Stepping into We Are Gold Mounds is not unlike stepping into a room slowly filling with light. Anchored by a simple drone, a guitar layer winds up and down as angelic voices coo a melody that somehow sounds just like a sunrise. The song, fittingly titled “Morning Overture,” bleeds directly into the record’s title track, “Gold Mounds.” It’s a track that, despite cryptic lyrics about golden mounds, manages to feel well-worn and plaintive. Jenny Wayne, who makes up half of the songwriting core of John Heart Jackie, has a voice like pure crystal- breathy, immaculate and resonant. It’s this voice, amid layers of reverb, hushing drums and lush guitar strums that makes “We Are Gold Mounds” the perfect flag-bearer for an album steeped in contemporary folk a la Fleet Foxes.
For the album’s #3, the other half of JHJ, Peter Murray adds a lower, rougher register to the mix, but also adds a kind of lyrical depth and wit that gives the record’s otherwise ethereal sound a much-needed anchoring. Throughout the ponderous pace of We Are Gold Mounds, a talented array of backing musicians and collaborators from bands such as Blind Pilot, Guster, Low Anthem and others help round out JHJ’s minimalist compositions with subtle, tasteful orchestration. It’s the contrast and counter-balance of the two primary songwriting voices, however, that keep the album from spinning out into space or folding into itself and collapsing. There’s some kind of precarious symmetry in it all… some kind of delicately balanced machinery at work. Wayne’s charming ballad, “You Been On My Mind,” with its echoes of She & Him, has the sweet. Murray’s forlorn story of cancer and loss, “For Olivia (Be Fine),” with its broken-wagon-wheel guitar, has the bitter. The result is a moving, powerful (and yes, bittersweet) addition to the ever-growing modern folk movement.
John Heart Jackie CD release show this Friday, August 20th at The Woods.
With the unlikely pairing of classic string arrangements and electronic beats, progressive singer/songwriter Erica Quitzow is setting out to create music that makes you feel good. Quitzow, performs August 4th in Eugene at Muse Lounge (all ages) , and in Portland on August 5th at The Woods performing with Setting Sun and Jen Moon.
Erica Quitzow. Photos by Amber Gress.
Her music has been called “a triangulation point between the electroclash aggression of Peaches, the melodic richness and cross-genre fearlessness of the Magnetic Fields, and the disco-classical fusion of the late Arthur Russell” by All Music Guide, but all she really wants to do is rock your world.
Talking with Quitzow is an inspired experience–she is imaginative, intelligent and ingenious. From the way she describes her music to the way she thinks and she perceives the world, she is an artist in every possible way.
Not too surprising, given she was born the only child into a family of “hardcore artists with liberal views” in Berkeley, CA. Her father, a “renaissance man,” was a painter, dancer and piano player; her mother a dancer as well.
Quitzow began to cut her musical teeth at a young age. “I was fascinated with the violin and begged my parents for lessons. I remember that at the age of 6, the violin seemed like a fantasy instrument from a parallel universe where unicorns and pegasus existed. I couldn’t get my head around the fact that it was tangible and real. It seemed like a relic from another time–a time when women wore petticoats and men wore suits of armor.” Her love affair with the violin began.
While she took lessons to develop her skills to play the violin, her talent for drawing came effortlessly. “I have a natural ability to draw and can create a portrait with an incredible likeness. I never had to develop that skill. My father made a living as a portrait artist for most of my life and I watched him do it so much that I think it somehow translated into my muscles. “
By the time Quitzow hit her teens, her desire to play classical music waned. “As a teenager, I lost interest in playing in orchestras and was more interested in boys, cigarettes and listening to Led Zeppelin. I began to take drawing and painting more seriously, it was a big part of my life.” As Quitzow was progressing down the path of a fine visual artist, she recalls the night when that changed. “I remember having an epiphany one night as I was watching two friends playing guitar and singing together. They seemed so connected to each other and I began to imagine my future–that of a lonely artist locked in my studio, versus playing music with people in any form. The feeling was so strong that first thing the next day, I went home and took out my violin. Shortly after, a friend gave me a guitar and I started to learn how to play. At 16, I chose to focus on music.”
“When I first started recording, I made heavy rock music. It was a youthful, adolescent angst thing where a lot of emotion needed to come out. I really respect that kind of music. I think it can be incredibly comforting for the person making it as well as for the person hearing it.”
Taking comfort in music and having music be the catalyst to turn a mood around was intriguing to Quitzow. “I’ve had a lot of death and illness in my family and people around me. Dealing with the illness of someone very close to me, I remember the moment I heard some sort of electronic pop music and noticed I was getting an endorphin rush that made my hair stand on end. I was getting these waves of pleasure through my body that were bypassing my brain despite what I was dealing with. It was in this moment I decided that was the kind of music I wanted to put out in the world. It became a goal to create pleasure through certain sounds and rhythms; ones that would make me want to move, make me feel a certain natural high and give me a respite from pain.”
Quitzow’s introduction to creating electronic music was somewhat happenstance. She made her way to Los Angeles where she became part of the Los Angeles-based, indie-pop trio called Inner with Jennifer Turner (currently a member of Here We Go Magic). “The band was living in a 4,000 square-foot warehouse space and Jennifer had a Minimoog from the ’70s just sitting in a corner. I was making a really goofy hip-hop track with two of my friends one night and we busted this Moog out. I had no idea how to use it, but we made some really cool sounds come out of it, we just didn’t know how to make it melodic. I needed to spend some time with the knobs to understand how to get it out of spaceship mode, into melodies, and then back into spaceship mode. I started playing it in Inner, then spent a lot of time in the basement playing around with it. I now have an MG-1 which is a model that was designed by Bob Moog and licensed to Realistic in the ‘80s. It operates very similarly to the Minimoog, the set up is very similar.”
It was around the turn of the millennium that Inner wound down and Quitzow began to experiment with home recording. “I recorded a bunch of material that I put together into an album and passed around to my friends and people I knew in LA. I got a lot of really good feedback.” The eponymous album was her first release under the name Quitzow.
It wouldn’t be long, however, before her love affair with stringed instruments returned. “Someone gave me a cello and I became really fascinated with string arrangements. I moved to New York and joined an orchestra.”
She utilizes her prowess as a violinist and cellist, her intrinsic relationship with rhythm, and her love for otherworldly synths to make these experimental pop songs.
“The music I am making today is electronic pop, living somewhere between indie-rock and commercial pop. It borrows elements of super-pop, which is in a really creative place right now. There is so much creative freedom with a lot of production happening in laptops and people’s homes. Radio pop isn’t going to blow your mind, but it’s that one song out of 100 that has something incredibly new, or that is borrowing from something we haven’t heard in a long time–maybe from Daft Punk or something from 20 years ago like the sounds Kraftwerk made–translated into a pop formula. Because pop is in such a creative state right now, I can’t help but feel really inspired by it. I like to take the lyrics a little beyond the norm–like a tremendous wave of emotion that is about being madly, passionately, desperately in love; talking about what happens after the honeymoon wears off, about communications.”
Watch: “Cherry Blossom” by Quitzow
Church of Girl loves how Quitzow incorporates a vibrant range of influences to her music and performances and her instrumentation is impressive, too: MPC, Reason, live drums layered with Moogs, Korgs, Rhodes, Casios, classical and electrical guitars, bass, cellos, violins, and an array of percussive implements are spliced together with her uniquely expressive vocal stylings. –Mary Ann Naylor, Founder of Church of Girl, an online gathering place for fans and musicians alike to learn about new and emerging female musicians and artists.
These days, home for Quitzow is in the wilderness of the Catskill Mountains of New York, where she and partner Gary Levitt, a recording engineer and the solo artist behind Setting Sun, live and create their music when they are not on tour. Both Quitzow and Levitt occasionally collaborate on each other’s projects, and perform with one another onstage, although they are creating very different sounds. There is no guitar in Quitzow, and there are no synths in Setting Sun. When touring together, Quitzow and Setting Sun like to have a local band play in between their sets. Their performances are often a point of intrigue to musicians, who find it compelling that the music can sound so different in each set, even though the same people are making it.
Quitzow gives her cello and Moog art whimsy a bubbly groove and defiant summer strut. —Spin
To get their music out into the world and heard, they spend a lot of time on the road. “We always tour our albums, in Europe and nationally. Licensing placements help, we’ve had songs on the shows Gossip Girl and The Good Guys, as well as in a snowboarding documentary. In addition, we run a label called Young Love Records that has international distribution, so we are focusing more having the record in music stores throughout our tour route. Music stores are a great way for us to get our music out. Local music stores attract music lovers, you know the people that work there and you get to talking about what you like and what they like, so it’s great to be in the stores and not just on iTunes. ”
Watch: “Driving” by Setting Sun
In terms of what comes next for Quitzow, “I am constantly listening to music and looking for new inspirations. When I hear electronic sounds that are inventive and have that irresistibly good quality that makes you want to move, I get really excited to go back into the studio and experiment. I’m also delving more and more into MIDI programming. My next frontier is to dig deeper into the electronic world and finesse my groove electronically. I’m switching over to Logic from ProTools which is designed for making electronic music and really friendly.”
“By finessing electronic music and incorporating acoustic elements, my real goal is to make music that has that endorphin, adrenaline rush that makes you feel good.”
See firsthand how this unique artist blends her many musical and artistic proclivities into an inventive performance that “Whips up the dance-floor with skittering beats, butt shaking thump, electronic evil-robot voice effects- into a fresh and pure pop meringue.”–Marie Claire, June, 2010
Quitzow performs August 4th in Eugene at The Muse Lounge (all ages), and in Portland on August 5th at The Woods (21+) performing with Setting Sun and Jen Moon. Would you like to receive three free Quitzow MP3’s? Just visit www.youngloverecords.com and sign up for their mailing list.
The Woods, one of Portland’s most interesting venues — and that’s meant on many levels, which we’ll explore in the following interview — is turning one year old this weekend. Hooray!
Owners Vivien Lyon, Yonatan Shpak (the two of whom were interviewed for this story) and Ritchie Young (who is on tour with his band, you may have heard of them, Loch Lomond) know that the success of The Woods has hinged on community.
Friends, family, local musicians and production companies, along with regular patrons have helped contribute to the venue’s success by believing in it, and pitching in when needed. Vivien’s husband built the first stage, their friend build a custom bar out of re-purposed wood, and many musicians who play The Woods also take shifts bar tending and working the door. For this collaborative effort, the owners, all close friends, are grateful, and that’s why the birthday bash they’re throwing this weekend at The Woods can be considered a celebration of community just as much as it’s a celebration of the venue itself.
Both shows are just $7.00. Doors open the party at 8:00 PM and the music begins at 9:00. Come celebrate The Woods’ one year anniversary this weekend.
In order to get a better understanding of The Woods, I sat down with Vivien and Yonatan (Yoni) over coffee, and the life story of the venue was revealed. The story goes something like this:
How did The Woods begin?
VL: It was actually kind of an epiphany. There was a Starbucks in the neighborhood (SE) that went out of business in the Fall of 2007, and that was great because the neighborhood possessed a co-op, community oriented feel, and Starbucks didn’t fit in at all. I thought, people like me and my friends should take it over and put something in worth while.
I had been becoming friends with my roommate Ritchie of Loch Lomond, and we were always throwing out crazy business ideas, of things we could do together. I have a law degree and have produced theater events here and there, and he’s been in the music world for forever, and has also worked in catering and bars. I thought, we could open a performance venue.
One night I came home, and he was hanging out outside with his friend, and we were all smoking and I said, “Uh, we should open a music venue.” And, it was kind of a joke. I mean, since we became friends, we were always thinking about business ideas that would support our schedules, and offer us a change of pace. So, we’d been talking about going into business together, but most of the ideas we’d had for businesses were jokes.
When I said this, I kind of expected him to say, oh yeah right. But, he said yeah, I wanna do this. And after that it was kind of like a game of chicken, to see who was more serious about it. We kind of egged each other on, and the more we talked about it, the more it seemed like something we could take on.
The first place I looked into was the Starbucks space, because I thought it would be really cool to have a music venue in SE that wasn’t like the Aladdin. But the Starbucks space of course was quite small, and for being small it was very expensive. Soon, I started working with a realtor, who pretty quickly said he had a space in mind, an old funeral parlor in Sellwood. I was immediately interested. This was in December 2008, when we had that snowstorm, so when we went to go see it, it was really hard to get there. We walked in the back doors, and instantly for me, and I think Ritchie too, we could see the potential so clearly.
We got a proposal together, and talked with some friends and family who might be able to put some money up, and in April of 2009 we signed a lease. By that point, Yoni joined us as an investor, and partial owner. By June, we were frantic getting ready for our opening weekend, which was an invite-only charity event, sponsored by PDXSalon, and featuring a line up of amazing bands.
Do you get any weird vibes, being in a funeral parlor?
VL: I really don’t. I had never been to a funeral parlor for a funeral, I’d been a part of memorial services but they’d been in different, more intimate places. So I don’t even connect this place with death. Which is interesting, because the whole building was dedicated in dealing with that. It was a family owned business from 1929-1993 when it sold to Michael Ash, who owns the big funeral business, Portland Memorial, which is just a few blocks from The Woods.
We do have an area that used to be the embalming room, and we have a corpse elevator where we store band equipment while they’re on stage — it’s really handy.
I’m sure it is.
And we have what used to be the crematorium, which we just use for storage, and we’ve talked about having a haunted house, but to be honest, I don’t really feel like disrespecting the building like that. It’s not spooky, it performed a very valuable community service for a very long time, and I think American’s views on death can be pretty juvenile.
The point is, I’ve never been spooked out by the fact that it was a funeral parlor. Ritchie kinda was. He’s seen ghosts in his life, he’s had experiences, he’s had experiences there. I never have. All I know is I’ve never felt anything genuinely scary there, but I have felt a weight of sadness, in the beginning. It was more the psychic vibrations and echos of so many people having grappled with the loss of people they loved there. There’s inevitably going to be some kind of echo of that.
That’s why last year when we had our first event in June, we wanted to honor that, and we brought music into all the rooms. Whatever kind of echos or spirits that might still be lingering… we wanted to kind of express that we respected that. And, that night was really quite beautiful.
So, the community has been pretty supportive of you guys, right?
There were a few concerns in the beginning, like there are with any new music venue, especially because we’re in a semi-residential area. But, by in large, there was a lot of excitement and a lot of energy around it. Especially among people in our age, in their late 20s through their early 40s, who want to go out and enjoy music, but don’t want a smokey, deafening place. And we really haven’t had any complaints. It’s surprisingly sound proof.
Speaking of that, how are the acoustics?
We really lucked out. Under the pile carpet, there were original unfinished Doug fir floors, which we ended up restoring. It could have been echo-y, it could have been like a box, but it wasn’t. People comment frequently that the sound is good. It isn’t muddy or tinny, like some venues in town.
<Enter Yoni.>
Describe a typical day at The Woods.
YS: All three owners are co-managers, so we rotate shifts. We also all tend to be bar tenders. We’re not very good bar tenders. I’m not really good at cleaning up after, either.
VL: That’s why we have a bar manager. Yeah, we manage on any given night, so that’s getting there early, making sure the bands are set up, the sound person’s there, setting up the space, just overseeing it all.
What time do you normally show up for that?
5:00 or 6:00 PM, depending. But, the day starts early from home, answering e-mails, making orders, all of that behind the scenes stuff. And shows generally start at 8:00 or 9:00 PM. Then we help close it all down too.
What was one of the best shows you’ve had in the last year?
YS: I was really impressed with Musee Mecanique, that was a really beautiful show.
VL: Yeah, that was beautiful. That night was opened with Billygoat, a new Portland band, and they do a lot of stop-motion animation films that go along with their sonic landscapes, and we just fell in love with them.
YS: We’ve adopted them.
VL: Yes, we’ve adopted them, Nick works at the bar and David works the doors. So yeah, they were great, and Musee Mecanique played and — there are a lot of bands who have a very specific aesthetic vision — and Musee brought 3 or 4 projectors along with them, and projected all these beautiful images on the walls. It was really special and a lovely that evening.
In the beginning, The Woods hosted a selection of acoustic and indie rock groups, along with some chamber music. As they explore what’s available, they have begun to move in the direction of hosting more ambient electronic music that blends art, film, and sound, as well. Another new direction soon to be explored is world music. Both genres, electronic and world, need more support in Portland, so their expansion can only be a positive one.
In addition to regular shows, The Woods hosts a soul dance party the first Wednesday of the month with DJ Cooky Jar, karaoke the last Wednesday of each month, as well as comedy nights and film screenings. The space is available to rent for private events, and has hosted several weddings, including Vivien’s in May.
For more information, including a list of upcoming shows, visit The Woods, and don’t forget to join in the anniversary celebration this weekend.
For their upcoming release Fang, Portland’s Iretsu retreated to the Oregon coast. They clearly found inspiration there: Fang is equal parts swelling atmospherics and jagged melodies. They’re celebrating the release this Friday, June 10th at 9:30 pm, at The Woods with Adam Arcuragi and DJ Lincolnup.
Iretsu came together in a house in Sellwood in the spring of 2002, and they’ve been a Portland mainstay since their 2004 debut The Moon and the Stars Remain in the Morning Sky. Australia’s Hidden Shoal Recordings picked the band up, releasing the Name Our Numbers, Numbers EP in 2008 and Fang which came out May 27th.
Fang was written over the course of four improv sessions, broken up and rebuilt by Ryan Cross, Glen Scheidt, Joel Holly and Chris Pickolick. The title track builds slowly over chiming glockenspiel and simmering synthesizers. When “Fang” finally arrives it has the mathy pop of Pinback– angular, funky guitar lines and call-and-response vocals.
“Humbuzzer” is full out post-punk, driving drums and droning noise that feels too short at 2:31. But Iretsu is just at home playing with space and sound. “Kiddo” and “Swell” are contemplative, airy, keyboard-driven pieces. “Sleep” is a mellow, spaghetti-western waltz complete with bass backing vocals and whistling.
Fang is an intent and cohesive record for Iretsu. It’s been a six years since they first released a full length, and the time has suited them well. Be sure to catch them this Friday at The Woods.
Who needs a visit to the shadow, that darker side of our personal and collective unconscious often kept safely buried deep? Billed as “Music to Die For“, The Woods, a funeral home turned nightclub in southeast Portland, is putting on an evening of murder ballads; those haunting story songs traditionally written for illiterate members of society as a way to carry on some not-so-pretty history. Look for a concert rich with old favorite murder ballads along with some newbies from an incredible cast of creative characters.
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Jim Strange [photo: Sarah Wentz
How can one not be entertained with a gothic Roots/Rock troubadour such as Jim Strange who explains that he is “a writer of pulp fiction in the form of song” and includes the following as his influences: Johnny Cash, Billy Idol, Mark Lanegan, Waylon Jennings, 16 horsepower, Spaghetti Westerns, Mad Max, Comic books, Cormac McCarthy, Old Testament”?
Or how about a set from post-goth, dark-glam guy Adrian H. and his band The Wound. This Texas transplant, whose music has been described as “sinfully soulful and reminiscent of a night in a velvety dark room full of hallucinations, secrets and song will surely deliver a treat this night while his lyrics … “cut to the core and make no apologies like a good Charles Bukowski story”.
The Woods was calm Friday night–couples trickled in joining the many others chatting, laughing and mingling. With wine glasses and beer bottles in hand, the happy group appeared to be lifelong friends, flowing carelessly across the sparsely filled room.
“Highway” Rob Bonds made his way on stage after plenty of his own mingling was completed. Though it was 40 minutes past the slated start time due to last-minute changes, no one seemed to mind. A bit startled by the lack of uproar, Highway professed over and over how “very patient” the crowd was as he quickly tuned his guitar.
Within minutes, as if equipped with hyper-sensitive hearing and the innate sense that the show had begun, a swarm of people bustled inside and proceeded to sway along with the catchy rhythm and blues coming from Highway’s mouth and strings.
Brent DeBoer arranged for his solo album release show to benefit MS, a cause very dear to his heart. DeBoer’s father, Justin, is afflicted with multiple sclerosis and DeBoer has become an avid supporter of the cause, though Justin DeBoer does not let the disease stop him.
Read more about DeBoer’s drive to aid those with MS here and listen to “You Win” from The Farmer.
The Dandy Warhols’ drummer led the six other musicians of his newly formed band, Immigrant Union, on stage as the crowd cheered enthusiastically for the performance they had been anxiously awaiting. After playing several songs, the members of Immigrant Union paused while DeBoer thanked the crowd for supporting him, his father, and the many others that suffer from MS and also proceeded to introduce his father Justin, who joined the group on stage.
Justin and Brent DeBoer
Justin DeBoer talked about living with MS and how he has found ways not to let it stop him from doing what he loves most: skiing. Now using a ski-chair, DeBoer can still feel the wind rush in his face as he plows downhill, without worrying about the strength of his legs subsiding–though both DeBoers joke that Justin is far more dangerous now, with more speed than before.
As if unaffected, Justin DeBoer spoke selflessly about the many others with MS that are suffering both physically as well as, and possibly more so, struggling with the fact of losing the ability to do both daily tasks as well as the capabilities to continue their hobbies and passions. He thanked everyone in the room as well for joining the cause, and described the significance of the song he sang with Brent, an old folk song called “Charlie and the MTA,” that they used to sing together to keep warm during the long, cold trips up the ski lift.
After the song, someone from the audience passed him a note, which he read out loud: “They say we’ve raised $1,206,” from the 100% donation of door sales. Cheers, hoots, hollers and glass clinking filled the room already full of accomplishment.
Immigrant Union
Justin, a former musician, sighed and said, “Wow, that was fun,” as he stepped down off stage to let Immigrant Union take over. Playing songs from DeBoer’s solo album, as well as several of their own that are being recorded now, DeBoer expects to release the band’s first album next year.
Immigrant Union features Bob Harrow and Gamma, friends of DeBoer’s from Australia, and is still in the process of creating a website for fans to enjoy and keep up with their progress. Featuring a violin and banjo in addition to the standard drums, bass, and guitar, the group’s sound is much more bluesy, country-infused blend of folk than DeBoer’s other endeavors.
This video of DeBoer’s “You Win” was taken during Friday’s show:
The band will play one more show in Portland on May 15th at Langano Lounge on SE 14th and Hawthorne, beneath Jarra’s Ethiopian Restaurant, before returning to Australia to tour.
Reminiscent of the melancholy music one might hear in an indie movie such as Garden State, Brent DeBoer’s solo album, The Farmer, has a subtle introspective tone of looking back over life, dealing with love and loss; of soul-searching tinged with regret. Written in the midnight hours of quiet reflection close to eight years ago, the tracks got tucked away for safe-keeping until producer and friend, Brian Coates (“Coatsie”) encouraged DeBoer to dig up the rough mixes that were still on cassette tapes. Together, the two of them recorded the album, again during the middle of the night in about a week. On April 20th, the eight-track solo album became available for the world to enjoy.
When DeBoer, The Dandy Warhols drummer, was writing the songs in his close-quartered apartment building, the songs formed into “late night quiet, don’t-want-to-wake-the-neighbors” whispers. As he and Coates began the process of creating the album, they had the chance to make the sound bigger and brighter but DeBoer liked the “sleepy, mellow but rhythmic” feeling, so they pretended to have neighbors during recording in order to recreate the sound.
The main drive, though, for releasing the album was a cause close to DeBoer’s heart. His father, Justin DeBoer, a former Portland musician himself, has been living with multiple sclerosis for 20 years and has not let the disease stop him from living life.
“His drive and determination is so inspiring,” stated DeBoer in a December 2009 interview. For his album, he didn’t want to just release the album, he wanted to have a reason for it. A real purpose.
Witnessing the “tragic and frustrating” effects of MS, a disease of which the cause is largely unknown, has instilled a passion in DeBoer to become an ambassador for the cause: educating the public about the disease and supporting the National MS Society, primarily the Oregon Chapter, in any way possible.
Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body and stops people from moving. Every hour in the United States, someone is newly diagnosed with MS, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men contracting the disease. MS affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S., and 2.5 million worldwide.
Proceeds from both The Farmer as well as this Friday’s exclusive-to-Portland CD release show will benefit the MS Society to fund research in the hope of finding a cure for the unpredictable and debilitating disease.
Friday, April 30th, The Woods with guests Zia McCabe and Highway Rob Bonds. Doors at 8, show at 9pm. $15-30.
As Gabriel Kahane greeted the audience, he expressed thanks and appreciation to the crowd and to Classical Revolution PDX for their striking, opening performance of Arkady Filippenko’s 2nd String Quartet. He added the comment, “Filippenko, who we previously thought just a political prisoner. But, now we’ve learned… while he was in prison, he wrote string quartets.”
The crowd got a good chuckle out of Kahane’s comment, but as it turns out, Filippenko never spent time in prison. Filippenko did, however, write a prolific quantity of music earning himself the USSR State Prize in 1948 for the performed string quartet. The quartet, which in motivic development, rhythmic persistence, and relentless expression of oppression, sounds notably reminiscent of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8. While Filippenko’s work was actually written twelve years prior to Shostakovich’s immortalized work, Filippenko has seen little international recognition making the performance a unique treat.
Listen to Classical Revolution PDX playing the 3rd Movement from Filippenko’s 2nd String Quartet at The Woods (you can’t even find a recording of it on iTunes!):
Kahane’s performance had virtually none of the intensity brought by the all-female, opening act because Kahane’s music is so delightful and his stage presence was so casual. For example, when Kahane sat at the piano for the first time, he quickly mumbled, “This is a song from my first record called ‘North Adams.’” He played the opening arpeggiated sequence and stopped suddenly, as if an idea just popped into his head. “Wait a minute,” he said as he threw his jacket off his back, only to reintroduce the song with the exact same mumbled words as before, as if nothing had happened.
Perhaps one adopts this informal attitude out of necessity when there are five instruments on stage and only three performers, one of whom was actually a member of the audience. Or, perhaps this is the attitude one develops when one’s father is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist (as mentioned in OMN’s interview with Kahane). But, with songs as playful as the excerpts he performed from his Craigslistlieder, it is hard to approach much of Kahane’s music with anything but a sense of humor.
The relationship-seeking Craigslist ad that creates the text for fan favorite “Neurotic and Lonely” had a similar rhythm and prosody to songs that came straight from Sondheim’s pen. The lyrics, “Must enjoy video games, must have a video game system, my parents refuse to buy one for me,” were delivered sincerely by the operatic baritone only for him to chuckle after the song and to reiterate, “Those aren’t my words.”
The Woods’ candlelit tabletops and inclusive stage created an intimate space for Kahane and friends, Rob Moose and Holcombe Waller, to perform. “Thanks for coming to Portland,” an audience member shouted near the end to which Kahane replied, “We love Portland, PDX, we love you,” and everybody went home appreciative for the evening of talent, cross-genre performances, and good humor.
Gabriel Kahane isn’t your typical singer/songwriter. With more fame as Classical composer than anything else, his music is as intellectual as it is playful–like selecting text from Craigslist ads and using toy pianos. His lyrically thick melodies are informed by his experience writing for musical theater, although the music itself draws from his training as a Jazz pianist and as a Classical composer. But, sometimes, he just writes damn catchy pop songs.
Kahane took some time to talk from his Brooklyn apartment after returning from the MacDowell Colony, an artist retreat that can boast over 50 Pulitzer Prize winners on its roster of attendants. He spoke in his roundabout manner of his music, growing up as the child of a world-renowned Classical pianist, and the dangers of technology on society.
What was the first concert you attended?
There’s the possibly apocryphal, although I think there’s possibly some evidence that this happened, when I was like three or four my dad was with the Chicago Symphony and I was sitting in the audience. It was intermission and there was kind of that pre-tuning lull and I think I shouted out, “Where’s my Daddy?” in the middle of the hall.
What can we expect out of your live show?
Well, the show at The Woods is going to be… Classical Revolution PDX is going to open the show. They’re going to play a quartet by someone I’ve actually never heard of and whose name escapes me at the moment, but I want to say vaguely Eastern European, early 20th century, someone that’s pretty obscure and may be Lithuanian. [He pauses to scroll his brain.] I’m pretty sure I’ve got it, Phillippenko. Yes, it’s a quartet.
So they’re going to open the set with that and then Rob and I are going to do another set, which is basically my, I guess, singer/songwriter persona. We’ll be doing a lot of songs from the record I’ve been recording this year in kind of an intimate setting…
So, we’re just going to be setting up a gazillion string instruments up on stage and a piano and a Wurlitzer and doing an intimate set. We’re going to do a bunch of songs I made and I’ll probably do a couple movements from Craigslistlieder, which is the song cycle of Craigslist ads.
You say your singer/songwriter persona. How many personas do you think you have?
Roughly speaking, my career is kind of divided into parts, which often overlap. There’s the singer/songwriter stuff, which is me singing and performing songs that I’ve written with my own texts, my own lyrics, and I’ll perform in ensembles ranging from solo to duo shows and sometimes with a rhythm section and, like the Lincoln Center last month, I had a ten piece band, with all basically the same material.
Then there’s the composer persona. I don’t know, persona is maybe not the word I would choose to describe it. Compartments? I don’t know. The compositional stuff sort of came out of the blue where after I’d written the Craiglistlieder there was sort of the snowball with getting more commissions.
Are you formally trained as a composer?
The way I started writing music, I spent a year at the New England Conservatory and then I transferred to Brown where I got coerced into writing a musical.
This student approached me and said, “I hear you came from music school, do you want to write a musical together?”
I said, “No, no, I hate musicals, I don’t want to do that.”
He was just very persistent. Finally, he described it as a musical for people who hate musicals and somehow I took the bait and in writing that piece I fell in love, I don’t think I knew this at the time, but I fell in love with the permanence of having written something down.
What was your intention when writing the Craigslistlieder?
I think I was fascinated by the way public and private spaces were shifting because of the internet and the way that voyeurism and exhibitionism, like emotional voyeurism, was changing in as much as people would write these incredibly vulnerable things on the internet and I think I was just really interested in exploring a kind of, on the surface, a light-hearted way, trying to interrogate what the internet, as a discursive space, means or is and it’s really hard to say. Is it a public space if nobody knows who’s making the gesture? There’s almost a new set of emotions that were birthed by Craigslist.
To me the piece is more sad, I think it’s funny on the surface, but I think there’s a lot of deep sadness underneath a lot of it. I think now that I have more distance from it and having my own run-ins with spending a lot of time on the internet, I think that loneliness, the experience of loneliness, is something I feel is threatened by the culture of, especially like web 2.0 social networking stuff, it’s almost like a pill to not feel lonely.
But, what I’m getting at is Facebook gives you the illusion of being connected, but actually it makes you more lonely. I quit Facebook a few months ago and started feeling really lonely, but in a positive way. In the sense that social networking has deprived me of being able to experience loneliness because there was always something to mitigate that loneliness.
If television and technology are artificial bonding mechanisms, how do you feel about concerts creating a space for social bonding where one doesn’t need to communicate with the other attendees?
[The audience] is in the same physical space and that’s a huge difference. There’s no way of comparing an interaction that’s mediated by binary code and screens. Sitting in a concert hall with 200, 400 people, even if you don’t talk to any of them there’s a synergetic thing that happens between the artist and the audience and between the members of the audience assuming that they’re engaged, or even if they’re not engaged. That’s why live music, as much as music is consumed digitally, people will always go hear live music because there’s no substitute for that kind of transaction and that kind of emotional experience.
Get an emotional experience created by Gabriel Kahane next Thursday at The Woods. Classical Revolution PDX will open. Doors at 9 PM, show begins at 9:30 PM. $8.
Mary Flower and Claudia Schmidt fill the room at The Woods
My seating at the Claudia Schmidt / Mary Flower concert was a large, welcoming couch, pulled out of somebody’s estate sale – most certainly an appropriate place to enjoy the mix of blues, folk and spoken words performed to a full house at The Woods. Although billed as a headliner for Claudia Schmidt, it was clearly a duet between the two women. And The Woods was a perfect venue - bigger than a house concert, smaller than an auditorium. This is how concerts must have been before electricity brought television and radio into America’s home parlors.
Schmidt bemoans what media has done to music, and why concerts are special. “Music is a meeting – there’s this rich panoply calling us to see it. Radio has let us down, it dumbs down our palette. We’ve become compartmentalized.”
Mary Flower, Premier Fingerstyle Acoustic Blues Guitar player
The first part of the evening was spent with Mary Flower, a Portland native. Unassuming when you meet her, you’ll have a sense of déjà vu – haven’t we met already? And you may have, since she is active in the local blues and folk scene. Some of you may have caught her on the Portland Spirit with Reggie Houston during the 2008 Portland Waterfront Blues Festival. If not, you’ll find her performing on a regular basis around town.
She picks up that guitar, and out comes fingerstyle blues you haven’t heard before. Or she starts playing Steel Guitar. Both masterfully performed for your listening pleasure. Flower herself is somewhat understated on stage, allowing her music to take front and center, shining as a result of her combination of lyrics and technique. Reference the next video for proof. (and why is it some of the best stuff is listed as instructional videos?)
After (what seemed like …) a short gig on stage, Flower was joined by Schmidt for a duet. Where Flower is shy, Schmidt is a force of nature. Combined, they compliment each other’s songs – it becomes difficult to know who wrote which, and whom recorded what. “This is our first opportunity to do songs together,” says Schmidt. “We’re finding how our musical paths converge.”
Claudia Schmidt shares a gripping poem
Claudia Schmidt comes off as just one of your best friends, there to play some music in your living room. While Flower was on stage, Schmidt was circulating around the back of the room, catching up on stories and renewing friendships with people she hadn’t met until five minutes ago. Some concerts are little more than shill-fests to sell the latest CD’s – Schmidt’s feels more like a reunion at summer camp.
Schmidt’s strength is spoken word and poetry. Ask a Claudia Schmidt Fan about “Pie” or “Thank you notes for Relish Dishes” and you’re suddenly on the receiving end of a recital inspired by a poetry reading from Schmidt. But spoken poetry isn’t all she is about – she carries a mountain dulcimer – and folks, she knows how to use it.
I’ve always suspected the mountain dulcimer as an instrument for casual musicians, kind of the paint-by-numbers of the musical world. But I need to revisit that assumption after listening to Flower and Schmidt performing a spunky little blues duet, combining fingerstyle blues and dulcimer. Blues chords aren’t trivial, fingerstyle blues isn’t trivial – and yet, there it was, coming out of that slender little instrument in Schmidt’s lap.
Schmidt performs a range of jazz, blues and folk songs. “Jazz makes my voice stronger,” Schmidt says. “But I’m comfortable across genres.” As an example, listen to “Ubumama,” a crossover piece between world and folk music.
“My job is sharing our existence, ennobling every day,” says Schmidt. “If I have writers block, it’s not about scarcity – it’s about abundancy.”
The collaboration between Flower and Schmidt is partly due to the efforts of Kate Power and Steve Einhorn and their efforts at Artichoke music. Which is a moment of sadness, as we note that Artichoke music will be closing their doors in May. But Schmidt and Flower are good friends, and perhaps they’ll grace us with a repeat concert. Schmidt will be back in Portland in December 2010 to perform with the Aurora Women’s Chorus.
Upon arriving at The Woods on Friday evening it was immediately apparent that something strange was going on.
To my right was a large white bus emblazoned with the words “Baptist Revival Church,” yet it was teeming with earthy, sanguine characters laden with instruments and gear. Directly in front of me was a former funeral parlor packed to capacity with an effervescent crowd that made the entire building seem like a champagne bottle begging to burst open. To my left was a sparse group, dejected as they had not had the foresight to buy tickets in advance and were replaced by other adamant fans as soon as they gave up hope of entry. The show I had come to see was that of Elephant Revival, the owners of the aforementioned bus, and accompanied by (who I thought was) the little known Bill Nershi.
Oh boy, did I get that wrong.
To start off the night, the lead singer for the widely popular jam-band The String Cheese Incident (SCI), affectionately known as “the Nersh,” played a solo set in which he went through a variety of classics from his touring days. With slicked back hair and a full beard reminiscent of Jerry Garcia combined with vocals that would fit perfectly next to James Taylor, this veteran of the stage immediately captivated the die-hard fans and awe-struck newcomers alike. Not surprisingly, all heads were rocking in unison throughout the duration of the set, interrupted only by the thunderous applause that would have surely awoken any corpses buried underneath the stage if they had been present.
With a virtuosic finger-picking style that resembled a folk symphony played on the expanse of a single fretboard, Nershi ran through a half set that included classic hits “Restless Wind,” “Born On The Wrong Planet,” “Just Passin’ Through,” and “Outside and Inside” to name a few. If the adamant fans next to me were any indication, these were songs performed not just out of love for the music itself, but for the Cheese-heads that had tenaciously followed SCI during its tenure and had never quite given up on the band. From the wildly gesticulating dancers that occupied large swaths of the front row to the more laid-back, yet somehow exponentially more enthusiastic Cheese aficionados, these fans demonstrated just how deeply SCI affected the lives of its fans.
The second course was served with the help of some of the members of Elephant Revival, Nershi’s neighbors near his hometown of Nederlands, Colorado, and served as a perfect progression from one act to the next. This slow transformation of sets, seeming almost as if a passing of the torch of sorts, started with Bonnie Paine on the washboard and finished with Dango Rose (upright bass, vocals) and Bridget Law (fiddle, vocals). With the introduction of these stellar musicians, Nershi’s set began to sound more like his previous work with SCI and some his side projects, and the fuller sound spread bluegrass and folk undertones alongside his cascading guitar work.
Primarily playing jams that had been written recently, including one excellently composed piece that Nershi claimed had been written earlier that day, this bunch effectively showcased the reigning talents of this seasoned veteran along with that of his highly touted and talented neighbors.
After the torrent of applause had died down and a brief break to set up equipment, Elephant Revival took the stage joined this time by Daniel Rodriguez (vocals, guitar) and Sage Cook (banjo, guitar, vocals). A group that describes themselves as “transcendental folk,” a summation that surely fits the bill in more ways than one, this orchestral folk ensemble made sure everyone in attendance knew why someone of Bill Nershi’s stature holds them in such high regard. Their purpose was simply to make you dance, enjoy the experience of being, and maybe transcend yourself a little bit. In an interview with OMN, Bridget Law addressed the people of Portland with a simple message: “Live, laugh, and dance often.”
If the crowd was any indication, the message got through.
With remarkably original lyrics, swathes of overlaid string movements, a rousing beat provided by a rummage sale percussive set, and group vocals that evoked a feeling one would get when listening to the cyclical chants of group meditation, Elephant Revival did manage to transcend the traditional conceptions of folk. Yet this was accomplished not through wild experimentation or psychedelic meandering, but rather through such an inherent connection to the fundamental nature of the music so as to build upon the traditional nature of folk, adding but taking nothing away.
Playing a set-list primarily composed of material off of their self-titled debut album, along with a few choice numbers off of their upcoming album Break In The Clouds, the members of Elephant Revival seemed at ease on stage, calm and positively radiating in a fashion reminiscent of the philosophical mannerisms in which they have styled their music after. From the sweet and moving “Ring Around The Moon” to the jaunty styling of “Sing to the Mountain” and “Reel McKay Wedding,” this groups knows how to craft a unique blend of folk that could very easily propel this aspiring group to the pinnacle of folk stardom.
As if the music wasn’t evidence enough, “the Nersh” could be seen standing near the front row, a beer in his hand and a smile two shades of permanent hanging below his nose. While puzzling at first, the expression he was making soon registered: It was pride.
Here what’s in the electro-dance-madness forecast starting this weekend and continuing into next week.
Saturday, April 3rd:
NIGHTCLUBBING at Holocene welcomes you into their special club with warm acid-house from Miracles Club, mysteriously cold disco synths from Soft Metals, and mood-modification from Brkfst Sndwch, all ending with hot, hot, hot love rolling from midnight till 3 AM with DJ duo Linger & Quiet.
$3 (free before 11 PM), 9 PM, 21+
Sunday, April 4th:
Back at Holocene for the second night in a row? Why not when local electro-geeks DAT’R hang out with touring NY electro-jokester-art weirdos Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt (there’s gonna be some seriously kooky antics… possibly a stuffed animal suit and bizarre light show–see video below) and get some synthy indie-pop to balance things out (Reverse Dotty) and finally add a little bluesy punk (The Shakes). Like I said, why not? It’s all pure entertainment.
Electro-pop duo (with live drums!) DoublePlusGood bubbles over at The Woods along with one man electronica, laptop show Cars & Trains who melds natural and mechanical beats. DPG is currently recording a new album–their first as a duo. Hear their poppy synth sound and read about how remixes are keeping them busy in the OMN interview.
$5, 9 PM, 21+
Wednesday, April 7th:
Rotture presents happy synthesizers and dance-y electro-pop. Sunny duo Van Go Lion pump out straightforward retro-electro-pop with Amy Paige’s assertive vox flying over the tapping, nimble fingers of Josh Loerzel on the synth and Mac. Electro-psych makers Pegasus Dream blast transforming jams with a pinch of experimentalization while retaining their pop sensibilities–never meandering too far. Keys and drum machines, download their free EP here. Hip-hop wisecrackers Thuggage drop hyphy punch lines on cuts about marshmallow Peeps and “Pimpimagery”–their brand of satirical social commentary. Today’s hip-hop is a joke, so why not laugh at it? But their music is no parody. Electro-beats ring from the NES-sampled “Bomberman” to the bobbing “Buttz.” Don’t take it too seriously, enjoy it.
In the spirit of full disclosure, you need to know that I’m from the Midwest, as is Claudia Schmidt. I’ve done an excellent job of hiding my accent, but live in fear of anyone asking me to pronounce words with double vowels, such as “boot” or “boat.” That said, Claudia is something of a Midwestern treasure, and one question on the Minnesota Drivers Exam requires you to correctly identify a song from one of her albums.
Unfortunately, and with the probable result that I’ll never again be able to visit the home of my childhood, I have to warn you away from Claudia’s latest album, “Promising Sky.”
There. I said it. Having said it, I’m still looking forward to her appearance at The Woods on April 9th. Now – how does that make sense?
Claudia Schmidt has a voice way out of proportion. I saw her at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, Colorado – a cavernous building seating more than 250. On stage, just Claudia and a dulcimer. She filled the hall with poetry, emotion and song. If you get a chance, check out “Thank You Note” from her “Roads” album. On stage, she’s stunning.
And her voice is built for Jazz. Listen to “I Thought About You,” a collection of Jazz standards she recorded in 2001. Torch songs, ballads, show tunes – an admirable recording and very listenable. “By Myself” is a technically challenging, upbeat drum/vocal number that stays in the pocket – the recording past the clip I’ve provided breaks loose into a gallop.
Folk – yep, she can do folk. She’s been doing folk since 1979. Dude – don’t even ask about her folk repertoire. She’s been on Prairie Home Companion. She’s recorded with Peter Ostroushko. What more is there?
But this album – what to make of it? Her voice is strong, and her songs without accompaniment are worthwhile. But oh man – when the “Funtet” kicks in, her songs become postured. Stiff and awkward, akin to Al Gore on a political junket. I’m sure the Funtet are a talented bunch of boys, but this one just doesn’t work. And if the drummer hits that splash cymbal one more time, I’m going to take a speech class to rid me of my Minnesota accent for good.
See her at The Woods. Seriously. Buy an album. But just not this one.
Walking into The Woods’ inviting and warm living-room, it is almost impossible to tell that the space used to house a funeral home. With the doors barely open, the comfortable couches lining the edges of the room were already claimed, the early comers enjoying a drink in the homey atmosphere before the music began.
However, for this show, a cozy seat in the back turned out not to be the best idea if you wanted to see the band, rather than just hear them. Soon, the open dance floor space was filled by the crowd that slowly continued to trickle in. Several groups skipped trying for any couch space, deciding to sit on the floor in front of the stage instead.
Sean Flinn and the Royal We arrived onstage, discovering the massive crowd spilling out into the back hallways. “I hate to interrupt your cozy time,” Flinn said, very politely asking them to stand so that the people in back could squish into the room as well. The fans willingly obliged in order to keep their prime location, but also shocked by the density of the fans packed into the now standing-room-only square.
Playing songs from their new EP, Patient Heart, and their upcoming full length album, Write Me a Novel, Flinn informed the crowd that the EP was for sale on the merch table in the back. Instead of having CDs for sale there, he explained, they would give out a code and the CD would “magically appear” on your computer. Vocalist Ben Meyercord interjected and explained that no actual CD would appear, but that the songs would, laughing at the absurdity of the thought as he said it. The codes were very creatively attached to the backs of antique photographs the band had been collecting, so no one would walk away empty-handed after the purchase. The added bonus was that each buyer got to choose their favorite photo.
Starting out with a folky, acoustic feel, Flinn sang alone with his guitar but slowly gained power as his eight-member Royal We joined in on instruments, and the strong vocals of Luzelena Mendoza burst in harmony with Flinn and Meyercord, dazzling the room. As the set neared the end, fans wondered aloud if the band would be playing their hit, “Patient Heart,” and, almost as soon as it was uttered, the silent requests were granted and fans swayed and sang along in excitement.
After a short break, the members of Breathe Owl Breathe appeared on stage. As they prepared their instruments, each was draped in a hooded cape, and they let the audience wonder for several songs before explaining the origins of the capes: a sea turtle, a mastodon, and a tiger, all made by lead singer Micah Middaugh’s mother.
With deep, monotonic voice and dry wit similar to comedian Demetri Martin, Middaugh told the crowd how much they had been enjoying Portland, naturally inviting cheers from the room. “There are a lot of dog walkers here,” he noted, and went on to describe the game they created to point out all the dog walkers around the city, earning extra points for finding an owner that looks like the dog.
Although Middaugh never broke his serious tone, cellist and singer Andréa Moreno-Beals giggled away at his various anecdotes and straight-faced jokes. However, he was not the only one creating laughter. During “Sabertooth Tiger,” Moreno-Beals showed the audience a dance they created to emulate a sabertooth tiger by putting both hands on their heads, making ears, and then pointing their fingers down, creating sabertooth fangs and dancing around. It was obvious that they never cease having fun while working and that the songs they create are a result of the kids-at-heart in each of them.
Their folk sound was infused with a hint of country as Middaugh repeated the words as if telling a story set to music, entrancing the listener with simple lyrics and underlying humor that explored the most innate thoughts and feelings. Moreno-Beals’ beautiful voice, reminiscent of Madeleine Peyroux, complemented Middaugh’s deep tone perfectly and evoked a feeling of serenity. Talented in both songwriting as well as performing, Breathe Owl Breathe, was a complete folky package that would make a fan of any crowd.
Stepping into We Are Gold Mounds is not unlike stepping into a room slowly filling with light. Anchored by a simple drone, a guitar layer winds up and down as angelic voices coo a melody that somehow sounds just like a sunrise. The song, fittingly titled “Morning Overture,” bleeds directly into the record’s title track, “Gold Mounds.” It’s a track that, despite cryptic lyrics about golden mounds, manages to feel well-worn and plaintive. Jenny Wayne, who makes up half of the songwriting core of John Heart Jackie, has a voice like pure crystal- breathy, immaculate and resonant. It’s this voice, amid layers of reverb, hushing drums and lush guitar strums that makes “We Are Gold Mounds” the perfect flag-bearer for an album steeped in contemporary folk a la Fleet Foxes.
The Woods
The first place I looked into was the Starbucks space, because I thought it would be really cool to have a music venue in SE that wasn’t like the Aladdin. But the Starbucks space of course was quite small, and for being small it was very expensive. Soon, I started working with a realtor, who pretty quickly said he had a space in mind, an old funeral parlor in Sellwood. I was immediately interested. This was in December 2008, when we had that snowstorm, so when we went to go see it, it was really hard to get there. We walked in the back doors, and instantly for me, and I think Ritchie too, we could see the potential so clearly.
We really lucked out. Under the pile carpet, there were original unfinished Doug fir floors, which we ended up restoring. It could have been echo-y, it could have been like a box, but it wasn’t. People comment frequently that the sound is good. It isn’t muddy or tinny, like some venues in town.
In the beginning, The Woods hosted a selection of acoustic and indie rock groups, along with some chamber music. As they explore what’s available, they have begun to move in the direction of hosting more ambient electronic music that blends art, film, and sound, as well. Another new direction soon to be explored is world music. Both genres, electronic and world, need more support in Portland, so their expansion can only be a positive one.
For their upcoming release Fang, Portland’s 
Gabriel Kahane
With a virtuosic finger-picking style that resembled a folk symphony played on the expanse of a single fretboard, Nershi ran through a half set that included classic hits “Restless Wind,” “Born On The Wrong Planet,” “Just Passin’ Through,” and “Outside and Inside” to name a few. If the adamant fans next to me were any indication, these were songs performed not just out of love for the music itself, but for the Cheese-heads that had tenaciously followed SCI during its tenure and had never quite given up on the band. From the wildly gesticulating dancers that occupied large swaths of the front row to the more laid-back, yet somehow exponentially more enthusiastic Cheese aficionados, these fans demonstrated just how deeply SCI affected the lives of its fans.
If the crowd was any indication, the message got through.
NIGHTCLUBBING at 
Walking into 
With deep, monotonic voice and dry wit similar to comedian Demetri Martin, Middaugh told the crowd how much they had been enjoying Portland, naturally inviting cheers from the room. “There are a lot of dog walkers here,” he noted, and went on to describe the game they created to point out all the dog walkers around the city, earning extra points for finding an owner that looks like the dog.
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