Live Music!

By Rob Cullivan

The Portland Tribune, Oct 22, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Righteous babe Ani Difranco has created an alternative nation of fans through touring, talking, jamming and advocating, all without playing the corporate m

COURTESY OF Rhea Anna

Oct. 23

Buffalo gal

Few performers define the word “indie” better than Ani DiFranco, Buffalo-born goddess of Righteous Babe records and feminist folk rocker. The fearless guitarist and singer has created an alternative nation of fans through touring, talking, jamming and advocating, all without playing the corporate music game. She’s a much more tuneful songwriter than she was when she started almost two decades ago but still has enough left-of-center approach to plucking the strings and arranging to keep the hipsters happy. She’s touring in support of her latest album “Red Letter Day,” which is melodic enough for even a patriarchal chauvinist to love, as long as he doesn’t listen too closely to the words.

Ani DiFranco, Anais Mitchell, 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, at the Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W. Burnside St. $32.50 advance, $35 day of show. All ages. 503-225-0047.

Oct. 23

Waves of regret, tides of joy

At its best, country music should make you want to leave the bar and go home to tell your wife and kids you promise to stop drinking and be a better man. Then make you forget that promise as you order another whiskey. Then cry as you feel bad and call her on the pay phone. Then start a fight with the guy who also wants to use the phone. Then smother him in man hugs. Flash Flood & The Dikes will make you want to do these things. God bless ’em for performing Friday happy hours at Slabtown.

Flash Flood & The Dikes, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, and ever after, at Slabtown, 1033 N.W. 16th Ave. Free, 21 and older. 503-223-0099.

Oct. 25

Chords on a cloud

If you ever laid on your back on a hillside, looking skyward and feeling forgetful, you’re half the way to getting Noah and the Whale’s serene, melodic electro-acoustic sound, which lies about midway between earth and heaven, with heaven drawing the music upward rather than gravity pulling it down. The British folk band’s latest offering “First Days of Spring” is allegedly about a breakup, but the music is so tuneful and hypnotic it’s hard to believe any gal in her right mind would give the guy up.

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