Though much of my year was invested in the ongoing debate,
alternately uplifting and frustrating, over what age people should
(not) have to be in order to see live music, the substantial amount of
time that I spent actually attending local shows was overwhelmingly
rewarding. What follows is a list of my five favorite local shows of
the year, four of which I’m happy to note were all-ages. In the
interest of fairness, I have not included any events with which I was
affiliated, including sets from the 2007 PDX Pop Now! festival. I hope
you saw some good ones this year, too. There were a lot of them.

1. Dragging an Ox Through Water— NE House Show
(3/11/07)

Prior to this daytime, potluck house show, my deep
admiration for the profoundly moving, circuit-bending noise-folk of
Brian Mumford, AKA Dragging an Ox through Water, was the exclusive
product of time spent in private, basking in the warm, frayed-edge glow
of his recorded output. Seeing Mumford play live for the first time, I
was blown away. Though seated and motionless, save for the small
stirrings of his string-plucking fingers, pedal-pushing feet, and
glasses-readjusting nose, Mumford captivated the spellbound crowd more
fully with his focus and calm than even the most talented of extrovert
performers might have done with antics and flash. As it happens,
Mumford does this regularly, but, hey, you never forget your first
time.

2. Menomena—Crystal Ballroom (1/28/07)

While putting
out the year’s best album (in the form of Friend and Foe) was a
major achievement for Menomena, we knew they were capable of it. Less
expected, but perhaps even more hoped for by fans, was Menomena’s
transformation this year into a consistently top-notch live act. This
free, all-ages album release show, where Menomena were accompanied by a
massive choir of local voices (including some usually found in the
Helio Sequence, Dat’r, and Boy Eats Drum Machine), was a public
declaration that the avant-pop trio had overcome the demanding
technical challenges of their eclectic live instrumentation and were
now a force to be reckoned with on stage as well as on record. The
resignedly triumphant a cappella moment at the center of this night’s
chorus-augmented “Rotten Hell” rendered the rest of the world
momentarily irrelevant.

3. YACHT on a Yacht—Willamette
River (5/5/07)

By mustering the gumption and resources to stage the
record release party for his album I Believe In You. Your Magic Is
Real. as an itinerant river-going adventure on an actual yacht,
Portland’s mantra-making, beat-birthing high priest of post-guitar punk
positivity—Jona Bechtolt—made tangible the undeniable
we-can-do-anything-together charm of the music he makes as YACHT. The
PA overheating in a pillar of smoke as the jubilant crowd, decked out
in captain’s hats, passed the still-singing Bechtolt overhead along the
7-foot-high ceiling was classic YACHT.

4. Per Se &
Leviethan—The Waypost (6/30/07)

This show, attended by only
one person other than myself due to a scheduling mix-up, was the
ultimate testament to the talent and dedication of these two
singer-songwriters, as well as to the depth and spirit of the Portland
music community. Per Se and Leviethan played their short, unamplified
sets with enough commitment, humor, and intelligence to make attendance
figures immaterial, and to transfigure an empty café into an
intimate chamber full of shared warmth. While these performances
merited a full house, I felt lucky to be alone with the music.

5.
The Joggers—Halleluwah Festival @ Holocene (8/31/07)

One
of only a handful of shows that my favorite Portland band played this
year, this freewheeling set on the first night of the Halleluwah
Festival answered my questions as to what exactly the Joggers have been
doing for the two years since With a Cape and a Cane came out.
The answer: writing songs every bit as technically rigorous,
unselfconsciously joyous, and utterly unique as they ever have. Hearing
this set felt like eavesdropping on the band at a particularly fun
practice session.