Wednesday, February 12, 2014

RIP MFNW


This confirms the rumors - MFNW has been reduced from a week-long, multi-venue event in early September to a weekend festival at Waterfront Park in mid-August.  More significantly, The Oregonian, Portland's daily newspaper, reports the festival will only be booking 18 bands this year, down from 170 last year.

All that being the case, I won't be going this year, but it was good while it lasted. Je ne regrette rien.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Yuck at The Earl, Atlanta, February 10, 2014


With 24 hours or less before the apocalyptic ice-and-snow emergency descends upon Georgia ending life as we know it according to the local news reports, the London band Yuck played a Monday-night set at The Earl.  I have other obligations on Monday nights and don't usually get out to hear music on Mondays, and by the time I got to The Earl last night I had missed opener Pls Pls, but I did get there in time to hear Toronto's Alvvays warm up the audience.


Alvvays play "wistful, jangly, Brit-tinged indie-pop" (Brooklyn Vegan) and is the new band fronted by former solo artist Molly Rankin.  They're fun to listen and bob your head along to, and provided a good start for the evening.  Bonus points to the band for stringing Christmas lights all over the stage to give their set a literal warm glow. 


Yuck took the stage at about 11:15 and played a flawless set of their catchy lo-fi, shoegaze music.  Less than 60 seconds into their first song, I knew that I had made the right decision in going out on a Monday, even with the dreaded Snowpocalypse threatening to descend upon us.   


Yuck are an easy band to love, and I'm surprised they're not filling larger venues like Terminal West or Variety Playhouse instead of The Earl.  Frontman and singer/guitarist Max Bloom sounded great, and drummer Jonny Rogoff, he of the enviable afro, wore a hilarious Diarrhea Planet t-shirt and had altered the "Ludwig" on his bass drum to "Hedwig" using what appeared to be duct tape.


Bassist Mariko Doi remained hidden in plain sight behind her long bangs the entire set, and new guitarist Ed Hayes sounded just fine.




They played Rebirth at about the middle of their set, and closed with the incendiary Operation.


They played a two-song encore, fittingly ending the night with Georgia, Bloom seemingly genuinely surprised when someone in the audience reminded him that he was actually in Georgia.




So now it's the next day and the State of Georgia (the song's actually about a girl named "Georgia") is anxiously awaiting its forecast demise by ice and snow.  President Obama has already declared a federal state of emergency even before the first snowflake has fallen and while temperatures are still in the upper 30s, but if I'm destined to freeze to death over the next few days, at least I'll be dong it with some great songs still echoing in my head. 

Monday, February 10, 2014

RIP Roseland Theater (Portland)


Okay, maybe it's not the end of Portland's Roseland Theater but it's surely the last time rapper Action Bronson gets invited there.  As you can see in the video, he lit a joint on stage last Monday night and threw it to the audience, and then toked on one of his own. Security intervened, a shoving match ensued, the house lights came up, and the show was over.  

From what I could tell, he got further into his set then Panic! At The Disco did before the creaky old floor at The Tabernacle gave out Friday night in Atlanta.

I've been to a couple of shows at the Roseland, including Nacho Picasso, Chvrches, and Godspeed! You Black Emperor during last years' MFNW, and Reignwolf and Those Darlins' during MFNW 2012.  The audience was just as overwhelmingly caucasian at those events as that shown in this video (hey, it's Oregon). 

Sunday, February 9, 2014

50 Years Ago Today

IMAGE

To be absolutely honest here, it really did kind of change my life.



I was in the Fourth Grade, and my parents let me stay up and watch The Ed Sullivan Show the night The Beatles first appeared on American t.v.

We had never seen anything quite like this before, and it electrified my family.  "They look like girls!," my father declared, and my mother complained that it wan't music - all they did was scream.  Watching the video now, it's really hard to imagine how they came to those conclusions.

The next Monday morning, the kids on the school bus were so wired the driver threatened us with disciplinary action.  Someone on the bus produced a Beatles wig (from where?) and we took turns trying it on and miming the band (my first air guitar performance).  The whole day at school was about like that.  We were incorrigible.  The rumor was that when the subtitle at the 3:50 mark was aired, hundreds of teenage girls across the country committed suicide, but I've never been able to verify that.

Fifty years later, I'm still going to concerts, still listening to bands, and generally living my life to a rock 'n' roll soundtrack.  And it all started on this one night. . . .

Saturday, February 8, 2014

RIP The Tabernacle


I wasn't at this show, but have felt the Tabernacle floor bounce and sway many a time.  It was only a matter of time before it buckled and cracked.  


News flash: the floor upstairs at the god-forsaken Masquerade isn't much better.

View image on Twitter

Update:  Tonight's show for country singer Corey Smith has been cancelled.

Post-Script: According to a February 10 Facebook message, "City officials have inspected the venue and determined there was no structural failure of the floor system. Our subsequent investigation of the building shows areas that require additional attention to insure the ongoing integrity of the building for many years to come. We are working to prepare the venue for our upcoming shows this weekend." However, the Lauryn Hill concert scheduled for Thursday has been moved to Monday, February 17th, not because of the floor but due to the impending ice storm on its way to Atlanta.