many instruments played between two people. Battling Giants, their full length is a challenging but ultimately rewarding listen. The show is $12 and starts at at 9 PM.
The Knife Shop is having a show with ioa, Silian Rail, Pluvial, and Team Evil. This and awesome show. ioa is one of the Point Juncture, Wa offshoot bands. This one is fronted by Amansa Spring. She sings, and plays uke and guitar in this project that seems to be indie pop viewed through latin flavored glasses. It should be noted that last time I saw them they had Pluvial drummer David Fimbres playing drums and perhaps some Team Evil members? Silian Rail is an incredible instrumental post-whatever rock duo (Robin- guitar, Eric- Drums, guitar, glockenspiel) from the Bay area. I played a show with them years ago as a part of the defunt post-rock group AristieA. They were incredible. I bout an ep and then another ep later. The guitar work is noodly in a really pretty and pretty amazing way. The drums are really impressive. Basically they are a duo in which both members are exceptional are their instruments. So much so that Eric had taken to playing guitar sometimes while drumming. It is awesome. Pluvial are a Portland duo of virtuosos. But they are dedicated to see how far they can push their music with out the aid of anything more than a four string bass and drum kit. It is very impressive so far. Team Evil is the other Point Juncture, WA offshoot band. This one is lead by Skyler Norwood. It is jazzy emo noodled guitar bliss. If you are a fan of early Joan of Arc or early Vermont, I would highly suggest you check out this band. If you are not, I would still ask you to check them out. The show is $5 and starts at 10 PM.
If you see me at any of these shows please say, "hi". That would be sweet of you.
Ben
This is the band "stripped down" To see it even bigger, go to Doug Fir tonight.
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