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!

Ah, Saturday. One of two days of the week where work is thrown out the window, where the sunshine can be fully enjoyed, and where, at night, the whores come out. This Saturday was no different, as walking by various clubs can attest to; women in skirts so short they might as well be called shirts, men wearing cologne so powerful it is sure to be on the periodic table of elements soon. And crazy people babbling to themselves as though they were at a bar, when they are really on the corner of a busy intersection. This is a Saturday night in Portland, and it was part of our Saturday night, the final night of MFNW.

Our day started much like Friday started — we did not get into the Wonder Ballroom. We got to the venue around 4:30ish, and the line was already around three blocks. We we to have gotten in, we would’ve seen Ratatat and Les Savy Fav, two bands I barely listen to anyway, but are still somewhat important in the indie register (Les Savy Fav moreso). Either way, we knew we wouldn’t get in and didn’t want to sit around eating ice cream, so we left to head to the Crystal, where we would be spending the entirety of our night. Considering that the first band’s set started at eight, we knew we had some time to kill.

We ended up at Scooters, a bar right around the corner from the Crystal, where we sat and did nothing for a couple of hours. Well, Paul and Christina ate, and Missy drank one Corona and was drunk (I wish I could do that…). I didn’t drink anything; I figure since I’m broke, the last thing anyone wants to do is buy me alcohol, since it takes me forever to get drunk. It’s a waste of money on their part, I think.

So two hours passed and we went into the Crystal, hoping to get balcony seats (of which there are three rows, tightly packed — roughly fifty seats total). We did not get balcony seats. So we carved out a niche with a table and awaited our night of frivolity.

The first band to take the stage was Mimicking Birds, a three-piece fronted by Nate Lacy, who plays mellow guitar and mellow songs. It was an interesting opening to the night. They did not play one rocking song, and I was on the fence on whether or not that was a good idea. They don’t have a CD out, but they did give free CD-Rs at the merch table. I grabbed one — it’s pretty good. Definitely headphones music or music to wash dishes to, that sort of thing. The drummer was being kind of dickish in between songs, in that “I don’t want to play this kind of music” sort of way, which annoyed me, but it was fairly minor. In the end they had a good set which was marred a bit by the loudness of people at the Crystal (though they would be louder the drunker they got…). They are my friends on Myspace now, that’s all that matters.

Next was Blitzen Trapper, a kind of weird folky southern rock kind of band. They were pretty funny, but I wasn’t feeling their music that much. I own Wild Mountain Nation and it’s okay, though I don’t listen to it that much. They played a good set, though, loud and raucous, as it should be.

Then came Fleet Foxes! Fleeeeet Foxes! I must preface this by saying that on our way to Scooters, we passed Robin Pecknold, their lead singer, rolling an amp and carrying a guitar, and I was like, “Holy shit” under my breath but didn’t end up saying anything. I feel weird doing that to band members, even if I did say “Good show” to Sean from Langhorne Slim last night. That was partially because he was right next to me, moving his guitar. It’s cool to be so close to musicians I’ve been listening to for a while now.

Anyway, Fleet Foxes were excellent. Their harmonies were unsurpassed for the entire festival. No one sounded better than them, vocally. Period. And Robin was standing for the first time in a year, after sitting for countless shows because of an accident. What kind of accident, I’m not sure, but he was standing, and that was cool. They sounded fucking great. That’s all that needs to be known. They didn’t play “Ragged Wood”, which seems odd, but that’s okay, because everything was awesome.

After them was Menomena. I was a little worried about this show because I haven’t really gotten into them for a while. I Am the Fun Blame Monster was pretty good, but I don’t listen to Friend and Foe at all and it never grabbed me. Fortunately, though, Menomena puts on an awesome show, and their songs, generally loops or taken from loops on the album, are even better live. Plus I totally loved it when Justin played the baritone sax. It adds an awesome layer to everything. When the songs blew up or went crazy, it was amazing (especially in songs with the sax). I don’t know what else to say really, other than they made me want to listen to Friend and Foe again, cause I feel like I’m missing something.

At this point, by the way, is when people were drunk and being too loud. There was a throng of girls who were just babbling away the whole time, and Christina was cool enough to be like, “Are you guys gonna keep talking? Cause if you are, you should go to the back of the room.” They did end up leaving, though the Hot Menomena Girl left too. She knew all the words to the Menomena songs, and Paul said to me after their set, “That’s the hottest Menomena fan ever.” I agreed. And then she left.

You know what? I’m going to see if she checks Craigslist. Social Experiment #1 begins!

Okay, missed connections posted. We’ll see if she checks it.

Okay, anyhoo, last but certainly not least was The Helio Sequence, which was made up of a guy on guitar and a guy on drums. Paul called them “pretty” but I saw No Age once again, ready to blast us out with loudness and annoyance. Fortunately, this was not the case. The Helio Sequence truly mesmerized me. I was in awe of their performance. Every song was a perfect little piece of pop music, loud and brilliant. I hadn’t heard of them at all prior to last night, and I am truly glad I did hear them, because they are great. They use a lot of prerecorded electronic music in their songs, which actually mixed excellently with their instruments. At the end of the show they played “Keep Your Eyes Ahead” with the members of Menomena, which apparently was the first time they’ve ever played with a full band. Paul was very excited
to hear this, and Missy got most of it recorded. So, that was awesome.

Their set over, we quickly got out of the Crystal and onto the street, where we went to the car and headed home. Today I had one last lunch with Paul and Missy before Missy boarded the Amtrak for Tacoma. I honestly wouldn’t have been able to attend this festival without Missy and Paul’s help, and they are without a doubt the nicest people I’ve ever met from the internet. Oh, and I can’t forget Christina and her car, which was a godsend and allowed us to actually listen to every show and not worry about the lack of buses or MAX after 1am. I’m glad I got to know a lot of cool people in such a short amount of time.

Now, of course, reality sets in and I have “real world” stuff I have to go — get a job, start an awesome band, make lots of money, etc etc etc. So to Musicfest Northwest, I say: thank you for allowing me to spend my first full week in Portland as though it were a vacation. It was better than I could have ever imagined.

Well, last night was marred by something that was bound to happen eventually: I got rejected from the Doug Fir Lounge for having an expired license. So day three of MFNW was a little choppy, and it was mostly my fault, so let me explain in more detail…

Paul’s friend Christina (a? Christine? I’m so bad with names. guh) was going to pick us up and drive us around so that we didn’t have to rely on the bus system, which was very very nice of her. When I wanted to leave the house, however, she had not gotten back to Paul, and so they were planning on taking the bus downtown and we would meet up with her there. So I took the bus to Paul’s house, and while I was on my way, they got in touch with Christina and she said she’d be there around five. Which made me glad I bought a two hour pass instead of an all day pass. She did in fact arrive around five, due to terrible traffic, and we were off to the Wonder Ballroom.

I don’t know when we got to the Wonder but due to awful parking and our relative lateness, we ended up not being able to see Britt Daniel. So that sucked. But I did eat a lot of free ice cream, which was pretty awesome, and I got some “Ice Cream Man” stickers for my guitar.

In the end we decided to skip Britt and Built to Spill and head up to Backspace, which had the Rainy States, who I had never heard of. They’re apparently a pretty new band from Portland. While seeming incredibly nervous (especially the lead singer … but it was cute), and even barring a broken string hastily restrung by the guitar player, they played a lovely set. I think the vocals could’ve been mixed a bit higher, cause I couldn’t hear them, but other than that I enjoyed them more than I was expecting! And that’s always a plus.

With their set over, we took the trip to the Doug Fir to see Laura Gibson. Okay, let me preface this by saying I understand that I ought to just get a new license instead of bitching about the logistics of having an expired license and getting into bars, and that there’s probably some insurance problems involved with bars having people with expired licenses in them, but it’s all ridiculous nonsense. All of it. We drove across the bridge, we found an excellent parking spot, we were all having a good time, and for some reason the moment I saw the Doug Fir come into view I knew we were going to have problems. And we did. Everyone else got in, and then the bouncer saw my ID and immediately said, cut and dry, “It’s expired.” And I said, “So I can’t come in?” and he shook his head. And everyone else was kind enough to come out with me and go back across the bridge to the Crystal and more awful parking, but in lieu of the fact that I need to get a new license, let me just bitch for a second.

The only thing that will allow you or deny you access to the seamy insides of a bar is your age. The only way to verify your age is with a valid ID, whether it be driver’s license, identification card, or passport. A driver’s license has your information on it, including your birthdate. Thus, it seems to me, the expiration date of said license has no bearing whatsoever on the validity of the license. A license is valid if it is a legally obtained license that has my proof of age on it. I could understand if it was a fake ID with a guy who vaguely looked like me whose name was Mohammad, but for Chrissakes, it has my face and my physical specifications on it! Does it being expired automatically revert me into a 20-year-old? That’s physically impossible.

Obviously I’m ranting about a lost cause, cause it depends on the bar, and the Doug Fir has a perfectly legal right to refuse to let me in, and I should just get off my ass and get a new ID, but still, the legalities of the whole thing, especially with the new Idaho IDs, which clearly differentiate between under 21 and over 21 (literally, the under 21 ID is vertical and the over 21 is horizontal) seem silly to me. You can’t change my age. It’s obvious that my ID isn’t fake. I guess I’m wearing glasses in my ID. And I have short hair. Aw hell, I’ll just get a new license. haha.

Anyhoo. We went to the Crystal Ballroom and had difficulty parking, but we found a nice spot, even if we had to pay for it, that was right next to the Crystal. We got in just in time to see Lackthereof play (oh, and by the way, Doug Fir, I got into the over 21 section of the Crystal. I didn’t even drink a beer. Not. One. Beer!).

It would be ironic of me to say that Lackthereof lacked something in their presentation, but it’s true. They had little stage presence and their songs were all pretty much similar. It’s a side project of Menomena’s drummer, Danny Seim. Or, technically, according to Wikipedia, Menomena was a side project of Lackthereof. Whatever. All I know is that the best part of their set were the songs that devolved into straight percussion. That was pretty awesome. But the rest of the songs were somewhat droll and repetitive.

After that was John Vanderslice, who was pretty boring. I don’t know what else to say, honestly. I’ve heard good things about him and even have three of his albums, which I don’t listen to, and live he had a little more energy than Lackthereof, but not much. We ended up going upstairs and sitting on the ground waiting for the set to end. While we were there, though, a cool thing happened: the door bouncer gave us all VIP passes! Woo! That meant we could go to the cramped little VIP section where the grownups could drink beer and be slightly closer to the stage. The Crystal is weird like that — the under 21 crowd can sidle right up to the stage if they wish, but the overagers have to be corralled as though their beer was acid or something.

After Vanderslice was Vampire Weekend, who were actually very good, considering their Yupster status (Yuppie Hipster — I made that word up). Their songs were carbon copies of the album equivalents, but they were still enjoyable. The kids loooooved them. I haven’t heard that much screaming since I walked into the women’s locker room last summer. I don’t blame them, I was naked. But I think the ladies love VW’s lead singer, cause he is quite the cutie. Who apparently looks like Fred Savage, as Missy said (I don’t see the resembalance).

I still don’t understand why hipsters love this band. They’re so anti-hipster it’s funny. They sing songs about going to prep school and studying and knowing your butler’s name and shit. Songs about Cape Cod. Oh well.

They did play
a new song that I thought was so much better than anything on their last album, which gives me hope for their new stuff. We’ll see if it’s any good.

We had to leave the show early to get to Berbati’s (NOTE TO THE DOUG FIR: I got into Berbati’s not once, not twice, but thrice! with no hassles. AND I DIDN’T EVEN DRINK! I mean, fuck, I even got an over 21 wristband at Backspace. What do I have to do, Doug Fir? Do a little monkey dance for you? Bake you a cake? What?) … what was I talking about?

Oh yeah! Laaaaanghorne Slim! We had to get to Berbati’s in time to see them. When we got there Alela Diane was finishing up her solo set. I felt kinda bad because people were being extremely loud (to the extent that one love-infused kid shouted “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” to the poeple at the bar, before he turned around and finished his free verse poem about his feelings that he intended to give to Alela after the show), but it was a bar, so what can you do? All those people were there to see Langhorne Slim, and Langhorne Slim is a rowdy band, and therefore those people were rowdy.

Langhorne’s second night was just as enjoyable as their first. I had a blast. Sean was wearing cowboy boots and pants cutoff at the knee. He looked like a six year old boy. It was great.

The last show came from the Builders and the Butchers, who Paul really wanted to see. They were exceptional, but it was also 1am and we were exhausted. So we had a dilemma, whether we should stay and see them all the way through, or retire early and go to sleep.

We decided to go to sleep. Don’t fret, Builders and Butchers, you were great, but after the energy of Langhorne Slim, we couldn’t keep up anymore.

So, despite my misfortune of having an expired license, the night ended well. Tonight is the last night of MFNW, and we’ll be at the Crystal for most of it (hopefully with VIP wristbands again). After that, I have to transition into the Real World and get a friggen job!