February 18th, Wonder Ballroom

I just love the name of this venue. It makes me think of big band and swing dancing. Turns out the building was originally used by "The Ancient Order of Hibernians, a group committed to immigration reform, civil rights for those of Irish descent and the preservation of the old Irish culture," as I learned here. As proud as I am of my Irish heritage, the reason I was there was to see Dashboard Confessional.

Portland is quite a distance to travel to see a band, but as my faithful readers know, in my opinion, no distance is too far for a dose of Chris Carrabba and Co. It was worth every mile. I was even lucky enough to convince Adam, one of my favorite concert buddies, to go with me.

Chris getting all emo

This was my 5th time seeing DC live and I have always been impressed by the fans. All the people I've met have been super nice and I could see myself being friends with pretty much any of them. This includes the people at the Slim's show in SF last December. Things got a little dicey when John Lefler started handing out little shakers and everyone started pushing toward the stage. But then people in front started handing them back and helping get them distributed to as many people as possible and everything turned out alright.

For some reason, though, the fans at the Portland show were a bunch of jerks. I don't know if it was because Dashboard hadn't played there in such a long time but these people were almost in a frenzy. This is quite unusual for Oregonians, they are usually friendly and laid back but people were pushing and shoving and swearing and just generally not being very nice. It gave the show a strange vibe. Don't get me wrong, Dashboard is always amazing, but there wasn't the same connection between the crowd and the band as at the other shows I've attended.

Despite all this, I loved the show. Here are a few highlights:

• Getting a new Dashboard t-shirt.
• Getting to be there with Adam for his first live Dashboard show.
• Watching Mike Marsh going postal playing drums during "Vindicated."
• Hearing DC's cover of "El Scorcho."

Adam and Me

After the show we hung around to meet Chris. He usually comes out to talk to the fans. He never showed, but drummer Mike Marsh, bassist Scott Schoenbeck and guitarist John Lefler did. It was awesome to meet the other band members (I had previously met Mike). John Lefler was super excited when I asked him about his solo album Better by Design. He asked me my name and if I was on twitter and when I got home I tweeted him and he tweeted me back!

Drums

I'm pretty sure that Mike Marsh was slightly intoxicated. When I asked him to sign their album Dusk and Summer (for Adam because he was being a coward and wouldn't ask for himself) he called it Dusk and Bummer. Haha. Then, when I told him that I tried to play "Hands Down" on Rock Band and it was super hard he was like, "Yeah, 'Hands Down' sucks." What?! That is pretty much the DC anthem.

John Lefler and Me


Scott Schoenbeck and Adam

So, overall I had an amazing time. And being in Portland was great because I got to visit my favorite Braun family. More Dashboard coming soon . . . .

Porter and Mason happy, yum!

Mike Marsh, Vindicated