Oregon Music News

Photos by Mike Pearson

Nothing screams PDX + Dirty Projectors more than a sold-out crowd of hipster-elite yelling snarky comments during technical difficulties to their inexpressive idols onstage who simply stare dumbly over their heads.

That’s how the night at the Aladdin Theater started at least.

Dirty Projectors zoomed through a set mostly from their most recent release Bitte Orca starting with a solo – Dave Longstreth strolling onstage adorned in a charcoal Lacoste sweater vest.  With a restrung lefty guitar slung over his shoulder, he plodded through “Like Fake Blood In Crisp October” before the rest of the group slinked onstage.

Three on three, the soft, trilling melodies of the girls accompanied Dave’s idiosyncratic, ranging pitches.  Habitually on tiptoes, Dave jammed in his purple shoelaces as “No Intention” and “Temecula Sunrise” got people moving.

With a lethargic “we’re too cool” vibe, Dirty Projectors rolled through a solemn, dreary set with Dave thanking Portland for being “such a lovely audience,” even “docile.”

Kids were too busy texting on their iPhones before Dirty Projectors livened things up with “Cannibal Resource.”  Alternating between dull and furious drumming, Brian McOmber and the crew made dancing tough for white kids with awkward, yet strangely tantalizing, starts and stops that could only confuse the rhythmically challenged.

The girls’ paraded their singular, chirping versatility on “Remade Horizon” like a trio of bluebirds in a cluttered nest of black wires, plugs and pedals.

Amber Coffman really turned on as she belted out “Stillness Is The Move,” commandeering the stage with sparkling prowess and shoulder-shrugging dance moves.

The energy stayed high with Dave exchanging high fives with vocalist Haley Dekle between power chords and closing the encore with “Knotty Pine” (a collaboration between the band and David Byrne where Byrne wrote the lyrics and said, “Dave and Co. set them to a bouncy little tune”).

Little Wings opened the night as a one man ramblin’ story-teller bathed in red luminescence on an expansive stage.  Starting with sleepy, slowly picked ballads, Kyle Field was joined onstage and picked up a bass finishing the set as a duo.

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Dirty Projectors
Little Wings
Aladdin Theater