Soulsavers with Mark Lanegan

First concert in Portland was an undeniable success. You can't get much better than Mark Lanegan.

We arrived in time for the opening act but I have no idea who they were. What I do know is that I'm still confused by what I saw. They were a pretty good band, I'll give them that. Kinda dark and ethereal and the lead singer was a woman with a pretty cool voice. Most of the songs were pretty mellow but they had a couple songs that were full of energy and I think that's where they shined. They actually reminded me a lot of The Duke Spirit, especially her voice. But I can't shake the feeling that the whole time she was performing she was seeing something the rest of us couldn't. I don't know if she was high or if it was all an act but her weird looks and antics kept me more than entertained. There was something about the whole thing that made it seem like some secret magical ritual and that she was actually casting a spell on us instead of just singing. Maybe we looked like idiots giggling throughout their set but I couldn't help it.

But then the Soulsavers came on and it was brilliant. They started off with The Seventh Proof, the first instrumental from their new album. They sound exactly the same, if not better, live as they do on the album. Although because it was an instrumental, Mark Lanegan didn't come out so when the song was ending and he came out by himself, the place blew up. It was obvious then that people were fans of Soulsavers because of Mark Lanegan and not really the other way around. Which isn't surprising considering I'm the same way. He started off with Ghosts of You and Me from their second album and hearing him sing the chorus

Some say this Highway seven
Is a long and lonesome road
Don't ask me little Rosa
Which direction I am going

actually gave me chills. Every song he did was just perfect. He barely acknowledges the audience, looks down almost the whole time, squints and closes his eyes but it doesn't matter. That's Mark Lanegan. He's the man with the voice that sounds like whiskey and cigarettes. Everything about him: his voice, his persona, it all hints at this man with a dark past. A man who survived so much that you'll never know about. And that's what makes his music so amazing. Especially when he sings the sweeter songs like Some Misunderstanding and You Will Miss Me When I Burn. Even though he didn't write those songs, it's obvious that he feels them and it's the layers and the softness underneath all his rough edges that make hims so fascinating.
And they didn't only play Soulsavers songs, the Wonder Ballroom absolutely erupted when they played Hit The City. You could hear people sing along and the energy in room absolutely engulfed everything. They also played Kingdom of Rain, a song of his that is also on the album. Since that's one of my favorite songs of Lanegan's it was just so wonderful to actually hear it live. You just can't help but melt hearing that gravely voice asking you

Would you put halos in your hair
Without a hope without a prayer
With lies close to your breast
You finally lay your shame to rest
Before I go, I'll hang in a cross on nails
I hung on for you in there
And every kingdom of rain comes fallin' down
Cause I loved you so long

Just like on the new CD, there was this Australian singer, Red Ghost, who accompanied him on some of the songs and even sang solo a couple times. Mark Lanegan always sounds fantastic when paired with a woman's soft voice. They compliment each other so well that they just make the other sound even more amazing.

Like every other concert I go to my only complaint is that it had to end. And before the encore they hadn't performed the one song that I desperately wanted to hear, Revival, or the song Sunrise but I would be able to handle not hearing that song performed. And so when they went away I could only hope that they would come back to perform it. When they did come back it was sans Mark Lanegan and Red Ghost sang one of her tracks on the album which of course was great but not what I wanted to hear. And then Mark Lanegan came back. And sang Revival. And at that moment, I could die happy.

I really hope that the concert was an omen for what the rest of this experience is going to be like but I doubt that any other show will match this one and I'm okay with that because this show was everything I could hope for.

All the songs that they played (fairly certain) but not exactly in order:

Ghosts of You and Me
Death Bells
Unbalanced Pieces
You Will Miss Me When I Burn
Some Misunderstanding
Hit The City
Rolling Sky
Jesus of Nothing
Paper Money
Jesus Just Left Chicago
Praying Ground
Revival

The Reason

I read somewhere that Amanda Palmer didn't get into music for the music but just as a way to connect with others. Ben Corman, a fantastic writer wrote this post about how he's a writer because that's the only thing he can be. And that lead me to a realization about myself. Everything decision I've made was based on connecting with others. My whole life, my reason for everything was around that goal. From soccer, to yearbook, to AcaDeca,the AmeriCorps and most definitely my reason for being in music was in order to be a part of something.

It's the reason why I'm here in Portland, the reason why I prefer cities, the reason why I love the Internet so much. I suppose there are those people who prefer to live their lives in their own bubble, who can allow the world to carry on without them having to be a part of it. But I want to be a part of everything. I hate sleeping because I know that things are happening that I am not a part in. The world is rapidly changing and I want to be in the midst of it. One of my greatest fears is to miss out on what is going on in our day and age. In the twenties I would have been a poet or a suffragette, the fifties and sixties I would have been involved in civil rights and peace protests. It's a good thing I wasn't alive in the seventies because that was all crazy parties and drugs. Ten years ago it would have been all about the tech boom but now, now it's the Internet and music. Now it's media and communication. And that's what I'm going to be in.

I don't want to live in a bubble. I want to be in the middle of the vortex.

Music is nothing without the people involved. The musicians need the artists as much as the fans need the music. Music has always been about "this is who I am" and the people who relate to that. And the Internet has taken it one step further. No longer is it just the musicians saying "this is who I am" but now the fan can say "and this is who I am".

Sam Potts is a guy in Boston. I'm think he has some sort of marketing company, but I'm not really sure. But he's a friend of Jonathan Coulton and I follow JCo on Twitter. When JCo tweeted about Sam Potts's new art project, Twitter on Paper, I listened. I followed Sam Potts and filled out the forms. Twitter on Paper was a project he was doing where anyone could request any of the tweets he had done and he would write them and send to you. It was like backwards technology and I loved it. I requested three, received them and they were fantastic. The best part was the note attached that had his address and said you were free to send anything you wanted to him. And even when the project ended, I continued to follow him. He's a really interesting guy and when I posted pictures of my framed Twitter on Papers he responded. When I asked him about his new project because it was going to launch on my birthday he explained and wished me a happy birthday in advance. Without the Internet, I never would have known who Sam Potts was. But my day is made with those kinds of connections. For me, life is all about those connections. I adore Sam Potts but I've never met him and I probably never will. And that's okay.

People scoff at social networking like blogs, Facebook and Twitter. They don't understand why you would want to know what everyone is doing. Why some lady would write about her five cats, or some guy the car he's building, or some kid about her love of music. But all we're doing is saying, "this is what I'm about, what are you about?" Because this blog, music, the AmeriCorps, and putting myself out there is what I'm about. What are you about?