BRAINSTORM / PARDEE SHORTS / PRESCRIPTION PILLS @ BERBATIS PAN

Posted by Darren Bridenbeck on Apr 19, 2010 in Features

Friday April the 16th @ Berbatis Pan

Wow. If you didn't make it out to this show, you really should have. I know a lot of people say that about their show reviews, so let me ponder how to explain this to you precisely... should I use a bullet-point list? A pros/cons of what else you could have been doing, and why this show was so vital? A venn diagram?

Let me just say three phrases:

1) BERBATI'S PAN,

2) FREE,

3) ALL AGES.

I just hope that the over-agers drank enough to make this kind of event profitable for the venue, because THIS is the kind of stuff I want to go to this summer. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe I'm just crabby, but the house show scene has lost its glimmer, and this brought me back to why I love Portland's music scene.

PRESCRIPTION PILLS

First time I ever saw this guy play, he was by himself, wearing a poncho, playing entirely un-mic'ed, but with a small amp playing drum samples from his iPod. It was most easily defined as folk music, speaking, from what I could decipher, about loss and wasting time. Now-a-days, Prescription Pills has a real drummer, way better sounding iPod-ized electronic backing, and a knack for yelling a-la Spencer Moody (too bold of a comment? I don't think so). These songs are huge, and its amazing the large amount of energy and music that can be made by just this. The songs are no longer folk induced, and speak now of the city and of urban nowhereness. They broke their drum kit, the lead singer spazzed out on and off the floor. He wore a leather hooded jacket, and I was inspired by the overarching abilities of performers to pull off a number of genres at the same time. This is electronic punk at its best, and when I heard that Guidance Counselor and Fake Drugs' record label "Old Wave" had set their eyes on Prescription Pills to release their upcoming album, it made me very, very, happy.

Photo from PRSCRPTN PILLS myspace

PARDEE SHORTS

You know what? Lets talk about mixing genre's. RIGHT NOW. I've never seen a 100% live band (no samples, no iPod stuff, just keyboards and drums) make my brain think so many things in a long time. Since, maybe. . . talkdemonic? Within an instant, this band can go from lounge/classical drumming and keyboard, to precise, mathy spasms, to epic build ups with desperate screams. A number of keyboardists could pull off the same effect here-- because the music can become so fast and so spastic that it is difficult to track. But after seeing this band live for the third time, I've decided that the precision, the energy, and the pin-balling of emotions that this band puts into their songs is something highly notable. Keep an eye out for Pardee Shorts, for I believe this is their summer to shine.

Photo from Pardee Shorts Myspace

BRAINSTORM

Another two piece wrapped this show up nicely. With amazingly talented drumming, keyboards, tuba, and guitar (that's two instruments per band member, mind you), these guys are captivating, energetic, and formidable. Plus, the drummer has a wireless/headset mic, so that you are dealt a double-whammy by two waves of vocals. There was chanting, there was low-pitched tuba drown-outs. Magic wizard carpets riding, was all I dreamt of after seeing this band.