Your sidewalk is too loud

As Portland city officials meet with the area’s street musicians to re-examine an agreement to dictate when and where buskers can play, Portland’s own The Builders and the Butchers are gearing up for a show that embodies their very roots—those of busking.

TBatB is one of Portland’s most recent national success stories. The concept is all too Portland—frontman Ryan Sollee heads a band of unplugged buskers, as they twang their way through old-timey creole-bluesy “funeral music” (as the band themselves put it) that requires not one watt of electricity. The members of the band all moan and wail in time with Sollee’s foot-stomping acoustic gitbox rhythms all while employing a huge ensemble of acoustic instruments, with each of the five members playing no less than three instruments per show.

But how does the re-evaluation of this law threaten upcoming bands like The Builders and the Butchers, who got their start working the very same sidewalks and farmers markets that the city seeks to regulate? Can and will the city regulate the buskers’ noise pollution in accordance to what the city lawmakers think sounds better?

Apparently, they can. At the town meeting that went over the busking law, business owners complained that “low quality” musicians were bringing down customer flow to their shops and Saturday Market booths. This very statement leaves the evolution of the art of street music in the hands of the business owner—or does it?

Meanwhile, in the not-so-distant future, The Builders and the Butchers are planning a city-wide busking show on Feb. 25. From 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Builders will be playing at eight different locations throughout the city, every hour. The simplicity of the band lends itself well to this type of commitment—because that’s how they got their start. When The Builders first formed, they played mostly at parties, which would often see a long line of revelers marching down the streets with kazoos, recorders, empty coffee cans and anything else the rabble could find along the way.

The “tour” finds The Builders playing at some very unlikely spots; when they say “busking tour,” they aren’t talking about a tour of the city’s venues. The tour kicks off at noon at Tradeup Music at their Division Street location, where it will head up to Mississippi Avenue’s Rebuilding Center. From there, The Builders will hit the food cart pod on North Skidmore. This leg of the tour proclaims “weather permitting,” but don’t be surprised if you see Sollee and company belt it out against the elements.

From there, it’s onto the tiny Jackpot Records on Hawthorne and following that, a stop at two Portland institutions: Powell’s City of Books and Voodoo Doughnuts’ downtown location, respectively. After playing next on the Doug Fir’s patio, the band will wrap it up at Music Millenium on East Burnside for a free in-store performance.

Whether or not any conclusions the city comes to regarding our beloved buskers will affect The Builders’ show remains unclear. However, one thing is for certain: Amongst the faceless crowd of Portland’s bucket drummers, one-armed guitar players, Elvis impersonators and sidewalk pianists, there isn’t one passerby or business owner alike who would dare impede The Builders’ roots-y sprawl. They’re just too good. ?