Pod Blotz - Doug Fir Lounge, Portland OR - June 15, 2017



[Los Angeles] Her face was swathed in an off-white cheesecloth-like material and topped with some sort of hat. It had a great effect and evoked the recent trend of anarchists covering their face to protest, thus creating a fashion trend. She had a keyboard in front of her and a giant tangled piece of metal to her left. The music was clangy, benign, minimalist – industrial music in the style of Ohm: The Early Gurus of Industrial Music. I felt sorry for the young female hipster next to me trying to dance to it. It got a little better – drew on some deep dark trance music, a little heavier. Sometimes the reverb just sounded like a bad sound system. Sometimes she accompanied the sounds with a quiet robot voice. There was a Twins-Peaksian moment. Then she started hitting the metal thing next to her and unwinding it. The visuals were cool – the music was dull. Plus it was a little disturbing and I was already in a fragile state. I was dying for her to take the mask off. Part of me kept thinking: I could be doing yoga right now. So I started watching the crowd, judging the tiny skeletal hipsters – I swear this generation has invented new toxic body issues. I tried to determine how the cool kids in Portland differ from the cool kids in Austin – it’s so hard though because I’m too long gone from Austin and plus it’s hard to tell whether the differences are due to changes in time or changes in location – sorry to get research-y. I’d characterize the main Portland look as train warrior, persecuted by the state in dark beleaguered apocalyptic clothing. Stocking caps also hold a weird fashion cache here. Then I got a whiff of my favorite fabric softener – nothing like Bounce and industrial music to comfort a Dara.

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