It’s Memorial Day weekend, folks, and ’round here that means it’s the unofficial kickoff of the summer concert season! (That said, it’s gonna be cold Saturday and Sunday night, especially once the sun goes down, so if you’re going to Les Schwab Amphitheater, take plenty of warm clothing.)
Speaking of which, ’90s alt-rock hit-makers Cake headline Les Schwab Amphitheater tonight, with the amazing Built to Spill opening. Rather than talk to BtS principal Doug Martsch about beards, I spoke with Cake frontman John McCrea about … well, lots of stuff.
He is cognizant, presumably, of how it sounds when a career rock star complains about his job, but he also paints a compellingly bleak picture of the lifestyle.
“It’s a privilege to be in this band. That said, I don’t enjoy sitting in a bus for 16 hours. I don’t know who does,” McCrea said. “You get to be a rock star for an hour and a half, and a lot of times you shake hands with a couple of jocks who are friends of the radio station that squeeze your hand too hard, and then you go back into the bus for another 16 hours and they dump you in the late afternoon in the next town and you’ve got two hours to either eat or take a nap.
“And then you go back on stage and repeat,” he continued, “so live it up, rock star.”
This was a wide-ranging interview about a variety of topics related not so much to music, but to the music business, and McCrea is a smart, thoughtful guy. You should read the whole thing by clicking here.
On Sunday, Bend will play host to two very different bands doing two very different shows about 1.5 miles apart. Icelandic ambient post-rockers Sigur Ros will play Les Schwab Amphitheater and Michigan horrorcore hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse (and, no doubt, their Juggalo fans) will invade Midtown Ballroom.
Just for fun, I lined the two acts up and compared them: their origins, their sounds, their lyrics, critical reception and other silly stuff. I hope you’ll click here and check it out.
Elsewhere in this week’s music section: Portland punk band Absent Minds plays once each in Bend and Redmond, Nashville folk singer Mare Wakefield plays once each in Bend and Sisters, McDougall and Tom VandenAvond team up Saturday at The Horned Hand, a Beastie Boys tribute called Grand Royale hits Liquid Lounge Thursday, Laura Gibson visits House on Metolius Saturday, The Sugar Beets plays The Belfry, Jazz at Joe’s hosts four tenor saxophonists at Greenwood Playhouse, Emma Hill plays The Horned Hand and more!
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