Gentle's Series Thurs Jan 23

The Birdnest 1532 SE 32nd Place

If you're like everyone else in this town lately, you've been experiencing some either A. major seasonal affective disorder or B. some major passive-aggressive repressed anger shit. Let's give us all the benefit of the doubt and blame it on the crappy weather. You know what you need, baby? You need a little hot tea, some candlelight, and some songwriters to serenade you and turn that depressive scowl into a beam of joy (or a temporarily contented smile, at the very least).

That's where Portland's Most Eligible Bachelors come in, with the musical program they're putting on at the Birdnest, which is basically, like, their house. Entitled "Gentle's Series: Furnace Mist Traveling Minstrel Candlelight Cabaret" --held by local singer/songwriters Bobby Birdman, Yume Bitsu/(VERSION), Little Wings, Peace Harbor, and the Graves--these boys are going all out to make you feel as comfortable, intimate, and yes loved as you need to be. In addition, this is the only Portland stop for Entrance, which includes members of The Convocation Of , and the wonderful NYC singer Devendra Banhart. (Devendra's latest, Oh Me Oh My on Young God Records, is utterly haunting, and loaded with creepy vibrato vocals, gorgeously understated guitar, lyrics such as, "I've never told this story to another living soul/for fear it might awaken and the story would unfold.")

As an aside, the Birdnest is a central location for something called "The Invisible Family Shield." If you've been paying attention to K Records lately, you've noticed there is a core group of songwriters who appear on virtually every release--this is the Shield. Consisting of the Birdnest Boys, The Microphones, Y.A.C.h.T, The Blow, and more, and including such labels as Portland's Strange Attractors Audio House, States Rights Records, and BaDaBing!, The Shield is basically like the Wu-Tang of indierock, only with slightly less rapping. "There is cross-pollination like crazy," explains Yume Bitsu's Adam Forkner. "People jumping on each others' tracks and albums--kinda like hiphop, where you get Ludacris on a Missy banger, and Missy on a Janet Jackson rocker, you know?"