MFNW, Day Two Summary

It's late, I'm going to try to get up early tomorrow, and despite a late start to the day, I'm tired, so I'm going to try to keep this quick.  I may update this with post-scripts tomorrow as the day allows.

MFNW 2013 doesn't really get into full swing until tomorrow, but today had no shortage of choices to make.  After an afternoon of not doing anything much in particular, a much-needed rest, I started off the evening by taking the No. 20 bus across the Willamette and going to the Doug Fir Lounge to see the new band Eyelids.

Eyelids are a super-group of sorts, consisting of sidemen from The Decemberists, Guided By Voices, Stephen Malkmus, Loch Lamond, and others.  Accomplished musicians all, they put on a very pleasant symposium on the many varieties of guitar rock, and even brought Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, The Baseball Project) and a vocalist I didn't know on stage for guest spots at the end of their set.

Clarifying Post-Script: I read in Willamette Weekly that the guest vocalist was Jerry A. of the band Poison Idea, the the closing song was a cover of Gun Club's Sexbeat.

After their set, my transfer pass was still valid to take a bus back downtown to the Roseland Theater without paying anything more (see how nice it is to have a functioning public transit system, Atlanta?).  The site of last evenings's hip-hop night, the Roseland once again had a dj on stage when I entered, this time the very talented XXYYXX, who played a mind-blowing set of slow, nearly ambient, trip-hop electronic beats and bleeps.    

The headliners for the evening were the Scottish band Chvrches.  The Roseland was incredibly crowded with a very young and adoring crowd, and I was on the floor near center stage about five rows back. Chvrches are obviously going to have a very big year next year, and I'll probably never get this close to the lovely Lauren Mayberry again (or will I?).

After Chvrches set (40 minutes, no encore) I once again walked down the block to Dante's, just like last night, and got in just in time to see the insanely exuberant string-band punk of Larry & His Flask.  This was probably the unexpected highlight of the evening, a totally insane and raucous, high-energy rave with banjo and trombone.  I don't usually mosh, in fact I religiously avoid the mosh pit as much as possible, but the high energy, feel-good vibe, and the open, fun-loving attitude of the Portland audience lured me into the pit, and before I knew it, I was slam-dancing and pogoing with the best of them.  To paraphrase the world's most interesting man, I don't often mosh, but when I do, it's to Larry & His Flask.

The headliners for Dante's, Murder By Death, took the stage rig at their appointed hour of 12 midnight.  One of the nice things about MFNW is that the promoters run a pretty tight ship, and most of the shows start right on time and end at their appointed hour, so participants can keep to their schedule (Redd Kross started a little late last night, though).  I briefly saw Murder By Death earlier this year at the rain-sodden Shaky Knees festival in Atlanta while I was getting some food before The Antlers' set.  I liked their sounded and would have gone to see them, but I wanted to eat and then see The Anters more, and besides, there was a small ocean of mud between the food stalls and the stage at which they were playing, and I saw several more-intrepid fellow travelers than I fall face-down in that mud trying to cross the field.

So this evening was my chance to finally see a full set by Murder By Death.  They sounded much as I remembered, with murder ballads played at various tempos, but I was still hot and sweaty from the moshing. They started right on time, but continued on and on, even past the hour mark at which they were supposed to have wrapped it up.  When the singer announced at the 70-minute mark that "the next three songs" were particularly fun, I left for the night.  It was 1:10 am, and as I said at the top of this post, I'm tired, it's late, and I want to get up early.  Murder by Death was becoming Murder By Marathon, and while that might have been a good thing for the large and faithful audience in attendance, it was enough for me.  There's still a lot more MFNW to go.