Dirty Projectors Play the Aladdin Theater in Portland, OR
Dirty Projectors, Portland, OR
by Brianne Turner, photography by Justin Patterson
Dirty Projectors made their return to Portland on Tuesday for the first time since their Fourth of July show earlier this summer. Playing this time at the more-accommodating Aladdin Theater rather than the super sweaty, super scene-y Holocene, the band were greeted by a larger audience who had seemed to utilized the months between the two shows to learn the words to Bitte Orca.
The set began with Dave Longstreth taking the stage with only his guitar to play solo oldie “Like Fake Blood in Crisp October” then moved directly into the full band taking the stage to begin the dance jam “Ascending Melody, giving Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle an open opportunity to show the crowd their choreographed doo wop dance moves.
Though the set list was Bitte Orca heavy, Dirty Projectors still slipped “Spray Paint (The Walls)” and everyone’s favorite new-but-unreleased song, “When the World Comes To An End” (which was titled “Withering III” on the set list) into the lineup before ending with a David Byrne-less “Knotty Pine.”
Dirty Projectors are a malleable band. Though Bitte Orca is perfect, it somehow sounds better live, and though the band know how to handle themselves on a smaller stage, it’s easy to get the feeling they’d do just as well playing the same show in an arena somewhere.