magic johnson

Magic Johnson is a rad band that moved to Portland recently from and have been tearing it all over the NW. These pictures are from a halloween show at the home of my pals in World's Greatest Ghosts-- another of Portland's best current bands. The other band pictured here was called Skip Roxy, and I believe it was their first show.

More Ketchup-- Kickball @ the Coop

Speaking of Explode into Colors-- the reason I was at their first show to take pictures, the reason why I had stayed up late to watch them even though I had to work @ 7 AM the next morning, the reason why I had called all my show-going buddies and told them to come and see this show it was sure to be classic-- the reason I was sure they would be good even before I had ever seen or heard them, was because I knew that their drummer was the girl from Kickball, the Olympia band that blew me away the first time I saw them, for various reasons but mainly because of their out-of this world drummer!
Frustratingly, I did not have my camera the first time I saw Kickball play. It was an amazing show at the Modern Age, a club in the basement of Portland State University. thankfully, I DID bring my camera to see them for the second time, almost a year later, in the smelly and extremely PACKED basement of the Coop. Marah and I had to get there almost an hour early to get a spot near the front, and once we were in, there was no hope of moving. We were separated when Marah got pushed behind one of the huge amps, so I had no one to talk to other than the guy behind me who kept asking me about my camera. We sat there for about 45 minutes talking about Nikons, until finally the bass player was able to fight his way through the crowd, and Kickball started playing. Of course, it was worth the wait.

The Best Band award

My favorite band to come out of the year 2008 was (and is) the all-girl Portland-via-Olympia super group, Explode into Colors!!
Here is a collection of some pictures I've taken of them over the past year, because I have been to so many of their shows I may not be able to include them all here. They were also featured in a previous post from almost a year ago this month, playing their first show @ the Dekum manor!

More Ketchup, Please!

Keep the sweet ketchup coming! hmm, whats next?

It's been a year, let's ketchup.

I dont even know where to start. I guess I am just gonna post pictures with dates, starting with the earliest and going forward. A lot is probably going to get skipped over, so please czech out my flickr page for more stuff.

This first stuff is from the Japanther show last summer, at the now-no-longer all ages venue, No Exit. Saw lots of good shows there, including the LAST ERGS SHOW IN PORTLAND.... :( ... but more on that later. So also playing this show was Here Comes a Big Black Cloud, who brought all the clown-punk-hoolahooping-bike riding crowd out with them, and The Pharmacy, from Seattle.

Guidance Councilor (went to High School with you)

Half of Portland went to High School with Guidance Councilor (Ian Anderson). When he was written up in the Willamette Week, two people that I work with at New Seasons, and one of Art's friends told me that they were friends with him in High School. Then at the show I saw this girl Natalie who also told me she knew him from high school, even though I'm pretty sure she is from my home town in California. So chances are you went to high school with Guidance Councilor too. Check him out.

Dekum Manor Show spring break 2008!

Dekum Manor is one of my favorite house venues in Portland. The place itself is beautiful and set up well enough to host larger shows like this one, without feeling completely chaotic and overrun by large crowds. Of course, maybe I just dont feel the numbers because I always fight to stay near the front, to snap photos.
The bill was solid: Worlds Greatest Ghosts, Reporter, Explode into Color, and Fist Fite-- I wanted to see every single band playing that night, which is pretty rare. Since I had to work @ 9 am the next day, I had to leave before Fist Fite played, to my infinite disappointment, since I still have yet to see them play. Someday soon. soon!
The first band to play, and third pictured here, is Explode Into Color. It was their first show, and they were totally rad, all three girls are just amazing and versatile-- Explode into Color is a second or third band for most of the members. Check out the band Kickball, for whom one of the Explode into Color girls plays drums. The same girl also gives drums lessons on occasion. I saw Kickball @ The Modern Age this winter and they blew my mind. Someone at the show also mentioned that the guitar player/singer played with punk duo Japanther in the past. I am not sure about that, but if its true, then one more rad-person point goes to her. I cant wait to see more from this band!!
The house was packed for Reporter, a re-formed new/old band who are definitely as good or better than their former incarnation as the super popular post-punk group Wet Confetti. They graciously went on second instead of third, since Worlds Greatest Ghosts were waiting for their MIA guitar player Brandon, who, we learned later, had some kind of a projector problem at his "real" job-- as a projectionist at the St. Johns theater. In the end Brandon made it down to Dekum st. just in time for WGG to play third, to a thrilled and still packed house-- I realized as I watched them play that this is a band that is seriously loved in the house show circuit. I have seen them play bars and coffee shops lots of times before, but never to this kind of reaction from the crowd. Kids were singing along to most of the set, yelling out what they wanted to hear between songs, and the guy next to me said that his young kids even love the band, probably because of their penchant for singing about mythological animals and dinosaurs.
Anyhow, long story short, this show was great and I cant wait for another show at the Dekum manor, here in the magi-cool city of Portland.