|
THE UNDERGROUND IS ALIVE AND WELL IN PORTLAND OREGON
June 24, 2010, 08:18 AM posted by Maria Choban I canceled my "Argentine Tango To Everything NOT Piazzolla BUT Definitely Alternative Selections Possibly Including Kashmir (Zeppelin) AND Money (Pink Floyd)" date with a friend last night in order to do a last minute consolation date with another friend who's flight back home to see his beloved sister was postponed by 2 days due to airplane wing failure. Saddened friend had already gone through one bottle of wine and the other circumstances are too numerous and personal to mention. First - every Wednesday night Portland Oregon actually has an Argentine Tango dance to alternative music. The Milonga Police have not yet shut it down. Depressed friend and I decided that we would go hear yet another friend performing a "Happening" with his experimental music group "Rob Walmart". Their mascot, emblazoned on their t-shirts, looks suspiciously like Lionel Richie and nothing like Rob. En route to this "Happening" we stopped at a neighborhood bar called The Slammer where neither of us have ever been. Second - this place had the greatest eclectic juke box I've ever heard (albeit way way way too loud) AND it included NO Madonna, NO Lady GaGa NO Beatles......... It did include plenty of Violent Femmes, Bowie, Beastie Boys......... (of no relevance to music but an odd observation never-the-less, this place also had the densest population of really naturally gorgeous people I've ever seen in a bar.......maybe anywhere. What's up with that?) We made our way to "The Happening". Our directions were to find the big white cube parked somewhere around 11th and SE Morrison. Cube was parked outside a club. Unbelievable. 6 guys stuffed in a delivery truck converted to a traveling FBI band (no, seriously, all the electronic equipment in the back could have passed for surveillance ....... well, except for the 6 mini piano keyboards in front of each operator. In a more traditional setting - a club, a concert venue, a workshop/classroom, any stage, this would have been butt crack boring (think Merzbow). But the location, the open air, the warm night, the people spilling out of the club for a smoke break, the collective enthusiasm and wonder generated by all of us, the fairly innovative use of ambient noise and drum kit rhythms, seeing the equipment and the operators operating at such close range and getting a feel for the ensemble (I hate arena concerts.....which I term spectacles because there is nothing remotely music-magic about them) drove home the magic of Live Music, chamber style, updated with modern "instruments" and use of improvisation. Third - even the streets are game for Music events, un-twittered! (thank you jesus). |
Latest Albums:  Back In The Building  Greek Rapture  Gifts from three kings  American Piano Duets  |
Copyright © 2008 Alitisa Records