Holocene will play host to a three-pronged easy-does-it rock block this Thursday July 1. If you’re looking to start the new month off on the right foot, try this lineup on for size:
Quiet Life will open the show with a greased-up, slick and sputterin’ Americana sheen, and no doubt lay a fine foundation with which to coax your drinking (and dancing) shoes. The band enjoyed a stint as back-up band for Port O’Brien earlier this year, before getting back to Portland to scour the Northwest wilderness, and release their brand new full-length – the excellent good-time rock ‘n’ roll acumen of Big Green – sometime in July.
Newer Portland group Alameda will occupy the second slot on this supple bill. The band is currently enjoying the release of their EP The Floating Hospital, a stoic four-song set of moving, minimalist acoustic-based tunes. Vocalist/guitarist Stirling Myles (also of Autopilot is for Lovers, also a contributor to The Deli Portland) stirs lush melodies with ample yet subdued accompaniment from bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello and other various effects-laced gadgets that, when dialed in correctly, evoke a melancholy, though cathartic kind of slow-burn orchestral-folk.
Rounding it all out will be the affable, affecting brood of Sean Flinn and the Royal We. Flinn’s organic compositions hold both child-like cadence and a predilection for ever-maturing musical magic, like a wild-eyed tramp crooning pure truth, injecting finite detail, leaving nothing unverified and everything real in every note, every pluck of the string, every measured melody. His is a musical palate ingratiated not only by the wiles of the ubiquitous, rambling, road-weary minstrel, but also by more contemporary visions of first wave rock ‘n’ roll and R&B, not unlike the wide swath M. Ward casts – though that comparison is admittedly a stretch. Flinn and his Royal We (featuring members of Y La Bamba, and Meyercord among other notable local acts) are in a class all their own, and you can sponge up your lesson tomorrow night.
Show starts at 8:30 p.m. Cover is $5. 21 and over.
– Ryan J. Prado