The rivalry between Portland and Seattle is unmentioned on this blog. I won’t give it voice here. I’ll just say, we locals get a bit tired of bands from the city with the NBA team. I won’t explain it, because it gets nasty quick– something about all their bands acting like a rock concert is music theater with jazz hands, and all our bands looking at our own feet all through the gigs. But it’s much more.
I won’t go on with that. I will say that I got over my, as Philip Roth would say, Portland complaint, the day I shared a bill with the fabulous band Tango Alpha Tango.
Check this video from their kickstarter:
Okay, now about Tango Alpha Tango. They’re polite. They sound fantastic. They rock. And they have no freaking complaints. They seem to have made a policy of circling back to the Comet Tavern every month, and building an audience the honest, old-fashioned way. With a good show.
I’ve wanted to write about them for a while, but, in my opinion, their live show so surpasses their recordings I just didn’t want to give the wrong impression. That said, their kickstarter video actually has a sound that is closer to where they are now.
I know that Seattle, strangely enough home to one of the greatest blues guitarists in the history of music, is not so much a blues town– though I hope GravelRoad and Lonesome Shack can help change that. But I think we should officially immediately adopt Tango Alpha Tango. A band with chops, not too derivative, that understands hard work, and a band that, you know, looks pretty cool but not posery. Eh?
I’m particularly happy about the gig tonight at the Comet Tavern, because this looks to be the best of Portland and Seattle. Seattle’s Slow Skate, who started out great years ago when they were featured on NPR, then got better working with Ball of Wax, are opening the night. I would also suggest that perhaps Jason Goessl of Slow Skate and Nathan Trueb of Tango Alpha Tango somehow trade licks at some point of the night.
One more thing. This concert is taking place at the Comet Tavern. If you haven’t been there recently, you need to revisit it. The place has been redone. Severely. There’s now a stage. And proper sound.
Thursday, September 22nd
The Comet Tavern
Slow Skate, The Soft Hills, Exohxo and Tango Alpha Tango
$7, 8:45pm, 21+