The Austinites had a hell of a concept when they franchised the rights to SXSW’s ugly kid brother, North-by-Northwest, to the local hip set up here in Portland.
When I found 1997 wandering through the woods of Northern Maine, she looked chilled and distracted, so I took her back to my cabin for a hot toddy or two.
Gone are the melodramatic posturings, the over-the-top inflections, the overdone stage settings. Bowie is being David, rather than some fantasy construct.
Why does a band that has become internationally famous for breakbeats and “Loops of Fury” revert to the metronomic bass drum sound that drove so many away?