REVIEW: Tomahawk @ Wonder Ballroom (Portland, OR – 2/13/13) | pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news

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REVIEW: Tomahawk @ Wonder Ballroom (Portland, OR – 2/13/13)

17th Feb 13 (Sun) Leave a comment Go to comments

FYI… PHOTOS of the SHOW at the BOTTOM

Tomahawk 2013

Being a longtime Mike Patton fan, I got into Tomahawk right when the self-titled debut hit in 2001. Mike Patton stated early on that Tomahawk was led by Duane Denison (from The Jesus Lizard). It comes and goes at Duane’s pace. With that, Tomahawk has tended to change a fair bit from album to album. While Mit Gas (2003) was fairly similar to the debut in approach, the shape-shifting sound really caught me off-guard with their Native American-inspired third album – Anonymous (2007).

Their latest album, Oddfellows, hit two weeks ago. I’ve let it sink in a bit. It’s a bit more “straight-forward” rock than their prior albums. Still some Patton & Denison-isms thrown in to make it buck the normal rock trend. Overall, it’s a solid record and I’ve been warming up nicely to it, getting ready for the show.

Their official video for the song “Oddfellows” came out late last week. This is the one song on the album that I could see on the final Faith No More album (sandwiched in between Home Sick Home & Pristina perhaps)… it just has that “feel” to me…

The opener was Retox… and they played 30 minutes of homogenous tunes that were fairly screamy with muddy-drumming. Nothing else to say there…

Tomahawk hit the stage a bit later than expected… at about 10pm after a 45-minute loop of the “Tomahawk Chop” chant (think Atlanta Braves cheering section, but with no game). The band this go around is the previously mentioned Mike Patton on vocals/keys/sounds and Duane Denison on guitars with original Helmet drummer John Stanier and Mr. Bungle/Fantômas/Trio Convulsant/many more groups/NYC jazz bassist Trevor Dunn.

They played a great mix from their four records – showcasing the difference in the band’s catalog and the variety in Patton’s voice. As this was the start to the tour, they seemed amped to be out there. At one point during “God Hates A Coward,” Patton got a bit overzealous and yanked the cord out of his mic. He got us to help him out, and while that’s oddly not a song where the “crowd takes over” technique would seem to fit, we worked through the technical difficulty well.

Setlist: about 90 minutes

Oddfellows
Flashback
101 North
Stone Letter
Birdsong
Rape This Day
Baby Let’s Play ____
Capt. Midnight
White Hats / Black Hats
God Hates a Coward
I.O.U.
Rotgut
South Paw
Point and Click
Waratorium
Laredo
Encore 1: Totem
Stalkin’ [Duane Eddy]
*Encore 2: Pay To Cum [Bad Brains]
Just One More [George Jones]
*per FB & Setlist.fm commenters

Apparently they came back on after the 1st encore. The house lights had already come on, and I was out the door before I heard anything; alas, I missed the 2nd encore. Damn! I’m still stoked to have gotten to see them live – it had been far too long!

many more photos below

The Appropriate Linkage:

Tomahawk’s Site (Ipecac Records)
Tomahawk’s Social Media Links (see below)
Retox’s Site / Facebook
Other Related Reviews~
- Trevor Dunn solo (Eugene – Jan 2012)
- Moonchild Trio (Seattle – Nov 2007)
Wonder Ballroom’s Site / Facebook / Twitter

This was only the second date of the West Coast U.S. Tour; so definitely check out more tour dates below. They’re hitting Australia after the U.S. West Coast and then hitting the rest of the U.S. hopefully later in the year.

Next show for me… two shows at the PDX Jazz Fest next weekend in Portland (Steve Kuhn Trio & Steven Bernstein’s Sex Mob).

~Dan – np: Tomahawk – Mit Gas