Portland was treated well musically Wednesday night: Múm at the Aladdin Theatre and Langhorne Slim, DAWES and Austin Lucas at the Crystal Ballroom. For those at the Crystal, they were treated to strong opening sets by DAWES and Austin Lucas. Although I arrived at the tail end of Austin Lucas' set, the audience was clearly impressed. DAWES reminded me of a much more patriotic-sounding Wilco; I kept imagining their songs being played as backing music for a Chevrolet Truck commercial. That’s not a bad thing though, since it really did pump up the crowd for the rest of the night.
But my intentions for the evening were to see Langhorne Slim...again. Not long ago, I saw him play at Music Millenium, where his voice gave out after a mere 5 songs, preventing him from performing up to his usual level. So before he went on stage, I told Sean Scolnick (aka Langhorne Slim) that he owes us one, and he laughed about it. His hour and a half on stage Wednesday, however, was pure greatness.
Langhorne Slim has an amazing stage presence, both rowdy and sentimental. At times he had the floor of the Crystal Ballroom dipping down like a wooden trampoline beneath the crowd - jumping rhythmically to the contagious melodies of songs like "Electric Love Letter." When "Hello Sunshine" began, the whole crowd lost it, and and you could just sense the vibe Langhorne and band were putting on. He also informed the crowd of the results of the World Series between songs, and his bitter response to the Yankees defeating his hometown team in 6 games lead to a full on chant of "FUCK THE YANKEES!" At other times, Slim cast heartfelt silence over the room, using simple words to convey larger ideas on love and the quality of life. The lyrics in songs like "Hummingbird" and "Diamonds and Gold" are so obvious, wise and shamelessly candid, lacking cryptic undertones, that they shock you for being so accessible. It was a wonderful show that was both rejuvinating and human; it possessed an honesty that I feel is increasingly rare in music.
