musicfestnw98
Thursday of MusicfestNW

MusicfestNW 2011 officially kicked off Wednesday night with a handful of shows spread across Portland. However, Seattle traffic and I-5 delays ensured that this guy was unable to catch Wednesday’s shows. Luckily, a Rogue craft brew salvaged the night. Better yet, MusicfestNW still provided four more days of incredible music across 18 of Portland’s marvelous venues.  And Thursday offered a stellar start to the musical festivities.
(Photos & Video by Matthew Brady) 

joyformidablewonderballroom
Joy Formidable @ Wonder Ballroom in Portland, OR

 Joy Formidable

The UK’s power trio Joy Formidable have been blowing up American radio waves recently. So it came with great timing that the North Wales group kicked off Thursday’s music at the Wonder Ballroom. The venue itself rivals Crystal Ballroom both in name and grandeur. Frontwoman Ritzy Bryan subdued the anxious crowd with her quaint, English accent before switching gears 180 degrees into a full-blown rock set. The group delivered a solid set of songs before finishing with an extended version of their hit “Whirring”. Check out a video of the latter below.

Brand New

At this point in the game, Long Island’s Brand New hardly needs an introduction. Indicative of the anticipation for their set, Wonder Ballroom was packed by the time they began playing (including the upstairs bar, though the jury’s still out on whether the band had much impact on that). The earlier part of Brand New’s set featured plenty of material off their new album Daisy, which was well received. But the majority of the crowd came for their dose of nostalgia and BN’s older material. The band was well aware and tailored their set to deliver the classics near the end. A healthy portion of Deja Entendu arrived at the end as the crowd sang every word. BN concluded with a heartfelt closer of “Soco Amaretto Lime” performed by Jesse Lacey alone.

Talkdemonic

I first caught Talkdemonic at Portland’s Doug Fir in May when they opened for Menomena. They blew me away then and we actually interviewed the band’s Kevin O’ Connor. Round 2 of Talkdemonic Live took place just up the road from Doug Fir at Rotture. Since their last set, they’ve played a number of shows with Modest Mouse and a Sasquatch set. That experience paid off, as their set was unbelievably tight and signaled great improvement by the duo. Their poignant, instrumental tracks were some of the best of the weekend.

Handsome Furs

Following Talkdemonic’s impeccable set was a tough feat to pull off, but Montreal duo Handsome Furs made a valiant effort to do so. Many in the crowd that I talked to seemed jazzed to catch Dan Boeckner, who also plays in Wolf Parade. After catching Wolf Parade at Sasquatch this year, the Furs set didn’t quite live up. Though that may be comparing apples and orange. Nonetheless, the duo’s dancy, rigid tracks kept the crowd dancing at Rotture. Also, apparently Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock was in that crowd.

Phantogram

Every time someone discovers Phantogram’s “Mouthful of Diamonds”, an angel gets its wings, the world takes a step closer to Peace and the track stays on repeat for a good month. Aside from that, the NY band released a hell of an album with Eyelid Movies on Barsuk. They’re headlining spot at Doug Fir was well deserved. Their set featured crowd faves of “Mouthful” and “When I’m Small”, mastered live versions of Eyelid’s other tracks plus some incredible new material. The packed Doug Fir received Phantogram to hoots and hollers, plus we all got a Phatogram poster with a Hyundai car on it upon exiting the venue.

Friday, September 9

One thought on “MusicfestNW 2011: Thursday 9/8

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *