Sounds from Central Oregon and beyond
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Bulletin photographer Andy Tullis checked out the Dropkick Murphys concert — the sold-out-on-a-Sunday-night-in-November Dropkick Murphys concert! — at Midtown Ballroom Sunday night and came back with tons of great photos. Here are a few of them. My full review of the show will be in Friday’s GO! Magazine.
P.S. If you or your buddy got up on stage at any point, you definitely want to click through the jump!
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Here are a few photos I took at Sunday night’s Mad Caddies show at Mountain’s Edge in Bend. I’ll put a few more on the Frequency Flickr page in the next day or so, and my review of the show will appear in Friday’s GO! Magazine.
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
Marcos of RNRAK. All photos by Ben
I don’t know much about Rock N Roll Adventure Kids other the band is just two dudes, they’re from California, and they deal primarily in “trashrock,” drawing influence from bands like The Cramps, The Stooges, Hasil Adkins and so on. Heck, I didn’t even know they were playing in town until Friday morning, and that’s why you’ll see no mention of this show in the Sept. 11 GO! Magazine.
I know more now. Namely, that this band slays. RNRAK leveled Players last night with a hurricane of campy garage-punk fury. The band only played 30 minutes (maybe less), but that was plenty of time for songs about fried chicken and hot dogs (multiple songs about hot dogs, actually), and plenty of time for guitarist/screamer Marcos to flail around the bar — not just the stage, but just about the whole bar — like he was trying to start a pit. It’s tough to start a pit when there are only 10 people scattered around watching, but a couple of guys banged around with him. One got twisted up in his guitar cord. Marcos never missed a note.
The guitar cord ensnares Marcos from RNRAK and some dude.
As you can see in the photos, Marcos wore only a pair of jean shorts. Perhaps he’s a never-nude. Billy, the drummer, appeared to be a little grumpy all night. When the band shut down, the pit-helper guys asked for more, but Billy headed for the van. “He’s feeling under the weather,” Marcos said.
They were a ton of fun, as was the opening act, a trio from Denmark called De Høje Hæle, which means The High Heels. These young fellas focused less on the trash and the histrionics, and more on rocking out, power-punk-pop style. They were totally charming, announcing their songs in what I assume was Danish, and then translating for us. The guitarist wore a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and the bassist a Batman hat. And they had actual cassette tapes for sale at the merch table!
Now for a few more visuals. (In the next few days, I’ll throw even more up on Frequency’s Flickr pool.)
Rock N Roll Adventure Kids
Marcos of RNRAK rocks out on the dance floor as the small crowd looks on.
Marcos of RNRAK shares the mic with a fan ... or maybe just a guy that was at Players.
Is High Heels bassist Myre about to jab his bass into my camera?
High Heels guitarist Magnus rocks out at Players.
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
This post should’ve been up here days ago, but a busy Friday, then a trip to Portland, then a holiday … well, here we are.
You may have heard by now that the G. Love & Special Sauce show last Thursday at the Domino Room was ridiculously crowded. And if you haven’t heard by now: The G. Love & Special Sauce show last Thursday at the Domino Room was ridiculously crowded.
It’s worth saying twice.
About 30 minutes after I got in, I got a text from a friend: “Sold out. Can’t get in. Have fun!” At that moment, I turned and looked and saw the Domino Room’s floored packed to the back, shoulder-to-shoulder with people, and a tail of comers and goers running down the little hallway to the door.
G. Love orders his fans to put their hands in the air, and the fans comply. The green wristbands look cool. Photo by Ben.
Upstairs in the bar, where you can often stand with plenty of elbow room, it was four or five people deep against the front rail.
I think it was the biggest crowd I’ve seen at the Domino Room in 3-1/2 years. If not, it was definitely the biggest in the past couple.
So promoter Bret Grier of Random Presents made a good call moving the gig from the Midtown Ballroom (cap. ~900) to the Domino Room (cap. ~450). Even if he could’ve made a few more bucks in the big room, it likely would’ve felt empty, and there’s value in having a room that’s stuffed to the gills. Indeed, the place was buzzing. People were stoked.
The ones that could breathe, at least.
I had to get off the floor. It was getting too hot and sardine-y down there for me. I made my way out, despite the tough bros who puffed up their chests and wouldn’t let me by, and eventually found a good spot up high where I could watch G. Love do his thing.
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Alt-rock superweirdoheros Ween lit up the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend Friday night, and between the band, the (considerate) fans and the magnificent sky, there was a bounty of interesting things to photograph. Fortunately, Bulletin photographer Rob Kerr was there snapping away, and he came back with a whole bunch of terrific shots. Some are of Ween, some are not, but overall, I think they’ll give you a pretty good feel for the night. Be sure to click through to see tons more pictures after the jump.
Oh, and I’ll have a review of the show in next Friday’s GO! Magazine. The short version: I was bored for a while, and then it got pretty good.
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Say what you want about Ween’s devoted fans, but they are Earth conscious. I snapped this photo in McKay Park this morning at 9:45 a.m.
I’ll have a bunch of photos of the band, the crowd and the scenery up later today, so check back!
Friday, August 7th, 2009
A.M. Interstate, photographed at the Deschutes County Fair by Sara Latapie. (See below the photo for an update on the band, including where they’re playing tonight.)
Things are afoot — get it? — in the A.M. Interstate camp. The Redmond band, helmed by brothers Cy and Seth Erickson, has completed its next album, called “Love Your Sniper.” You can hear five songs from it over on the MySpace. (They’re the ones with fewer than 100 plays.)
The band will do a small run of self-released CDs and will also shop “Love Your Sniper” around to record labels, according to Cy Erickson. No matter how it comes out, though, the new album will represent a turn for A.M. Interstate, reflecting the brothers’ love for rock ‘n’ roll. “Our new sound is AC/DC married to The Beatles,” Erickson said. “‘Love Your Sniper’ is our rebirth and now you can dance to our album and live set. This is exciting. Music has always represented freedom for me. Well, now A.M. Interstate has been set free.”
With their new-found freedom, the band is free to gig! A.M. Interstate will play at Boston’s Restaurant & Sports Bar (61276 S. U.S. Highway 97, Bend) tonight at 8 p.m. as part of the Homegrown Live concert series. There is no cover charge. If you’re in Portland, catch ‘em next Friday at the East End as part of the International Pop Overthrow fest.
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
I enjoy seeing what our local bands are seeing and doing when they’re out on the road, and I hope you do too. Today we’ve got updates on a couple of local punk bands.
First up, local pop-punkers Tuck And Roll are just back from a tour down into California, and they came back with quite a prize: A night on the stage at 924 Gilman Street, the legendary DIY venue in Berkeley, Calif., that helped give rise to bands like Green Day, Rancid and AFI. Here’s Tuck And Roll, looking a little dazed to be at one of the meccas of punk rock:
Pretty cool. Congrats, guys. Oh, and if you (the reader, not the band) haven’t procured a copy of Tuck And Roll’s new EP, I suggest you do so. It is a blast, and only 75 copies were made, last I heard. Get on it!
Next, we check in with Larry and His Flask, currently in the wilds of the eastern United States, playing anywhere and everywhere they can. An update from Jamin Marshall:
“We have been pretty busy, playing street parties, barn shows, down by the river, Alley ways, The big Grey Shack, Bars, Basements, back yards, living rooms, city parks and in our bus. We are curently in Circleville Ohio . The show last night was fun, we played with our good friends, Tom Vandenavond and Soda at a bar called Tootles Pumkin Inn.
Tonight we are playing a Barn show in another small town called Cleves, Ohio (don’t look for it on the map, you wont find it). We always like Barn parties so this should be a good damn show.
So, I wanted to give you a bit of an update on our tour thus far. We have played in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Minnasota, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio. Here are some of our good friends that we have played with on this tour, The Scurvies from Alaska, Tom V. from Texas, Soda, The haunted windchimes from Colorado, Noman from Detroit, the Catfish Maffia also from Detroit, Grant Sabin from Colorado, Tater Famine from Santa Cruz, Calmity Cubes from Kansas, Adam Lee and the Dead Horse Society from Missouri, Grizzly Hand from Missouri, and Doug Morland.
Hope all is well back home. I’m looking forward to getting home and playing the Silver Moon and on the streets of Bend again.”
Those guys are out seeing the world. I love it. Below are a few photos of their adventures, and Invisible Hour has a bunch of terrific photos of the band’s Seattle show right here.
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
If you’re like me, you couldn’t make it out to see Lyle Lovett and His Large Band at Les Schwab Amphitheater on Sunday night. And if you’re like me, you watched that storm roll into Bend from the south and wondered how the concert would be affected. According to its Web site, the Schwab’s policy is that all events happen rain or shine. It is silent on wicked, violent lightning storms.
Amphitheater manager Marney Smith reports that Lovett played “a few minutes shy of 2 hours” (which is longer than most Schwab shows that do reach their end) before “his management pulled him off for safety.” Understandably. Lovett would have performed between two and four more songs if weather had not been an issue, Smith said.
We’ve already received one question here at The Bulletin about whether refunds are being offered. Smith says they are not. For whatever it’s worth, I think that is the right call. The estimated 1,500 folks who saw Lovett in Bend got their money’s worth.
Speaking of which, when I read that attendance estimate, my first thought was that it seems awfully small. However, I looked back at Lovett’s previous Schwab show in 2005 and found it drew just under 1,300. Just thought that was interesting, given the difference in the economy between then and now. He also played there in 2003 and drew nearly 2,500, so make of all of that what you will.
Anyway, before the sky opened up, Bulletin photographer Andy Tullis got to the Schwab and snapped a few photos of Lyle and his band. Here’s one, and there are a couple more after the jump.
Friday, July 31st, 2009
Atlanta-based country stars Sugarland kicked off the 2009 Bend Summer Concerts series at Les Schwab Amphitheater, and my full review will run in next week’s GO! Magazine. (Spoiler alert: I had fun.)
But let’s clear one thing up right now: Jennifer Nettles’ voice sounded terrific. The band canceled five dates immediately preceding last night’s show so Nettles could get some doctor-ordered vocal rest, and I’d guess that Sugarland fans across the country are curious about the Bend gig and wondering if she showed any ill effects. To those fans: You can relax, at least for the short term. Nettles didn’t appear to hold back. She hit every note. And she was a consummate entertainer. Her singing and her showmanship were the highlights of the night. For now, at least, Sugarland is back.
With that out of the way, let’s see what the show looked like. Bulletin photographer Rob Kerr was at the Schwab last night snapping photos, and he got some great ones, so be sure to click through to see more after the jump.
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