An evening at Mississippi Studios is a challenge to not enjoy. Sara Lov took the stage with her guitar and portable record player and quickly charmed us all. Her voice and music are slow and delicious like warm honey, and the crowd was instantly smitten. She dropped a brand-new pun (for me anyway) by saying that "we were all very in Portland to her." There was a brief mention of a documentary she’d made about touring with a record player as her back-up band, which you could learn more about if you were so inclined.
Portland boys Church were up next, and while the energy was cranked up, the warm vibe was kept intact. There should exist no drummer that doesn’t beat the living daylights out of a drum, and the guy behind the skins of Church was awesome. With the lead singer unafraid to let loose, it was a bit of a trick to decode his painted pink toenails and the hunting knife tucked into his shorts. It was easier just to enjoy the music.
Before entering the venue, I had gone up to the guitar player of Sea Wolf, introduced myself, shook hands, and then gave a start when he said his name was not the one I was expecting. But he was really very friendly about the whole mishap, and that laid-back-but-still-paying-attention attitude foreshadowed the set. Playing a solid number of songs off their new album White Water, White Bloom, the band was in top form. Even considering the Mississippi’s clear sound, all member of the band clearly had a precision in timing and sync that was stunning. The entire set was just plain pretty and a blast to listen to. Songs like "Orion and Dog" keep with Sea Wolf's history of being haunting songwriters with lyrics about stars and water surfacing to be themes of the set. All in all, it felt like the perfect show for an end-of-summer night, and when I left the venue, it had effortlessly, gorgeously, turned into fall.
