Defeated By The Heat

Anyone in Portland this past weekend knows how unbelievably hot it was. Too, too hot. It was difficult to find the motivation to do anything but sit in my slightly-cooler-than-the-100-degrees-outside basement and try not to move. Sadly as I sat in the sweltering heat, pissing and moaning, I realized the Las Vegas-ian in me may be completely gone. It's been a long time since I lived in the desert and already my immunity to the blazing sun has left my body.


Luckily, a couple of friends played shows that helped serve as a distraction from the extreme warmth. Ehren Ebbage played another happy hour show at the Alberta St. Pub on Thurs. There's not a whole hell of a lot more I can say about Ehren; every one of my friends know that I think he is an incredibly talented musician. I was fortunate enough to introduce him and his music to a few of my friends at this show. Once again, Ehren played a solid set and even threw in a cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" for good measure (my friends also know I love my Prince...). Nice thing about Alberta St. Pub, in addition to the talent, is that their happy hour runs until 7:45pm and the food is actually pretty decent. Unfortunately, the staff is less than accommodating. They were rude to some of my friends and, in an unforgivable move, were rude to the evening's talent. Online reviews also note the same thing: good food, horrible service. One would assume in a service industry this is something they would address. However, one would assume incorrectly in this instance. I'll give them one more shot, but treating an artist that brought in the majority of their patrons for that evening with any disrespect at all is unacceptable.


On the other end of the spectrum, the Buffalo Gap has always provided me exceptional service. They have a late night happy hour menu every night with good food for $2.95, including some killer BBQ pork tacos that I highly recommend. On their musical menu last Saturday evening was a new friend of mine, Brandon Chandler and his band The Revival. I've really been getting into his first album After All This Time (Leslie writes a great review of the album at http://deludedsecretary.blogspot.com/2008/08/review-brandon-chandler-revival.html) and I'm looking forward to the release of his second album later this year. Brandon and his band played an excellent set and I am looking forward to seeing them again in a month at a very special gig that some of you will also join me for.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have an opportunity to catch a live show from either of these artists, jump on it.