Modulator

Portland Report (preliminary)

The Dead July 2, 2004 Columbia Meadows

1:44 AM

This will be brief this morning. I hope to write more during the drive to The Gorge tomorrow (later this morning).

Every Dead show is different. Those of you in the choir understand this. Boise and Portland were no exception...really night and day. And more discussion is what will have to wait....

For now simply

...Corinna shattered into a million shards of glass atomized as they scrape across the chalk board and the world recreated by primal drummers into a delicately searing Stella Blue...

tears fill the world.

When there is more it will be beneath the fold.

Updated 7/4/04

Contrary to the suspicions of some the above descriptions was not influenced by party favors! Well, at least not ones consumed at this particular party. Birth, death, and rebirth are themes deeply woven into this bands lyrics and music. When they are playing at their very best they provide the audience an opportunity to merge into the music and go for a ride on the Great Wheel.

We flew back to Portland from Boise and, given the limited amount of sleep we had, this was much more relaxing then the 6-7 hour drive would have been. There were probably 10-15 concert goers on the flight.

After our 7:45 AM arrival we had lots of timem to use so headed up the Columbia for some sightseeing. The historical highway drive from Toutdale to Multnomah Falls was beautiful. At the falls we took a few pictures and visited for a while when some folks from Pennslvania that we had met the night before. They had just arrived after driving all night from Boise.

The Venue

100 acres of recently cut hay fields with a treed hillside along the soouth boundary. Easy to get to with only modest delays getting into the parking lot. Getting out the single exit for the main lot was a different story but then no point being in a hurry after one of these shows.

I've been to quite a few Oregon shows and I knew I was back before I'd made it through the first few rows of the parking lot eadinng for the vending area. The dress, the attitude, everything was the traditiional Oregon Dead scene tempered by the usual dose of tour heads fromm around the country. As someone mentioned from the stage at some point during the night there were a whole lot of hippies there! Chatted with lots of folks that I had met for the first time the night before at Boise.

Everything about the outside scene was relaxed and fun. yea, there were cops but they stayed in a patrol car and I saw them only a couple times before the show. They did not seem interested in hassling anyone...ignored beer drinkers, vendors and didn't seem to notice other mind expanding activity that was pretty rampant.

First thing in the vending area was Furthar. Zane Kesey and family brought it up from Springfield and were vending the stuff you can get at there weebsite. None of my friends from the Springfield Creamery came up with them.

The vending area was, as usual, flled with miracle seekers, veggie burritos, quietly offered 'shrooms, and a wide area of tie-dyes.

On the downside the venue would not let you bring in any food, water, or other containers. This is getting more common and, I think, is pretty stupid. Folks whho are going to buy from inside vendors will do it anyway. Those who won't, like me, still won't even if I am forced to leave my food outside (well, I did go empty my pack and put a bunch of food bars in my pockets).

The Show

This was not my favorite show of the 3 (I'm now writing on 7/4)and below I will make a negative comment or two. So I'd like to caveat things a bit right now. By standards of most bands the quality of the music was very high and lot's of people liked the show. My informal random survey (sample size 10-12) was 100% favorable.

If you remember, I complained about the vocals at the Boise venue. Well, this was fixed. We were sitting about 25 rows further back and, wow, the sound was crisp, loud, a bit on the treble end perhaps, and the vocals were right out in front where I like them.

So, they played songs well but, to me, it seemed like the band had picked out a list of songs and decided to rehearse them. With the significant exception of the Corinna>drumz>Stella Blue noted above and to a lesser extent the opening Liberty>Easy Wind the show had no flow and what energy there was in each song just died away as it ended.

1st Set about 1 hour:

While the opening combo had some energy and musical flow there is no way a Liberty opener is going to get my juices flowing. It is just not one of my favorites. Warren's Easy Wind was strong but I actually preferred Hunter's version in his show opening set. Hunter's added lyric "That asshole has got to go" was loudly cheered.

Dear Mr Fantasy is always nice but fits better rising up out of a swirling second set jam. I don't remember much of a transition into Stagger Lee which itself was not particularly memorable.

Warren, Bob, and Phil traded vocals on a sweet Lazy River Road.

Mickey can do a damn fine Aiko and this was probably the shows peak point with respect crowd energy (though see below). And with that the 1st set ended and, yea, it was ok but there was no 'wow.'

2nd Set about 2 hours

The 2nd set rose right up to the level of the first set. Each tune well played but no overall cohesiveness. Transitions continued to be a struggle and most of the bridge jams within the songs seemed by wrote and without emotion. It was very obvious when it was time for Chimenti, Haynes or Herring to do a solo: Bob or Phil would look at them and indicate your turn.

Individually The Weight, Peggy-O, and Friend of the Devil were well played and well received but it became quickly clear that they were still rehearsing, or as Mrs Modulator said "They seem to be savingn themselves." (Little did we know....)

The crown achievement of the show was in my estimation the Corrinna>drumz>Stella Blue. Corrinna was full of energ and the playing was stong and complex though I have allways had the sense that the audience is never quite sure what to do with it. Tonight was no exception and there was nothing to indicate that it would shatter into the chaos that led into drumz. Mickey and Bill were powerful forces all three nights and seemed particularly agressive, even angry...at the universe in tonight's Drumz. Perhaps because they knew what was to follow and had a bit to say in preparation for, and I still can'ta describe it differently, a delicately searing Stella Blue.

Many of you probably remember many times wishing that the jerks three rows over would shut up during Stella Blue. That was not an issue tonight. The audience was quiet, the band had grabbed them by their hearts and each person there new that if they had anything to say at all it would come out as a cry of anguished pain. It really was that powerful and there really were floods of tears.

Help on the Way>Slipknot!>Franklin's Tower didn't have a chance. Sure the band made an effort but the songs seems like going through the motions. Maybe if they had moved these to the beginning of the set and ended with Stella Blue with a two song encore....

Our expectations for The Gorge were high after this show. This was a subpar show in many ways and there seemed only one direction that things would go.

Posted by Steve on July 3, 2004