Snakes in the Agave - Tonic Lounge, Portland OR - August 21, 2018

[Portland OR] A highly entertaining event. I was there to support my friend of a friend. CockyYetSweet is WomanInCharge’s long-ago ex. WomanInCharge and I go back some 15 years now – very good friends in Austin, still very good friends now that she lives in Brooklyn. She and CockyYetSweet go back some 20 years, back when she lived in Portland before Austin. She was somewhat worked up about me meeting CockyYetSweet at a little Sunday brunch we/she hosted at my place maybe a year ago? Maybe two? Time-who can track it-I can’t. “He’s very rocker, very sexy,” she told me, concerned, implying I’d be an instant goner. I was intrigued, of course. And she was correct - he’s rapid – we had fun sparring a little over music trivia – he’s way more cred than I am. We texted a bit. Mostly, though, WomanInCharge was projecting her own nostalgia onto clichés of who I’m attracted to – because I mostly stayed in touch with CockyYetSweet because he was nice, interesting, and relatable. WomanInCharge, being a woman in charge, is always deeply invested in who I am dating. So she was monitoring the whole thing and, on a later visit with just me and her, laid it on heavy, telling me all of the deeply personal things they’d gone through… He was concerned she was telling me bad things – she wasn’t – just drawing female friendship lines – her message was clear. Months and months go by – we never actually meet up – just sporadically text. But this was the debut of his new band. It’s my policy to support creative efforts of good people. So I went. And I wore a pair of earrings WomanInCharge bought for me on a visit. He welcomed me warmly. He was cuter than I remembered. I enjoy saying that, even if it’s true, because I make it a policy to buck the control of WomanInCharge, as often as I can. It was sparsely attended, as new band debuts will be. There were tripping kids and the older supporting crowd. I stood a distance behind CockyYetSweet for the first band, befitting our semi-friendship— a woman in a gothy-metal long black dress walked up, sort of jerked when she saw me, and moved in to the left of CockyYetSweet. So that’s when I started noticing long-black-dress. Once CockyYetSweet is on stage, she’s taking pictures/videos of the set. I’m taking pictures for my ‘blog.’ Music, music, taking notes, paying no mind. And then long-black-dress bolts over to me mid-set and says something like “That was epic!” and I’m like “Yeah!” confused as to why she’s talking to me. The set ends, I go up to the stage to congratulate CockyYetSweet as he’s closing things down, he suggests I stay for a beer, so I recede to background to wait. Long-black-dress comes over and introduces herself, I do same and ask, All Innocence, how she knows CockyYetSweet. She jerks back and declares “I’m his wife!” Then I jerk, because this is news to me, and then she clarifies “… his ex-wife…” and I’m still confused but realize I’ve mucked up, somehow, and so try to make amends with some hms and hums. Now, that I’m getting that there’s social drama happening that I have no legitimate part in, I hustle on over to the bar to partake. In addition to the main characters, there’s a young stoned guy waxing wise on Portland’s pizza scene. I clarify the pronunciation of long-black-dress’s name and she snaps, “Oh and your name is Daria?” Stoned-pizza-guy moans “take-it-out-to-the-parking-lot.” NOW I’m really enjoying myself. I sort of participate in CockyYetSweet and stoned-pizza-guy’s discussion of the history of Portland places they’ve worked at. CockyYetSweet strokes long-black-dress’s hair and shoulder every now and then to soothe the beast, or who knows what else. Then CockyYetSweet slips away to talk to somebody he’s ‘got to say hi to.’ Long-black-dress is verbose and sort of glorious – CockyYetSweet has good taste. And then I’m sort of, or totally, sidelined from the conversation, so I leave – plus it’s late for a school night. And I feel virtuous, I unintentionally interjected some inertia into some complicated love scenario. Doing good deeds every day, I am. So the band. I was a little confused because of long-black-dress, and then this voice kept floating in overhead (god? the sound guy?), and then it’s always stressful to talk about the creative production of someone I know (ish). But I’m not scared – because I liked Snakes in the Agave a lot. Their sound immediately struck me as more professional, full, and ‘real’ than the opener. CockyYetSweet has a sardonic Bukowski vibe – lots of personality – he’s meant for the stage. His soundcheck: “I want to eat the sun.” He was debating between all of these guitars on the stage – god said: “Door 1? Door 2?” – CockyYetSweet said: “Door 4.” I think he introduced one song as being about DMT. The drummer, as drummers will be, was more backstage – I did enjoy when he threw a drumstick all twirly into the air and it thudded to the ground. Their sound is hard to pinpoint and it’s annoying me because it’s not because they don’t have a defined sound – they do. So, throwing out what came to me… Jesus Lizard, Swans, methodical metal, doom prog metal. But sometimes they were more bombastic rollicking metal – like they’d catch a groove – and the audience was dancing. That’s impressive, and even more because all of this sound was the product of two people. One text CockyYetSweet sent to describe their sound: “We’re heavy with a touch of King Crimson” – so, from the mouth of the creator. The vocals were distinctive – cool, understated, distant – the sound on the vocals might have been too low too. But then it started making me think of So Cal skatepunk vocalizing, like Girls Against Boys, who, ha, are from DC. The super high kids were doing like a slow motion interpretative version of head banging – the more restrained leader among them slow-banging her very chic smooth bob. I enjoyed the dancing youth, in a motherly way. There was one extremely fey person in a soft t-shirt titled “crybaby.” This person ran up to the extremely agro lead singer from the previous band, who had covered his torso (finally) in an Ultimate Fighting Championship t-shirt… and poked him. Know. Know. That I was overcome with joy by this turn of events. No one was harmed. Although I was when I arrived home to two of my neighbors (20-30 years older than me, all of them) chatting in front of my place. One’s a fierce lesbian who I toe the line with because she handles maintenance for the whole property. She was a touch drunk or stoned and started joke sparring with the man who lives across from me. Suddenly she was sparring with me & I had to go along because we were currently in negotiations for her to fix my disposal – fortunately I did not displease her and she showed up to fix my disposal and we are now legitimately friendly. Life is complicated. (Photo courtesy of http://balconygardener.ca/category/plant-this/page/16/)