Not on the Guest List

Children of the Revolution Festival

Remember that children's movie released semi-recently about eating worms? Well, if those worms were in fact Portland's noise-y, metal-ly, drone-y, punk-y band Worms, I would totally sign up for the task as they are entirely too awesome! They started out with lead singer on the ground curled in a ball without a mic. Actually, even before that he was stood in front of the drum kit wadding up balls of paper. Shortly into their set - after he'd stood up and all - he began launching those paper balls at the audience. I got one and after uncrumpling it, the message revealed was that of political propaganda. I'm down with that. When writing my review for Willamette Week I couldn't find the singer's name and had to call their label Marriage Records who seemed amused by my skyping them to find out :) Anyway - lead singer man, from now on to known as Davis Lee Hooker, kept throwing himself into the audience. I was a bit scared for my camera, not to mention my feet as I always ALWAYS seemed to the bulls-eye of his assault.

They mixed so many dark genre's and even had a throbbing beat going that was near perfect for a disco at one point.
God - they were so awesome. The drummer left his kit to tie his shoe during their set. He chose to tie it in front of crowd and then dance - it was a surreal-ish sight - the way he was dancing - some humor and irony fit to be seen in the last scene of Beetlejuice.
Bird Costumes (in a bear costume or at least hat) took me to another place entirely. There was guitar drone and then melodic and intricate plucking of the chords. I wanted it to go on forever.

I've never checked out Dragging an Ox Through Water before and oh my god - I want to collaborate with him so bad - hillbilly folk with gritty electronics. It was FANTASTIC! I'd say that set received the best
reaction from everyone assembled over the course of both days.

Baby, it's cold outside - and it was cold inside. My teeth chattered a bit even with my puffy jacket on. Still that didn't prevent me from taking a hop, skip and beat during Atole's set to grab some grub at both Burgerville and Burger King. Funny that I frequented both those places and did not pick up a burger. At the latter I indulged in a strawberry milkshake which I brought back to the venue which then resulted in me being asked to leave hahahahaha. It didn't compete with their menu, but whatevs
Anyway - Atole's set was only like 17 minutes - boo! I was expecting a half hour to forty minutes so I ended up missing them entirely - like literally as i walked in they were closing up shop in terms of their set. There will be a next time I'm sure...

Anyway - Ms. Tara Jane O'Neil once again had her backup dancer who once again (as he was and did at Night of 1,000 Madonna's) was accessorized with items more often associated with women and then proceeded to strip down to his skivvies. Some felt his appearance was distracting.

I thought it was quite the opposite - an enhancement. He also shaved his beard on stage. No one can deny he was entertaining.

They passed out tambourines to a lot of the audience and it reminded me of say any TV on the Radio show you could name. Her book was also present and my my my is it a fantastic work of art. She also had her visual art displayed on a wall for the weekend.

Panther and Charlie's fabulous hair was the last thing I saw on Saturday. My FIRST time seeing Panther as a duo. But first, I must go back to the fabulous hair. Did you know the the casio-pop trio of unicorns, beauty-queens, I mean other-worldly ladies Au Revoir Simone are sponsored by Bumble and Bumble because their hair is so lovely? Well if Panther's show was a testament to anything - it's that some hair care company needs to sign him.

Seriously.
Okay, moving on...
I listened to his forth-coming album 14 kt. God in full earlier in the day so I instantly recognized when he started his set with track one "Puerto Rican Jukebox." (MP3) I am LOVING his new-ish direction. It's so world-music and still not in keeping with what else in coming out of Portland or anywhere else for that matter. Panther is just so progressive.
Charlie said the event reminded him of "Woodstock in '76." Bless his heart. Well, I guess that is the year
the movie came out. He also proclaimed that he'd gotten stoned before their set.

Oh - and he asked what would happen with 2008. I thought he was gonna use the opportunity to big-up his album. He did not.
Charlie's dancing is a bit different and he doesn't perform from inside the audience - he was on the stage the whole time. To my left a voice excitedly said to a friend "See - I told you he's so much better with Joe!"

And I would have to agree, which is a feat within itself because I thought he was the pinnacle of greatness when alone. It's kind of a compare and contrast thing going on with him and the former incarnation of Panther and each has their merits. I especially enjoy that Charlie's drumsticks have string attached.

The only band I had on my radar for Sunday was Fist Fite, of course. It was bassist Justin's 29th B-day. They rocked as expected and everyone was pretty much at Fist Fite's feet when it came to applause. There was no singing with a telephone however, only a regular mic.

Afterwards I briefly hung out with Jason Simms who was selling some merch after his band Dagger of the Mind's set. He is so fun. The last time I saw him before that was at MFNW I think. Then this past Friday we did some hustling for Harp Magazine together - he interviewed Janet Weiss and Stephen Malkmus and I shot the photos. Out on newsstands sometime very soon.
Anyway - I also ran into Jennifer who is Josh from Starfucker's girlfriend and who is downright so arty and awesome. We had a long fun chat and are so on the same wavelength about the abolishment of full-time day jobs :). She actually started the print-making collective Flight 64 - a group that I LOVE, but can't afford to join even though they are cheap-ish. I encourage all local print-makers to seek them out.

Of the art hanging on the walls, I spied the majority of it including a collage by E*Rock:

and two different installations of polaroids. I most hearted Yoni Kifle's which was the scene of a landscape at night. He shot it so that only a portion of it was captured with each polaroid and then when clustered together - you could see the whole scene - from a building to powerlines, etc.

Does he have a flickr stream?

Two other notable visuals:

Here's the article I ended up writing for WWeek which includes a couple more bands. Read it over on LocalCut for a fun comment by a reader at the end of the post. I get nothing but love over there hahahahaha. Yeah right. I seriously am looking at all possible avenues to not have to write a single word over there again. I'll be rolling out new post themes very soon over there that do not include words.

My COTR flickr photoset (I'm far from finished in terms of uploading)

The Best Bands You Didn't See at COTR according to Crappy Indie Music and they're right - I didn't see either of the bands they linked -- Chrome Wings or my beloved Starfucker. I missed Starfucker's set because I was still making the WAW concert poster for the show at Holocene on January 31st (the gig on your calendar yet?)
nor Death Songs who CIM make mention of, a band which includes a member of the Shaky Hands.

Oh - and I caught Mattress who rocked a lightbulb as part of his kit ala Dan Deacon and a strobe light a little later on ala Crystal Castles. There's no business like show business and there's no performer like Mattress. He reminded me just the slightest bit of a solo-Panther, but with dress sense, mannerisms and ticks all his own, not to mention his hits delivered via cassette tape floss:

And I couldn't stay for Yellow Swans on Sunday because the duo's set conflicted with the last bus home.

Hey You! Let's Party!

Be prepared, this appears to be novel length long, y'all. It gets less text heavy after the first handful (read: ten million) of paragraphs if that's any consolation

Where we last left off Klaxons had just finished their ecstatic set and as we all know, after the show is the after party. When I stepped up to the stage door before the show I was given a silver VIP wristband and instructions for the after party on a white business card pointing me towards Kitts in Sloane Square, open at 11.
As the audience poured out of the general concert area into the foyer I made my way upstairs again to the VIP area where everyone was beginning to get their drink on from the far over-priced bar. I really didn't have much to do, so I relented and purchased two shots of tequila and orange juice for myself at the price of ten pounds while on the phone with Meg.
Eventually they let us into the dressing rooms and it got fun!
How long had I been looking forward to the Fist Fite/Klaxons show the night before? Ummm... since April! I dropped the hint I wanted to go to the show when I saw them on Halloween and pitched a review of Fist Fite's set to my Willamette Week editor. No offer of glist was made, so four days before the show I straight up asked Fist Fite on myspace. No response. Maybe I didn't send the message? Nope - there it was in my sent folder. Maybe they didn't see it? Nope - there it was marked as "read." As soon as their UK tour dates started rolling I had been google searching "Fist Fite" with a combination of words hoping to turn up reviews so excited for what people were saying about their shows - didn't really turn up anything other than forum postings. So let's say it was a bit more than a mild disappointment when I didn't get to attend the show. Major bummer. I love Fist Fite/Klaxons shenanigans! Their double feature shows my favorite (as you'll see in my year end list).
Well Jonnie and Christian of Fist Fite were in the dressing rooms. First response - awkward! And you know what - it turned out not to be - at all! Apparently I was on the list the night before - they just didn't tell me... Jonnie said they only had three people on it.
Cue Simon el Capitan Strobe standing up from his spot sitting at the mirror saying "Nilina Not on the Guest List was on the list both nights!" Seriously - knowing I was actually on the list for their night - I don't know if that makes it even worse. Well, at least I got to see Klaxons in concert!
I wanted to talk with Simon seeing as I haven't see him since July and don't know what happened so that we didn't after the hug. I do remember Patrick Wolf giving me a head massage with Sally - his battery operated toy Chihuahua that he got in Japan (and that I thought he'd given to Fifi).
God though - it was so nice seeing Portland people! ie poor people hahahahahaha - man - that pound KILLED me. It's SO strong against the dollar! Too strong!
We got to talk yards versus miles and the delights of traveling on British roads with the aid of slightly outdated (due to rampant construction) navigation systems - a pleasure I'd experienced on the Lightspeed Champion tour a week earlier.
There were other enjoyable people there too - I was mistaken for 18 years old hahahahaha (an improvement cos everyone thinks I'm 16). The woman then encouraged me to take a gigantic bottle of Vodka that no one was drinking - saying if anyone caught me they'd think it was cute hahahahaha
Peaches Geldof was getting quite friendly with Claudio of Crystal Castles - literally -they spent SO much time talking on a couch. (WHY do I have the need to refer to him as Claudio Daddio? hahahaha)
Apparently "Metric are the worst band ever" according to Alice. We talked about their Portland show at the Wonder Ballroom and about their upcoming show with Health. Jonnie began the task of getting them to play a house show when they come to Portland. They said 'yeah' many a time - believe you me, my fingers are beyond crossed for that. I went to the Cute Alert after show when they were last in the Rose City, but left at 12:30 at which point they hadn't shown up yet.
Jonnie had some Brace Paine gossip (no pun intended) that Christian discouraged her from telling me. I'm not gonna type it now, but it may appear later. This came up when I started talking about the Feather Figure show I'm doing with him on January 27th that ALL Portland people BEST be coming to - it's at Someday Lounge - a night of noise. Prepare for your ears to bleed.
So many people looked familiar so the task began with a few of them of trying to pinpoint how we'd know each other.
Soon it was time to move it on over to Kitts minus Crystal Castles and Simon.
We made our way outside for cabs that everyone was pretty much too drunk to hail or call. Steffan and his coif made an appearance talking about the escapades of Klaxons' guitar tech Dreamboat for no apparent reason, saying that while his appeal was that of an angel, he is in fact "a sexual devil." He repeated that phrase too many times to count. "He's a sexual devil. He's a sexual devil, ..."
Okay...
We made our way around the corner and a fleet of taxis could be found. Jamie doled out a 20 pound note to Jonnie to get us over to the club and we were off - sharing the back of the cab with Trev and John who I'd met two weeks prior after coming back from a Lightspeed Champion concert in Bristol.

Dev and I went to the bar beneath his flat and then the party continued onto Trev's. That's also the night I met Alex who I was soon to meet again inside Kitts.
Is it odd how many times over the course of my trip "who's your favorite Klaxon?" came up? Seriously! That's all people talked about while I was in London. If Jonnie had Tigerbeat-esque posters of a Klaxons band member hanging on her wall it'd be Jamie, which I found surprising.
I had bought disposable cameras at Boots so I passed a couple out and wound mine for the first time.
We got to Sloane Square, but had a hard time finding Kitts. Fifi was on the sidewalk dressed as Santa.
Soon we found it - complete with velvet ropes and a bouncer who let us in even though none of our names were Dan. (Yeah - I just said that hahaha)
We had to give up the white card in order to gain entry.
The coat check was free monetary wise, but not of scorn. Seriously.
What I encountered all too often already during my 3 weeks over there, was manifested inside Kitts - excess breeds emptiness. That club was not empty in terms of capacity, so I believe you know what I mean.
Pretty much everyone was there - as it was alight with pretty young things. I instantly spied a Mystery Jet in the form of William,

Jamie T and Jack Penate whose face reminds me of a rip-off of the lead singer of Hadouken and that doesn't quite jive with me.
I chatted with Misshapes mascot Jackson about a DJ gig he'd abandoned in Miami to attend the gig instead.

I then ran into a pleasant looking guy who I'd seen ALL night - from the dressing rooms at Brixton to now Kitts - glass on, glasses off, glasses on. Turns out he is Tim Burgess - of Charlatans and that band with Carl Barat that plays once a year.

I still didn't know who he was until someone made the comment on my flickr as when we talked it didn't come up.
Jonnie, Christian and I made our way to the center of the dance floor and tore it up to The Knack's "My Sharona." Oh how fun it was. And guess who was behind the decks inside the most miniature DJ booth ever? Why it was only Justice!

And who decorated the outside of the booth? Why it was only BUSY P!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not even gonna get into why I don't have a picture with him, but Kinga took one of James and him. Jealous much? I know I am. I NEVER get my photo taken with bands, but managers are a whole 'nother field. I went fangirl for Simon White just three days later. Is that weird? hahahahahaha But god - Busy P - ahhhhh - be still my beating heart. The Ed Banger hancho was making out with a girl when I first spied him. I thought him and Nana were together, but this girl didn't look like her.
So the free bar at Kitts DID NOT include tequila. Kill me now. Seriously - don't just play the Killers b-side.
My impression of a single tear due to this travesty:

(my eyeliner took the impression literally)

I don't like beer - hell - I don't even like alcohol, but two shots don't even get me tipsy so I approached the bar on some crusade. That's when I spotted Alex in the corner with his NME editor Conor McNicholas. No - I didn't ask about Morrisey-gate. Alex and I had been texting for a good portion of the day - neither of them attended the gig due to a NME Awards launch shindig that Pete Doherty couldn't be bothered to turn up at.
Anyway - the bartender reconfirmed that tequila wasn't a part of the free bar, but quickly produced two shots of it - one for me and one for him. We did them and then shouted the lyrics "We Are Your Friends" at each other as Justice's DJ set followed the exact same set as the one at CSS - "Never Be Alone" directly following a Klaxons remix.

I wanted to introduce Alex to Christian and Jonnie, but we bumped into James on the way, prompting a mini-makeout session. Yeah it was hot. In the few seconds it lasted, my camera wasn't ready, so I made them restage it - a restaging that was a lot less amorous.

After James inquired as to whether Alex was coming to Japan the next day with them, Alex and I spent a good portion of the evening together briefly discussing red light amongst other things. We'll leave it there.
Later his co-worker Imran and I formed a tribute band to New Kids on the Block while I looked for the bathroom. We'd both be Donnie. Soon we were quickly engulfed in a group hug by Jamie as he stumbled across the club.
Patrick's sister Jo Apps was discussing how vacuous the atmosphere was. I quickly agreed. It was definitely fun, but the feeling couldn't be denied.
As I made my way out a certain chav-chic singer passed me - a Lily Allen who had stumbled in trashed to oblivion. She was supposed to DJ the party after Justice, but was too drunk. Did I ( and every blog on earth) forget to mention she's pregnant? Even in heels, she was a few inches shorter than me. Not quite a skinny-minny as the tabloids are referring to her as, but rather just slim and normal sized.
Luckily Christian who was holding my coat check ticket had left it with the coat-check girl, so I claimed my coat and was gone at 3am passing Peaches in the stairwell gabbing (sounded a bit like bitching :) about Lily.
When I got outside Trev and John were about to make their way back to Dalston - she'd found her coat which had gone missing earlier.
I caught the nightbus with Claire of Headless and took a picture of her and her flawless lipstick on a disposable camera that I have yet to develop. We talked some Test Icicles, mostly Sam who I'd heard from a few weeks before. Then we geeked out about Gmail and the fact we were the only ones without pockets deep enough for a cab ride home. It was so much fun!
The next day while over at Dev's he was changing his Lightspeed Champion myspace location to "Trashed: Fifi Brown, Guyana" - why? Cos that was a headline that accompanied paparazzi pics of everyone leaving the members-only club were in the papers the next day - including a pic of Fifi getting her Red Stripe on in her santa costume alongside an exiting James and Miss Allen. Pretty freakin' weird in that I was somewhere where paparazzi were and then where the pics of the night end up in all the London papers the next day. How bizarre.

I was informed by an accompanying article that guests at Kitts that night consumed:
32 bottles of Jack Daniels, 500 bottles of beer and 63 bottles of Grey Goose.
WTF! There was Grey Goose!?!?! I could've pretended to be Fergie!?! Re-do please! hahahahaha

More of my photos of the night can be seen in my flickr set o' Kitts.
Kinga has tons too in various groupage.

Fist Fite featured in a Klaxons Simian Mobile Disco NME tour diary.
>> 2nd photo in

"Theme from Vicarious Bliss" (Justice remix) Vicarious Bliss MP3

Why does this track want me to somehow start spelling my name with a Y and remind me of the Cure's "Lovesong" all at the same time?

As Above, So French Klaxons MP3 cos it ties into the abundance of EdBanger crew at their party :)

And I think all of us youtube alert know why this post's title takes it's name from an Andrew WK song (as many of my posts do lately actually...)

Damn you MusicfestNW!

and your little dog too!

MusicFest NW - why did you have to be so amazing!?!  Why!?!  Seriously - ten times more than I ever expected.
First you made me resentful - I mean you took Justin Timberlake away from me!  Seriously - I had been counting on going to that concert since at least May, gabbed about it to my friends, and then - poof, you make him disappear by having Grizzly Bear, Starfucker, Dan Deacon, and Rilo Kiley all on the same night.
But you redeemed yourself with what made me resentful in the first place.  I don't care how many times I've seen Grizzly Bear, it's never enough.

Ed after the show:

Live at the Doug Fir:

(Drummer Christopher Bear was rocking a brand-spanking new Deerhunter T)

Still, why Justin couldn't you have postponed Portland too?

But - oh the lack of sleep!  Never fully expected it to the extent it existed, but now I know not to have a day job during all the days of the fest and schedule myself to participate in Crafty Wonderland on my only day off my day job but still on a MFNW day.
But still I stayed out until 2, then stayed up even later uploading photos when I had to be at work at 9:30 the next day.
Oh MusicFest NW - why do you only have to last four days!?!
I now can't wait for SXSW!  I think I'm really gonna try for 2008, even though I already know I have a conflict with the dates in March.

Girl Talk and Dan Deacon were my favorite sets of the fest. 

I have tried and tried again to listen to 'Crystal Cat', but accepted that Dan Deacon was not my bag.  When assigned to turn up to his gig I did so with curiosity only emboldened by the fact that when I turned up, Justin Kent was there after having just put his camera equipment away - there was no way to shoot it apparently - the strobe lights breaking three minutes of just a blackened room completely packed with people like a gas chamber.  Oh how that made me want to witness it all the more.  I came for a concert, what I got was a cult. 

He had lyrics sheets for 'Wham City':

People sang from them covered in sweat:

(It was SERIOUSLY hot in there!  People's sweat was dripping in actual drops onto my camera)

It's so funny too, because I am like the most drug-free person - I mean I've never even smoked a cigarette or drank coffee, yet I found myself gleefully chanting along with everyone in attendance - "Harry Potter, Book 6!  Smoke weed everyday!"  In fact, I'm still chanting it.  Seriously - as I bounced around between sets of Swim Swam Swum, Holy Fuck, and Wolf Parade two days later on Sunday night, that chant and talking about Lorin of the Thermals was all that occupied my time.
I heard from two people - Cary Clarke and Jason Simms that Dirty Projectors was their favorite set of the fest.  Wish I could've been in two places at once, but I was over onstage shooting and dancing at Girl Talk.

Where's Waldo Girl Talk?

Can you find him?

With Girl Talk I got exactly what I expected - times ten!  I wondered with the Roseland's security as notorious as they are with a seemingly "no fun" policy - how would my man Gregg Gillis' set look without people clogging the stage alongside him?  Well, one - he didn't perform on the stage.  He performed in the barrier between the stage and the crowd - until he actually started performing because as soon as his beats began, people were hopping the barrier too fast to time.  And security was game with it!  They stood on the stage in protection of all of the fancy/swish/expensive hip-hop/rap/DJ equipment and let the crowd go WILD!!!!!!!!!!  He had a pretty copy of Finder besides his laptop.  He played Grizzly Bear's 'Knife' minus Clipse's vocals proclaiming "Wamp, Wamp, what it do, what it do?"
Oh Gregg!  You finally got to steal my heart live!  If you (actually you, not Gregg :) read this blog in November, I was actually scheduled to do a photo shoot with him and attend his show at Holocene, but he still had his day job at the time and didn't get into Portland until WAY LATE crushing our previously scheduled commitments.
And oh my god - did he look like Garrett or did he look like Garrett!?!:

My biggest upset was missing Typhoon.  Enough said... oh how I tried!
Eugene Mirman = super super crafty/clever/funny.

I accidentally spit what I had in my mouth on someone due to uncontrollable laughter.  Ten minutes later, someone spit a mouthful of beer on me for the same reasons, for which I could forgive him.  If you do not know him, I am NOT exaggerating - he is TOO funny.  Even when I think something is funny, I typically don't laugh out loud.  This was not the case with him.  Tokyo Police Club were trying so hard to see him at Bumbershoot.  I now know why.  Wolfcats forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was there any gig that the Mercury's Rob Simonsen wasn't at?  I ran into him without actually talking to him too many times to count.
Oh and Fist Fite - "Ooohhhhh, love to love you baby.  Ooohhhhh, love to love you baby"!  Perhaps my favorite Portland band.  Perhaps hands down. 

I was really scared they'd start evolving into a more normal band - ie more normal antics, maybe become predictable, but they haven't at all.  They remain at the top of their game - you can guess, but you don't truly know what's coming next with them.  They owned the stage at the Doug Fir. 

It was great to see them again after months and months of not doing so.  Jonnie threw glitter all over us in the very front and her glitter remained there long after.  I spied it on the monitors during Deerhunter and then when I was selling bobby pins and scarves at Crafty Wonderland the next morning, my table was directly over a patch of glitter on the floor.
Prepare yourself for what I'm about to type.  I d-o n-o-t g-e-t D-e-e-r-h-u-n-t-e-r.
Yeah, I just wrote that.
Let's leave it at that, but still talk about them.

They were seated on the sidewalk outside of their label mate White Rainbow's gig on Saturday at Satyricon.
I wanted to take (scheduled) portraits of them minus Colin who quit last week, but it didn't happen.  I will next time though.  I have two specifically generated ideas for them and they are entirely too fun.
So what were my other highlights?  Even with my anti-social self that was surprisingly social after laying low and working six-days a week during August, my highlights centered around interaction.  I met Erik and we talked endlessly about the goddess that is Beth Ditto, Britney Spears, and Perez Hilton as well as sang Yo majesty songs at each other after he yelled "I love your blog," as I walked by trying to make it to the last four minutes of YACHT's gig.  His friend looked like Corbin Bleu from High School Musical.  My favorite quote of the weekend stems from this.
"Do people say that to you all the time?"
"All the time.  Mostly homeless people."
I met Max at the Crystal before Thermals who I ended up missing to shoot Clipse.  All of drummer Lorin Coleman's brothers were in attendance helping erect giant trees onstage.
Oh god - and Starfucker.  Can we talk about how much more he continues to rock with each gig!!? 

SEE HIM if you can cos he's gonna stop playing local shows too soon.  I have 30 Starfucker tracks because that was all that'd fit on the disc he gave me back in June-ish, but the absolute best of the night was his unrecorded ode to the Mariners' 'Ichiro'. SOOOOOOOOOOOO good!  We were texting back and forth before his set because I wanted him to save 'German Love' for me since I'd be shooting the first few minutes of Tiny Vipers' set at Doug Fir then high-tailing it across the bridge (with the Burnside bridge inconveniently closed) for his set that also started at 10 and he typically whips that one out early.  He assured that he wouldn't be playing it too early and when we arrived at Towne Lounge he was mid-way through.  Perfect timing!  And he had another drummer with him too!  And not his Sexton Blake co-patriot.  He briefly drummed with a juice bottle.
I ran into a lot of people from high school who I haven't seen for at least a year each.  It was weird/cool/surreal.
So yeah - Bobby Bare is fun.
I was gonna do a Bobby Bare/Cat power specific post, but not anymore.  Here is some of what I wrote:

Bobby Bare Jr. arrived in Portland via Nashville to open for Cat Power care of an earned free flight on Southwest Airlines and to an awaiting free pair of orange Nikes - not that he needed them.  When he took to the stage at Audio Cinema, he did so in stocking feet with an acoustic guitar and the Decemberists' Chris Funk in toe.  Together they rolled through half of the set -- Bobby Bare Jr.'s country sound made complete with his Hank Williams-esque yelps and Funk's guitar picking and mandeolin playing.  Mid-way through, the tempo turned rock at which point several more Decemberists made their way onto the stage, minus Colin Meloy who joked beforehand that he was an employee of Adidas and that's what prevented his partcipation.
What is a Cat Power show minus the breakdowns she seems to have left behind a couple tours ago and the seemingly mindless chatter that can plague her sets?

A kinda normal one, still uniquely Cat Power.  She performed quite a different set to her last Portland showing that included two shows in one day without accompaniment at the Aladdin.  This time around Chan's only duties were that of singing and hoofing it around the stage while her Philadelphia hailing companion commanded both the piano and guitar.
Masked in an unchanging blue light, she shook her hands, tapped her white shoes like a pony, and sang with very little interaction with the audience other than a brief comment about her "skinny jeans," passed off a lit cigarette after one drag, and admitted to being nervous, but that did not detract.
It was a set of covers including her Cat Stevens cover that appears in the Debeers commercial plus 'The Tracks of My Tears' originally by the Miracles.  Absent were her typical cover of the Rolling Stones and even Velvet Underground, or 'Freebird' as she played upon request at the Aladdin.
She closed her set with two originals - 'The Greatest' which drew cheers from the audience for the song itself and to finally be hearing something more familiar and 'Lived in Bars'.

Oh and I spied Quasi's Janet Weiss backstage at Spoon.

MusicfestNW started with a bang for me when I came from Seattle day of to catch Cat Power - literally went straight from Greyhound, into a taxi, over the river to Audio Cinema with 7 minutes to spare before Bare hit the stage and shot some candids of him and the Decemberists.

(He's managed by Trevor, who is the director of MFNW)

My weekend came to a very sad end both before and after Wolf Parade when Britney Spears failed to nail her VMA performance.  Can we cry collectively?  And you know, I realize that people's hopes should not be hinged on one human being - there is no way she can support all of the weight of that many expectations, but that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed and that I'm not going to cry or that I haven't already... multiple times... once while watching Holy Fuck tear up the stage with distorted casio rocking crap-pop.

My MusicfestNW experiences over the internets:

My Pitchfork photo expose

I blogged MFNW Day 2 at LocalCut

I blogged MFNW Day 3 at LocalCut

I blogged MFNW Day 4 at LocalCut

And you can pick up this week's edition of Willamette Week to see seven of my observations in print from Fist Fite to Deerhunter's dress sense plus a bit about Wolf Parade's set and spy three of my photos!!!!!!!

And my mini photo story of the fest: I typically don't LOVE my photos.  In fact I have such a hard time looking at them after I've taken them that I can sometimes be kinda late on deadlines because I don't want to look at them and see how close they could've been to being one step better, but the photo at the top of the post I immediately fell in actual love with.  I originally submitted it to the MFNW invite only flickr group for editors to browse through as I was submitting some of my top tier photos there, but then I realized that even though I loved it, some other editors might not and I didn't want to risk it not running, because I wanted other people to see it, so I removed it and sent it to Pitchfork where I knew it'd appear.
Today I got an email from the editor of the Bend Bulletin saying how much he in all-caps LOVED the photo and how he was happy to use my other Girl Talk shots he had access to in the MusicfestNW flickr, but that's the one he really wanted.  Since the exclusivity has expired now, I sent it his way.
I almost feel like a real photographer lately.  Keyword: almost.

Here's to next year!

(And no, I was not wearing a backpack even though it looks like it)

Now I'm sick, but it was worth it!

'Wham City' Dan Deacon MP3

'Knife' Grizzly Bear Girl Talk remix MP3

'How Can I Tell You' Cat Power clip MP3

PS - I'll be uploading ten million more photos that have yet to appear anywhere to my flickr within the next week.  So bookmark it if you wanna see them/yourself in the crowd at Girl Talk.

I saw them once, I saw them twice

As above, so below - and Portland was a different reflection of the high Klaxons' achieved with their Seattle show. Before the show, Simon admitted he was feeling a bit dead as he ordered a diet coke for himself and the requested tequila for me. It showed on stage, and even off. They weren't anywhere near as visible mingling in the crowd as they were in Seattle. In fact, they were pretty much invisible until they took to the stage after yet another eccentric show from Fist Fite - they're second ever, and first in their hometown.

Jonnie's roommates formed the majority of the audience that was situated directly in front of the stage and when she asked for a cigarette, one very vocal one threw one at her with all his might as another audience member (and possibly another roommate) politely handed one up to her. My cries for 'Terminator' went unanswered, but they did play their interlude 'High Five Team/High Five Team-O' directly upon my shout for it. I'm almost scared of my level of fangirl-dom for them.

I think why Klaxons came off as a bit moody when they took to the Dante's stage was that they were put off by the fact that much of the audience remained sitting through out their set. And it'd be different if it was balcony seating, but it was right on the floor, right in front of the stage. Of course the US isn't going to have the mob-mentality of their shows in the UK and Europe, but still. . . enthusiasm enough to stand would have gone a long way. . .

They played the exact same set as Seattle in terms of setlist. Marisa's favorite was 'Golden Skans', which she wasn't expecting to translate as well live as it did and I felt 'As Above, So Below' was the best and had possibly the most dancable beat in terms of their songs' live recreations. They didn't have the same amount of contact with each other on stage in comparison to Seattle. I really think the reason for the difference in energy is that it was much easier to feed off of the frenzied energy of Seattle's crowd. They played with the house lights on, so everyone could be seen, and the audience was absolutely insane. Portland was absolutely subdued (aside from two couples who acted as if Dante's was their bedroom) and very dark in terms of venue and stage lighting.
They still put on a great show.
And still repeated that they were from London multiple times through out their set :)

The highlight of their set was undoubtedly when Fist Fite's Jonnie's energy spilled onto stage, in the form of her jumping on, doing stationary running for a few beats, and then playfully assaulting (:D) by means of tickling and biting each member as they ended their set.

'My Love' Klaxons Justin Timberlake Cover MP3

Afterwards, Jamie was DJing at Rotture with DJ Joee Irwin. Marisa and I went to the Tube first

(spy one of the Candy Cane Shivs of Reverse Dotty getting down in the crowd in his striped top)

and got down to DJ Linoleum as she played some Daft Punk and Cassie, then made our way over to Rotture around 12:30-ish. It was pretty dead. It was moved from the downstairs portion known as Branx since a sub had blown the night before. It was SO dark upstairs.
This is where I become ashamed.
I decided to leave.
At the door DJ Joee Irwin wondered how I could leave - it was free! I was tired though. Then, this is where I don't even want to continue typing my future regret, he noted that Junior Boys would also be playing a set. And I still left!
This is the type of night I want to move to Berlin for, but really the atmosphere was so lacking and that's a big part of the experience. Maybe twenty people were sitting at tables, no one dancing, house music overhead and I just could not suspend my disbelief long enough to believe that this would turn into an unmissable party that would somehow keep me awake, involved (as Marisa had to leave), and be worth a 20 dollar cab fare home that I just barely had. I heard second hand that the last three Junior Boys songs killed. . .

Friend Fist Fite NOW:
www.myspace.com/fistfitefistfite

and while you're at it, friend DJ Linoleum too!
www.myspace.com/djlinoleum

PDX Gossip Roundup

I've still yet to finish my Klaxons+Fist Fite review I posted yesterday (now finished) and have yet to post a review of last night in Portland, but it's Gossip time!

➔ Fresh off opening for Klaxons for their first ever shows, Fist Fite will be joining Klaxons on their UK headline tour later this year!!!!!! Brooklyn's Shy Child are along for Klaxons' UK May ride.

➔ Got a message from Nathan aka Gossip's Brace Paine. Guess what they did in LA? Aside from Beth hanging out with Kate Moss, they had a meeting with RICK RUBIN! Speechless! He said it was surreal. I am in love with Rick Rubin! He slept with his parents in their bed until age 18 and what he did with Def Jam in his NYU dorm room is what made me want to go to NYU (though I eventually never even applied)

'Rick Rubin' Spank Rock MP3

➔ Men's Journal magazine contacted me last week about Portland music photography as their summer issue is a music issue and they're doing a feature on the Portland music scene! I sent mine over of Quasi, Hey Lover, the Shins, Viva Voce, Gossip, Y.A.C.H.T., Panther, and the Thermals (all linking is to my photos of each act on flickr). I think they're passing on my photos, but it's still pretty sick that Portland music is drawing this attention!

➔ Yacht has his CD release party next Saturday at OMSI on May 5th 2007. Doors at 8:30, show at 9pm. GO if you live in Portland and are in town! Adrian Orange who went to my middle school (and high school for a portion of freshman year) is playing as is E*Rock and of course the man of the evening is doing a set as well. A concert at OMSI! Too cool!
Tix are available at Jackpot Records, but haven't appeared yet online on Brown Paper Tickets

Here's a cool video Y.A.C.H.T. made of Portland bands at this year's SXSW:

From Seattle to Interzone

Fist Fite were up first at Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. On the promoter's (Monqui) website, it always compares it's musical acts to acts the site's readers would be more familiar with. For Klaxons it was: "Sounds like Test Icicles." I love how they picked a more obscure act to compare them to. In reality, Fist Fite are closer to Test Icicles' crown. They are the sound of spazz-core with electro undertones - they don't give a shit - it's all about getting through their set however possible - whatever that entails and last night, it brought about a lot of fun. They don't take themselves seriously at all, which I learned from TI is the most important thing possible.
They're do it yourself-ers, much in the vain of TI. They made their own shirts the night prior with ink pens to sell. They made CDRs - then on stage said it was actually the music of their former band on the discs -a band that sounds nothing like what they sound like as a duo, but that's all they had.
In the middle of one song, lead singer Jonnie decided she no longer wanted to play the tune, so they stopped.
Towards the end - two songs away from the close of their short set it didn't look as if she'd make it through, what with her hand on her forehead and deep breathing.
"Are you going to be okay?" a teen shouted from the audience.
"You know what, I could really use some glitter right now."

And glitter she got. An over-enthusiastic boy reached out to pass her some and she demanded that he join her onstage and put it on her himself.
Cue glitter interlude.
They were so utterly brilliant! They exited the stage with a hug - this was apparently their first ever show as Fist Fite. Pretty great opening slot!

Fist Fite MP3

How I love me some Klaxons! My first exposure to them was in the Islanders issue of British Vice is early early 2006 with a picture by Pegah - Vice mascot and sister to their frequent music video collaborator Saam Farahmand. I fell a bit in love with them after visiting their myspace and tried to orchestrate seeing them before I left the UK in March while they were still unsigned, but to no avail since I didn't have the money to go down south (even though it was only 10 pounds return on National Express at the time).
So I waited and waited. And waited some more. And finally I saw them last night.
I remember my surprise upon first hearing one of their album tracks.
"There are guitars in it?"
I knew they used guitars, but there was never any obvious guitar sound in their demos - just electronics.

Last night, their sound surprised me again. They are way punk on stage - way stripped down, way guitar, collapsing onto each other with un-contained energy. Still very danceable - when you're not crushed against the stage.
Simon spit his drink onto the audience in regular intervals and the front of the stage descended into a rough, but friendly mosh pit.
There was an orange netting divider in the middle of the venue, separating the drinkers, from the all ages.

As soon as they got on stage, Simon said he didn't want to be on his current side, because then he couldn't drink. He really wanted to trade with James. James assured him it didn't apply to the people on stage, but he wasn't having any of the rationalizing and walked over to stand on the side of the stage in line with the over 21 segment of the crowd and asked for a drink, at which point someone in the front row passed up theirs, and he drank a sip before handing it back.
Throughout the night they traded vocal duties, instruments and mics - a constant criss-crossing of the stage.
Jamie and James teased Simon on stage about him getting a tattoo of his girlfriend's name before the show. I'm not sure if he really did get one, but him and Lovefoxxx seem to be super serious.

The CSS sticker he has on his guitar was cute.

For Magick they stopped towards the end and took a toweling off and drink break, before finishing the song out.

Their live show is so great that I think they'd please a music fan of any genre, winning them over on their energy alone. They really engaged the crowd last night - complimenting a guy in the back on his persistent clapping, telling a few people up front how they felt their pain (due to the crush of the mosh). They dedicated a song first to the all ages section, then feeling as though they were leaving out the over 21s who self admittedly "sucked" (as one audience member shouted) they dedicated a song to them, and finished out their dedication tri-fecta by dedicating the next song of the set to Portland's own Fist Fite, with whom they became fast friends.
They continually said they were from London - as if it was impossible to tell.
There was no encore.
They are so unpretentious. I wasn't expecting any pretension, but for the level of hype and success they've rightfully achieved, you'd kind of expect them to be a little bit distant or removed. Not so. They were out with the audience the entire night, even late to appear on stage due to conversations with concert-goers. And as soon as the show ended, they jumped off stage and went outside, engaging in even more conversations and photo taking.

Klaxons set list:
Bouncer
Atlantis to Interzone
Hall of Records
Totem
Golden Skans
As Above So Below
Two Receivers
Magick
Gravitys Rainbow
It's Not Over Yet
Isle of Her
Four Horsemen

All my Klaxons photos here on flickr

All my Fist Fite photos here on flickr (including more glitter action!)