Music Blog

That's a wrap! The last of five days of performances throughout the city officially came to a close with Band of Horses' Pioneer Square set-- but there was still plenty that followed. The action actually got started early on with a matinee for the kiddies.

Kennedy School, 12:46 PM: You Who! with AgesandAges

This ain’t Romper Room. Portland’s under three-feet-tall set shook and spun to some very danceable bhangra provided by the talented DJ Anjali. In a corner, juniors colored paper owl masks, a mascot of the rock variety show known as You Who!.

The Kennedy School served as a venue for kids to burn energy and hear tunes that hold multi-generational appeal. This MusicFest NW version brought AgesandAges, a joy-inducing Americana folk band hailing from Portland. Prior to the headliners, bear band Sneakin’ Out warmed up music fans old and brand new with familiar covers on banjo and tambourine such as Dolly’s “9 to 5” and Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” After some cartoons and accordion squeezing, AgesandAges harmonized into tiny hearts. Bubbles hung at stage level as little ones swung hazily to peppy percussion and pretty vocals. The child-friendly band added interactive bits that even last night’s festival weary adults clapped along to.

                                                                                                                                                 -Jaymee Cuti

Rontom's, 4:23 PM: Greenhorse

At the end of Back to the Future, Doc Brown emerges from the DeLorean, fresh from the year 2015, wearing sunglasses nearly identical to the ones worn by the drummer in L.A. three-piece Greenhorse. But it's the lead singer who comes off as the mad scientist; his wild curls bob around as he hovers, alternating from microphone to Radio Shack-brand Moog to sampler to drum machine to megaphone. This will be on more than a few people's iPods as they hoverboard down the sidewalk in 2015.

                                                                                                                                                    -Dave Cusick

Rontom's, 5:59 PM: Pancake Breakfast

                                                                                                                                                  Photo: Dave Cusick

As the sun slowly crawls under Rontoms' roof and into Pancake Breakfast's eyes, they make Paul McCartney's three-movement song "Band on the Run" their own.

                                                                                                                                                    -Dave Cusick

 

Pioneer Square, 6:32 PM: Cass McCombs Band

I once dated a writer whose one wish was to interview Cass McCombs. When finally granted the chance, McCombs’ well-meaning wife acted as medium, fielding questions, translating the answers, and making specific and somewhat peculiar requests as to what could and could not be printed. For those familiar with his off-stage persona (recluse, hermit, etc.), seeing McCombs’ performance tonight was an experience that called all such labels into question. Backed by a full band, he opened with “Dreams Come True Girl”—a surf-infused and leisurely tribute to his wife. The band hit a few more major chords during “The Same Thing,” and a cheery version of “Pregnant Pause,” both reminiscent of 60s anglo pop, though still bearing the bleakness McCombs is best known for. Slowing it down, the band floated through “Buried Alive,” a dark and woozy lullaby of a song—beautiful, even as McCombs intoned, “Stinking corpse, I smell but cannot see.” McCombs played a couple of songs off his latest album, WITS END—perhaps his best yet—but in all their weary desolation, these tracks, though gorgeously arranged, might’ve served the audience less than the other, more upbeat songs he chose to perform.

                                                                                                                                          -Karyn-Lynn Fisette

Pioneer Square, 8:01 PM: Band of Horses

                                                                                                                                                  Photo: Dave Cusick

There’s something immediately recognizable in the music of Band of Horses: Live and on-album, Ben Bridwell and company have a knack for the evocative, yet they remain largely un-derivative. Tonight the band evoked all that is Americana—fitting, perhaps, for a Sept. 11 show. Bridwell’s honeyed vocals had a sou’western gravel tinge, in part a consequence of playing “a buncha shows in a row.” As he crooned of forks in the road, slot machines and Fourths of July on songs like “Factory” and “The General Specific,” one could not help but feel part of something decidedly familiar. Purposefully plaid and bearded, the audience joined in the chorus of “Is There a Ghost,” singing “I could sleep”-- on repeat. But sleepy this crowd was not; berserk is more like it. Further allaying that wholesome earnestness which Bridwell is known for, the band exchanged some in-jokes and cheeky banter before a backdrop of projected images of cartoonish bumper cars, club footage and kangaroos mating. At one point, keyboardist Ryan Monroe launched into “City of Brotherly Love” (presumably one of those in-jokes), and then stampeded through a song he’d written himself, which onlookers enthusiastically received. One of the liveliest sets of MFNW, Band of Horses’ performance was a perfectly palatable, and—as one fan-in-the-making put it to me at the end of the set—“an unpredictably epic end” to 5 days and nights of music melee.

                                                                                                                                          -Karyn-Lynn Fisette

Rontom's, 9:53 PM: Dolorean

Despite our inevitable music fatigue, Dolorean still breaks hearts. -Dave Cusick

Rontom's, 10:36 PM: Tu Fawning

                                                                                                                                                                                   Photo: Dave Cusick

After a well-organized, yet lengthy setup of their vast array of equipment, Corrina Repp asks the house to turn off all but one small red light, frustrating any photographers in the audience (ahem) but perfectly setting the mood for their complex and brooding songs. A few of these are new ones, which they're taking into the studio tomorrow, while most of us will either be sleeping, or wishing that we were. 
                                                                                                                                                    -Dave Cusick

Tagged: MFNW 2011