ROCkTOBER

It's that time of year again - ROCkTOBER! In early fall into Halloween Portlanders are treated with an array of concerts and shows. As summer slows down the music scene ramps up!

Once upon a time the organizers of SxSW, the annual music festival in Austin, Texas collaborated with our local weekly newspaper Willamette Week to bring us NxNW. After years of misorganization, miscommunication and overall disaster for some of the artists Willamette Week pulled out and went on their own with MusicFest NW, a 4-day music festival strung out all over the city of Portland.

About a month before the festival was set to begin the line-up was unveiled and we began a preliminary list of the shows we would like to go to. We added up the costs of the individual shows and determined getting a wrist band would be cost-beneficial. However, time and more summer guests determined we were only free one night of the 4-day event.Panda Bear,Major Lazer,NoMeansNo and Shonen Knife would have to wait for another time. We did stand in line and saw Man Man perform at the Hawthorne Theater. The worse venue for an all ages show EVER.

The flat showroom, divided all-ages/21+ floor was a disaster for anyone under 6 feet tall. But it was Man Man! Xylophones, noisemakers, horns and the drummer placed in the front of the stage. The opening band Morning Teleportation - a local avant/folk band mezmorized us just in time for Man Man to take the stage. Another must-see band checked off our list!

A few weeks later we headed up to the Mt. Tabor Theater to see living reggae legend Richie Spice. We arrived as the first opening act came on so we headed down the hallway to the bar where the drinks were half the price!

The Mt. Tabor Theater was once a movie theater so it didn't seem off when the bar had a separate DJ spinning rockabilly in the adjacent bar. It also fit with the Tarantino Grindhouse style movie Hell Ride. The music matched perfectly with this gritty and violent movie, which we were kind of happy we didn't have to actually listen too.

We headed back to the main room to watch Richie's younger brother perform a short set then Richie hit the stage!

Richie Spice had a great backup band and terrific backup singers. Richie seemed a bit dazed. These Jamaican performers come to Portland and just can't handle the Pacific NW green, he was a bit sloppy and at times seemed like he was somewhere else, but he sounded great and the show was fantastic!

One of the most anticipated shows this season for us was the M.I.A. show at the Roseland Theater. A year ago M.I.A made her way through Portland supporting her album Kala and after hearing how she ruled the techno tent at the Coachella Music Festival, we were bummed when we missed her. This year we made sure to pony up for the $25 ticket + a $6 handling charge.

We arrived a little over an hour after the 9pm ticket call time to a PACKED venue and blaring stage and light show. It died down and we were happy thinking we made it just in time. We grabbed a couple of drinks and headed over to get a better view. What we saw was a bit shocking.

First, her "back-up dancers" looked like they were the younger siblings of some friends that she thought "sure, why don't you come along and be my backup dancers". Seriously terrible or maybe white kids from Britian can't dance no matter how much time they spend in the clubs.

Second, we were surprised by how sparse her stage was. But thrilled to see she decided to place all her money for the show into a huge sound system and light screen that turned her song Born Free into a bloody mess - it was awesome. If you want to see the video for the song, it may give you an idea of how she managed to capture the theme of the song and video in her performance.

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Here's a shot of the loud speakers and subs on one side of the stage. The heavy bass sounds were perfect for being up in the balcony, since all you can usually hear upstairs is the bass.

Within a few songs M.I.A. had the whole place bouncin' like a Jamaican Dancehall with people bumping and grinding on the stage, including Miss Maya herself. Eventually she found her way to top of those banging speakers.

We had greatly anticipated this show and after 35 minutes it was over. O-V-E-R - Over! NO F%&KING WAY! Yes! Then an announcement was made that M.I.A would be DJing at the Crown Room for an additional $3 cover charge. We couldn't believe M.I.A. had pulled a Lady Sovereign! A few years back we had seen Lady Sovereign at the Wonder Ballroom play a short 40 minute set and then dared to say she was DJing at the bar downstairs for an additional $10 cover. We left pissed and highly disappointed at how short the show was. What songs she did play she reinvented which was cool, but she didn't even play one song off her first album! Musicians...so fickle.

The Big Bambu

We love New York City. It's been 4 years since we visited and a return trip is definitely needed, especially when the New York City Metropolitan Museum or The Met is having a roof garden installation titled The Big Bambu.

We're big fans of bamboo.

This love has been severely tested with hours spent fighting the constant threat of bamboo overtaking the yard. We were told there's no such thing as clumping bamboo, it all runs.

It sure is beautiful though.

Season Premier

A little thing called cancer couldn't keep our favorite killer/hero down! Finally Season 5 of Dexter has started! Honestly one of the most anticipated show returns we have been waiting for. We won't spoil it, but season 4 ended with everyone going - NO WAY! Dare we even say True Blood was merely a distraction until Dexter returned!

Here's hoping Season 5 is as KILLER as the last 4 seasons have been!

Decibel Music Festival 2009 Recap

While going through our photos from last year's Decibel Festival in Seattle, we realized we never posted anything about this amped-up weekend we spent listening and experiencing an incredible array of music, while dancing our asses off.

Sadly, we won't be attending the DB Festival this year and wow, what a line up! So here is a late, but funfilled recap of Decibel Festival 2009! The Decibel Festival is a labor of love started in 2003 with impressive list of musical and visual artist from all over the world. Playing in various clubs mainly in the Capital Hill area of Seattle, it's not an outdoor music festival - YAY! We're just too old for the whole port-a-potty thing. Clubs, we can handle, even grimey Seattle clubs. Pre-sale tickets for all the workshops, panel discussions, shows and afterhours (we'll get to that) is a mere $157 or you can attend individual shows ranging from $5 to $32. A great breakdown of cost can be found on the website. So figuring out how many showcases, workshops, shows and panel discussions will cost verses getting an all access pass is made easy.

We purchased tickets online and picked them up at a great little neighborhood bar Chapel, an old mortuary, with a granite bar where the body used to lay during service.

The 2009 line-up included several artists we haven't seen and few we had. Most of the shows we wanted to see were at Neumos a gritty little club off of E Pike Street. We weren't able to make it to the Thursday night shows but we were front and center for the dubstep shows Friday, starting with someone we had seen before - Mad Professor, old school!

However, we thought his set was really dated. C'mon man, this is the largest electronic music festival in the US, bring what's hot, not what's hot a few months ago. It was all worth it when Benga hit the stage!

A dubstep DJ hailing from the UK, has a heavy garage background that brought out the goths who jammed to the dark warbly beats. It was the first time we had seen him and he came prepared. At one point N-Type another UK artist came up on stage and hyped up the crowd with his crazy gangly MC style. We had seen N-Type in Tokyo and it was nice to see him stateside.

One impressive item about the Decibel Festival was how on time the performances were. With short 1-hour sets, equipment and performers transitioned smoothly, quickly and on time. Which allowed us to step out for snacks at Pike Street Fish Fry which is conveniently located between two of the venues on Pike Street and opened late. Fish & Chips late night inbetween shows - yes, please!

Originally opened as a Belgium Frites (fries) shop with impressive list of sauces besides ketchup, now a traditional English fish & chip shop frying up the best seafood and local vegetables.

Best part is every order of fish & chips come with a battered and deep fried lemon! Interesting!

After we filled our bellies we were off to another club, another show and an afterhours party. We stumbled home as the sun came up to sleep, eat and rest up for the next night's events. Saturday night's events started in the warehouse district far from the Capital Hill venues to see Martyn, an dubby Deep House/Techno artist we had heard lots about and was really looking forward to seeing. Definitely one of the highlights of the festival. We then headed back up to Capital Hill and to Neumos for BBC Radio 1's infamous Mary Anne Hobbs' Dubstep and Grime performance.

The Decibel Festival is a festival for the late night people with most of the headlining acts starting around 11pm/midnight and afterhour parties starting around 3am. We did stop in Fish Fry again, just for fries this time, we needed something to soak up some alcohol before heading to the afterhours party at the Electric Tea Gardens, where Cyanwave was playing.

We were amazed at the diversity of the performers. Even though it is an electronic music fesival each performer was completely different. Mad Professor had deck tracks and a mixer, like we said - Old School. Benga was straight-up DJ with turntables and records. Mary Anne Hobbs used CD mixers, and Cyanwave were laptop artists. It was an incredible mix of talent.

Have fun this year, be safe, have fun and dance, dance, dance!

The Decibel Festival

Any festival that has the word Decibel in it must be serious. And yes, the Decibel Festival is a serious music and arts festival held all over the city of Seattle. The festival is a "4-day annual festival with workshops, panel discussions, visual arts and cutting edge electronic musical performances." The conference/music festival has lectures on such topics as "The Ill Methodology". There are scratch workshops, industry panel discussions, film events and different electronic music style showcases.

The musical acts are from all over the world and the most relevant electronic producers to date. The 2010 line-up includes Modeselktor all the way from Berlin and the incredibly talented Flying Lotus from LA, the nephew of jazz musician Alice Coltrane. We won't be able to go to any of the shows, afterhours or to the Pike Street Fish Fry, an English style fish & chip joint conveniently nestled between two of the large venues and open until 2:30AM!

So in memory of 2009's festival and celebration of 2010's, here's an awesomely creative and cleaver video of our favorite show from last year's Decibel Festival - Benga! Go ahead and sing along, you'll know the words by heart after about 20 seconds. Enjoy!