Minh Tran Minh Tran Minh Tran Harlem’s native sons, the Diplomats—AKA Dipset, AKA Cam’ron, Jim Jones, Freekey Rekey, and Juelz Santana—performed before an enthusiastic, if relatively small, crowd of Pacific Northwest Diplomatic devotees on Sunday. Perhaps due to my advanced age and East Coast upbringing, I am continually surprised at how little draw many of […]
Minh Tran
Posted inLive Review
Mac DeMarco at the Crystal Ballroom, April 22, 2015
Minh Tran Minh Tran When Mac DeMarco last visited the Crystal Ballroom, he was opening for Phoenix, and having not yet heard of him, I foolishly skipped that set in favor of something that I have no recollection of now. Fast forward just over a year later and when Mac came back—following his 2014 Pickathon […]
Posted inLive Review
Leon Bridges at the Crystal Ballroom, April 16, 2015
Minh Tran Minh Tran While the current vanguard in music is focused on exploring minimal, ambient expansions on ’80s-rooted R&B, Leon Bridges follows the blueprint of a much older era of the genre, one derived from Sam Cooke and Otis Redding as opposed to Sade and Luther Vandross. Possessing a warm, rich, clear tenor and […]
Posted inMusic
Stromae at Crystal Ballroom, Tues April 7, 2015
Minh Tran Minh Tran Is the local Portland music scene thriving or subsisting? I’m never quite sure. Certainly there are a plethora of musical acts creating, recording, and performing locally at any given time—but the number who’ve achieved traction beyond regional lines seems to have diminished as global sonic tastes shift and evolve. Portland’s music […]
Posted inMusic
Action Bronson at the Wonder Ballroom, Sat April 4, 2015
Minh Tran Action Bronson, whose last Portland show went down in infamy, performed at the Wonder Ballroom on Saturday night, only the second stop on a long tour in support of his new album, Mr. Wonderful. Minh Tran After a thorough warm-up of punishing, brutal NYC hip hop classics by Alchemist, Action Bronson confidently strode […]
Posted inMusic
Young Thug and Travis Scott at Roseland, Wed April 1, 2015
Minh Tran Minh Tran There are many up-and-coming rappers out there, at all rungs on the ladder of public consciousness and this past week Portland was blessed by several fast-climbing rap artists, each hovering on the precipice of cultural ubiquity. We’ll have photos from Action Bronson’s Saturday show later today, but on Wednesday night, co-headliners […]
Posted inPhotography/Film/Production
Caribou at Roseland, March 3, 2015
Minh Tran Minh Tran Dressed in all white except for their shoes, the Caribou clan gingerly walked onto stage and proceeded directly into their respective nooks amongst the musical machinery, at which point their Tuesday night performance at the Roseland began. Lots more photos after the jump! Minh Tran Minh Tran Minh Tran The proceedings […]