Yes, I agree - I love the Portland music scene, but boy do our local rags WAY over-agrandize and slip into wet-dreamy myopia whenever some somewhat-successful band 'graces' us with their visit to stumptown. PLEASE get a little perspective for heavens sake. Not just in this review - but in general. I quit going to the shows you recommend long ago before giving them a listen on myspace first after going to show after show of dogfood. Save the filette-mignon comments for talent that truely deserve them. A band that's been around for 15 years still stuggling to make a name for themseves outside their own circle does NOT deserve praise like this.
There's a lot of better talent all around the country, let alone the world, to be asserting what this article does. I hardly can take you seriously when you raise good (but not awe-shockingly great) musicians to levels they clearly haven't been recognized by most other notable critics and authorities to belong in.

Jake/Fraso
Death Cab are not a local mainstay, and they are most definitely not struggling to "make a name for themselves."

In fact, DCFC is one of the most popular rock bands of the last decade. They have one platinum release, and a pair of gold records, in the past four years alone. (Source: http://bit.ly/9XHomr) Please explain how that makes them anything but universally popular (in an era of declining record sales). Plus, throw in the ridiculous pop culture explosion of Gibbard's Postal Service side project (not just with UPS commercials and Owl City), and you have an artist that has dominated rock music over the past ten years. Please name me one more rock artist (Timberlake doesn't count) that has had the same impact.

Just for the record, it was a really good show music-wise, to see the stoic Farrar and the personification of rock music rocking out onstage together. Very soul-satisfying.

The Wonder Ballroom's all-ages show layout is asinine, though. It was impossible to get a beer. And it was hot as hell in there. Is there a law against letting in some cool night air?