Music!

Drats Are In Your Living Room!
Drats Are In Your Living Room!
Originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

So Christine and I have finally got out of our new little house to go and see what's up with Portland entertaiment-wise. On Tuesday night, we headed to the Crystal Ballroom to catch the mighty John Butler Trio (an Aussie band is the first gig I see in America, how ironic!). Christine had scored free tix because she helped the guys from the band buy themselves new MacBook Pros and iPods the day before. Sweet!

Now, I've always been aware of the John Butler Trio, but I don't think you could say I was a huge fan. Some good songs, but not great was my opinion. If we hadn't got freebies, it's not a show I would have paid to go to. Wow, would I have missed out! They are definitely a band that grow an extra leg live... they rocked all night and had the crowd (the venue was sold out, probably about 2,500 people there) screaming for more at the end. The night ended with a huge 10 minute drum solo (which was NOT boring!) and even the jaded event security guy we talked to at the end - who had never heard of the band before - was mightily impressed.

Then last night, we headed off to take in a Portland institution - "Last Thursday". On the last Thursday of each month (strange, that!), Alberta Street in NE Portland is lined with art, craft, performance artists, buskers and food and everyone in town comes along to soak up the atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was raining last night, so we spent most of our time indoors at The Porch, a live music venue that is normally the front porch of a house, but which was the living room last night because of the rain! The band that was playing was Drats (pictured), who Christine and Kim have both told me about and they were excellent! Certainly not easy to pigeonhole into any one genre, but definitely high energy and very entertaining!

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