pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news

Ah… the out-of-place statues, randomly sticky floors, quite decent beer selection and open room with a stage right by the kitchen makes the Indigo District a perplexing place. It’s got great things, weird things, bad things, and ambivalence on top of great music. I’d only been here once before, and that was for the 25th anniversary shindig for Eugene Weekly to which my wife’s boss invited us. First time for a concert… I’m sure it won’t be the last if they get artists like David Bazan coming through more often. But it is an odd place… I just can’t put my finger on why. Eh… it’s gotta be the statues.

I showed up at 8:15 or so. I thought I was going to be late (ie- halfway into the opener’s set). Apparently the artists were late getting out of San Francisco from the night before; so they weren’t on schedule. I had a pint of Deschutes’ Black Butte Porter (sidenote: “butte” is pronounced like the beginning of “beautiful”). It’s fantastic, and it travelled only 2 hours away from Bend, Oregon to get to my mouf. Anyway, as I was sipping my beer, I hear a familiar voice… it was David Bazan ordering a pitcher of Blue Moon for he and his tour mates. The bartender was doing too many things at once and started pouring a pitcher of Blue Moon, then stopped, did something else, then started filling the rest of the pitcher with Pabst Blue Ribbon. Oy! Luckily David and Co. didn’t end up with that concoction. Blech.

Before the music started, I ran into David again in the facilities. After handwashing pleasantries, I asked him if he came through Eugene often, as I just moved here from Cincinnati. To which he said that he liked to stop by here, but it was the first time at this venue. Then we had a small exchange about the Southgate House (a quaint indie rock venue in the Cincinnati area).

By this time, the opener J.Tillman was playing. He played about 45 minutes. He was quite pleasant. His voice was what I’d call smooth, yet right on the edge of raspy… but not raspy. I don’t know. I was trying to characterize it last night, but just couldn’t. I enjoyed his set… check him out on MySpace sometime…

Next up came David Bazan… who has also recorded under the monikers of Pedro the Lion (indie rock) and Headphones (electronic). Perhaps his music can be described as indie rock or electric-fuzzy singer-songwriter fare. I dig him mainly for his poignant lyrics. His lyrics are witty, against the grain, many times religious in a somewhat skeptic slant, and usually full of sarcasm or what people want to say but never do. I also love David’s down-to-earth persona. His banter via the “Q&A” breaks in the set really connect the audience to the performance… and the answers are usually funny.

He only played about an hour, as the venue had a time limit (they had dance time after the show) and David and J got off to a later start than planned. It was just David, an electric guitar and a microphone. Oh, and an amp.

Here’s the setlist:

Great show. Short, but good nonetheless. I’m glad he still plays “Foregone Conclusions.” The 2nd verse has some of my favorite lyrics of his ever.

If’n y’all want to hear some music from this tour… the show in Asheville-NC is posted here for free download >> hardtofindafriend.blogspot.com <<

Well, that’s all for now…

~Dan – np: Rob Price Quartet – I Really Do Not See the Signal