Stereo Total / Leslie and the LYs - Wonder ballroom, Portland, OR, 4/1/09

Holy shit, dudes. I got invited to go see the Stereo Total show. "OK," I said, "I like those guys well enough, that should be fun." And it was. Stereo Total played a fun set full of the kooky songs they're known for playing, and played it well. Now, I'd been led to believe that they were the headliners, and the ticket reflected this with "STEREO TOTAL" on it in bold type. In fact, another band took to the stage after them. It was Leslie and the LYs, whom I hadn't heard of before, but I had seen a picture of singer Leslie Hall in an amazing gold spandex suit before. So she took to the stage with a couple of backup singers dressed as white tigers and videos of her songs projected onto a screen behind her. No words I can put down will ever do this show justice, but suffice it to say that it rocked the shit out of my fuck. She sings electro songs about gem sweaters and does karate chops. She dedicated a song to Madmartigan and proceded to sing the plot of the movie "Willow". She sang a song about shooting zombies in the head, and on the record it's a duet with Elvira. Fuckin' Elvira! She burned the motherfucker down and closed it out by breakdancing to Shania Twain. She reinvented fun in the form of spandex pants and hideous sweaters covered in rhinestones and puffy paint, high kicking and making bird noises. Look her up on YouTube, and you'll be able to watch the amazing videos she made and showed projected behind her. Also, here's a clip of her performance in Vancouver, BC the night before I saw her. It's amazing.

Kaki King - Wonder Ballroom, Portland OR 10/21/08

Oh, man. This lady is just so fucking great. Whether she's doing acoustic instrumental stuff, making ethereal stuff with vocals, or just rocking out, she does whatever she chooses to do much better than someone else in the same position would be able to. As she usually does, she took to the stage solo and began "Bone chaos in the castle" as the rest of her band came in and began playing one by one. I made sure to get a good spot so I could watch her ten dainty fingers bombastically crushing and wrestling the strings into making some of the most original sounds to come from a guitar in years. One thing I hadn't noticed before is her use of the palm-bopping thumb-slapping chicken-pick. How the fuck do you even coordinate that? I don't remember exactly what the set list was, but I'll try:

Bone Chaos in the Castle
So much for so little
Life being what it is
Sad American
Goby
Playing with pink noise (she said this one was in the contract)
Jessica
Pull me out alive ("this is a song about spies!")
You don't have to be afraid
Open mouth
Saving days in a frozen head
Montreal
2 o'clock
Can anyone who's heard this music be a bad person?

and of course, a Bubonix cover. This time it was "Dogs and horses".

Her between song banter is always fucking great. She introduced "2 o'clock" as "a song about what a complete dickhead I am" and "so much for so little" she said was a question both posed and answered in Portland. Yay. This town loves her, and she loves it back, which is pretty cool.
Obviously to anyone who's heard her phalanges bring her many guitars to their knees, she does shit almost no one else does or can, and that the lauded "heroes" of the instrument scratch their heads over and give up trying. that makes for a couple of pretty rad hours of entertainment. Her bandmates deserve some props too, though. There were moments where the drummer absolutely channeled Stu Copeland. The keyboard/bass guy did some really nifty and well placed prog-style filter sweeps. The other guitarist (whom I kind of feel bad for, playing a guitar next to Ms. King night after night) makes ambient noises as well as anyone has with a guitar. And there was a wonderful moment during "You don't have to be afraid" when the stereo set up in the venue did something I've never experienced at a live show before: I got different sounds coming in each ear. They were airy, tinkly sounds and it was like Kaki sucked the crowd into a freshly shaken snow globe. It was really, really cool. Then she topped it off with a perfectly stupid cover song and retreated backstage. The only thing missing tonight was the lap steel. Can't have it all, I guess. Next up were the Mountain Goats, but I'm not really a fan, so I headed home to smoke and take care of a couple of things before I headed back. I headed back because Kaki and the Goats put out an EP together, so it was pretty obvious she'd be taking the stage again. I got back 2 mediocre songs before she did. She came out and played the first of the joint songs, which was good guitarwise but otherwise blah. Then a Morrissey cover, then the lap steel came out and made the craziest sounds I've heard come from strings ever. Period. And I go out of my way to find people who make stringed instruments sound weird. It was pure lovely space-rock, and then she went away. So I did too.

Sloan - Dante's, Portland, OR 9/27/08

Oh, yay. I've been wanting to see Sloan since the mid 90s sometime. I almost got to see them in 2000, except the show wasn't advertised until the day of, and I found out the day after. Boo! Anyhoo, 8 years later I got my chance and it was fucking worth it. These guys know how to rock. They took to the stage while the strains of "Love theme from KISS" played. I appreciated that. Mick Jagger's trademark maneuvers were aped in a loving, yet mocking way. Drummer Andrew Scott wore a T-shirt he made himself with a sharpie. They had the right attitude. A note about the venue: Dante's has shitty sound. I've heard worse, to be sure, but in a venue with a good sound system, this good show would have been incredible. So, I went hoping to remember the setlist, which totally didn't happen even a little bit. Fortunately, My friend Heather pestered singer/bassist (sometime drummer) Chris Murphy to pose for silly photos and someone tossed the setlist on our table. Here it is.

Losing California
All I am is all you're not
Witch's wand
Ready for you
Believe in me
Fading into obscurity
Emergency 911
Something's wrong
HFXNSHC
C'mon C'mon
Burn for it
Someone that I can be true with
Ill-placed trust
Take good care of the poor Boy
I'm not a kid anymore
The dogs
Down in the basement
People of the sky
Everything you've done wrong
Who tought you to live like that
Penpals
Money city maniacs

A fair amount of classics, but heavy on their last couple of albums, and certainly heavy on the rock side of their particular ouvre. I'd have liked to hear "snowsuit sound" and "she says what she means", which is a particularly rocking song with riffs a-roaring. Hey, they've got a new album to sell. I can forgive it. Especially since Chris Murphy invited us to hang out on their bus and drink their beer, which I'm still buzzed from. We ate bacon-maple bars (a voodoo doughnuts portland, OR speciality) and listened to the Who and the Faces. I'm pretty sure one of my friends (not Heather) is making out with Mr. Murphy as I write this. Can't wait to hear that story. Anyway, a sonically (fuck you Dante's) flawed but still wonderful show. The bus was gravy.

Also, the Tom Collins is a delicious drink, when prepared correctly. I discovered that tonight as well.