Sticky Fingerz was a completely different vibe from the other places I've been so far. Half of it is restaurant/patio, and the other half is bar/restaurant/stage. The bar side still had a lot of tables so when I showed up everyone was sitting down which made for an incredibly subdued feeling for an indie rock show. The first band I caught was The Annuals. They took forever to get setup due to some technical difficulties but the drummer passed the time playing along with the overhead music which was actually entertaining to watch. I should clarify. The primary drummer. Because they have an auxiliary drummer with another full kit. And another snare and tom up front. Something tells me we're in store for some funky beats. They put on a thoroughly enjoyable set and are one Zach Braff feature short of popularity. Their music was the most danceable I've seen in a while but inexplicable noone got up from their tables. They would fist pump and yell from their seats, but not stand up. Bizarre. I stood over on the side because I can't stand sitting at a show. That's for old people.
Their music was sort of like if The Arcade Fire and Phish had a love child with Pixies-like transitions. Part of being an indie rock band is that you get to help tear down, and I noticed the Marshall was taped over on their stack which I meant to ask about but totally forgot. They did an admirable job keeping up their energy despite the low energy crowd and are clearly a better band than the reception they got here. They deserve the real Portland. I ducked out back and caught an interview with lead singer Adam:
POTMW: So you have the new EP Sweet Sister coming out. In vein with your previous work or a little departure? What were you guys thinking when you were working on that?
Adam: A little bit of both I guess. Except it's a departure in the sense that there's definitely some different themes in terms of the styles of music that influenced it in particular. Also the step backwards, some would say, into self recording and producing it. Which is a lot of how we just seem to work the best because otherwise it just takes too long. Just working it out, because two of us are already serious producers and we have a hard time somebody just coming in. Because we also do it quite differently. We write in the studio, as opposed to like jamming and like, "oh we have the song done let's record it now." You know? So a lot of producers aren't used to that sort of thing. The second record there was a lot of labels trying to get us to work with certain producers, who are great, and I love them to this day, but they just work in a different way than we do.
POTMW: You've had your own production company for a while now so that's nothing new to you to have your own style and your own way of doing things.
Adam: It's true. It's been really the only way for a while now. Not the only way like, "there's no other way," just the really feasible way. We're all we've got so to speak.
POTMW: Now you said some different influences and things like that musically. What sorts of influences do you mean?
Adam: I can't really put my finger on it because it's just a bunch of world music honestly. It's like, just straight African music, I do a lot of Rhapsody and a lot of just straight downloading live sessions from certain places it's always different musicians playing whatever. Just a whole lot of Latin and African music pushing a lot more lately.
POTMW: Well clearly your music has a strong beat component to it. I mean, you have an auxiliary drummer for Christ's sake.
Adam: Definitely. I've always thought percussion is the most basic form of expression. Ever since, I mean, it was the first instrument that ever was. [hitting the air like a drum] One. Two. Three. Four. On a rock, you know? Then you start singing to it.
POTMW: What's your favorite place you've ever played? Favorite venue? You don't have to say Little Rock.
Adam: I just like them all. I know that's so cheesy to say, but I only classify there's really good shows, there's shows, and then there's fucking shitty shows.Fucking shitty shows are not that often, you remember those the most. I guess my favorite place to play is probably The Empty Bottle in Chicago. I don't know, Chicago's always been really good to us. And The Empty Bottle I've been reading about that venue since I was a little kid because that's the home of Alkaline Trio. A couple of our friends live there so I guess there, but it's not that far off from almost every other city.
Went back inside for The Most Serene Republic who are from Ontario. They also brought more energy than the crowd gave back, but fortunately some people actually got up this time and filled in in front of the stage. Their lead singer has a stage presence that is oddly incongruous with the rest of the band. Everyone else was fairly high energy but he would just sort of sway and sometimes pick up something (mic stand, trombone, whatever) and wave it around while staring on it. I hope for his sake that there are drugs involved. They've been on tour with The Annuals but didn't know them prior to this, they just happened to have the same booking agent who thought, correctly, that their styles were complementary.
As for Sticky Fingerz? For this much quality music for a five buck cover and pints of Sam Adams Summer Ale for two bucks each? Total outlay for the night 13 bucks plus tip? Good thing I can (and did) ride my bike here!
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