i’m kind of sad to say i wasn’t able to see the american icehouse venue, but i’m also willing to accept the backing collective’s decision to move over to the used and abused bastion of the kansas city music scene, the el torreon. as long as they continue to work with people who are willing to pursue nights of this caliber, i’ll continue to support their efforts.

we walked in a little late, missing the opening set by the night’s coordinator doby aka boo hiss and most of the dual-acoustic work of boston’s tomorrow the gallows.

the third band playing was lake, who hail from the anacortes area and were a lot of fun. this is the kind of band that just looks like the type who roll into the outskirts of town in a ‘72 VW bus – serge gainsbourg covering stan getz on the 8-track – where they get a flat tire and decide to play a few songs in a field while everything’s unloaded out of the van before they change the tire. there was much interchange of instruments throughout their set, not to mention the great melodies and harmonies – and the drummer’s vocal yelpings were a perfect touch in there as well. the freedom and innocence they brought to their music was, in a word, invigorating. they had tapes for sale. yes, tapes. i picked up their cd lake at the safety department and my wife and i spent the better part of tonight freaking out, thinking i had lost it – it had fallen down the side of the car seat, of course. the five-piece band’s set was a delightfully rambling, shambling experience and i’m thankful they were added to the bill.

in fact, here’s a video of them:

next up was the energetic mr. adrian orange, with lake filling in with him to play under the guise of adrian orange and the child slave rebellion. the resulting experience was one of pure epiphany. this was not about rehashing orange’s sizeable discography, or strutting around in leather boots regardless of how well-heeled they’d be with his incrediblely deserved reputation as a brilliant songwriter. this was about connecting. honestly, there were less than 30 people in the cold ballroom last night, but by and large every single person in there was drawn together by the end of the set.

regardless of how unfair it might be to throw out names like phil elvrum or karl blau or kyle field, etc, it is entirely appropriate to make it clear that orange is a prophet of a huge, very focused and tightly knit movement of artists. and it’s also very nice to see that this web extends beyond the pacific northwest into our very own area, as it does with the night’s closing act, drakkar sauna, who are on orange’s marriage records label. these two guys put on quite a show themselves! jeff stoltz sings, weilds guitar, mandolin, keyboard, and a tambourine strapped to one shoe and the other working the bass drum, while wallace cochran does the acoustic thing and a good amount of the vocals. and the vocals – these guys play like they’re on the front porch of a broken down house in the middle of nowhere, and believe me folks, the birds are getting one heck of show.

and yes, last night was the fabled kansas city double-bill night. yes, we did go to the record bar, and yes, we did catch the last 90 seconds of caspian. trilobite was long gone as far as i could tell by that point and i couldn’t find any of their merch, so i’ll try to grab that disc from miles of music instead. i don’t mean any offense to caspian, actors & actresses, or trilobite, but honestly, that was $12 we could have given to the bands we’d just left back at the el torreon.

here’s a few pics of the night:

lake:

adrian orange and the child slavery rebellion:

drakkar sauna: