Day 2 and Friday night kicked off in exactly the laid-back-kind-of way I liked it too. Eskimo & Sons played the opening set at the Towne Lounge offering up their multi-layered compositions that seem to totter on the edge of collapse. The saving grace, as always, is the inter-play between vocalists Dhani and Danielle which truly is the icing on the cake. Ths is how rock music ought to be. Watch the video here. [The Towne Lounge apparently has no lighting so things are grainy but worth it just to listen.]

Although I’m very familiar with Jenny Lewis [does that sound wrong?] as I’ve spent plenty of time with her last solo album where she paired up with the Watson Twins, I have to confess to not having heard Rilo Kiley [clearly I've moved further away from alt rock than I thought.] after tonight’s set I can see why. Without the magnetic personality of Jenny Lewis this band would be nowhere; rather plodding, pedestrian songs ably performed sure, but again, take away Jenny and there’s nothing there. The crowd loved it though, of course. I just longed for the energy from Thursday night’s hip hop outing but never mind. And as if to cement the dullness of this evening for me anyway, Jonathan Rice [boyfriend to Jenny apparently] played a rather mundane set too.

Rilo Kiley video | Rilo Kiley video number 2 | Jonathan Rice video

Related Posts: Eskimo & Sons played our back yard, Dntel featuring Jenny Lewis

Tags: Conferences, Culture, Music

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 11:18 am and is filed under Concerts, Portland Bands, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.