Concert: Eels

The Aladdin Theater is one of the best venues in all of Portland. It used to be an old porn theater before it was fixed up and made into a concert venue. It has the best sound out of all the venues I've been to, and I love that it has a gritty history. I haven't seen too many artists there (Mew, The Bravery, Guster, Duncan Sheik, Jude, and Demetri Martin twice) which is unfortunate since it's so superb.

I had never been able to see Eels play live before since the shows he played in Portland were almost always 21+. The Aladdin will sometimes have shows that are 18+ or 21+, but with those, if you go with a parent and you're under the required age you're allowed in which I think is really cool. The last time Eels played in Portland it was at the Wonder Ballroom, but it was 21+ which they occasionally do there which really sucked, but I was finally able to see him this time around!

The Aladdin is a seated venue, and there is really no bad seat in the house. I was in the middle and center, and had a great view of the stage.

The opening act, Chelsea Wolfe, was good, but strange. It was sort of dream rock. She has an excellent voice, but I thought the music didn't accentuate it enough. Plus she never said anything between the songs to self-promote which is a big mistake that I often see with opening acts.

The set was beautiful. A chandelier with bare light bulbs hung down and created a wonderful ambiance. There were rows and rows of smaller light bulbs in front of a black backdrop that would be dim or bright and make patterns according to what song was playing. Very simple, yet effective staging.

Mark Oliver Everett (A.K.A. 'E') is the lead singer, and primary member of the band. He introduced the band a little way through the set, and it turns out a lot of them were from Portland! The band was made up of E alternating on piano and guitar, a stand-up bass player, a drummer, and a guy alternating between stand up steel guitar and acoustic and electric guitars. E told the audience early on that he had a cold and apologized if his voice was off, but his voice is already so scruffy sounding that if anything it enhanced his sound.

Throughout the show E commented on how he was playing 'bummer rock'. At one point he looked at the setlist and said "Oh this is a happier one," paused, and said "actually no, it's a real downer" (the song in question was It's A Motherfucker). Towards the end of the set he kept yelling out "Let's do another one!" before starting a new song. Before they went off stage for the formal encore, E hopped off stage and ran through the audience hugging people. It was super fun!

After the show was over I went up to try and get a setlist, but apparently the road crew weren't allowed to give them out per instructions from E. As my mom says "He puts the 'E' in eclectic", and according to her that night's show was the most mellow and 'normal' she's ever seen him.

Concert: Die Antwoord

Die Antwoord are a South African rave-rap group that are like nothing I've ever heard before. I think they're such an outlier from everything I usually listen to, that I like it. They consist of rappers Yo-Landi and Ninja, with DJ Hi-Tek, and are known for making music videos that are completely bizarre and sometimes disturbing, so I was skeptical about what their live show might be like.

I got to the Roseland about twenty minutes after the doors had opened - which is very weird for me not to be in line beforehand. I really didn't know what to expect (in terms of the amount of people in line before hand, and what the people that made up the crowd would be - ravers, hipsters, etc), but when I got inside there was only a layer of two or three people deep against the barricade. It just so happened that I saw some kids that I knew from my old high school, and they let me stand with them at the front and to the right. It ended up being the perfect spot, because we didn't get any of the shoving that happens when you're at the front and center (as I explained in my Childish Gambino post).

I was surprised that the crowd was mostly made up of relatively normal people - people I might see at a Franz Ferdinand concert at the Crystal or something. There were a few people wearing some rave style clothing, but no one was in full rave attire. There were also some rocker/goths there, but as I said, it was mostly the typical Portland crowd (which includes a fair number of hipsters I hate to say).

The opening act wasn't really anything but a DJ guy and a guy on the guitar playing different rave-y beats. I didn't even catch what they were called.

Then Die Antwoord came out. I was completely blown away with how good they were! You could tell that they had been performing for years, and it seemed like it had been rehearsed many times, but still felt fresh. Portland was the first show of their tour after all (they played at Sasquatch before Portland, but Portland was the start of their official tour). There were two back up dancers (women) that came out wearing a few different costumes - most prominently gold leggings, bandeau bras, and ski masks. They were a nice addition to the stage which was practically bare, and weren't distracting which can be an issue with some back up dancers. Yo-Landi had a few costume changes too, and Ninja ended up in some Pink Floyd boxers by the end of the night.

They were both all over the stage - jumping up and dancing on the DJ platform, running from one end of the stage to the other, and keeping the entire audience (including the balcony) amped up and engaged. They said how much they loved Portland numerous times to great cheers and applause.

They debuted some songs off their new album, Donker Mag (Dark Magic in English), including Pitbull Terrier, Raging Zef Boner, and Happy Go Sucky Fucky. They also played a good number of older songs.

I'm not usually one to take a ton of pictures at concerts since I feel like it detracts from the experience, but for whatever reason I ended up taking quite a few at this show... Maybe because there was a big inflatable boy holding a giant penis (the Evil Boy).

All in all, I had a fantastic time, and was beaming from ear to ear after it ended at how much fun I had.