Christmas parties + snowstorm = no shows this week. But it’s year-in-review time, so let’s relive some of the better quips from Music Seen 2007, with thanks to seen-sters Ian Paige, Todd Richard, Sonya Tomlinson, and Deirdre Fulton. This is by no means a best concert list, but on that note, I’d like to bestow Club of the Year honors to Geno’s. The family tree of Geno’s regulars (from Ocean and Conifer to Man-Witch and the Bees) has become huge, dazzlingly diverse, and more awesome by the month; if there’s an epicenter to Portland’s music scene right now, Geno’s is it.
And now, the quips:
GRUPO ESPERANZA
It’s a bad idea to wear long underwear to the hormone tornado that is a Grupo Esperanza performance.
AMY WINEHOUSE
(in Boston) At one point the man standing next to me leaned over and asked, “Can you understand a thing she’s saying?”
KINO PROBY These black-clad gentlemen turn into animals onstage, banging guitars together, solos-on-knees, and raucous singing-in-unison, all with giant shit-eating grins on their faces.
ROY DAVIS
While many bands look for a sub-sub-genre that they can have as their own, Davis sits sonically square in the middle. And, for once, it seems like that is the place to be.
BOB DYLAN
I felt like I was watching a husk of my hero.
JDWALKER
Basically what I’m trying to say is jdwalker almost made me piss my pants.
MC HOMELESS
Homeless entered the “stage” draped in a tattered American flag, singing along to Team America’s “America, Fuck Yeah!” and pacing the front of the room like a caged animal.
DO MAKE SAY THINK
In the words of my roommate on the way out: “It’s like they just ejaculated all over the place for an hour.”
CONSTANTINES
Multiple bars, groups of long cafeteria tables on a periphery filled with aging Canadian rock fans. Equal number long-haired men and women. Inordinate number of hockey jerseys.
DIAMOND SHARP
All punk-as-fuck attitude, he’s found the key to the band’s success: he made apathy something worth giving a shit about.