thanks to the somewhat structured nature of the sun kil moon show, the most exciting part of the night in portland came in getting out of the city. first, it seemed as if the parking garage in which we'd left the car had closed down at some point earlier in the night, potentially trapping us inside. having little experience with parking garages myself, i panicked a bit. i drove around the deck, trying to find a non-gated exit, then considered driving out along a sidewalk and potentially destroying my car in the process. next, LD tried lifting the entrance gate, but to no avail. finally, we called the 24-hour emergency parking deck number, only to be told the gate would automatically open if we drove right up to it. and it did. go figure.
next, my small detour to get to a taco bell ended up causing us to have to drive in circles on portland's one-way roads for about an hour until we figured out how to get to I-5 South, which involved some turns on roads more convoluted than any i've seen in my entire life (including my nine cross-country trips and driving through 46 states). luckily, we survived. i had to employ a bit of the cold-air screaming technique in order to stay awake en route to eugene, but we finally rolled in around 3am and crashed in the hotel (the same econo lodge we'd stayed in en route to SF).
the next afternoon was spent walking around eugene (which turned out to be a lot less walkable and lot dirtier and potentially dangerous than portland, surprisingly). then it was to the mcdonald theatre for m. ward. the mcdonald theatre was much nicer than the wonder ballroom. there was a large GA balcony area, and even some seats on the floor (which we sat in until the idiots next to us annoyed me nearly to suicide, and then we spent the rest of the show standing). the sound was provided by much more than 2 huge speakers and was distributed throughout the room in a fashion that didn't hurt ears even when m. ward was at his electric guitariest.
the opener was some band whose name i can't remember (but whose name i shall enter here if i do in fact remember later). they were actually quite good; sort of in the vein of uncle tupelo and the jayhawks, only angrier. i talked to the lead singer for a few minutes outside after their set and he was a really nice guy. they were especially enjoyable because they had a tendency to break out these weird prog-rock jams in the middle of their rockabilly-type songs. the only real downside was that a found a lot of their lyrics really straightforward and almost juvenile...the type of band that goes for an entire song based around a phrase like "i love you and it hurts" as opposed to something more originally or at least more originally phrased. but they were fun to sit through, which is more than i can say for a lot of opening bands.
then - OH FUCK - m. ward. i've heard countless times how good this guy is in concert, but it did not prepare me to have my face melted entirely off of my skull within the first two songs. these guys literally did not slow down the entire show...the show lasted only about an hour and ten minutes (counting two one-song encores), but i can't complain other than to just say i wish there had been more simply because it was so good. the lighting on the stage was unique (including a projected old-style window, which showed an outdoor scene that slowly changed from day to night as the show went on, and one song that lit the entire back of the stage in white light, but blacked out all the other lights so the band looked like three-dimensional shadows...i really lack the language to explain how cool this was). ward's vocals were amazing and spot-on throughout, and the band was going from song to song so fast that at one point ward was literally running from the piano to the guitar tech (presumably to keep the momentum going, though i suppose it could have been because he hated us). oh, and he played two songs solo, including one song that had literally the best solo guitar jam i've ever heard in my life (and this is after years of listening to trey and phish and the grateful dead and nels cline and various other completely insane guitarists...this was amazing to the point that i was screaming/cheering at the end before i even realized it consciously). and on top of that (of course) he's incredible at the piano...he played "roll over beethoven" at one point and i thought the roof was going to come off of the place. both performances were pretty weird about photography and such, so i sincerely doubt that there's any footage or recordings going around, but i'll keep my fingers crossed. i would love to see m. ward again, and (i never though i would say this) i'd actually prefer to see him without zooey deschanel because his bringing of the rock was so phenomenal. honestly, if i wasn't so invested emotionally in the cardinals and wilco (and thus invested so much in the shows of theirs i've seen), i would definitely say this was my favorite concert of all time. instead, it comes in a definite fourth-best and i will absolutely drive to portland to see this guy play again. the ticket was 15 bucks. FIFTEEN BUCKS.
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