BRAIN: Portland, Oregon 9/26

[Chris Baker]

(further crosspost from tBS AOL folder re: Berbati's Pan 9/26 show)

There was apparently some confusion over who was headlining the show, or at
least who would play last.  That spot went to Gravelpit, a local outfit.  The
word was that they had a strong local following, but it really wasn’t in
evidence; the place got more crowded as the night went on but it seemed to me
that a lot of people were just drifting in.  There was a brewer’s festival in
town, and some of the overflow spilled into Berbati’s, although
the majority were deflected by the five-dollar cover charge.  I had never
been to Portland and was having difficulty getting a fix on the makeup of the
local populace.  Some of this was due to the area that the club was in – the
blocks west of there got funky pretty quick, and some of the resultant
juxtapositions I found bordered on the surreal.  I saw a lot of couples and
knots of girls who appeared to have wandered in from a frat party at a
small southern college (geographically this makes no sense, but there you
have it), alongside young bohemian types who were either a lot more or less
self-conscious about it than their SF counterparts (couldn’t decide which).

I arrived at the bar around six, planning on scoping out the place and then
going out to get something to eat.  However when my eyes adjusted to the
darkness I saw Albert onstage, where the guy who is their one-man road crew
was setting stuff up.  So I ended up hanging out for the rest of the night,
as some more fans down from Washington state showed up and then the rest of
the band arrived.  It was odd meeting Albert in that I know the voice
and face so well that I had forgotten I didn’t know him…if that makes any
sense.  What was odd was that it didn’t seem odd, but he has a very serene
demeanor (when he’s not near those drums) and perhaps that was part of the
reason.

TBS did a run-through of "St. Vitus Dance" for the soundcheck that gave a
pretty good idea of how good the show was going to be, and it was wild to see
Albert playing again.  I’d seen him 12 times with BOC and it was a trip to
see his playing style again.  The main difference is that I think he’s a lot
better now than he was then.

The time limitation apparently led to the unfortunate jettisoning of "Donkey
Show", as well as the "Overture", which they actually had last on the set
list but could not get the time to play.

Deb looked great and sounded better.  Good guitar-slinging too, she claimed
to have played some wrong chords but I didn't hear 'em.  I guess these
critics always have to pick apart performers' work...

Great guitar sounds from the two leads, who both smoked...Pete's solo on "A
Kiss is a Promise" and Billy's shredding of the "Red and the Black" break
were particularly memorable.  And Dave's bass was the underpinning of an
overall sound that was crisp, crunching and very very powerful.

"Death Valley Nights" was beautiful as well, Deb on the drums for this one.
 Hearing the acoustic version had really made me want to hear this and I'm
glad it made it into the set.  The breakdown at the end is just perfect.

Albert as always was a great showman, whether roaming the room beating the
hell out of everything, taking a well-timed and crowd-pleasing water break
during "Laura's Plastic Swords" or wrestling a guitar around in a manner I
hadn't seen since the five-guitar lineup.  And as I said earlier, his
drumming is better than it used to be, and I can't think of higher praise.

During "Tender Was the Night" the band throttled down and Albert brought up
Richard Meltzer, sharing the stage with him for the first time in 30 years.
 He read four pieces, concerning suggested ways to kill him, Kerouac not
driving, devils at a Texas truck stop and sex on the linoleum, among other
topics.  The guy still covers a lot of ground in a short space.  He said that
he was giving these to Albert for possible use as lyrics.  Later he
heckled the band with repeated requests for "Born to be Wild".

He claimed to me that he couldn't remember the genesis of his fixation with
Borneo, that Portland was a place "outside history" and that he wrote
"Laura's Plastic Swords" 30 years ago and the only thing he remembers about
it was that it had an instruction that "swords" was to be pronounced
"smords", although he didn't remember why.  Beautiful.  What a thrill to meet
him, and I mean it.

-Chris Baker