MFNW Night 3

Friday night was night 3 of Musicfest NW with yet another fantastic lineup. I started the night off by going to see Beirut at Pioneer Courthouse Square. It was a great show that had many different instruments from tuba to accordion. Beirut has such a dynamic sound, and the crowd was getting down to the music. Though I didn't stay long at Beirut I really enjoyed their performance. Check out some of their newest material below.





The second band that I went to go see was Lake at Backspace. Lake is a four piece band from Olympia, WA. Their sound is so joyful, mixing elements of easy rock 'n' roll and pop it's easy to sway back and forth to. When you listen to Lake you don't want their songs to end. Definitely worth a listen to.




Next up I went over to the Crystal Ballroom to see Unknown Mortal Orchestra. These guys are super cool lo-fi pop-rock with a little funk mixed into it. Their show was a little hard to get into at first, but after a couple of songs they opened up a little bit and started shredding the hell out of the stage. UMO had a fantastic show and I highly recommend seeing them live.




Unknown Mortal Orchestra opened up for fellow Portlanders, The Helio Sequence. This brother combo is one of the best pop-rock outfits that we have here in Portland. They put out excellent material on a consistent basis and are coming out with another album tomorrow the 11th. The ballroom was packed as Helio Sequence took the stage as usual, they have played at every Music Fest NW for the last 12 years. If you haven't heard them yet check out their new single "October" and an older track, one of my favorites, "Can't Say No."






Last band that I saw Friday night was another local duo Talkdemonic. They played at Bunk Bar which is a little place for a band with a big following. I would classify Talkdemonic's sound as folk-tronic. They play mostly instrumental music with drums and electric violin. They put out a great energy at the show and hopefully they play more local shows in the near future.



Check out KillingSasquatch.com to see the photos.

Treefort Music Festival Day 2 of 4

Day 2 of Treefort Music Fest sees the opening of the Alefort, which is a good size dome in the parking lot behind The Linen Building. For a nominal fee they supplied samples of all local Boise, ID breweries. They also had some great live acts early in the day throughout the night.
The first band on the stage was Holiday Friends. They had a great show in the early afternoon sun.

Up next was a goofy rap/hip-hop duo from Boise, ID who call themselves Dedicated Servers.

Next up is Portland, OR band, Talkdemonic. They were the first band up on the Main Stage on Friday evening. 

Desert Noises is the next performance that I headed to at The Neurolux. Their live show is more rocking in the sense of a classic rock form.

Back to the main stage to see one of the best up and coming hip-hop artists, Grieves. What a show, Grieves has such great charisma and smooth style, while Budo was the perfect combo of hype-man and keyboardist.

The headliner for the night was Why? Amazing performance! The lead singer, Yoni, has such style and grace that he had complete control over the audience.

The last show that I caught on Friday was one of my favorite new acts, Fountains. Yet another great performance. Their show was at a really cool coffee shop called The Crux.

Wow what a great day of music and there is more to report on coming up, so be sure to stayed tune.