popwreckoning

This was perhaps the busiest Thursday night I’d ever experienced. I went to four different venues within Portland and saw six bands.

Let’s get this started, shall we?

I ventured to the Wonder Ballroom, which sits in the middle of a suburban neighborhood, for headliners Brand New. However, I’d completely forgotten that the Joy Formidable was opening for them, but I’m thankful I got there as early as I did, because the Joy Formidable rocked my socks off. I mean seriously. I’d only heard one of their songs before this show, and I was an instant fan. This was the afternoon that I realized that the girl rockers were back. By the end of the festival, I noticed that only three of the bands didn’t have girls playing with them.

Ritzy Bryan is a fierce front woman, even though she stands about 5’3” in heels. Rhydian Dafydd (and that’s a Welsh name, so I guarantee ‘Dafydd’ isn’t pronounced that way) sweat through his shirt by the middle of the set, but then again it was at least 90 degrees in there.

This is a band to watch. I’m sure of it.

To be honest, after the Joy Formidable’s set, Brand New wasn’t all that special for me. It was nice to see a band that I’ve liked (on and off) since I was 13, but after the first three or four songs I was satisfied. I’m not big on too much screaming anymore like I was when I was in junior high, but Brand New put on a show worthy of 90-degree weather, from what I caught.

Thankfully the next venue I went to had air conditioning – the Doug Fir. I can’t tell you how much I love that place. It is comfortable, roomy, the food is good, there is free water, the bathrooms are relatively clean, and that places gets some amazing bands. And as well as a music venue and restaurant upstairs – the Doug Fir is also connected to a hotel, the Jupiter. Oh and did I mention that there is free street parking? Yeah, I love this venue.

On this particular evening, I went to the Doug Fir to see Portland’s own Brainstorm, whom I knew absolutely nothing about other than what the MFNW site said, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. It’s an odd mixture – two well-coifed blonde guys, one on guitar and one on drums and both singing – doing catchy surf rock. Think Surfer Blood but switch out Florida for Portland, and that’s what you get with Brainstorm. Also, a few songs into their set, they brought out a female keyboardist. That’s one more on the list of bands with girls in them!

After Brainstorm was Purity Ring, kind of an inexplicable band. When they started playing I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it or not, but that’s mainly because the lighting was stressing my out trying to get photos. But they were surprisingly polished and unique. Purity Ring consisted of a female vocalist and percussionist and male instrumentalist – and I say instrumentalist because I don’t even know what he was playing. He was beating on a set of pipes that lit up at the end, making different toned with each strike, so I’m not sure what to call it, but I just know it was cool.

I debated staying the entire evening to see Phantogram later that night because the Doug Fir was at capacity, but I had a couple more places I wanted to go.

First was Holocene – a venue I’d never been to – for Twin Sister. I saw this band open for the Morning Benders last year and they were Fantastic with a capital F. I fell in love with their sultry sounds at Neumos, but I was so disappointed with their set at Holocene. I didn’t think my tastes had changed that much in a year, but I just was not feeling their vibe on Thursday. Singer Andrea Estella looked wide-eyed and confused and awkward on stage, and their chillwave melodies were almost too chillwave so the rest of the band was half awake.

So either their set at Musicfest was a fluke or I was on a different wavelength last year. It probably didn’t help my attitude that night that a guy spilled his green minty drink on me. I smelled like toothpaste for the rest of the night.

Since I skipped out on Twin Sister early, I headed over to the Bunk Bar  – another venue I was unfamiliar with – to see one of my hometown heroes Damian Jurado. This guy is one of those Seattle musicians that hovers around open mics and you’ll see him everywhere, and because he is so good you feel a bit starstruck but considering how close the Seattle music scene is, you feel sort of silly acting starstruck. The Bunk Bar is a small bar with absolutely no light, but a friendly vibe and a great view from the outside window. It was especially awesome when several members of Seattle’s Pickwick and Sharon Van Etten walked in. That’s one thing that I really love about Musicfest Northwest – you’ll see one band at a different band’s set, like it’s a completely normal thing. But I guess in a city like Portland, that is a normal thing.

It would have been as long as Friday night was, with six bands at four different venues. But what’s messed up is that I missed one of the bands that I wanted to see.

See? I’m crazy.

The night started again at the Wonder Ballroom with Male Bonding, the English noise pop trio, with their lo-fi, hook-heavy songs. They were an unexpected find for me, but they were quite fun, and a nice lead-in to Surfer Blood, with a similar vibe. One of the tracks off Male Bonding’s critically acclaimed Nothing Hurts was “Year’s Not Long,” which was a fun live track, with bassist Kevin Hendrick sidestep jiving on stage with his floppy bleach-blonde hair swaying to the beat.

From there, the baby-faced Surfer Blood took the stage for a rousing hour of their upbeat brand of surf-punk songs, including a good number of songs off their debut Astro Coast as well as some new, less familiar songs.

“Portland, where you can always get the best haircut,” front man John Paul Pitts exclaimed to the crowd as they jumped into “Fast Jabroni,” which I’m still unsure of it got its name. It was weird being at a show inside a building while it was still daylight outside, but Surfer Blood managed to get the energy up in the crowded room at 5:30 in the afternoon. My favorite track of their set was the catchy “Twin Peaks” with Pitts’ goofy grooving around the stage. Plus, it really made me want to go rent the whole series of DVD. But once Pitts announced, “this next one’s pretty big on college radio,” and started off the riff to the hugely successful “Swim,” the throngs of young people surrounding me responded appropriately and sang along loudly – “swim, to reach the end!”

I’ll admit that this was the third time I’d seen Surfer Blood that week. The first time was at a Bumbershoot after party in Seattle the weekend before, then actually at Bumbershoot the next day, and this was my favorite performance of the week.

I was completely aware of any sort of stage antics of what was to come with Black Lips coming up, and my expectations were met when I felt spit fall on my head. Bassist Jared Swilley had indeed let out an inaugural spit on the crowd through his golden grill. Yes, I just said grill. I’ll admit that I was expecting more in terms of on-stage antics, but the music spoke for itself, making for an uproarious room. A few people standing behind me actually mentioned how tame it was during Surfer Blood, and people better get crazy during Black Lips, “because this is a punk show!” People certainly did, thrashing around in the mosh pit while Black Lips played the heavy hitters like the “Bad Kids,” which people overwhelmingly requested.

At one point, Cole Alexander said something about wanting some alcohol at 8 p.m. Apparently they start early, but as soon as Alexander made the hypothetical request, some guy in the front row broke out a flask and offered it to the band. Naturally, they gladly accepted. And may I remind you – this was at around 8 p.m.

Shortly after, I managed to make my way to my second venue of the night – Mississippi Studios for a reasonably calmer show. It was Seattle’s own People Eating People – what’s come out of the demise of Nouela Johnston’s old band Mon Frere. I could describe People Eating People as dark, sassy piano pop, and it carried incredibly well in the musician-built Mississippi Studios. Sadly enough, there wasn’t nearly a large enough crowd for how talented Nouela is. And apparently they almost didn’t make it to Portland, as Johnston explained.

“There was a drill at McChord [Air Force Base]…I think it was McChord. It took us four hours to get here!” To clarify – there’s always traffic on I-5 around McChord and Fort Lewis Air Force Bases, not matter what time of day, but when there’s a drill it’s impossible to get through the corridor.

But the scarcely populated room still got to enjoy the undeniably catchy pop songs like the fiery “I Hate All My Friends,” the almost waltzy “On And On,” and my favorite, “Darling.” Not that many had the chance to enjoy People Eating People, which is understandable because Mississippi Studios was by far one of the most out-of-the-way venues on the list of the MFNW venues. But I strongly suggest you seek out their music, because it’s really good.

From there I had to rush to the Hawthorne Theater to catch Morning Teleportation. Well, I rushed to get to Fred Meyer so I could park in their parking lot when walk to the Hawthorne, but anyway. With the band being local, I should have expected it to be as how and crowded as it was, but I had to be pretty shifty with my maneuvering to front area of the stage. These guys’ wacko brand of psychedelic jam band is sometimes other-worldly like the frantic horns and hand claps-driven “Snow frog vs Motor Cobra,” which is a trip to listen to, but even more a trip to see live with a room of adoring local fans. There were at least six people on stage playing various instruments, which could have equaled some muddled cluster of sounds, but it worked in the sweaty Hawthorne Theater at 10 p.m. Isaac Brock recently produced their debut album on his Glacial Pace Recordings, and I really hope the label’s moniker doesn’t attest to the rate at which the album comes out.

I mean, Morning Teleportation employs a Theremin in their music. A THEREMIN. Who does that? Well Morning Teleportation does, as well as a talk box and a whole slew of brass instruments. And with Brock backing them, this band is going to do big things.

I was going to go to the Doug Fir for the Tallest Man on Earth at midnight next, but even getting there 45 minutes early, the line spread all through the parking lot. The Doug Fir is small. And the guy at the door was letting one person in at a time as one person left at a time because it was so packed. So I bagged the Tallest Man on Earth and went to venue into the Friday night downtown nightlife along Burnside for the Builders and the Butchers at Berbati’s Pan. Needless to say, finding parking on a Friday night was horrendous, but I eventually found some in time to get into the tiny bar/venue ten minutes before the band was scheduled to start at 1 a.m. Settling behind an obvious drunk man that brought his own tambourine, I enjoyed the Builders and the Butchers heavy energetic folk rock all the way until 2:30 a.m. This had been their fourth year n a row playing Musicfest Northwest, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.

“If you all stick around with us until 2:30, we’ll make out with all of you!” Lead singer Ryan Sollee shouted to the audience, which was met with a resounding “woooo!”

Each member of this band has so many talents that you don’t realize when any one of them switches instruments. At one point Brandon Hafer and Ray Rude had both sat at a drum kit and tag teamed this awesome drum sequence during the epic “Golden and Green.” However, my favorite was during “Vampire Lake,” where Sollee cleverly preempted it.

“This next song is about vampires. And we realize that vampires have gotten really trendy lately, but these are more like True Blood vampires rather than Twilight vampires, if you get the reference.”

I got the reference.

And after that, myself and the large number of inebriated people filling Berbati’s Pan sang along to songs about Barcelona, the Devil, and of course vampires until 2:30 a.m.

Phew.

Thursday of Musicfest Northwest started at a different ballroom – the Wonder Ballroom. Thankfully it’s in a residential area of Portland, so pay parking lots be damned!

I had planned on just seeing Ra Ra Riot at the Wonder Ballroom, but I arrived early to catch a bit of Phantogram, with their formula of electronic drum machine beats and soft vocals. The duo of keyboardist Sarah Barthel and guitarist Josh Carter was quite good, playing through some darn catchy songs – including the sexy “When I’m Small” and infectious “Mouthful of Diamonds,” which was recently featured in a New York Lottery commercial (and I can’t help but think it’s been used somewhere else, because lord knows we don’t have commercials for the New York lotto over here).

Next up came Ra Ra Riot with their lovely upbeat baroque pop. I can’t say enough how much fun this band is – you have the guitar-driven hit “Ghost Under Rocks” off their first LP The Rhumb Line, all the way to the strings-heavy “Boy” off their new album The Orchard (both of which make you want to sing and dance adorably).

Seriously, everything about this band is adorable – and not in a bad way. Lead singer Wes Miles wispy pop vocals mixed with cello and violin, not to mention the overwhelming friendly synergy on stage. You can’t help but feel the love. A few select favorites from their set included “Too Dramatic” and “Foolish,” both of which Miles singing back and forth with cellist Alexandra Lawn, and “St Peter’s Day Festival.”

Their positive energy was surely contagious, as when they had finished their set, the crowd overwhelmingly started chanting for an encore. I can only guess what the people living in the neighborhood would have thought. After a couple of minutes, the troupe walked back out on stage, Miles now sporting a pair of glasses, and guitarist Milo Bonacci jumped right into the opening riff to “A Manner to Act” off their self-titled debut EP, a quick and almost punk track (except with the addition of strings, so you still know it’s obviously Ra Ra Riot).

I made my way out of the Wonder Ballroom, I went back to Burnside for day number two at the Crystal Ballroom for some punk rock – Ted Leo and The Pharmacists and The Thermals. After circling the block for a good ten minutes looking for parking, I eventually got to the Crystal, with the show already in progress. I wasn’t about to venture into the mosh pit right away, because a.) I needed to get some decent photos and b.) I’d be afraid my camera would get damaged while getting thrashed around by the excited fans.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were a perfect way to get the energy up for the rest of the night. The band played all through their catalogue, from the last ten years, and it certainly made the crowd happy – which ranged from my age (21) to my parents’ age (50-ish). That’s when you know you’re in a cool city – when people can go to rock shows with their parents. One of the highlights was the almost folk-sounding “Sons of Cain” off their new LP The Brutalist Bricks.

If I thought people were excited for Ted Leo, then they went ape crazy for the Thermals. I mean, they’re local, so it makes sense.

Hutch Harris, Kathy Foster, and Westin Glass took the stage to a loving and enthusiastic crowd, coming off the release of their fifth LP, Personal Life, co-produced with Chris Walla.

“This is a bit of an album release party, so let’s get crazy!” Harris exclaimed.

And that’s exactly what we did. Kicking off the 20+ song set with “Here’s Your Future,” the band played through old favorites like “It’s Trivia” off More Parts Per Million and “Now We Can See” off their last album. Even though The Thermals obviously had some bigger hits with the locals, it was nice to see how receptive the crowd was with the new songs off Personal Life. It always bothers me when a band gets the cold shoulder if they play a bunch of new songs that people aren’t as familiar with, but I guess that’s just a sentiment to Portland’s overall unified nature.

Just after 11 p.m., the Thermals ended their main set with “A Pillar of Salt,” another high-octane song to get people ready for the positively glorious encore. A couple minutes past, and then one by one Foster, Glass and Harris took the stage once again, and started playing a familiar riff.

But it wasn’t familiar as a Thermals song.

No, it was Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas.” Needless to say, the guy standing next to me went absolutely nuts.