I love the Bagdad Theater- one of Portland's numerous second run cinemas, they also regularly show cult films and serve a delicious ruby ale. Add the spacious seating on the upper balcony and the fact that I live a block and a half away, and it's pretty much one of my favorite places to get fat and watch bad movies. But I'd never seen a live band there, so experimental folk favorites Akron/Family would be my first. Their latest album Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free was one of my favorite of the year, so I was anticipatory to say the least.
But first, there was the matter of the openers. After ensconcing myself and companions at the edge of the wide balcony, I watched Datura Blues take the stage and tried to count how many people were in the band. It's not that I'm that mathematically unversed, but from song to song, people would join and depart, sometimes to add vocals, sometimes to bang along on varying kinds of percussion instruments. It's a theme that would recur with each band of the evening (as was their shoelessness), but Datura Blues handled it well, the five member core of the band producing a thick, surf-rock sound, largely sticking to instrumentals and long, Eastern-influenced jams. At one point, a long dirge of a number included a violin, saxophone, melodica, wood block and even a fellow pounding away on what certainly appeared to be an overturned plastic bucket.
Next, Portland's own Evolutionary Jass Band were much more of a fixed group. Suffice it to say, I am of the opinion that three saxophones on stage at once are a bit too much, especially for their kind of wandering cacophony. After bandleader Jeffrey Brown's quick and bewildering mention of his recent dream of "playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with a young Ravi Shankar," the band launched into a long hour of dense improvisation, songs sometimes stretching out into the 15 minute mark. I'll admit that I'm not a fan of that particular style of music, but then I was probably out of place at the Bagdad that night, as most of the crowd heartily cheered them on. The band was also certainly energetic, again switching instruments and players as the performance went on- in particular, one very enthusiastic trumpet player couldn't seem to bear not constantly contributing to the wave of sound; every instant he wasn't blowing his horn, he seemed to be leaping for a tambourine. The entire performance was redeemed, however, by their last number, a haunting rendition of Kurt Weill's "Lost in the Stars." The diminutive blonde singer seemed almost lost in her own voice, so powerfully did she belt out the plaintive final lines "Little stars and big stars/ Blowing through the night/ And we're lost out here in the stars."
After a brief intermission including the trio themselves hanging up the psychedelic American flag of their most recent album cover, Akron/Family finally took the stage. A refreshingly simple trio (at the moment), bassist Miles Seaton uttered a brief "Hey guys" and then they were off into feedback and frenzy. After a few moments, they implored the audience to get out of their seats and crowd around, telling them it would be less "awkward." The assembly didn't hesitate a moment, but swarmed around the tiny stage as a handclapped intro to "River" began. One of the standout tracks of Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free, the traded vocals between Seaton, guitarist Seth Olinsky and drummer Dana Janssen were perfectly timed, down to the refrain of "You and I and a flame makes three." After a nearly silent, shimmeringly liquid solo from Olinsky, they seamlessly shifted into a staccato guitar riff and a clipped, horse-like drumbeat that eventually transformed itself into "The Alps & Their Orange Evergreen." Those being the most pop-oriented tracks of the album, Akron/Family seemed to pretty much decide to do what they wanted after that. "Gravelly Mountains of The Moon" opened fitfully, with waves of feedback and the guitar stopping and starting, until it descended into a full-on freak out. Olinsky (himself, probably the most dynamic of the three, whom otherwise seem equally involved) swung his instrument like a pendulum in front of his amplifiers to get that just right quality of noise they seemed to be striving for, and then hammered on his strings with a drumstick, which didn't actually seem to produce an audible sound.
It became clear to me that, as focused and precise as Akron/Family can be on record, on-stage they want to let it all hang out, creating a wall of sound- and they're good at it. The crowd had become a mill of dancing Portlanders (which of course means mostly aimless hopping and some hippie grooving) and the jams seemed to stretch on longer and longer until members of the opening bands started to join on stage. At its fullest, I counted 13 different performers on stage, all blissfully engaged in the symphony of fuzz and distortion. Of course, five of said performers were playing the tambourine, which seemed a little excessive. I departed my beloved Bagdad while the swarm was still thick and my ears were beginning to ring. Even as I left, it looked like everyone on stage was having as good a time as the audience, if not better.
by Nathan Kamal
[Photos: Oliver Peel @ Konzerttagebuch.de]
