I usually ride my bike, but tonight a friend and I drive, park, and walk a block to the awesome Aladdin Theater at the edge of Southeast Portland’s Brooklyn neighborhood. We take the crosswalk at Sanborn’s – an amazing breakfast place I was introduced to via Sleeping Hedgehog foodie reviewer Kelley Caspari — and pass Aladdin’s adjunct bar, The Lamp, to get our hands stamped for Redwood Son’s live show celebrating the CD release of The Lion’s Inside.
The crowd isn’t at all what I typically find at Aladdin and the Lamp. There are the usual maturing hipster types, the serene hippie retirees, the cute Burning Man chicks with their patchouli and faded jeans and flat sandals. There are the few dapper dressers — always glad to see those — and the regular tattooed and pierced crowd, most of these last working the theater, the bar, the door.
. . . But then there’s this crazy other contingent; this group of people the likes of which I haven’t seen since high school. The hair, the clothes, the teen-gloss lips — wait, is this crowd fans from, like, that Gap in-store performance?
And now we’re waiting. Waiting, waiting for Redwood Son to take the stage. Sarah Billings, Brad Mackeson, Jordan Harris. . . all perfectly accomplished performers, but seriously! Note to bookers: four bands on one bill is too many! Stop the madness! Unless it’s something-palooza, nobody has the mental energy to give proper attention to four completely different acts. It’s exhausting.
At last! All those awesome, interesting instruments I’ve seen propped tantalizingly nearby suddenly have takers. An accordion, an upright base, a . . . is that a glockenspiel? Of course it is, because Portland cellist and musical renaissance man Todd Bayles is in the house, along with a bevy of other talented locals. But watching Redwood Son perform on stage at Portland’s Aladdin Theater, there’s no doubt this band is the musical baby of front man Josh Malm.
The show plays out somewhat like the new CD: competent, vibrant, but as confusing at times as the crowd Redwood Son drew to the Aladdin. At least on this particular night ends up feeling slightly MPD (yes, I know it’s now called DID). A nicely packaged and presented 2-disc set, The Lion’s Inside (8Ball Records) is comprised of two separate albums, Summer of 77 and New Beautiful Day. Summer of 77 starts off with some legitimate garage rock sounds, moves through a few classic 70s hard rock licks, tosses in a brief moment of . . . holy crap: is that rap!?! . . . and suddenly sounds like Hank Williams Jr. and Jerry Garcia had a musical lovechild. Like the live show — and like the audience at the Aladdin — the album comes across as incredibly accomplished but a little confusing at times, too self-referential and without a tight enough focus. But also like the live show, the individual elements of the performance are excellent: the musicianship, the charisma, the talent is undeniable; there’s a reason Redwood Son was voted Best New Artist at the 2011 Portland Music Awards.
[Redwood Son Video — Because Of You.]
On the walk back to the car — god, Portland is beautiful at night — my friend has this to say about the band: “It was good, but sometimes kind of sounded like the Steve Miller Band covering Lynyrd Skynyrd doing ‘Margaritaville.’ ” I see what she means: American rock and musical traditions run deep and wide here. Of his own music, Malm himself says, “Call it Folk, call it Story Telling. I don’t concern myself with labels, as long as the message is clear and the listener feels something deeper, on an emotional level.” (Exclusive Sleeping Hedgehog interview with Josh Malm here.)
I like Malm’s take, and I think he does reach something deeper, something emotional and real. I’m just not sure the message is quite so clear all the time. But then, I’m not convinced it needs to be.
(Aladdin Theater, Portland, Oregon, June 11, 2011)
Comments