Mississippi Studios is my favorite place to see a show in Portland. It’s comfortable and intimate. It’s right in my neighborhood. In terms of sonic quality, Mississippi blows other Portland venues out of the water. Basically, it’s pleasant to listen to a show there. The venue also tends to book acts which highlight its strengths. Tuesday night was no exception.
The evening started with White Hinterland, a duo of Casey Dienel on vocals and Shawn Creeden on keyboard and mixer. I initially enjoyed the wall of sound consisting of Dienel’s ethereal vocals layered over Creeden’s loops and keyboard. As their set wore on, however, White Hinterland proved itself specious, boring and uninspired, sounding much too much like the drugged-out lovechild of Feist and Thievery Corporation.
Contrasting White Hinterland’s dull performance, the headliner was lucid and bold. For this acoustic show, Asobi Seku’s singer/pianist Yuki Chikudate and guitarist James Hanna were joined by drummer Larry Gorman and second guitarist Billy Pavone. The set started with “Breathe into Glass,” a B-Side to 2008’s Me & Mary. Accompanied by Hanna’s adroit finger-picking, Chikudate implored the always enigmatic “you” to “re-arrange stars using sunlight from our smiles” with her choppy yet powerful voice. Similarly, in the next song “Walk on the Moon,” Chikudate sings, “You saw the photograph, an image of me. You'll never see me like this.” The combination of melodramatic lyrics and Chikudate’s affected, dramatic vocals draws strong comparisons to both Morrissey and Aimee Mann.
Later in the night, Pavone broke out the Indian drumbox (an instrument resembling an old timey squeezebox) for “Suzanne,” a vaguely sinister song that nonetheless elicited an emotional response in the listener. The most upbeat song of the night was “Goodbye” off Rewolf, the 2009 release featuring acoustic versions of the band’s catalog. The band’s strongest song, “Layers,” came towards the close of the night. This complex and cinematic song absolutely saturated Mississippi Studios’ performance space. With the dramatic and beautiful Asobi Seku onstage, I yet again was thankful to be seated in Portland’s finest acoustic hot spot.
