Yeasayer

Peter E.

April 20, 2010 - 9:20 AM

It's been marked on my calender for months now: Yeasayer, Portland's Wonder Ballroom, April 19th. Oregon is blessed with incredible concert lineups in the spring/summer, and this was just the latest but definitely most anticipated (in the last two weeks I've seen Yonder Mountain String Band, Mayer Hawthorne/Passion Pit, and now Yeasayer). Yeasayer's sound, if you can possibly capture it with words, mixes David Bowie with poppy percussion and psychedelic synthesizers. They released their second album in February, Odd Blood, and it's incredible.

The concert was at The Wonder Ballroom on Portland's east side, so my girlfriend Melissa and I made the drive up Monday afternoon to meet up with my roommate Jeff who had spent the weekend in Portland. We arrived in the Rose City with monster appetites, and Jeff chauffeured us to grab some grub before the show. He didn't tell us where we were headed, but we sailed through downtown, crossed the river, and continued north. After a U-turn, we spotted the dinner location: Fire On The Mountain.

For those of you not familiar, Fire On The Mountain has the best chicken wings in Portland. They've got a bevy of sauces to choose from, and a variety of chicken wings and sandwiches. I decided on the Buffalo Chicken sandwich (I went with the Extra Hot rather than the scorching El Jeffe) complimented by a Tangerine microbrew from Lost Coast Brewery, and Melissa went with the Sweet BBQ Chicken sandwich.

The sandwich was incredible. The chicken breast was perfect, their ciabatta was fluffy, and the mound of fries served with it (skins on) were to die for. The Tangerine Beer, which I had never tried before, was really refreshing and a nice complement to the spicy sandwich. I strongly recommend Fire On the Mountain to anyone that loves them some good hot wings.

We waddled to the car, questioning our ability to dance at the concert, and made our way to the Wonder Ballroom. We climbed the steps into the lobby and checked out the venue. The ballroom is a long, narrow room with a wood floor, urban abstract murals line the walls, and to the rear of the ballroom there's a balcony with a bar.

After a short wait, the concert began. The opening act, Sleigh Bells, got the crowd in a dancing mood with their hip-hop infused indie pop set. Then, at long last, Yeasayer took the stage. Their singers came out in jumpsuits, one plain black and the other a red, blue, yellow, and green speckled number-quite awesome. They played a phenomenal set, their up-tempo percussion accentuated by their color changing set and podiums. The band even said that we were the best stop on the tour thus far; it wasn't a stretch, the crowd was really into the music, singing along, dancing like crazy, and crowd surfing. Check out the video to get an idea (the audio doesn't do the experience justice, but it does give you an idea):

If you notice at the 2:33 mark, my friend Dave crowd surfs and gets pulled onto stage. It was really funny watching him not know what to do, and his dance is awesome. It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to, and it was cool to step outside of Eugene for a night to experience the Portland scene. Adding to my musical recommendations, do your self a favor and check out Yeasayer. You can download one of their singles, "O.N.E.," for free of their website: http://yeasayer.net/, and I strongly recommend both of their albums: All Hour Cymbals and Odd Blood.