Fresh off a successful national tour, Portland's prince (and king, for that matter) of R&B, Shy Girls, returned to a hero's welcome from his hometown crowd this past Friday night at Wonder Ballroom. As I entered the nearly sold-out venue and navigated through said crowd, I noted that it was also an exceptionally good looking one—the kind of crowd that pores over fashion blogs while powering through their fourth elliptical workout of the week, the kind of crowd that made me wish I myself was Portland's prince of R&B. Instead I arrived alone, a lowly concert documentarian, denied a +1 that may have staved off the suffocating loneliness of not being Portland's prince of R&B.

Perhaps evoking Shy Girls' origins as a bedroom project, Dan Vidmar wisely placed himself front and center on stage for this live performance, armed with just a mic, rather than lurking behind a keyboard, laptop, or any other instrumentation, leaving those duties to his demure and highly capable three-piece band. This paid major dividends with the audience, who were engaged throughout the performance of his already majestic tower of songs.

Dispensing with the smooth-jazz guitar licks and sassy saxophone flourishes of his earlier work, which steered serious and sensitive songs into unwelcome territories of humor and irony, Shy Girls' recent mixtape, 4WZ, is a wonder of razor-sharp avant-R&B production coupled with strikingly sincere lyrics, dialing down the gratuity while maintaining the impact of his oft-cited peer, the Weeknd. The performance was polished and professional, making it easy to believe that soon Shy Girls' reign will reach well beyond the fair borders of Portland.

More photos after the jump!