Friday, January 30, 2015

Upcoming music at the Aladdin and Alberta Rose ... and a new Portland venue

Moving through the next few months there are some mighty fine shows happening at my two favorite venues, plus what is shaping up to be an exciting addition to Portland's music scene.

The new venue is Revolution Hall and is the renovated auditorium of the old Washington High School in southeast Portland. It adds a sweet spot that was missing in Portland venues - a (hopefully) great sounding seated theater that holds around 850 people - half again bigger than the Aladdin. Often touring artists either skip Portland or end up in a too large/small or not sound/seating optimal venue. And it came together as a partnership between some of the more sound and business savvy venue owners in Portland, which bodes well for both artist and audience. This from their website:

The management team for Revolution Hall is comprised of a partnership between Mississippi Studios owners Jim Brunberg and Kevin Cradock and Mark Adler of The Aladdin Theater and True West concert promotion. The team will also run the first floor cafĂ© / bar called Martha’s, the second floor bar attached to the Hall named Assembly Lounge and the roof top deck area.

They plan a "soft open"/ preview weekend from February 12 - 14, with a formal opening on April 18th with an already sold out show with Neko Case. It will also be the new home of Live Wire Radio. More about Revolution Hall at their website and in this article at OregonLive. I'm really looking forward to a show there!

So what headed our way at the Aladdin and the Alberta Rose? Plenty.

At the Aladdin, we'll start with tonight - guitarist Bill Frisell presents music from his latest recording, Guitars in the Space Age! ... check out Tom D'Antoni's interview with Bill about the recording at Oregon Music News. This will be fun.

Looking ahead, there's Maria Ball (Feb 5); Lucinda Williams (Feb 8 & 9 - Sunday is sold out, but still tickets for Monday); Over the Rhine (Feb 10); Judy Collins (Feb 15); Martin Sexton (Feb 28); Lucky Peterson (March 1); Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Mar 7); Hurray For The Riff Raff (Mar 22); Colin Hay (Mar 25); Iris DeMent (Mar 27); Joe Pug (Mar 28) ... and more.

At the Alberta Rose, tonight there's the annual Joni Mitchell tribute concert featuring some of Portland's best female voices. And tomorrow, there looks like a cool genre-defying show by 45th Parallel.

Looking ahead ... Carolyn Wonderland (Feb 10); Fred Eaglesmith (Feb 18); Slaid Cleaves (Feb 19); Tommy Castro (Feb 25); Willie Porter and Ellis Paul (Mar 1); Martyn Joseph and Kris Delmhorst (Mar 11); Joe Ely, Ruthie Foster and Paul Thorn (Mar 15) .... and, of course, more!

Check out all three venues for what's coming and see ya out and about!

Thursday, January 29, 2015

It's Carnival Time! ... Mardi Gras Ball on Feb 14!

Wake up, Jim!  ... whoa ... where have I been? Guess it's time to get out of bed, pull on my socks and finally get to a blog post about some musical happenings.

Before I get to a post about this weekend, and one about some fantastic shows coming at the Alberta Rose, the Aladdin, and the soon to be open Revolution Hall ... you don't want to miss the Mysti Krewe of Nimbus' 5th Annual Mardi Gras Ball on February 14th! (yes, on Valentine's Day)


This is one killer party. I might be a bit biased as I'm one of the Krewe's founding members, but for the past four years people have been raving about our annual celebration of Carnival season. It is the most authentic, traditional, Mardi Gras experience you'll find in Portland.

And this year we are thrilled to have Charmaine Neville be part of the music. What? A respected New Orleans musician leaving New Orleans at Mardi Gras time to play a ball in Portland? Yep. She knows where the party's at!

So get your tickets! Early bird pricing ($25) ends Saturday ... tickets will be $30 beginning on Sunday ... and $35 at the door.

Hope to see you at 2015 Mardi Grad Ball!