Numerous times, when I say I started Ice Cream Man in Oregon, people assume it was in Portland. It always surprises me that one city so often represents a state.ie. Austin. The truth of the matter was that ICM was started in Ashland, Oregon and I had hardly ever spent any time in Portland. It wasnt til last years Music Fest Northwest that I got to spend a handful of days in town to get an idea of what it was like. I was pretty impressed last year but this year was even better, most likely because I knew my way around.
MFNW has been going on for 6 years and theyve seemed to have leveled off a bit, in a good way. Most other festivals that have a similar format; shows in bars and venues all over town, seem to continue to grow outta control. Its cool to have large events like South by Southwest and CMJ but theyre almost too big to manage. And Ill forever be bothered by not being able to get into shows at those fests. As far as I could tell, everyone with a wristband could get into any show during MFNW. You might have to wait an hour but you can get in to see the bigger bands like TV on the Radio, Mogwai, or hometown favorites Helio Sequence with Menomena.
Knife and I headed down to Portland right after Bumbershoot in Seattle for the MFNW kick off party on Wednesday night. Even though I got to play a few hours of pinball in Seattle, it didnt keep us from heading straight to Ground Kontrol to rock some pinball before conveniently slinging a block away. We knew itd be mellow so we chilled and met up with Gregor and grubbed some meat muffins and made some coffee in the truck. Last year we had good luck parking in front of Berbatis so we rolled by there for a bit before catching Mogwai. For the unaware, Mogwai are a sonic force to be reckoned with. It was one of the louder shows Id been to in a while but the sound was so clean, I resisted the urge to pop in earplugs. For the record, my ears were not ringing afterwards either. I think being seated in the back of the balcony saved me.
Our first stop on Saturday was Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. James had set up an ice cream social there and we made our way up the hill to the OHSU compound which kinda reminded me of Elsinore Brewery in Strange Brew….except the hospital has a cool new tram you can take to it that goes over I-5 on the way. We hung out there for a couple hours and gave away ice cream out front and I made a trip upstairs for some of the patients and families that weren’t able to leave their rooms.
For the most part the fest runs from Thursday to Saturday so we had three days to give away thousands of treats. Nike was throwing some kick-ass day parties and they helped us out by giving us a few bucks to sling cream there. Last years events were cool but these were even better. The lineup for the first day was No Age and Battles. We parked Newt in front of Wonder Ballroom and started slinging about an hour before the doors opened to the hundreds of people in line. The weather was nice and there wasnt much else around to consume so people were happy to be getting free ice cream. Id like to say the shows were awesome but since I had seen both bands a couple times this year I let the rest of the crew rock out while I stuck around the truck. Juliana and Ryan were helping to shoot throughout the weekend and we loosely got everything situated for the rest of the fest have fun.take pictures.rock out.
After some Burgerville (a deserved NW legend) we hit up Berbatis again and I ran over to Dantes to catch some of The Blakes who I missed at Bumbershoot the weekend before. I only got to catch a few songs though cuz I had left my phone at the truck and held on to the truck keys, which isnt advisable when youre illegally parked. We knew we had a couple more long days coming so we got back to Jodis a bit early then proceeded to stay up late.
Friday was another stellar lineup at the Nike, Run with the Devil day show at Wonder Ballroom. Built to Spill was performing Perfect From Now On in its entirety and Britt Daniel from Spoon was opening with a solo set. BtS is one of my favorite bands but, alas, I was stuck working. If I werent able to see them last weekend at All Tomorrows Parties, Id prolly be a bit more disappointed. I did catch Britt playing The Underdog which was cool and I spied Janet Weiss hanging around so maybe she drummed with him a on a song. Afterwards Juliana, Knife and I headed to Russell Street BBQ which was on the corner. Mmmmm.. the ribs and greens hit the spot.
We couldnt resist stopping by Berbatis because it had the best parking spot of all the venues. We also wanted to get the cream slinging outta the way so we could ROCK. Not just your average rock but full-on ROCK with the likes of Monotonix and The Night Marchers. The Monotonix set lasted about 20 minutes indoors before spilling into the streets. My only concern was that I was on the stage while the band was playing to a packed house on the floor and there were no fire exits in site. After hearing about numerous fire incidents involving Monotonix, Im glad the band headed out front with their guitars and drums before things got out of hand.
We were running a little low on cream so I stopped by one of my favorite depots in the country on Saturday and supplemented our stash with a few hundred more treats. Portland Ice Cream Company has it all. Theyre even opening a coffee shop next door soon. While waiting for my order I played some Galaga in the back room but didnt do so well (unlike my awesome game of Moon Patrol last night at Barcade in Brooklyn).
The headliners for the Nike show on Saturday were Ratatat and Les Savy Fav. The line to get in was the longest it had been yet. It went to the end of the block then around the corner then around the next. Im guessing there were probably a thousand people in line at some point. Maybe thats an exaggeration but it couldnt be that far off. Our friend James was doing some filming for an upcoming documentary on Ice Cream Trucks and his crew was out filming as I went down the line trying to give everyone ice cream.
Apparently Ratatat is HUGE in Portland and most of the kids were there to see them. The house cleared a bit after their set which was great for the people waiting to see Les Savy Fav. We ran out of ice cream around the time LSF went on so it was the first time I was able to see a band for more than a song.
We had a couple options for shows but were led to the Crystal Ballroom where Helio Sequence was headlining. Knife and I had seen them last year at the same venue but this show was much improved. Menomena played right before them and the home town crowd was very appreciative of their groovy, harmonious set. Keep in mind Crystal Ballroom is one of the best venues in the country because they have a trampoline like wooden floor. We started a dance party near the exit stairwell which grew to about a dozen people during Helios set. They played a bunch of tracks off their latest album, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, which is one of my favorite records of the year. For the end the guys from Menomena came back on stage and they they all jammed out. It was the last music wed hear at MFNW and was my favorite thing Ive seen in the two years Ive been.
Sunday morn included a requisite stop at Jace Gace for waffles then Knife and I took the long cut to get to Corvallis which included a stop at Riverbend disc golf course in Milo McIver State Park alongside the Clackamas River. For anyone considering hitting up Portland for MFNW next year, I couldnt recommend it anymore. Portland is an awesome, young town with endless of amounts of new and local music and all kinds of other fun stuff to do. Bring your bike if you can too, its the most bike friendly city Ive been to.
Thanks to Trevor for getting us involved with MFNW and making sure everything went smoothly. Big thanks to Abby and Christian at Nike as well for helping us get to town and making the thousands of free ice cream possible. Without the help from Jodi, Juliana, Ryan, Connie, Andrew, and Knife, we wouldnt have been able to rock it or post this review. Til next year!
