Another terrific show and very cool scene last night at the Tower Theatre as Portland’s The Helio Sequence came to town, thanks to the PDXchange Program. Locals the Empty Space Orchestra opened (in matching suits!) and no doubt earned some new fans, and ESO drummer Lindsey Elias reappeared at the end of Helio’s main set and joined them for a twin-drum-attack version of “Harmonica Song.”
The Helio Sequence, in my opinion, is one of Portland’s very best and most underrated bands, and I’ll tell you why when I review the show in next week’s GO! Magazine, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, check out four — count ‘em, four — songs I caught on video. (The one with Lindsey is up first.)
Hey there, folks. Shorter update this week than usual because I’ve got a brand new baby at home and am a tad busy. For that same reason, it may be a bit quiet around here for a little while. This is our first, so I expect a sharp learning curve and reduced time for blogging.
Anyway, the cover story in GO! Magazine this week is about the Procession of the Species parade happening in downtown Bend Saturday, but it’s worth noting that this week’s local live-music opportunities are a veritable procession of the species, too.
We’ve got sweaty punk-blues (Hillstomp, Cicada Omega), a gathering of sweeping, celestial rock bands (Empty Space Orchestra, Hypatia Lake, Water & Bodies), cosmopolitan folk-pop artists (Bruce Cockburn, Catherine Feeny, Anastacia), garage-y indie-rockers playing for charity (The Autonomics, We Are Brontosaurus), a collective of electro-thump DJs celebrating a birthday (Slipmat Science), a couple of big-name Christian pop-rock acts playing worship songs (Phil Wickham, Leeland) and local hard rock (Stillfear, Audiolized), plus hip-hop (Afroman) and a roots-rock guitar hero (Tony Furtado).
Whew! Think about it — that’s kind of an abundance of riches for little ol’ Bend in the middle of April, don’t you think?
So go poke around the music section until you find something that sounds interesting. And if that doesn’t work, you can always check out our complete music listings. (Also, if you search this blog for Cicada Omega, Empty Space Orchestra, Water & Bodies, Catherine Feeny, Anastacia or The Autonomics, you’ll find more about each. There’s a little search box in the upper left-hand corner. Try it!)
Just for fun, here’s a video of Hillstomp in action.
Someone shot excellent looking and sounding video of Bend’s Empty Space Orchestra playing at The Q Cafe last weekend in Seattle. And look! Saxophonist Graham Jacobs is back from Central America and playing with the band again!
Empty Space guitarist Shane Thomas was nice enough to send along a brand new ESO track for free downloading by all you fine Frequency aficionados. It was recorded live recently in the band’s practice space, and it’s vintage ESO — noisy, with some serpentine synth work and big, crunchy guitars that’ll stomp all over you till your soul crawls out and begs for mercy. Recent word out of the band’s camp is that they’re getting heavier and heavier, and “Jovian Barnacle” is proof of that. Snap it up:
I’ve gone on and on about my favorite recordings of 2009 here and here, but live music is the backbone of any good scene. Here is a look back my 10 favorite shows of the past 12 months in chronological order, with excerpts from reviews already published in The Bulletin or on Frequency.
(The Ramblers) were terrific. Their arsenal of stringed instruments rang out crisp and clean. The mix was perfect, with percussionist Dale Largent complementing the pickers nicely. Vocally, the harmonies were shipshape, and I was surprised by guitarist Matthew Hyman’s strong voice. I didn’t realize he’s that good of a singer.
As for the set list, the band flitted back and forth between its favorite styles, from Hyman’s twangy ballads to bassist Dan McClung’s jazzgrass instrumentals to mandolinist Joe Schulte’s more rock-influenced numbers.
One highlight was my co-worker Jenny Harada’s song for her brother, Jason, who died last summer, called “Chasing The Sun.” I’m sure there were dry eyes in the house, but they weren’t mine. Another highlight was a new Schulte song built on a weird, ominous groove and featuring a wicked Largent drum solo, like old-time music meets heavy metal. A genre was born just then, I think: doomgrass.
We also got a raucous cover of the old Stealers Wheel hit “Stuck In The Middle,” a perfectly plaintive version of “Restless,” and what may be the Ramblers’ new signature tune, “Let It All Be Good.” In the latter, when Schulte sang “You’re dancing to our music till your toes start to bleed,” I scanned the wiggly bunch up front to get a glimpse of life imitating art.
Hey, sleepyhead! Wake up! I know, I know … you ate a lot of turkey and drank some beer and laid on the couch and fell asleep. But that was yesterday afternoon. You’ve been asleep for, like, 18 hours! So get up and get out and enjoy some music that’ll shake you right out of your tryptophan-induced coma.
-Wouldn’t it be sweet if we could get Frank Zappa to play here in Bend? That would be sweet. But impossible, because he died in 1993. So, next best thing: Zappa Plays Zappa is a tribute band to Frank, led by his son Dweezil, that insists on playing faithful, note-for-note covers of Frank’s brilliant music.
-Dudes! Do you want to know where the chicks are gonna be tonight? You do, right!? Right! So scrounge up $6 (or $4 and a can of food) and head to Silver Moon for Chicks With Picks. You’ll get to see four great local bands fronted by awesome women, and your money will help support Saving Grace, a local women’s shelter. Do it!
-After a bit of a break from Bend, Hillstomp is back in town for a show at the Domino Room tonight. They’re going to tear the roof off the place … that is, unless support act Larry and His Flask tears it off first.
-David Jacobs-Strain plays an entrancing brand of rootsy blues music. He’ll warm up the Silver Moon Saturday night, for sure.
-The local rockers in Ruckus are doing good this weekend, playing two nights at Crossings Lounge (in The Riverhouse) and collecting toys for the Toys For Tots program.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, folks. If you’re looking for something non-musical to do, be sure to check out GO! Magazine, where we’ve put together a list of five family-friendly activities to occupy your time this weekend.
I’ve got no snappy intro this week, but I do want to know this: What are you dressing up as for Halloween?Let me know in the comments. (I’m quite tempted to shave a corn maze into my hair and go around interrupting peoples’ conversations.)
I’ll tell you what Bend is dressing up as this year: A town with a ton of bands playing at clubs all over the place. Here are five shows I wrote about:
That’s not all that’s happening. Check out The Bulletin’s events calendar to find a long list of festivities, or better yet, pick up a print copy of GO! Magazine, which contains both the calendar and the “Area 97 Clubs” page, which has even more stuff listed.
Of course, not everything that’s happening this weekend is Halloween-related. Here are a couple options where you won’t feel weird if you don’t dress in costume:
-The popular California ska band Mad Caddies are performing on Sunday at Mountain’s Edge bar, which is the new name of the old Timbers South in Bend. (Click here to read about why the Caddies are playing a place that’s quite a bit smaller than the venues they usually play.)
-On Sunday, Christian hitmakers Todd Agnew and Building 429 will put on a concert at the Christian Life Center in Bend.
So obviously, plenty of choices out there. Everyone have fun and be safe.
“We’re The JZ Band,” said David Z after his band’s first song at the Bend Roots Revival, “and it’s daylight.”
It was daylight. That’s one of the funny things about an outdoor, all-day music festival; bands that are used to playing in dark, cramped, stale-air bars are suddenly exposed to the sun, the wide open sky and fresh air.
In Bend, it’s a nice place to be. It could’ve been chilly this weekend — it’s late September in the High Desert, after all — but instead the weather has been absolutely perfect for this arsty cornucopia.
There are photos, videos, a very cool archive of posters, and a list of upcoming shows. (The band is booked to play the movie theater at McMenamins Old St. Francis School on Halloween. Should be epic.)
Best of all, click on “Downloads” and you can snag, for free, a recording of the band’s performance at McMenamins in July. (Nothing’s free, of course. But this costs only an e-mail address.)
Second, we have a special track from Bend’s own Empty Space Orchestra. This is a live version of their song “Pandemonium” that has been streaming on their MySpace, but otherwise is unreleased:
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