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| Ringlers Annex and the Crystal Hotel on West Burnside with the Zoobomb Pyle in the foreground |
Showing posts with label crystal ballroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crystal ballroom. Show all posts
Thursday, December 19, 2013
portland neighborhood + event + business blurbs
Thursday, August 8, 2013
get out! : ms mr
My contribution to this week's edition of Get Out!
Monday, August 12, Crystal Ballroom, 9pm, sold out, all ages
Watch MS MR's oozy, odd video for "Hurricane":
Check out the rest of OMN's Get Out! picks for August 8-14.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
94.7 knrk announces 2012 december to remember lineup including rose garden bill with the killers + m83
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| Passion Pit's Michael Angelakos at the Crystal Ballroom during MFNW 2012. Photo by Anthony Pidgeon. |
This morning, 94.7 FM announced the lineups for their yearly holiday music series, December to Remember, which runs from December 2nd through the 6th, plus a final straggling show on the 10th. With six nights of music, KNRK has added more shows than ever with performances at the Crystal Ballroom and Roseland as well as a huge Rose Garden bill. Here's how the gigs are shaping up for this year's ever-popular series:
Sunday, December 2nd
The Lumineers
Crystal Ballroom, $20
Monday, December 3rd
Metric
Roseland Theater, $25
Passion Pit
Crystal Ballroom, $30
Tuesday, December 4th
FUN.
Crystal Ballroom, $32.50
Wednesday, December 5th
The Killers
M83
Tegan and Sara
Rose Garden, $29.50-59.50
Of Monsters and Men
Crystal Ballroom, $25
Thursday, December 6th
Grouplove
The Joy Formidable
Crystal Ballroom, $25
Monday, December 10th
The Shins
Crystal Ballroom, $35
---
Presale tickets are on sale now! Get the password on OMN.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
who’s the best dancer? get on the dance floor with hot chip
When Hot Chip arrive in Portland on Thursday, September 13th, the London seven-piece will have just headlined the Hollywood Bowl—an amphitheater with a capacity of some 18,000—with Passion Pit. But it's not their first time taking that grand LA stage—they co-headlined it a pair of years ago with LCD Soundsystem.
More than a decade in the making, Hot Chip multi-instrumentalist Owen Clarke is humble when he says, "We've been lucky in that we've been able to build up to this, and we feel really happy with where we are right now."
Recognizing the hard work they've put in over the years, Clarke recalls the "good education" that all the early years of support tours provided, giving the act a chance to "hit our stride" and "make our live mistakes on the small stage."
That slow build up is also perfected musically on the band's fifth and latest record In Our Heads with tracks like "Motion Sickness," "Flutes" and "Ends Of The Earth" where instrumental minutes pass and layer upon layer of percussion is meticulously, but flawlessly, balanced atop synth flourishes until the communal vocals of Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard kick in, offering yet another indelibly repetitive layer that revolves around the implausibly danceable core.
"We've always occupied a space between the dance floor and the home, and we always try and make records that work in both places—[ones that] sound good on headphones or sound good on great, big sound systems," explains Clarke who plays guitar, bass, synths, and percussion with Hot Chip (and claims to be the best dancer in the band—but more on that later).
While the band may pay close attention to all the little details, they didn't necessarily set out with the aim of making a dance floor record with In Our Heads.
"We try making a synthesis of different things we enjoy," Clarke says, and that fusion has produced a happy record—one that's upbeat, joyous and alive, as well as romantic and constantly seeking unabashed human connection—possibly the thoughts In Our Heads that we rarely express without inhibition. And being romantically inclined, tension is also expressed, although always under the guise of danceable pop music (and sometimes alongside a few geeky samples).
Listen to "Don't Deny Your Heart":
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
often pulling double duty : johnny jewel on headlining the crystal with glass candy + chromatics
Double duty is often just a warm up for Johnny Jewel, the beatsmith behind the instantly classic, electric-analog dance acts Desire, Chromatics and Glass Candy. It's not uncommon to find the man opening, supporting and headlining a bill that features all three bands, in a glorious night-long marathon of back-to-back-to-back sets.
Incessantly busy and tediously a perfectionist, Jewel is either in the studio, helming the Italians Do It Better label, or on tour or the stage with one of three aforementioned groups. And this Thursday night, he'll kick off the all-ages, electro SuperFest 4 by playing sets with both Glass Candy and Chromatics at the Crystal Ballroom.
While Jewel and his crew determine each night's set list in the heat of the moment, he's sure to share new music from Chromatics recently released effort, Kill For Love, and maybe, if we're lucky, something from Glass Candy's long-awaited "monster": Body Work.
"Ida is at her all time best in the studio," Jewel says of the new Glass Candy record. "It's the record I am most excited about."
And as an added bonus if you attend on Thursday night, Chromatics will be selling double-vinyl copies of Kill For Love for only $10, which is a super-amazing deal because the magenta vinyl just came out on Sunday and the 10,000 copies the band pressed sold out in 12 hours—seriously shocking the band. Regardless, they've already put in an order for more, this time on ice blue vinyl, where "each pressing will be a different color."
You're doing double duty again with both Glass Candy and Chromatics. Chromatics just put out an album this year, the first in five years, and you've been touring behind that effort a bit. What's the response been like so far?
Johnny Jewel: It's been incredible. Chromatics has really come into their own this year. We've been around the world twice on the new record and it's been a blast. Festivals, runways, galleries, pool halls, loft parties, discotheques, opera houses. The only draw back is, we haven't been in North America very much. So we haven't played in Portland since January, which has been really hard for us. Our home town shows are so special for the bands. We are so excited to be there next week. We're all freaking out!
Listen to Chromatics' new album, Kill For Love, in its entirety via Johnny Jewel's SoundCloud:
How do you prepare for a show when you're playing in multiple acts on the bill?
Water.
Coffee.
Tequila.
Friday, August 24, 2012
making superfest 4 a reality... by benefiting music in the schools
The Supernature and SuperFest crew are back at it again with their most ambitious, all-ages, electro endeavor yet. Longtime supporters of DIY dance and electronic music, SuperFest 4 will encompass four days—from Thursday, August 30th at the Crystal Ballroom with Glass Candy to two nights at Backspace to Sunday, September 2nd on the PSU Park Blocks for a free outdoor dance party—and, for the first time, benefit a local a nonprofit, Music In The Schools, run by Portland high school students.
Listen to the SuperFest 4 Synthquest DJ Mix featuring new and unreleased tracks by Etbonz, Vice Device (Atole remix), Solenoid, and Toning, as well as recently released songs by Miracles Club, Soft Metals, Strategy, Grapefruit, Jeffrey Jerusalem, and Palmas:
Working alongside Mast, who "booked half of SuperFest this year and does all the designs," according to Reyes, OMN spoke Manny Reyes about this organizing year's benefit as well as some tips on who to look out for on stage.
This year's SuperFest has notably grown in size and scope, with four days of music and some new venues hosting the fest. But, is this the first year the fest has been a benefit?
Yeah, totally. This is the first year SuperFest is a benefit—a new tradition we hope to continue. We [Eric Mast and I] were trying to come up with a cool theme and we thought how about we go for four days for the first time—and that's the theme—with a free day outside at PSU? Plus, it benefits a nonprofit organization made up of Portland teens that help music programs in Portland high schools.
How and why did you choose Music In The Schools? What's your connection to MITS?
I'm happy you asked this, because the honest truth is that we almost didn't do a SuperFest this year. Essentially, we chose MITS because MITS chose SuperFest as their big annual fundraiser! Eric and I met up and traded dozens of emails this summer with our friend Evan Neuhausen—who's pretty much our favorite Portland teenager ever. We met Evan at the first SuperFest, and he assisted Nilina Mason-Campbell at the last photo booth too. It was actually Nilina who suggested we meet with Evan to help promote SuperFest. And then it was Evan who suggested we join efforts on making SuperFest happen.
Why the new venues this year? What will these new locations enable you to do that hasn't been possible in the past?
The new venue choices were a decision made by MITS—since they are financing the whole fest and using their sponsors as well, we decided to go with venues with established relationships with MITS. Crystal Ballroom made sense because the space can accommodate any size of audience, plus they have a new sound system that will be in effect at SuperFest.
Backspace is the perfect size for all-local band dance parties, plus a lot of kids and their parents are familiar with it. And we special-requested Spencer of Operative to do sound which is a huge plus. We're renting subs and decorating the place to look and sound different too.
The free show (outside at PSU on SW Park and SW Montgomery) is a new idea that we are borrowing from our sister electronic summer fest Closer. It was important for us to have an all-inclusive night where anybody is free to come. We feel the three locations make the event feel much more like a festival too—there's no doubt now if there ever was.
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Read the rest and find out who you should be excited about at this year's SuperFest 4 on OMN.
Friday, January 6, 2012
school of rock + pdx pop now! bring the 'best of portland'
Portland's School of Rock is accustomed to a rock 'n' roll lifestyle."This is what School of Rock does year round: teach kids music/songs/entire albums and put on rock and roll shows," says Dani Fish, the assistant manager and an instructor at the Portland School of Rock. "But it’s our first time partnering with PDX Pop Now!," she continues in reference to the upcoming Best of Portland concert at the Crystal Ballroom on Friday, January 13th.
"And it’s about time!" Fish exclaims. "We’re both focused on making music accessible to kids. We’re both teaching kids how to love music. PDX Pop has the local music scene on lock down and does an incredible job of making it open to all ages, and it’s amazing to combine our strengths to put on one great Portland-music-honoring night."
She's talking about the Best of Portland, of course--a night which will feature Portland School of Rock students on stage at the Crystal Ballroom playing music by Portland bands alongside the actual band members. Teenagers rocking out to the local music that they love next to the artists that actually wrote the music. The holidays are over and the "grown ups" will once again mingle with the youngsters... or more likely, the kids will show the adults a thing or two on stage.
"Playing with the kids on stage are members of: The Thermals, M. Ward, Blitzen Trapper, Menomena, YACHT, Radiation City, Typhoon, Danava, The Portland Cello Project, Laura Veirs, Ancient Heat, Mean Jeans, Cower, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Nether Regions, and Zia from Dandy Warhols," Fish lists. "In some cases (like The Thermals), all of the band members are going to be playing with the kids, so it’s going to be epic."
The night will feature two hours of performance from the kids and bands together, "a secret tribute performance," and the normal Friday night affair of '80s Video Dance Attack till close.
Supporting Fish in organizing such an ambitious evening is Ed Thanhouser, the former PDX Pop Now! booking coordinator and current advisory board member who's also been known to lead Ed & The Red Reds--set to release the new album Lost Leader on January 23rd--as well as pen a few articles for OMN.
"I’m grateful Ed and the PDX Pop folks agreed to partner with us," Fish adds. The partnership includes that all of the proceeds from the show will go towards PDX Pop Now!--for their wonderful all-ages, music education advocacy efforts, compilation CDs and summer festival--and PROWUS, which stands for Portland Rock On With Us.
"This nonprofit [PROWUS] was founded by a group of radical School of Rock moms years ago and is now a full-blown nonprofit that serves as a music grant foundation," Fish explains. "Any kid, 18 and younger, can apply for a scholarship to attend any music education program in the city. It’s all about accessibility and fighting the lack of arts education available to folks from varying socio-economic backgrounds."
The rock 'n' roll lifestyle at the PDX SOR will continue long after the Best of Portland performance as current SOR programs include Mötley Crüe vs. Guns N' Roses (destined to battle on Sunday, January 15th at the Mission Theater) and sets dedicated to the albums of Queens of the Stone Age, Pink Floyd, Slayer, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave. See photos of SOR kids playing Rush in June of last year.
With two and a half years under her belt at the SOR, Fish--also a musician, using the moniker Tiny Hearts, who has worked and recorded with Paschal Coeur, Winterhaven, Babies Got Rabies, Vanimal, and Damon Boucher--will be directing the Best of Portland show, an idea she's been aching for "since I started working at School of Rock. I love the creativity in this city and wanted to: 1. Represent [it] 2. Expose more young people to the greatness that’s all around them."
Your goal is "to showcase 25 of the best current Portland bands." How'd you pick the bands?
Dani Fish: This is a show meant to benefit everyone involved. Kids get exposed to great music and get to play their dream gig. Local bands get more visibility. PDX Pop Now! gets money to fund their all-ages music endeavors. School of Rock gets to do what we love to do.
---
Read the rest on OMN and leave a comment for your chance to win a pair of tickets.
Friday, October 14, 2011
always on the road : a q/a with seattle’s the head + the heart
After months and months of touring supporting some of their “personal favorite bands,” Seattle’s The Head and the Heart finally got their first headlining tour. And although they enjoy playing the corner stages of pubs–much like the Ballard bar, Conor Byrne, in which they met on open mic nights–this tour is no small potatoes, even if their self-recorded, self-titled debut has the intimate, inviting feel of a small hinterland orchestra. As the indie folk-pop six-piece headlines mid-sized venues across the nation, selling out a few along the way, they’ll be in Eugene on Tuesday, October 18th at the WOW Hall and in Portland on Wednesday, October 19th at the Crystal Ballroom before wrapping it all up with a (huge!) homecoming gig at Seattle’s Key Arena.As the venues and audiences increase in size, THATH is learning to invite the masses into their performances laden with delicate vocal harmonies violin melodies. As the energy and emotion is amplified by the pounding piano and percussion, the band transforms into an ardent choir that begs for the crowd to participate by singing, stomping, clapping, swaying, and cooing along.
Just two years old, The Head and the Heart was formed in the summer of 2009 by Josiah Johnson (vocals, guitar, percussion) and Jonathan Russell (vocals, guitar, percussion), and after a few more open mic sessions at Conor Byrne, the band soon included Charity Rose Thielen (violin, vocals), Chris Zasche (bass), Kenny Hensley (piano), and Tyler Williams (drums).
OMN spoke to Charity Rose Thielen on the phone from Atlanta just after the band kicked off their current tour at Austin City Limits where their time was “really busy,” playing three shows in three days playing, which she called “three of the best shows” in recent memory. Watch a performance of “Rivers and Roads” live at ACL on September 18th, 2011:
Touring with openers Thao with The Get Down Stay Down and Seattle pals Lemolo, THATH is currently feeling like a tight, cohesive unit and the NW shows should be no different after that warm up.
Then again, the road is no place new for THATH.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
the dandys still rule, ok?
After more than 15 steady years in the music biz, it may seem like The Dandy Warhols have been pushed by the wayside of the fickle frontal lobe of our pop-culture memories. It’s been a decade since their biggest and most commercially successful hits, plucked from the highly publicized, most accessible, critically lauded, and ubiquitously heard worldwide (due to use of “Bohemian Like You” in major TV commercials at home and abroad) third album, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia. Propelled to the forefront, The Dandys have not held the same high profile over the years, but, nevertheless, they’ve maintained and lost little of what they initially worked so hard to gain. The band has been dependably releasing music (new and old) under their own imprint Beat The World Records and recording themselves and friends in their home studio, The Odditorium, which occupies a quarter of a city block in NW Portland. A private club of sorts, The Dandys are known to not just rehearse in the space but also throw parties and host bands that come through town.
The Dandy Warhols have been a staple of Portland’s indie rock scene since the early ’90s frequently filling the stages of small rock clubs like Slabtown and the now gone-for-good Satyricon, where lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor performed his first show at age 14. And The Dandys’ guitarist Peter Holmström too played his first gig there as a member of a goth act. Who was in the audience? Only Taylor-Taylor.
After saying farewell to Satyricon in October by reuniting with original drummer Eric Hedford for a one-off gig, The Dandys are back for their annual Christmas show on Sunday, December 12th at the Crystal Ballroom (with Blue Giant opening) in the midst of a national tour hyping their latest release, a greatest hits compilation of sorts that highlights the singles from their Capitol Years plus adds one new cut, “This Is The Tide.”
Even though The Dandys’ last PDX show saw them performing only material from their first two albums (and before) and even incorporated only vintage gear (all the gear on stage was from their early days) and garb (like Taylor-Taylor in his worse-for-wear, red Enjoy Weed tee and Holmström in the jean jacket from the cover of Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia), this time around fans can expect a much more “greatest hits” approach and something “a little bit looser,” says drummer Brent DeBoer, compared to the rest of the stops on their current tour.
One quick listen to The Capitol Years 1995-2007 proves why The Dandys have been able to stay around; the mid-90s static-y, swirling, psychedelic haze that they helped make popular has sticking power. The only reason why you’ve maybe heard less of their distorted fuzz recently is because they did what every anti-establishment band wants to do: They dropped their label. And without the direction of a major resource like Capitol Records The Dandys have struggled navigating the modern music world. Even if record labels themselves have hit hard times, they still staff professionals who have networks and whose job it is to get a band’s music in the hands of as many people as possible. Thus, as The Dandys work on their seventh “official” studio album–”We’re recording every day that we’re not on tour,” says DeBoer–they’re also thinking about how to get it into your hands.
So, even as rock stars struggle with a changing music industry, The Dandy Warhols’ drummer Brent DeBoer, who recently moved to Melbourne but is back stateside for the tour, took some time out to dispel any myths that remain about The Dandys and The Brian Jonestown Massacre being nemeses. DeBoer simply wants to clarify that “I wish that people knew that Courtney doesn’t only talk about the music business and Anton doesn’t only kick people.”
---Read the rest on OMN.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
die antwoord : south africa’s zef, hi-nrg hip-hop
South African pop-culture doesn’t often make its way across the globe to the States but Cape Town’s Die Antwoord have quickly built a worldwide following. With more than 8 million YouTube views for their video “Enter The Ninja,” Die Antwoord visited North America for the first time as the first ever South African act to play Coachella and followed that up this summer with more North American dates, playing with two HARD dates with MIA in LA and NYC, before announcing a 13-date US tour for this fall. Hitting Portland’s Crystal Ballroom on Thursday, October 14th, Die Antwoord has quickly taken hold of American audiences with their unmistakable brand of English/Afrikaans profane, rave rap. Afrikaans for The Answer, it’s hard to decipher what exactly the question was, but their popularity is evident when you take into consideration that MIA stops through Portland four days later at the Roseland, a venue of comparable size to the Crystal.
“Enter The Ninja” (above) samples the refrain from “Butterfly” (released by Smile.dk in 1998 but made famous by Dance Dance Revolution) and the video, released in 2009 by South African cinematographer Rob Malpage with Die Antwoord’s lead vocalist Ninja as the co-director, took nine months to gain any buzz but when it did, it blew up–instantly becoming an international viral phenomenon. Featuring Leon Botha, a prominent Cape Town artist and one of the world’s oldest survivors of progeria, it drew so much traffic worldwide to Die Antwoord’s official site that their hosting was disabled because of massive bandwidth overages, forcing the band to transfer to another, better equipped provider.
This sudden rise is also due to Die Antwoord’s antics. But do Die Antwoord represent a swath of modern, white South African society? They’re not so much a rap group as they are actors, adopting a coloured-Afrikaans-gangster-lower-class culture with sleek production and dirty (yet sometimes meaningful) ditties.
---Read the rest on OMN.
Friday, September 17, 2010
audio-visual : ratatat's sold-out romp through the crystal
Like the rise of the laptop DJ, you might worry that two heavily produced, instrumental electronic rockers wielding guitars might get repetitive after a handful of songs on stage. Even actively listening to 40+ consecutive minutes of Ratatat’s instrumentation on album can get monotonous (if you’re not listening to one of their hyphy hip-hopped remix albums). But there’s a reason that Ratatat proclaims their genre is: “Visual / Visual / Visual.” They know how to adapt their instrumentation to the stage, whether or not you are on something chemical. Selling out the Crystal Ballroom on Thursday night, a steady bongo drum rhythm between sets had the seriously antsy crowd clapping and stomping in preparation for the duo’s overdue appearance on stage. As glittering champagne-like starbursts bubbled on the blue projection screen, Evan Mast and Mike Stroud finally emerged and after a brief intro, the ballroom exploded. Ripping into reverberating riffs on the guitar and bass, Ratatat had the entire place immediately pogoing. Hunched, hair cascading over their faces, the twin silhouetted, long-sleeved duo ground through over an hour of wild instrumentation that captivated the dancing crowd.
With a row of colored Lite-Brite-like boxes stretching the length of the stage behind, flashing patterned X’s, and two clear plastic vertical screens flanking either side, Ratatat remained in the darkness letting the lights perform. Their latest album LP4 features a string quartet rather than their traditional Mellotron but playing strings live were their virtual avatars–hologram projections of themselves in garb out of Mozart’s closet, topped with powdered wigs, wearing sunglasses, and reading sheet music–synced with the samples. Water splashes, sparks and sparklers filled the screen as the fierce “Wildcat” flashed with every cat call (like the cover art to Classics), this white bird jived multiplied (like the cover art to LP4), and jungle scenes ranged from the tranquil “Mahalo” (here) to fireball explosions and infrared heat sensations with Predator Arnold on “Mirando.”---
Read the rest on OMN.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
q/a : the heavy comes to ‘mess with your minds’
The Heavy are exactly that. Dirty, gritty, raw bluesy rock from Noid, UK, a tiny village in the back country southwest of Bath. Core members guitarist Dan Taylor and vocalist Kelvin Swaby have been making music together for almost two decades, and the current lineup, including drummer Chris Ellul and bassist Spencer Page, released their second album, The House That Dirt Built, in late 2009. Mixing unrefined American styles, The Heavy creates a feral concoction that pulls from soul, garage rock (“Oh No! Not You Again!” featuring The Noisettes frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa), blues, reggae (“Cause For Alarm”), funk, and hip-hop (“Girl”). From the The Sonics to Parliament to James Brown, The Heavy have taken the best and rebuilt it into their own dirty house.
Their hit single “How You Like Me Now?” may have sampled the song “Let A Woman Be A Woman” (originally written by Dyke & the Blazers) but the following cut, “Sixteen,” does not sample Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You”–rather it reassembles the classic’s nucleus with a Heavy twist and the hedonistically impure rhyme: “Now what the devil want, believe the devil gonna get, he gonna stretch her out, like a tape in a cassette.”
With the vintage crunch of a scratched 45, The Heavy are real–a Black Keys that’s added horns and an emcee on the mic. Howling and growling, Swaby draws inspiration from Curtis Mayfield, Prince and Al Green while his coarse lyrics defile your body, leaving you feel grubby immersed in their glorious groove.
---Read the interview on OMN.
Friday, June 4, 2010
farcical visionaries : mgmt at the crystal
It’s no surprise that MGMT are going to do exactly what they want. They’re going to change like the psychedelic, schizophrenic chameleon that they are. They’re not going to appease record labels or critics. But they might just indulge their concertgoers. MGMT visited the Crystal Ballroom playing two sold-out shows on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. If you’d delved into their latest release, Congratulations, you were well-prepared for their offering.
On Tuesday, MGMT played a straightforward set that included almost everything the audience wanted to hear: all the old hits peppered with other tracks from their first album, Oracular Spectacular, alongside slower, experimental guitar-heavy jams from their second album.
If you hadn’t heard the new album and attended the gig based solely on the collegiate party pop of their debut, you were definitely bored during stints of the new, and even some of the less upbeat old. But MGMT ever so politely tried not overburden you with new, playing equally from both albums and included “Destrokk” from the Time To Pretend EP.
An abridged “Siberian Breaks” fell between bangers “Time To Pretend” and “Electric Feel,” and that’s exactly how the concert flowed–like “Siberian Breaks”...
---Read the rest on OMN.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
lcd soundsystem + mgmt stomp through portland
The day before his gig at Sasquatch, James Murphy rolls through the Roseland on Saturday, May 29th (yes, this is also the opening day of Sasquatch where LCD Soundsystem will headline on Sunday, May 30th).In the post-Sasquatch shockwaves that tumble through town, Portland is one of only four cities getting two nights of MGMT (the others being San Fran, London and Paris).
Taking into consideration that many PDX denizens will likely be at the Gorge until Tuesday (we like to think they care about us), MGMT crashes the Crystal Ballroom on Tuesday, June 1st AND Wednesday, June 2nd after headlining Sasquatch on Monday, May 31st.
---Get the rest of the details on OMN.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
phoenix precision at the crystal ballroom
On Sunday night, Phoenix were bigger than any Louis or archduchess. They were the rightful Kings of Versailles, sovereign rulers of the Crystal Ballroom. A blissful evening full of bubbly, bouncing tunes kicked in immediately with the head-bobbing, shoulder-shimmying cracks of “Lisztomania.” Phoenix are one of those bands that sound just as clean and pristine live as they do in a recording studio. The crowd was instantaneously thunderous and robust singalongs were belted out with every other song as the claps climbed up to the chandeliered ceiling.
White strobes like flash bulbs blinded the audience as extra percussion boosted “Lasso” and “Girlfriend” with the drums kicking so potently, the songs ended like they were just beginning.
---Read the rest on OMN.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
pink martini allures and awes at album release party
"Dazzling!" cheered the Diário de São Paulo."Exquis!" boasted the Le Monde.
"Encore! Encore! Encore!" roared the crowd.
Well, they would've said all that and more if they'd attended Pink Martini's CD release party last night at the Crystal Ballroom.
Entering a wonderland, thousands of balloons were scattered across the ballroom ceiling like jellybeans and their sparkling, rainbow tails dangled catching the stage lights just right to glimmer magnificently.
With 19 members on stage, the band took us from Napoli ("Ninna nanna") to "Brazil" bursting with tracks from their previous 3 albums and 11 of the 13 cuts on their new disc Splendor In The Grass.
China Forbes seduced in French, Italian, Spanish, and English while Thomas Lauderdale exuded boyish enthusiasm on the piano accompanied by a menagerie of strings with violins and cellos, a booming percussion section, a harp, a trumpet and trombone, and of course a whistle.
The pair bantered onstage with Lauderdale reading from his "menu," a poster-sized program that guests received along with a flower (or five) from the lovely hosts.
Ranging in elegance to simply cheeky, from dripping love songs to stories of dogs, the tunes traveled to the outskirts of Mexico City on "Piensa en mi" (sung on the album with Mexican lesbian and Frida Kahlo's ex-lover Chavela Vargas), to Sesame Street with "Sing" (originally written in 1971 for the children's program, popularized by The Carpenters, and recorded with Emilio Delgado aka "Luis" on Sesame Street), and back home to the view from Forbes' window overlooking the Tualatin Valley on "Over the Valley."
Couples chasséd, the audience chuckled to the "Tuca Tuca" touching dance between Forbes and Lauderdale, and naturally cheered the barbershop quartet on the album's most "controversial" song: an ode exposing Billy's alter-ego "Bitty Boppy Betty" with a moral that transgender soirées are just more fun.
Badda-bing, badda-boom, the band thanks you, sticking around to sign autographs and bask in Portland's love.
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