High Notes: The Best Live Music in Portland This Week, March 24 - 29

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

John Chandler, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Gaytheist by James Rexroad (image cropped).

Now that spring has sprung, it’s time for every Portlander worth their salt to get outside for a bit—before heading back indoors to catch a concert from this week’s lineup of luminaries. You can queue up for mosh pit merriment with Gaytheist; genuflect to the inclusive gospel of Iris DeMent, or blast off to strange new worlds with Moon Duo, among other attractions.

Gaytheist

Mar 26 @ 9pm

If I hear another tourist or Johnny Come Lately refer to local queer-inclined thrash trio Gaytheist as “so Portland,” I’m going to start shouting. Singer-guitarist Jason Rivera and his buds represent exactly the kind of genuine, homegrown “weird” that sneers and spits at casual classification by cultural killjoys. Shrapnel shredders like “60 Easy Payments” and “Spread ’Em” aren’t genre novelty experiments, but super-legit expressions of rowdy rage and raunchy rancor, performed by three dudes that rock like wild beasts because it’s always the right thing to do.

$5. Foggy Notion, 3416 N Lombard St.

Of Montreal

Mar 26 @ 8pm

Whether you prefer Of Montreal’s early days as purveyors of inspired ’60s sunshine, or as beat-focused pop tarts reveling in danceable drollery, your needs should be addressed by the Athens, Georgia group’s new record, ‘Aureate Gloom.’ Of Montreal main man Kevin Barnes flirts shamelessly with David Bowie and T. Rex on glam grooves like “Monolithic Egress” and “Last Rites at the Jane Hotel,” finding veins of shiny rock that have remained mysteriously hidden from less meticulous eyes.

$15. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St.

Iris Dement

Mar 27 @ 8pm

Arkansas-born songbird Iris DeMent has a voice as fierce and pure as a Pentecostal preacher, able to lull and lash the congregation in equal measure. Though gospel music figures prominently in her DNA, DeMent’s lyrics lean toward benevolent humanism, as on her playful ode to spiritual inclusiveness “Let the Mystery Be.” By no means a prolific songwriter, her most recent record is three years old. But as at least one diehard fan noted, “Iris DeMent could sing the phonebook and it would still be magic.” True that.

$29-33. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave.

Marmozets Courtesy of Roadrunner Records

Marmozets

Mar 27 @ 8pm

Comprised of two sets of teen British siblings, Marmozets don’t play songs so much as pounce on them. On their debut full-length album ‘The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets’ hurricane singer Becca Macintyre, along with brothers Sam (guitar) and Josh (drums) prove themselves to be seriously chops-savvy musicians capable of tying and untying complicated knots of both snarling metal and math-rock intricacy. But don’t be frightened off by their blazing competence or youthful enthusiasm; just relax and let the floor-boarded fury of “Why Do You Hate Me” and “Is It Horrible” blow your hair back.

$10-13. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th Ave.

Moon Duo

Mar 28 @ 8pm

If there was ever any danger of SF psych merchants Moon Duo turning into a spineless ethereal band, forever doomed to float and swirl around the room like so much vapor, those fears have been laid to rest on their new album ‘Shadow of the Sun.’ This is easily Moon Duo’s most propulsive album, which not only makes dancing a more reasonable activity than mere lounging about, the added sense of urgency in songs like “Free Your Skull” and “Wilding” keeps us grounded in the here and now, free from the shackles of creeping nostalgia.

$12-14. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave.

John Chandler has been writing about rock and/or roll for 25 years with The Rocket, Portland Tribune, Portland Monthly, Magnet, Dagger, No Depression, and Puncture. He also writes about beer, booze, and bars for Portland'sBarFly website and plays in a couple goofy bands when the mood strikes him. He can most often be found at the wheel of horrificflicks.com, a review website dedicated to horror movies.