indessed roscivs

Event #1: Wyatt Cenac

We were a little late getting out of the house, and although we made it to the show half an hour before it was scheduled to start, we barely missed the end of the standby line. It was a bad miss, but we vowed to watch some Daily Show to make up for it, got a bite to eat, and headed to the next show early.

Event #2: Black Eyed Peas

This was probably the highlight of the weekend—a stadium packed full of Black Eyed Peas fans crowdsurfing, shouting, and singing along to an awesome show that had dancing (including spectacular break-dancing by a local eight-year-old boy), lights, video, smoke, confetti, and more—along with the music, of course. The only negative was that the sound unexpectedly went out a couple of times during the show, thoroughly killing the vibe. Including during the finale. I hope somebody got fired for that!

Event #3: Oren Lavie

Oren Lavie was pretty good on the piano and on the guitar, but it was his cellist—Emma Wood—who made all difference. With her accompaniment, Oren was occasionally reminiscent of Nick Drake; without it, he was a talented but unoutstanding musician. I plan to check and see if his CDs include Emma or not … such a distinction may influence my purchasing decisions!

Event #4: Various Art Exhibits

These were interesting, but the only part worth remarking on is that my favorite part—interestingly unique photographs of various major world cities—were actually intended to be a statement on light pollution. I thought the pictures were beautiful. Oops.

Event #5: Portland Cello Project

This was not your ordinary cello orchestra. They played stuff like the Super Mario Brothers theme song, some neoclassical stuff, and ended with Aha’s “Take On Me”. I was a bit disappointed that they were more of accompaniment to the main vocalist (who also played the guitar), and didn’t really lead the melody on their own—but I guess there’s only so much you can do with a cello. It was fun to listen to anyway, for the most part—and gave me a few ideas of my own.

Event #6: Franz Ferdinand

I’m a fan of Franz Ferdinand, but they’re a little too loud for me even normally, so I thought hearing them live might be a little excessive. So, we just caught a few of their songs while walking by the stadium where they were playing—which was plenty enough for me. I’m glad I got to hear a bit of them, but after getting stuck in the crowds after Black Eyed Peas, I was happy not to repeat that experience.

Event #1: The Rain

Okay, so technically this wasn’t a Bumbershoot event; it was just a normal autumn rainstorm. But we stayed at home for most of it—partially because we didn’t want to get soaking wet, and partially because it was just so beautiful to listen to while relaxing inside the house.

Event #2: Dutchess and the Duke

After avoiding the rain for as long as we could, the sunshine finally broke through and we caught the end of this performance. It was not at all what I expected—I thought it would be a much calmer sound (featuring guitar and tambourine, after all), and without who I assume was the “duke” it might have been, but his yells over the din of over-amped music completely failed to do anything for me. I’m glad we missed most of that one.

Event #3: Zak Smith

This was the first completely non-musical event I attended. Zak was a punk rocker type visual artist (with a black dragon tattoo on the shaved half of his head, and a black mohawk on the other) who had somehow become a sort of part-time porn star, “acting” in porno flicks every couple of months. He had written a few books about the experiences he’d had, and this presentation turned out to consist solely of him reading excerpts from his most recent book (mostly boring), and him answering audience questions (mostly interesting). All in all, I’m glad I went—but I wish he’d spent more time talking than reading.

Event #4: D. Black

The weather had turned cold and windy by this point, but this was an indoor show, so we felt lucky—until we showed up at the venue over half an hour early. They had everyone lined up outside in the cold—so we decided not to wait and just headed home a bit early. A short day, but a good one.

Bumbershoot Event #1: The Goldberg Variations

I’m a huge fan of the Goldberg Variations—I own probably a dozen different recordings, and have listened to them countless times. However, this was my first time listening to a live performance, which made it completely worth it just for that. It was fascinating. I’d anticipate the complex passages and hear the pianist stumble or succeed, slow down or muddle through. I’d expect a repeated passage and get none—or vice-versa. I’d cringe as she failed to emphasize a favorite passage, or swoon as she played a variation more melodically than Gould or Pi-hsien. Every difference—whether a mistake, a stylistic flourish, or a mere tempo change—was taken in and thoroughly appreciated.

The pianist, however, was not the intended highlight of the performance. Each variation was accompanied by a (usually solo) dancer, interpreting each movement with their motions and gestures. Although some were extremely creative, and some made me laugh out loud, overall I was disappointed. Many of the reasons why I love the Goldberg Variations are because of the intricacies of the piece that are not evident from casual listening. For example, although each of the thirty “variations” has a completely different theme and motif than the Aria, the common thread that holds them all together is the bass line, played by the left hand—with very little variation, it is nearly the same in every piece. Another eccentricity is that every third variation is a canon, where the first voice starts out with some melody, and then the second voice joins in shortly after, playing identical notes as the first. Each subsequent canon adjusts the pitch of the second voice, raising it a note every time, producing wondrously rich and complex harmonies.

The dancers, despite their skill, did nothing (so far as I could tell) to riff off these intricacies. They didn’t mention them or follow them or exploit them—in fact, they seemed completely ignorant of them. I was, to say the least, more than a little disappointed that the immense depths of the piece were left unremarked on, leaving the audience to attempt to detect those little beauties on their own.

Bumbershoot Event #2: Improvised Shakespeare

An awesomely hilarious improvised rendition of “Flying Potato” (the audience-suggested title of the play) in the style of the Immortal Bard. Prominent features included: an ensyphiled nursemaid, an Englishman with a bad Italian accent, “two guys one cup,” an oliphant from an African safari, and imagined ziplines galore. They kept the crowd laughing for nearly an hour—an impressive feat for any improv troupe.

Bumbershoot Event #3: Matt & Kim

I didn’t know anything about these folks, they just happened to be playing at the stage where my uncle and family were sitting. On the way there, I noticed that I was probably not the target demographic—everyone seemed to be thirteen or fourteen at the oldest. That was a bit of a shock after the previous two events, where I was among the youngest (rather than among the oldest). My cousins remarked that they felt a little pervy just being there. The music wasn’t actually half bad (at least compared to what I was expecting), but I was glad I was sitting far enough in the back for the percussion’s shock waves to have dissipated enough to only half-deafen me while making my innards reverberate. Drums so loud I can feel them (and not gently, either) has never been one of my concert favs.

Bumbershoot Event #4: Eric Hutchinson

I lay down on the grass and read Lawrence Lessig’s “Free Culture” to the tunes of Eric Hutchinson. It was a relaxing, soothing afternoon.

Bumbershoot Event #5: Sheryl Crow

I’m a big enough fan of Sheryl’s to know how to spell her name—so I figured that was enough to go to her concert as well. And she played all my favorite songs—a brilliant end to a brilliant day.