Naked Dreams - Music Millennium, Portland OR - October 11, 2018

[from Santa Cruz, CA]: The off-kilter voices of They Might Be Giants. So, dorky, obviously. But charmingly dorky, knowingly dorky, full of smiles for the crowd. And so I have to tell my TMBG story. I had this neighbor in Las Vegas who would steal my beautiful white cat, Crahobi, to express his obsession with me. He was a massive TMBG fan and would tell me stories of concerts with people running in circles with flutes. This only confirmed my Deep Hate for this band. Even still, “Ana Ng” is gorgeous and timeless. The band was Weezer, Hidden Cameras, the shamble pop of Bleached. If I’m being generous, I heard Courtney Barnartt, but I was just listening to her in the car before this show. Charmingly-dorky told us all three bands on today’s setlist lived in the same Santa Cruz house – used to be 8 people, now 9 (roommates: serious business). Then he told us they’re actually not from there.  So I filled in the backstory as I’m wont to do whether it’s true or not: UC Santa Cruz undergraduates. After the in-store, I went to the Freddy’s (Portland’s favorite average grocery store) on Hawthorne and it was abundant with weirdos and freaks. And I realized I’m living, in my cheap far-East neighborhood, in an entirely different Portland. More tragically, I realized I’m starting to like Portland. Flame, who worked so hard to convince me Portland is amazing, up and moved a few weeks ago, traumatically.