Camera Obscura & Portastatic Live = A Good Time

Last night I attended the Camera Obscura & Portastatic concert at Richard's on Richards in BC, and I am happy to report the show was very good.

Portastatic's set (see second photo) consisted of Superchunk frontman Mac and a violinist whose name I can't remember. During the song in the photo they were joined by two percussionists who filled in the sound nicely. The set was primarily Mac with an acoustic and unknown female with a violin, and despite the minimalistic set up, it was an entertaining, energetic set of pop/rock numbers. It is clear watching Mac perform that he has been doing this awhile, and his calm yet confident demeanor is impressive to watch and hard to look away from.

Weird occurrence: in between Portastatic and Camera Obscura's set, the two fellows sitting to my immediate right put their heads down and took a quick nap. It was really strange, but endlessly amusing at the same time. I guess they wanted to be rested for the headliners, or perhaps they were bored to death by Port's set. I'll never know.

Next, Camera Obscura took the stage for an hour long set of their innovative pop songs. Composed of six members, this Scottish sextet sounded like a band comfortable with performing live, and the crowd (including myself and my buddy) was into the entire set. I'm told this show was significantly better than their last visit to Vancouver, especially since the stone-faced singer was more animated. The singer Tracy-Anne(see top photo) is a serious front woman who rarely cracks a smile, but as the set progressed she smiled several times (and even made a few jokes!). At one point she even thanked the crowd for attending the show when she learned one of her favorite singers, pop-country superstar Neko Case, was playing several blocks away at the Commodore.

After the main set, the band returned for a two song encore that was entirely palatable. In the end, I don't think there was anyone who wished they went to see Neko...

Sparklehorse tomorrow!

Current rotation: nothing (leaving soon for a Vancouver adventure).