New England Music News

Portland scene report: October 10, 2008

Sibilance starts now

By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | October 9, 2008

You probably remember singer/songwriter STEVEN BACON, who moved to Portland from Alaska, helped out with founding CAT & MOUSE RECORDS, and then moved on down to Boston, where he now works daily playing on the streets and in the subways. Well, he’s got a pretty good story. He’s a big Once fan (you know, the movie starring Glen Hansard of the Frames and Marketa Irglova, where they play on the streets and don’t have names?), so when he heard Hansard and Irglova were coming to Boston with their band, SWELL SEASON, he got tickets. Then he set up outside Agganis Arena and played for three hours before the show, when who should show up in front of him but Hansard and Irglova, who’d been tipped off by a friend and came over to see him. They threw a tip in the case, and that would have been cool right there, but then Bacon goes into the show and Hansard actually calls him up to the stage (seriously — and in a weird coincidence, the “Sibilance” staff is following a story about LOST ON LIFTOFF’s WALT CRAVEN getting up with WEEZER) and lets him play one of his original songs. The crowd goes nuts, and now everyone’s interested in the guy who played with Swell Season. ANTJE DUVEKOT has asked him to come and play with her, ELLIS PAUL invited him to a show, and CD BABY recorded a podcast with him, all just as a start. Stay posted on what’s going on at www.stevenbacon.com.