Viva Voce @ Doug Fir

I guess the big news is that Paul and I are not going to see Modest Mouse tonight. The reasons are twofold for me: 1, I am le tired. The past four nights have been a bit whirlwind, and for some reason spending four hours (or however long) in one location, the somewhat dismal Crystal Ballroom, is strangely anticlimactic. Friday and Saturday were great nights, and while I enjoy Mimicking Birds and Modest Mouse to a certain extent, I don’t enjoy them enough to go see them tonight. That’s just how it’s going to be.

(Tangent: I’ve found myself, since the huge upswing in Twitter recently, putting only one space after a period rather than two, which is how I’ve been taught since I was taught English. I … I’m not sure how to feel about this. It’s a vital necessity when writing tweets, but this is a blog, a safe haven for proper grammar and syntax¹. A place where the tried and true imprints of the hodge-podge English language are given their proper room to breathe, to exist, to push against the bones of a healthy and well-maintained ribcage. I would go back and edit an extra space in between all of these sentences but … eh, fuck it.)

So I’ll begin writing the MFNW reviews tomorrow. Hm, writing it like that sounds a bit pretentious, as if I’m expecting you all to glean some kind of hip Portland cool from me merely by my typing words on an electronic page. The truth is, I stand out like a sore thumb at these events: tall, awkward, long red hair, unironic eyeglasses², a childlike sense of awe when watching bands, taking utterly shitty photos with my cell phone camera … etc etc. When I walked into Berbati’s to see the Long Winters on Friday night it was like walking into a surprise birthday party, and John Roderick was, figuratively, the icing on the cake. I was rocking out in my own little world, found myself remembering lyrics to songs I hadn’t heard in quite a while, and generally just looking like a dork. Ah well, this is the weight of my silly little life, I guess.

Anyway, I will also be making a playlist of Musicfest bands, including songs that you definitely have never heard of, from bands you probably haven’t heard of, like Monarques, a band that we just missed play at Rontoms, but whose EP, which they gave away for free, is pretty fucking great.

Truth be told, there was only one band the entire weekend that I didn’t enjoy, and I will tell you who that is later.

So yeah, a mix that you can download and enjoy, hopefully as much as I do!

And now, sadly … back to the real world.  At least I have some new music for it.

the thermals @ bodyvox

In a couple of hours I’m going to be seeing Viva Voce at some VIP party thing, but I want to write a little update before I nom nom on some Burgerville and proceed to rock out yet again.

First off, if you aren’t following me on Twitter and want to hear me geek out on a more live basis, I suggest you do so.  I’ve been taking the Worst Photos Ever with my cameraphone¹ and posting them on TwitPic, as well as short bursts of textual energy, such as “THERMALS FUCKKKKK YEAH,” etc.

Anyway, long story short, last night was the best night of MFNW and probably will be the best night MFNW.  All four bands that I saw were awesome, and the sushi that I ate beforehand was awesome, and the nap I took after work but before the shows was awesome. Everything = awesome.

Seeing the Long Winters play again was especially spectacular. John Roderick has long hair and a mustache and a missing front tooth.  He’s great.  The band was as tight and energetic as ever, and the between songs banter was hilarious. For some stupid reason Berbati’s wasn’t as packed as it should be — I blame it on John’s lack of releasing an album or touring for the past year or so. That’s okay though, cause the ones who were there were pretty hardcore fans.

I shouldn’t go into details because I’m going to do that after MFNW. You all should check out the Prids, Explode into Colors², The Long Fucking Winters, and, of course, the Thermals, who played a VIP after party at BodyVox dance studio, with a big long rehearsal mirror behind them, effectively rocking all of our testicles off.  Yes, even the ladies.  The ladies grew testicles and then they fell off, it was so rocking.  We’re all eunuchs now.

Briefly:

Wednesday
There’s only one lineup, and that is — Fences, Portland Cello Project, Damian Juardo, and Will Scheff (of Okkervil River) @ Wonder Ballroom.  I am excited about all of this.

Thursday
Dr. Dog & Helio Sequence @ Wonder
Either Cymbals Eat Guitars @ Doug Fir or Tu Fawning @ Berbati’s.  Probably the latter cause it will make us closer to
The Twilight Sad & Frightened Rabbits @ Dante’s!  TWILIGHT SAD!

Friday
Arctic Monkeys @ Wonder
Something, not sure yet
M64 @ Jimmy Mak’s
Explode into Colors @ Holocene
THE LONG WINTERS! @ Berbati’s.  YAAAAY NEANDERTHAL JOHN RODERICK!

Saturday
Lots of bands playing 30 minute sets at Rontoms
Saturday is kind of iffy.
World’s Greatest Ghosts @ Backspace
Brunettes @ Berbati’s
probly Ava Buffalo @ Berbati’s
Point Juncture, WA @ Mississippi Studios
Church & Finn Riggins @ East End

Sunday
Sunday has only one lineup, with Morning Teleportation, Mimicking Birds, Love as Laughter, and Modest Mouse as headliners. Dunno how into them I’m going to be, but Mimicking Birds is playing and I’ve really come to love the free CD-R I snagged at their MFNW show last year.

All in all, a crazy time, and lots of fun.

(My previous entry about the current state of theatre drew a lot of comments/ire/applause, but all of the comments were in Facebook, to which I import my blog entries. I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I knew I would get a lot of comments from my fellow Boise State classmates and friends, and I knew it would take “balls” to post something so personal up where so many actors could read it. At this point in my life I don’t really care about having “balls” to do things¹. If I think something is fucked up, I’ll say it, even if I’m dead wrong. I think my post speaks to a deeper truth about the failure of theatre as a culture, as an art, and as a divine medium.  But on the other hand, I wish they’d comment in my blog, rather than on Facebook.  Oh well.  Moving on…)

One of my first posts upon my arrival in Portland was about the magical festival known as Musicfest Northwest.  It was great because I had just moved here, and I was broke, and my friends Paul and Missy were nice enough to buy me a ticket and escort my broke ass around downtown Portland so I could see a bunch of bands.  It was like being thrust into the Portland scene, and I loved it.

Now, one year later, MFNW is back, and is five days long, and Paul and I are going and we have VIP PASSES. THAT COST US EXTRA BUT WERE TOTALLY WORTH IT.  One of the bands playing at a VIP after party but not during MFNW proper is a little three-piece I like to call THE FUCKING THERMALS².  It’s gonna be a blast. I have money now, I am going to party like some kind of rockstar, I’m going to be really tired at work on Thursday and Friday, and, most importantly, I am going to blog about it for you, my gentle readers.  So consider this week Musicfest Week.  Tomorrow I’ll write an itinerary of events/bands, and after that I probably won’t have time to write anymore, so you’ll have to wait until Saturday for reviews.

Also, I completely redesigned joshuabelville.com, implementing a wordpress blog design instead of my shoddy HTML.  This will make it a lot easier to update, which I desperately need.  Anyway, I say that because I will be writing a quick blog post about my set at Hempstalk this last weekend, so perhaps you should head over there and RSS feed some shit so that you can stay up to date on whatever cool thing it is I’m doing, yes?

RSS feeds are a wonderful things, folks.  They’re like picking out your favorite articles of the newspaper.  Use them. Love them.

PEACE!

Take a deep breath folks, have a seat, bring a glass of wine, because this is going to be a big one.

Before I begin, you have prerequisite reading: The Empty Spaces, or, How Theatre Failed America, an essay from the Seattle Stranger by Mike Daisey.  You must read this before you continue.  Don’t worry, I can wait.

…

Ready?  Okay.

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