From a well-publicized opening spot for the Shins, to a gratis Musicfest NW show at City Hall, to a co-headlining autumn appearance at the first annual 3,900′ Festival on Mt. Hood, Portland’s quasi-classy indie-rockers the Shaky Hands have been attracting a lot of positive attention both locally and nationwide.
Tonight, at the Crystal Ballroom, the Hands are supporting fellow Oregonians The Helio Sequence at the release party for the latter’s long-awaited fourth full-length record. Sponsored by “alternative” radio station 94.7, tickets cost exactly $9.47 both in advance and day of show, a legit deal that should definitely be capitalized on by all fans of music.
Having released one official album, 2007’s Self-Titled, on local label Holocene Music, the Shaky Hands have been startlingly successful, especially for a relatively small indie-folk band from Mendocino County trying to get their start in Portland’s diverse but extremely competitive market.
But this recognition has not been undeserved by any means; their debut release is full of truly high-quality songs, from the opener, “Whales Sing,” to the dramatic closer, “Summer’s Life,” and the album art alone is a compelling reason to search out this record.
Interestingly, the Shaky Hands’ reluctant notoriety reached an international level when last year, an Auckland, New Zealand band of the same name felt threatened enough by our friendly northwestern five-piece to deem it necessary to change their group name to the decidedly less badass “Cut Off Your Hands”–a testament to the strength of the greater-Pacific music scene and a decisive victory for the hemisphere.
The Helio Sequence, the “stars” of Friday’s show, found themselves in the spotlight a couple of years ago with the alarming news that vocalist Brandon Summers had apparently lost the majority of his singing ability due to severe damage of the vocal chords while on tour with the Kings of Leon and Modest Mouse, an illness that a lesser band would have found near-fatally disruptive if not entirely career-ending. A press release by their label, the illustrious Sub-Pop, details a brief account of the struggle:
“Upon returning to Portland, Brandon’s doctor forbade him from singing for almost two months: I really hit the wall, he recalls. Going into 2005 I actually had to think, ‘If I lose my voice, what will I do?'”
A discouraging prognosis for most, if not all, professional musicians to be sure, but as most of us know, Portland bands do not bow down, especially not to arbitrary physical afflictions.
Summers, along with his bandmate, drummer Benjamin Weikel, have managed to get their shit together and make a full record of original, honest songs, the majority of which are set to debut at tonight’s show.
The new disc, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, was mastered by Greg Calbi, the man partly responsible for engineering recent releases by Iron & Wine and Interpol as well as contributing to the genre-defying Graceland by Paul Simon. It will be interesting to see how The Helio Sequence acclimates to a relearned and, for all intents and purposes, brand-new style of singing.
It’s a concert virtuous in its rarity. If all goes well, tonight will be a night people will talk about for a long while. Support local music and support yourself; concerts like this will make you a better person.
No joke, homeboy.
TONIGHTThe Helio SequenceThe Shaky Hands9 p.m. at the Crystal Ballroom$9.47, all-ages