[Portland OR] This nutter of an event happened because it was Friday. And it was sunny. After there’d been six hard months of wet, clouds, and night. And I didn’t have shit to do. In my fond nostalgia, there was always music to be found at a respectable hour in Austin – not so much in Portland – I’d been poring over the ‘music listings’ (do better Portland!) for naught & then chanced upon this strange place called EarthLab Libations – live music, beer garden (i.e., sun), food – in! NiceButAlsoDangerous was in a mood to appease me, as his Nice-side often is. The place is described as thus: “Portland's premier beer garden serving up only the most choice libations out of a 1980's Italian box.” Jajaja. It was a shithole. Just one more Portland food cart ‘pod’ and not even a respectable one. I’ve never been persuaded by the food cart fantacism – it doesn’t mean the food is delicious! Or unusual! There’s often no ambiance! You’re usually forced into uncomfortable seating positions! The pods solve some of these problems but this was a very shabby affair – we two and the one other guest huddled on some jangly tables on rocks between two food carts and one beer truck (the ‘Italian box’ I guess?). I gnashed my teeth at this unfortunate turn in the evening. The only promising aspect of the scene was the guy arranging sound system stuff on a cloth tarp on the ground against the wall of a building. Like all the ‘hip’ places in Portland, 90s music was playing over the speakers. I love me some street traffic and this place at least had that – some gay boys in fluorescent clothes walked by with what I thought was a baguette but, much shame to my stereotyping ways, was actually a piece of wood – the night remained weird. We ordered over-priced Peruvian and Mexican food and chatted with the beer-slinger in a Crudos Unite Black and Brown t-shirt (???) – he was a middle-aged White man of size… only adding to the chaoticism of the scene. People, finally, started arriving – all carrying band equipment – making my brain hurt trying to figure out who was here to play and who was here to watch. And they all looked exactly the same, regardless of apparent gender – five foot five, stocky, gamer. I was pissed – this was going to be a one-band affair and it was going to be Dream Theater. The fellow setting up the stage finally took the stage. He was a man of average height, average weight, brown skin, and a commanding presence. He said he was from LA – I felt a kinship until he said he was grateful to have made it to Portland. He launched into a one-man-band performance of nihilistic post-grunge indie material, with recorded tracks to back him. He had a flat style of singing that evoked screamo but was not. There were some notes of Joy Division. “Play for thrills, go for kills” was a lyric. The lyrics and vocals were darker than the music. Then he told us he was going to shift into his other musical identity – hip hop. He took off his fleece jacket, which made me laugh, and then genuinely transformed into a slaying swanging rapper – loping back and forth across the stage with arms swaying. His rap personality was mellow beats with more aggro vocals… dancey with fast flow. I think there was a song with with samples from the movie Snatch. Maybe some 70s punk (“I Love Livin’ in the City” by Fear). I was very happy when he segued into very Wu Tang sounding rap, referencing specific members too. His last song for people on the wrong side of the tracks referenced area code 562 – as a proper investigative journalist, I googled it – checks out. Next up! Was Beavis on drums in a Tabasco shirt and pajama pants. The other guy wore a bulletproof vest and big gold glasses.
Hardcore rap. Urgent high voice. Nervous. Death rap. Autotuned voice. Emotional yet nihilistic haha. NiceButAlsoDangerous claims he loves it. My notes descend and are irretrievable given the ravages of time: More chaotic than last, Voice all electro, These are covers – the girls know. Throws up when performing. Wild in Portland. A layer of fake. Tech boys. Girl from SF. Chinese immigrant & Srgnd. Electro music – crazy dance. He picked up girl from sidewalk.
Mars fm Colorado layered shift. Big head bears. Gravelly voice screamo. Rap punk w/ harmless background - the vibration.
I ended up having a grand time,
particularly because of musical diversity, and really wanted to know the names
of the artists – for the sake of posterity. So I approached the other
beer-slinger (younger, hipper) who I’d heard on the rocks had put this thing
together and he sort of defamed it all ‘hopefully you made a good choice coming
here’ – support your event man! Mars FM is the only genuine band name I gathered
– from Colorado I think – they weren’t representative of the joie de vivre of
the event but they were a solid band.
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