Monday, January 12, 2009

Last Grasp

I saw two shows a long, long time ago, before all that holiday shit got in the way. Picture my hand reaching out and grasping at the last wisps of memories of these shows, before they're entirely forgotten. I think both were in early December. First, I went to the Doug Fir for a six-buck show just to see (wait for it...) the opening band! Seriously, I got my butt there by 9:05, and atypically for DF, they hadn't even started yet. It was to see Swim Swam Swum, so clearly a worthy opening band to actually make it to the show for. I always forget that Nice Girl Guy is in Swim Swam Swum, which is totally awkward. There are, like, 14 people milling around the DF (including the members of the band), and if I want to avoid a conversation, I've gotta go sit in the little hidden alley behind the bar. Clearly, I'm not the only one in town that regularly misses the opening band. Now that I've determined that a pretty significant percentage of Portland bands (55%? 70%? More?) have gotta be influenced by Half Japanese, I'm just listening for it when I go out and hear that bouncy geek-punk sound. Swim Swam Swum's vocalist must hit 97% on the Half-Jap meter. I dare you to find someone in Portland that sounds more like Jad Fair. Hell, if you can find anyone in any city that sounds more like him, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. They were great, as always, and made me want to pogo around the room, but true to form, I sat on my stool and flipped through the Merc instead. They were followed by Carcrashlander. The name did not inspire confidence. They weren't bad, per se, they just weren't my thing. There's probably someone I'd totally recommend them to, because they were great at what they did. It's just that what they did was this mostly dark, minor, downtempo, proggy, keyboard-heavy, vox-light stuff that was primarily psychedelic and occasionally reminiscent of Pink Floyd. No, really, thanks...but no. As I was only there for the opener anyway, I didn't stick it out through Carcrashlander to hear Wow & Flutter. They've been around for a while now, and play a lot, and I really ought to hear them. Just not this night.


The other show I went to in December was (leave me alone, even Obscure Music Snob has to do things like this sometimes) Vampire Weekend. I knew the three radio singles, fun jangly-bouncy stuck-in-your-head-for-days gems, and The Boyfriend wanted to go, and I thought it would just be joyful and likeable. It was a radio-station show, so it started early, one opener, then the headliner. We got there about 8:30, what should have been the midst of the opening band, and as we were walking up the stairs, I wondered why they were playing the song from the ipod commercial. No, not a cool-esque silhouettes-dancing ipod commercial, but the one for the ipod in colors. It wasn't the sound system. It was the opening band. They're called Chairlift. They seem to be one-hit-wonder-ready major-key electro, sounding a bit like The Postal Service with a girl vocalist and a lobotomy. The vocalist with her straight-bangs straight hair looked like a nine-year-old girl. And danced like a nine-year-old girl well before that adolescent self-conscious stage, spinning in circles so her hair twirled out whenever she wasn't singing. Anyhow, the saccharine-sweet commercial song probably faded out into a song about how cute and magic rainbow unicorn ponies are. The remaining 15 minutes of this band were interminable. Then Vampire Weekend started. Three minutes in, I turned to The Boyfriend and said, astounded and baffled, "It's Graceland-era Paul Simon?!? With the Ladysmith Black Mambazo sounds and everything?!" His response: "Of course, totally, didn't I play this for you?" It was fun, and bouncy, and everything I expected, except that I didn't expect the Paul Simon, which was really distracting. I mean, how can last week's alternadarlings sound like aging-boomer lite-pop circa 1987? But I tried to forget about that conundrum, and occasionally succeeded, and they were fun to dance to (uh...bob my head to).

I did some very fun non-music things in late November. There was a tour of Clear Creek Distillery that was a terrible idea, considering how bad I am at drinking liquor, but that I remember remarkably clearly, in retrospect. Comparative grappa tasting, pear brandy, eaux de vie galore, a good time was had by all. The very next day, we went out wine tasting (Thanksgiving weekend, all the wineries and vineyards are always open, often with expensive events, but sometimes just for a few bucks and the hopes we'll buy a bottle) in the northern Willamette Valley. Four wineries, some lovely wines, some beautiful views of the sun over low fog in the hills and valleys, a great time.

It's now January, and depressingly, I'm on call. I haven't been out to a show yet this month, thanks to being on call, The Boyfriend being sick, and not a lot of interest going on. I'm looking forward to expanding my horizons, though, thanks to the brand-spanking-new, January 1 smoking ban in every. single. bar in Oregon. Sadly, Towne Lounge went out of business in October, because they were #1 with a bullet on my list of places I'd like to hang out after the smoking ban. But as always, I'll keep you updated on what I accomplish (and probably keep quiet about what I don't).