Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside and Finn Riggins @ Alive After Five; Radiation City, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside and Death Songs @ Neurolux (6/26/13)

I'd liked what I'd heard by Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, but I'd never seen them play live.  When I saw that they'd be playing Alive After Five, then, I marked it down on the calendar.  I just hoped that I'd take enough notes before converting into liquid form.

There were so many people when I got down to the Grove that I didn't bother trying to count them.  I'd guess that there were at least a couple hundred folks.  When Sallie Ford played, there were maybe a couple hundred more.

I got there in time to catch about half of Finn Riggins' opening set.  Lisa Simpson's voice and guitar sounded as melodious, Eric Gilbert's keyboards as textured and Cameron Bouiss's drums as propulsive as ever.  It made me smile to see about a dozen people dancing, especially a couple of young girls and an elderly Asian lady with a tan Army hat.  The set's last song, "Pannin' For Gold," went out to Eric Gilbert's mom, who couldn't make it to this gig.  Nice fella, that Eric Gilbert.

Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside played next.  Rarely do formalists have both the heart to fully embrace their chosen traditions and the smarts to put their own stamp on them.  One part Wanda Jackson, one part Liz Phair, one part the vinyl-collecting librarian of my dreams, Ford is one of those few.  Originals such as the swaggering "They Told Me" and the sassy, surf-tinged "Bad Boys" sounded right at home next to the cover of Loretta Lynn's "Fist City."  Ford seemed a bit subdued, but her pinched, squealing snarl still struck a nice balance between geeky and sexy.  Her bandmates pitched in with strong, swinging rhythms and yowling guitar.  And if their "Heart of Glass" cover didn't quite fit, who cares?  It's a wise formalist who knows when to leave formalism alone.

Miraculously, I stayed close enough to solid after Alive After Five to make it down to Neurolux.  The show there excited me because it featured Death Songs, an act I hadn't seen in well over a year; the Cave Singers, a Treefort 2012 act I'd missed; and Radiation City, one of my top 10 Treefort 2013 acts.

Unfortunately, I learned when I got there that the Cave Singers' van had broken down, forcing them to cancel their appearance (lotta that going around, seems like--the same thing happened with the Nekromantix about two weeks before).  Radiation City and Death Songs were still on board, however, and Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside jumped on the bill to fill things out.

Death Songs played first.  I likened Nicholas Dellfs to Skip James in my review of his April 2012 performance at the VaC.  Hearing his eerie, quavery tenor and ominous but catchy tunes here, however, I thought that he sounded a bit too pop for that analogy to work.  I toyed with comparing him to Travis Ward at first, but Dellf's sharp cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Lungs" brushed that one aside too.  Works for me: I dig Skip James, but nowadays, I play "Snake Song" and "To Live is to Fly" more than "Devil Got My Woman."

Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside played next.  Third time's the charm: I don't know if it was the air conditioning or the beer or the two-set warm-up, but Ford stepped up her game considerably here.  Her vocal attack had more bite ("You may thinkofmeas just some littlegirlyoumet..."), and her interactions with the crowd felt more open and comfortable.  She even told a joke: "Don't have phone sex; you might get hearing AIDS!"  Meanwhile, the band sounded as smooth and strong as they did a couple of hours earlier, and the enclosed space seemed to give the music more concentrated force.  The dance floor filled up early on and stayed full for the duration of the set.

Radiation City closed out the show at Neurolux.  Their shiny tunes, chiming guitar and misty keyboard sounded just as dreamy, but their lithe, bouncy rhythm section sounded much funkier and more rocking than I remembered.  Also, while I'm loath to call someone's singing "soulful" (really, the word gets used way too damn often), Elisabeth Ellison's moans, coos and wails all but demand it.  "Heart of Glass" would've made more sense coming from them than from Sallie Ford.  Given the savvy elusiveness of their lyrics, however, "Happiness is a Warm Gun" worked just as well.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Duck Club Presents.  If you like what you've read and would like to help keep it going, click the yellow "Give" button and donate.  Even $5 would help.

Godcrotch, Death Songs and Point Juncture, WA @ the VAC (3/31/12)

Out of all the venues in the Boise area, the Visual Arts Collective out in Garden City perplexes me most.  They've set up some fantastic shows over the past couple of years, but hardly anybody besides me attended some of them.

Take last Saturday's show, for instance--three solid bands (well, more like two bands and one really good joke) and only a $5 cover.  How many people showed up?  About twenty, a chunk of whom didn't stay for the whole show.  I don't know.  Maybe everybody was burnt out from Treefort.  Maybe nobody wanted to take the trek out to Garden City.  The latter would be understandable, admittedly.  For those readers who may not have had the pleasure of going out there, you can simulate the experience in your own home.  First, start playing the banjo-and-guitar theme from Deliverance.  After that, play a recording of a police siren at the same time.  Finally, just sprinkle a bit of your controlled substance of choice around.  Methamphetamines and ultra-cheap beer are always popular choices.

Anyway, main point: I really dig the place.  I hope that it and the folks who get booked there get a little more love.

First up on Saturday night was Godcrotch a.k.a. local musician/stand-up comedian/Boise Weekly "New Media Czar" Josh Gross.  You haven't lived until you've heard him bust out some 70's/80's hard rock on his amplified ukulele--Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law" is an audience favorite, and I'm pretty sure I heard him do "Anarchy in the U.K." once.  This night, he started off with Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love," and he followed that up with original material just as funny.  In all seriousness, though, the guy's a damn good musician (click here to see a clip of him playing drums in the excellent local band the North End Snugglers, now sadly on hiatus while their guitar player does a stint with the National Guard).  In addition to his ukulele, Gross employed electric guitar, drum synthesizers (which seemed to have some issues), loops, a second guitar player and my buddy Keesha Renna on harmony vocals, tamborine and maraca.

After Godcrotch came Death Songs a.k.a. Nicholas Delffs from the apparently defunct Portland, OR band the Shaky Hands.  I didn't get to see him play at Treefort, so I was glad to catch him here.

"I usually have a band with me," Delffs said at one point in his set.  "This is kinda weird."  From what I heard, he did fine all by himself.  The word "timeless" gets thrown around a lot, but Death Songs' music genuinely invites that description.  Armed with a kick drum, a keyboard, a guitar, a good sense of rhythm, a spooky falsetto and a honey drawl laced with a hint of nasality, Delffs played steady-rolling art-songs that, at times, seemed possessed by the ghost of Skip James.  According to the Treefort website, Delffs has relocated from Portland to Boise.  Hopefully, this means that I'll get to see Death Songs again soon.

pointjuncturewa.com

Last up for the night was Point Juncture, WA, a five-person band that actually hails from Portland.  After seeing this group and bands like Pickwick and Hot Bodies in Motion, I have to wonder: when did the Pacific Northwest get so darn funky?  Amanda Springs' cool, breathy singing reminded me a little of Kim Gordon (but with better pipes and pitch), but she drummed so on-the-one that she could've auditioned for Curtis Mayfield.  Add on some driving bass, some jazzy vibraphone and trumpet, some moody keyboards and some Sonic Youth guitar mayhem, and you've got a band playing at the VAC that made me wonder yet again: "Why are there so few people here to see/hear this!?"

You can find info on Death Songs and Point Juncture, WA on Facebook and on the website listed.  And for the love of God, people: if you're in the Boise area, stop by the VAC sometime.