The Blender

Sometimes, when I hear a band is coming to town, I like to slow roast the music on my rotation for, I don’t know, about a month. That’s what I’ve been doing with the tunes of Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers, the rootsy indie rock act from Oklahoma that’s playing a free show at McMenamins Old St.

Music fans in Bend don’t easily forget. That’s why when Vancouver, BC’s bluegrassish party band Clumsy Lovers played the Silver Moon last night—despite not having played in town for at least three years—fans remembered that this band used to rip it up here in town.

The Yard Dogs Road Show filled the Domino Room last night with plenty of fog, zany music, trombones, lasers and at least one fan wearing stilts for a show that melted the barriers between theater and rock music.
For the first time in my tenure here in Bend, there were chairs on the floor of the Domino Room, which makes sense, considering the theatrical, circus-show atmosphere.

I’m still wrapping my head around exactly what happened up at the corner of 14th Street and Galveston Avenue this weekend. If anything, the 2009 edition of the Bend Roots Revival proved that whatever negative labels the dismal economy has placed on our town do not apply to our music scene.

If you happened to be wondering how many people will willingly cram themselves into a relatively small room to see a free show by one of the most buzzed-about bands in all of indie rock, last night’s Deer Tick show at McMenamins gave you the answer—a hell of a lot.
By the time the Rhode Island Americana-influenced rock band hit the stage at about 7:15pm, the Father Luke’s Room at McMenamins Old St.