I've stretched the whole birthday thing really far this year. A solid ten days after the fact I'm celebrating the day of my birth with Portland friends. We are going to have food and drinks at East End (one of my new favorite bars, it's dirty and there are giant Tecates and a mantle-piece moose made from popsicle sticks) and Huy is bringing an icecream cake (fulfilling a life-long dream) and then we are going to go see Federale at Dante's. I've never been to Dante's. I'm a little skeptical of Dante's. It may be the name, or the bands that usually play there (Storm Large and various small-time metal bands) or the crowd that spills out onto the street (liquid liner, vinyl, men with black beards and cigarette burns). But Federale!
They've got an Ennio Morricone, spaghetti western thing going on and pull various musicians from various Portland bands, at times numbering up to 14 deep. They do concept albums. I'm a total sucker for concept albums. It's probably my literature background or the fact that I'm a huge snob. Their latest album "Devil in a Boot" is the revenge story of Jack, who lost his home and family to a ruthless railroad baron when he was a child. Rian saw them on New Year's Eve and told me she thought I would like them, and that they do a bunch of whistling. And that's really all it took.
photo from Federale
No comments:
Post a Comment