The Blender

It’s been a busy couple weeks in music around Bend, culminating in The Devil Makes Three and Larry and His Flask at the Domino Room on Tuesday night and Greg Brown packing the Tower last night.
Sorry for the delay on posting here, but I was down for a day with that scurvy-like illness that’s been sweeping through town, so I’ve been a bit behind as of late.

It’s Wednesday and you know what that means, don’t you? Yes, it’s hump day and your weekend is that much closer, but also it’s become one of the best nights for live music in Bend. Here are a few of our best bets for an enjoyable evening of fine tunes.

Far and away the show of the week and one you really shouldn’t miss is tonight as The Devil Makes Three plays the Domino Room. Local wildmen Larry and His Flask open the show.

If Blind Pilot, the folky indie rock band out of Portland, were bummed by the fact that their blue, full-size, old-school tour bus was broken down in front of the Tower Theatre, they sure didn’t show it. The sextet, which had been off the road for almost ten months, delivered a vibrant and full-sounding set to an almost sold-out Tower for this PDXchange Program show.

A little over a year ago, Blind Pilot — at the time a buzzed-about, but mostly little-known indie folk act — played the Sisters Folk Festival. Within months, the Portland band’s popularity exploded, thanks to the strength of the band’s album, 3 Rounds and a Sound.

We’re in the process of editing down the hour-plus of footage we collected over the weekend at the Bend Roots Revival, which I’m going to go ahead and say was one of the coolest things I’ve seen during my time in Bend.
Festival founder and creative director Mark Ransom told me that he figured more than 1,000 people were on hand for Saturday, which showcased much of Bend’s most solid acts, including a rockingly explosive set from the Autonomics that brought the festival to its feet.

Is the Century Center awesome, or what? Bend Roots is in full swing and tonight promises to be an epic night in local music. I took a break to bring you video from the festival midday.

The Bend Roots Revival is in full swing at the Century Center (if you’re still having trouble finding it, just turn off of Century at the new US Bank) and last night was a hell of a coming out party for the fest’s new venue.
By the time Moon Mountain Ramblers hit the BIGS Stage around 8pm, the place was flooded with local music fans (maybe double of any prior Roots fest) who saw what I thought was the best Ramblers set in a very long while.

The Bend Roots Revival kicked off last night around town and I made it down to the Victorian Cafe where Rising Tide, Bend’s own Grateful Dead tribute band was kicking off the festival, as is becoming tradition.
As longtime Bend Roots fans know, there tends to be plenty of Dead covers (or covers of songs the Grateful Dead also covered) throughout the festival, so it’s fitting that the Revival should kick off with a Jerry-centric party.