Near the end of almost every set the Bend Roots Revival this weekend, the band or performer would say something like, “Isn’t Bend Roots great?” or else thank festival creator Mark Ransom for his efforts to continue the celebration of local music. We at Sound Check gladly echo those sentiments because last weekend’s fifth-annual Bend Roots was instantly memorable and, as we often say, the best party of the year.
You can try, but it’s pretty tough to say you don’t like Michael Franti. You can be the sort of person who somehow, someway, hates hip-hop, punk rock, reggae, folk and dance music all at once and still find yourself unable to dislike the giant, dreadlocked artist. Franti’s career has seen him making music from each of those genres, and probably others, too – and even if you don’t like his albums, go ahead and check out his smiley, carefree, barefooted, uber positive, wild-as-all-hell live show and then try not to at least smile.
Now, there is probably someone reading this thinking, or perhaps saying aloud, “Hey jerkwad. I don’t like Michael Franti or his stupid face or his stupid music.”
Oh boy. It was a sweaty weekend in live music. We’re talking Patrick Ewing, better-change your-shirt-at-halftime sort of sweaty. So here’s what happened: hot temperatures collided with a migrating front of wildly awesome live bands, causing the music scene to collectively and shamelessly sweat for no less than three days.
Sound Check perspired thoroughly this weekend, too. And you should know that when Sound Check sweats, it’s not a sexy glow but rather a violent drip of toxins that falls from our brows as we bob our heads to the music. That’s precisely what we were doing on Friday night at the Domino Room where Domino Room was celebrating the release of their new album, Darker the Night.
Sound Check decided to change it up last weekend and rather than roll super deep (which we always do, oftentimes laden with silver medallions), we split up – one faction stayed in Bend to monitor the Les Schwab Amphitheater activities while the other headed northward to the Sasquatch! Festival.
So here’s how things went at Sasquatch! We arrived on Saturday morning to find the campgrounds were full of crazy Canadians on crazy juice, but we managed to settle down on a quaint piece of grass and then make our way down in time to see Mumford and Sons, then the delightfully incredible Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Then it was Broken Social Scene and Miike Snow, the Hold Steady, topped off by dancing with Vampire Weekend and general mayhem provided by My Morning Jacket. And that was just Saturday.
Sound Check likes surprises. Dang it, we actually love surprises. If you were to stand outside our office and soak us with a fire hose when we came out, we wouldn’t even kick you in the nards. We’d actually be jazzed about the whole affair – as long as you yell “surprise” before you drenched us.
Thus, we were pleased as punch (punch is quite pleasing) with this surprise-filled week of live music that began at yet another Thursday night Last Band Standing gig at Boondocks Bar and Grill. It was there the emo/alt-rockers of Elliot – fronted by Corey and Casey Parnell and their self-described Justin Bieber haircuts – took home the audience vote and advanced to the next round. But after punking out like it was 1999, runner-ups Tuck and Roll earned a wild card and also advanced. The surprise here was yet another huge turnout for Last Band Standing-—did people think one of those guys was actually Justin Bieber or something? Either way, this is excellent for local music.
