britt daniel, 9.9.06

britt daniel. solo. portland oregon. how could i pass this up? this, was the icing on the cake for my trip to portland, as i love spoon, love britt, and want to see him/them any chance i can (within reason). as i have friends in portland, one of whom loves spoon as much as i do, i had to be there for this. the britt show cemented my trip.

and i'm so glad i went for it.

the tracklisting of his show, from the spoon yahoo group is:

Don't Make Me a Target
Lines In The Suit
"Telephone My heart"
The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine
Stay Don't Go
"Cherry Bomb"
Metal Detektor
"Nausea" (???)
The Beast And Dragon, Adored
Anything You Want
They Never Got You
I Summon You
Everything Hits At Once
The Way We Get By

it was amazing. i'm jumping ahead, though, aren't i? we made it there around 8, when doors opened, had a quick drink, ran into someone we knew would be coming, and staked our place at the front (to the left of the stage, but managed to inch our way to the left of center for britt's set, which is both mine and my friend's preferred spot for shows. we're totally concert twins!) for the opening bands.

first, came smoosh, the tween wonders from seattle. they were okay, but i feel that if they were 20 or something, people wouldn't like them that much. there was one guy in the crowd (who must have been in his thirties? or so?) who was totally rocking out to them and singing along to every song. it made us laugh.



i think that rowan would like them. i thought that they were okay. the guy in the crowd was the best part of their set.

next came jeremy enigk or something like that - the dude from sunny day real estate. that was like a really boring bar band (less boring than viva voce, though). i was a little annoyed because they played for 1 hr, 5 minutes. at first, i was excited because i had hoped that it would mean that britt would play for 1 hr, 5 minutes. but, he didn't. he played for 45.

here's a picture. the bassist was really hilarious.



but, other than that, not that exciting.

then, britt. he said he lives in portland now (we knew that) and that he loves it there (how could he not?). he pretty much just played a solid show that was wonderful. setlist above. i really think that spoon is cemented as my number one band currently performing and recording music. no one, not even britt, will take the place of pavement. sorry, dude.

so, here are some pictures, because that is what people really want to see.


the chandelier in the crystal ballroom.


britt setting up and seeing me take his picture. oh my.








(that's my favorite)















and that is that. it was really quite an amazing show.

afterwards, i asked britt for the setlist, while he put his guitar away, and he was all, "oh, i promised it to someone else already. that girl over there" (points randomly towards the center of the stage). me: "aww, man. well, thanks!" then, he went to his guitar case, pulled out a sheet of paper, scribbled something on it and then gave it to me. it was lyrics or something? to some song? some unreleased song? and he signed "thank you, britt daniel" on the back. that was pretty cool. no high fives, but lyrics to an unknown song? i'll take that.

thx, britt! :-*

oh, and my acquaintance justin sent a link to my flickr to britt (he is actual real live friends with britt, which is pretty awesome) and britt responded:

nice ones.
thank you

nice!

britt update to come

HOWEVER, in the meantime, it would be really nice if someone would tell me how to turn m4a files (iTunes) to mp3 (universal) files. yes, that would be fableeeous.

thx!

:-*

sm/joos

as you may know, i attended this year's musicfestnw festival in portland, or. well, attended the festival is a bit of a stretch, since i only attended two shows for three artists. the experience was well worth the price of admission (or, in my case, the price of airfare).

the festival took place in various venues throughout portland and featured many prominent artists. my main ambition, however, was to see stephen malkmus, the silver jews, and britt daniel. sm and the joos were on friday night. britt was on saturday. i expected nothing short of pure awesomeness and i was not disappointed.

sm/joos
this show was highlighted in the portland mercury as a show to attend. they lauded david berman as the bob dylan of our generation (excuse any typose: i have a little child on my head) and as he and the joos never tour, it was the thing to see. i was more excited because not only would i finally get a chance to see a band that i have loved for some years, but because i would get to see stephen malkmus, whom i have loved for as long as i've had good taste, open. i assumed it would be with the jicks, but thought there was potential for another arrangement.

prior to either of those artists coming onstage, we were entertained by the trachtenburg family slideshow players, who were fun to watch. that said, though they were fun, i don't know that i would ever buy anything by them because the whole experience revolves around slides, and it probably wouldn't really make much sense to listen to their music without the accompanying pictures. the pictures make the show. overall, they were fun and i would not mind watching them again as an opening band.





the second band of the evening was a local (to portland) act, viva voce. they were lame. i could hardly understand what the singer was singing about and they were just really boring.

here is a picture anyhow, because it IS important to document - even the bad.


the highlight of the set was seeing stephen malkmus in the wings, sporting an awesome moustache.



i got in trouble by a teeny tiny (i am very tall, and so is my friend) security guard for using flash. that, too, was more interesting than their performance.

then, oh then, came stephen malkmus. as previously mentioned, we were unsure if it would be a jicks performance or if it would be a malkmus performance. it turned out to be a solo acoustic show, which was pretty amazing. he played a short set of about 45-50 minutes, but played some jicks songs, some covers, and two pavement songs (!!!)(trigger cut and lions (linden) from the watery, domestic ep). amazing. then, he pulled david berman from the silver jews up to play a song. overall, great set. if i had a tracklist or had kept one in my head, i would tell you about it. alas, i do not, so you have to deal with adjectives like "amazing!" "fantastic!" and so on.








(reunite! the original joos!)





up next were the silver jews. i was extremely excited for this, especially after seeing david berman sing onstage with malkmus. they did not disappoint! they played a long set with many of their "hits" such as pretty eyes (swooooon!), trains across the sea, a good chunk from tanglewood numbers, and some more that i'm forgetting. their performance was simply outstanding, though at times, dc's wife was a little much (i think it's his wife).











they left the stage and came back for a two song encore, in which malkmus joined them. they played "smith and jones" and "new orleans" (which i was hoping that they'd play). malkmus did interpretive singing/dancing during the set and it was pretty much the best thing i'd ever seen. ever.











when they were done, david berman went up behind malkmus and ripped open his jacket and shirt and gave malkmus a hug.



(unfortunately, i did not catch the bare-chested moment on film, but that picture captures the emotion, i'd say...)

the britt daniel review will have to wait until later. malkmus and the jews together was practically musical history and ranks up there with the first show of the pixies reunion tour as one of my most important shows of all time. it was significant. but, this is coming from a major pavement-fan, so what do i know?