You Are Invited

I went and saw Telekinesis and The Dismemberment Plan at the Wonder Ballroom. Follow me along this journey, if you please!

Newest album cover

I had heard about Telekinesis, but never actually listened to them until they were played by a few people in turntable.fm (RIP). I was in a music rut a few months ago, and searched through my TT playlist to see if I had any bands I didn't really know that I could search out on Spotify. I had a few Telekinesis songs so I pulled them up and just put their whole discography on repeat as background music. Eventually I read a little bit of their biography and saw they were from Seattle which was awesome. I definitely need to get into more PNW bands, so this was a great opportunity. I listened to them more and more and really got into a few of their albums, so I searched if they had any concerts coming up in the area and they did - at Wonder, no less! Wonder is probably my favorite place in Portland. I've seen great shows there, you can get right up to the stage, parking is easy and free and close by even though it's on the street, and I've always had great experiences there. And it's the only venue where I've actually been chilly inside! Amazing. I clicked through to buy tickets, and Telekinesis didn't even show up on the website as the band you were buying tickets for so I figured they must be opening for... The Dismemberment Plan?! WHAT?!

I honestly had no idea these guys were still around. I listened to them for a bit in high school and have a handful of their songs on my iPod. They were kinda strange (even now I don't know how to describe their style) but I remember liking them a fair amount. I also never realized how grotesque their name was until now, either. Not sure why. Anyway, I opened my iTunes and played what I had from them that I probably hadn't listened to since senior year of high school. I looked them up on Spotify and yeah, they basically stopped releasing stuff about the time I graduated high school until one album they put out this year. I played the record through a handful of times over the past week and it really sounded just like the DPlan I remembered, and a few songs caught my fancy. I was considering going to the show and leaving after TK but I decided to stay. And, of course, I'm glad I did.

Telekinesis at Wonder

TK put on a great show. They were really chatty, which is fun. I love when bands interact with the audience. It creates a more unique, authentic experience. Like, the crowd in the next city won't have that same memory, and it makes it different from just listening to their album. Some bands don't do this as much, like oM, but they put on such an insane show that it doesn't even matter. Anyway, they went back and forth with the crowd about their shoes. Unlike most shows, you could tell a lot of the audience had a healthy knowledge of them even though they were the opener. Like, everybody knew to scream "DIRTY THINGS" at the end of their song of the same name. They played mostly songs off their last 2 albums which was good because those are the only two I've spent much time with. One of their last songs was a Guided By Voices cover (Teenage FBI) which was incredible. Their frontman/lead singer is also their drummer. I don't know why but it always surprises me when lead singers are drummers. It makes total sense, keeping rhythm and singing. At the end, someone shouted "Don't let Phil Collins intimidate you!" or something of the sort. I just read that he's announced he's coming out with a new album or something? So it was more relevant than I thought at first and kind of funny.

Telekinesis

Once TK left, things got weird. I didn't do this on purpose, but I was super close to the front. After TK, this guy in front of me leaned on the stage and stuck his butt way out and up in the air and essentially was boxing me out. And did NOT move even though he shoved into me and someone else. I was like what the heck? So I slid up next to him by the stage and whatever. Then this guy behind me sneezed on me. Then I realized I had guessed the gender of 2 people wrong that I thought were obvious by all of a sudden seeing their facial hair (not judging not judging). Two girls behind me were super drunk and started SHRIEKING and squealing and being drunk-annoying. A guy setting up the stage was a spitting image of JLP. I was next to 2 couples, and each one looked like they had about a 30-year age gap between them (not judging not judging). The girl right next to me looked JUST like my friend Chelsea - same hair, same glasses, same style. For some reason all of this stuff (and I'm sure I'm missing things) just made me feel kind of weird and uncomfortable and again I was like "should I just go?" But no, I was already there, front row, let's do this thing.

They came out and the guy who previously was boxing me out and whom I was now standing next to (SOMEONE - did I just use who and whom right?!) started dancing like a legit rave was happening. You don't have much personal space at these shows, and he was invading about 9 people's bubbles. I've never seen someone hair flip so little hair (I was expecting his sweat all over my face and kept grimacing, waiting for impact) while also dancing with pretend glowsticks. I know I said I can't describe DPlan really, but I would not classify them as rave music. A few people moved back to get away from him. Dance, have fun, sure, but don't get in the way of other people's good time. Contain yourself a little bit, man.

My view for the night!

DPlan's set was pretty good, but I'll be honest - the sound wasn't that great. It seemed like all of the vocal mics were turned down too far. But, he does do a fair amount of screaming so whatever. They played a lot of the songs I remember from high school (I could still sing along to most of them, hello useless knowledge tucked away) and my favorite songs off the new album. They have a pretty unique sound which they've really kept after all these years. They were also really chatty which was great. They started off with an important warning - "If you put regular gas in a diesel engine, it stops working." Eek. I think my favorite exchange was some girl yelling to the lead singer "FUCK HER IN HER C-HOLE!" And he was like what?! And she repeated it so he goes '"That was... 0% necessary. Really just... not necessary at all." She kept yelling it and they were laughing about it like "wtf."

Their guitar player (he was right in front of me) had great shoes. The drummer didn't wear any shoes. The lead singer danced pretty well while rap screaming. Their bassist had a decent beard. The way they did "You Are Invited" was pretty cool, basically everybody left the stage before coming back out for the part where it gets real intense. I always loved the story told with that song. He also shared that at one show a long time ago, the whole crowd was singing "Eye, eye of the tiger" instead of "I, I am a time bomb" hahahaha!!! Before the encore, some of the crew were taking everything off the stage or pushing it to the side. The guy took the set list from the guitar player and basically handed it to me. The Chelsea doppleganger wasn't paying attention so I snagged it. I kind of felt like offering it to her, since she seemed really into them and while I enjoyed them, they are no oM or Islands for me. But I kept it because hey, hand written set list? Ok! During the encore, they invited two people on stage and gave them free tshirts to model what they're selling at the merch table. Then, he invited everybody to come up on stage and dance with them while they did Ice of Boston. And lots of people did. It was kind of nuts but so so cool. Some girl took her necklace off and left it on stage, so the last person to leave put it on the lead singer. "Oh great, I've always wanted a gold choker!"

Everybody up on stage who hopped up

In the end, I still say I was there for TK. Both bands were good, and it was definitely an experience. Next week - Unknown Mortal Orchestra and The Dandy Warhols! I'm hoping I will actually go. I said OK to an 8am shift the next day, and this is the 3rd time I've planned on seeing The Dandy Warhols and I still haven't seen them. Here's hoping!

Here's "You Are Invited" in case you want to check it out. It's a pretty tame song and like I said, it tells a nice story (I think anyway).