Recap in Crayon: MusicFestNW, Days 5 and 6

This post will wrap up the MFNW coverage so hopefully I was able to entertain someone out of the very few who probably read it. I would hope people remember these drawings as "audacious, artistically inspiring," but I will probably just settle for "not entirely unpleasant" and "made with crayons."I'm lumping the last 2 days together since day 6 was pretty light with only 2 venues hosting shows, just like on day 1, and only ended up seeing one show that day.Day 5

Shuggie Otis

The venue was surprisingly really packed for Shuggie and it was a really mixed crowd too. I guess he has a lot more fans than I thought. He is pretty old now but can still play and sing like the young'ns do. He was also wearing an awesome suit that I think was black velvet and one of those 60's dress shirts with the ruffled chest. The man's still got some soul.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

I'm not sure why, but this was actually the second night that Godspeed played and their first performance, according to some guy I overheard in the crowd, "kinda blew."  They had 2 projection screens behind them which flashed bleak sepia-tone imagery which made the show drearily hypnotic. The band was late to start their set by about 15 minutes but once they started it was a sea of beautiful gloomy sound for a full 20 minutes. After their next 10-minute song the set was almost over.The set was supposed to end at 11:00 so we left at 10:55 to go catch The Dodos across the street. When we got out of The Dodos though everyone was just leaving the Godspeed venue, which had nothing scheduled after Godspeed, so they apparently played for an extra hour. I was a little disappointed I missed that.

The Dodos

The Dodos played in the Star Theater which seemed to be the perfect venue for them. It wasn't too big and was casual yet still a little classy. It just seemed really fitting for the band. The indie folk duo, Meric Long and Logan Kroeber, added a 3rd member to their lineup for this tour: Portlander Joe Haege. He was a bit older than the two usual Dodos but was awfully good at playing the songs and was really into it.

 Day 6

Neko Case

I only saw one show on the last day and that was Neko Case. She played on the outdoor stage and it was an ideal 70 degree late-summer night. It turns out that it was Neko's birthday that night -- which is maybe the reason why she and her co-vocalist Kelly Hogan were so bubbly and goofy -- and the crowd eventually sang Happy Birthday to her. The whole show Neko and Hogan were joking and riffing like old friends. The whole show was really informal and it made the big venue seem more intimate. It was a nice end to the festival. Here are some highlights from the bubbly Neko Case.

• Neko after screwing up on the last note of one of her songs and being asked by Hogan if she had something in her throat: "Yeah, a balloon of cocaine. It's for the kids."
• Repeatedly making fun of the steel pedal guitarist for being old
• 'We're bringing indoor rock outside!"
• When seeing people in the windows of the tall hotel that faces the stage: "Hello people in the hotel up there! I bet they're having sex. I'll play some baby-making music."