Binge drinking has become the soul-clarifying right of passage for those wallowing through their mid-twenties and embedded in the collective commemoration of socializing, music appreciation, and general hoopla. This weekend, Portland, Oregon's long running restaurant/bar Slabtown will celebrate their re-opening under new ownership with a three day festival. The one time sports bar, 70s era discotheque, and beer-hole dive bar will kick off their new venture with a weekend of free food and entertainment (20 bands are set to perform), decorously coined The Bender.
Friday's commencement will feature the Rock and Roll Adventure Kids, a two headed outfit from Oakland, California. As a guitar/drums tune slinging get-up, these two brothers stripped down the Rn'R to reveal a skeleton of raw and psychotic backwoods aria that smashes into all the right pieces. Their set at the Budget Rock Festival in Oakland this past fall is rumored to have impregnated an handful of lucky young ladies, spawned a religion, and set fire to loins across the southwest. With righteously delivered howling harmonies, backwoods drum bang-ups, and guitar that drags the soul right through the dumper, the R'n'R Adventure Kids are poised to wreck the weekend right. The headliners Friday night are The Silverkings, featuring the lovable Joe Pestilence on guitar and barking. This Portland staple has been kicking down the barn door with a fuzzed out clamor for well over a decade.
Saturday, just as your hangover starts to kick it into high gear, the festivities start up again at 4:00 PM with a screening of Wild Zero, the epic tale of zombies, aliens, and iconic Japanese rock'n'roll showmen Guitar Wolf. With a couple of drinks in your belly, you should be ready for a night of gutter sloshing tuneage. Ape City R&B are set to sling their soggy and riotous songs at the booze-hazed crowd, followed by the golden boys of perfectly dumbed-up lo-fi, The Fe Fi Fo Fums, whose debut full-length appeared last year on Boom Boom Records. They shook the ground floor of musical aptitude causing an avalanche gloriously messy and savage songs that hark back to the days of intended musical grime, ala The Mummies. Topping off the evening are the young coterie of power-pop brilliance, The Nice Boys. The recent release of their debut self-titled long-player on Birdman Records kicked-up all the right glam glitter and left many with the strange taste of AquaNet in their mouths, as their instantly addictive songs banded themselves into the brains of hopeful louts all over.
Then just as your liver turns to soup, Sunday rolls around and a full evening of dutiful boozing, buffet gorging, and still more rocking to be done featuring Super Destoyers, The Moneychangers, and Howie and the Hot Knives.
Check the Portland listings to the right for a complete schedule.
