Pandora Radio offers a lot of music for free, and now they're crawling out of your computer to get right up in your face and give away an actual, in-person, free live show. Aaah! The genome has come alive!!!!
Sorry, we're easily startled. Actually, this is worth paying attention to: The internet radio provider, for which you can design your own custom station (my personal channel is "Watain + Air Supply + California Raisins + Yakety Sax"), is offering fans a chance to see a band that they've started a channel for or thumbs-upped. And actually, there's even less of a reason to be scared: The band in question is the gentle, gentle sounds of Dawes, the band on the planet least likely to raise your heart rate.
Those who have started a channel with "Dawes" or who have clicked "thumbs up" while Pandora was playing one of their songs should have already received an email to tomorrow night's free show at Mississippi Studios (which starts at 8 pm). They're also giving away 25 pairs of tickets to anyone who shows up at the door, beginning at 5 pm. Now, don't get me wrong: Dawes makes exceptionally predictable, '70s-influenced, country-tinged rock played with sterile precision, resulting in dad-rock that almost seems genetically programmed to cross over as many Pandora channels as possible. (If you've ever typed in "Avett Brothers" or "Eagles" or "Wilco" or "Toby Keith" or "Mumford" into Pandora, you've probably gotten plenty of Dawes tunes as a result.) But Pandora's first free show is here in Portland, and hopefully it will be a harbinger of more free shows to come, and hopefully more interesting bands.
End Hits: Or "Dr. Dog" or "Jimmy Buffett" or "Willie Nelson" or "The Band" or...
