Saturday, March 08, 2008

A Rambling Review of The Helio Sequence


Last night I went to my first concert in years of a local Portland band. It was part of a series of cheap concert called "I Saw Them When" which is based on the idea that the featured band is on the rise nationally and this is your last chance to see them in a smaller venue cheaply. The band we went and saw was called The Helio Sequence. I was introduced to the band about January when I first heard their latest album Keep Your Eyes Ahead. They have an interesting sound which is part electronica, rock and pop. Their music is very catchy and I liked qite a few of their songs almost instantly. The venue was held at the Crystal Ballroom which is owned by the McMenamins corporation. The Crystal Ballroom has been around for 90 years and has seen a lot of big names float through apparently it fell on hard times and that was when McMenamins came in nd estored it and reopened it as a venue to once again see live music. McMenamins is a company that seems to dip their hand in everything they have their own beer and own a bunch of historic sites that they have turned into hotels, concert venues, restaurants and movie theaters. One of the interesting thing about the Crystal Ballroom is that it has a 'floating' dance floor. Which is apparently something to do with being a 'mechanical dance floor', when you move it moves with you and if you get hundreds of people rocking out it can be pretty cool.
The band, The Helio Sequence, is composed of two guys and the amount of sound they put out is amazing. One of them plays guitar, operates a floor pedals while singing and the other plays the drums. The drummer sounds like the slacker of the group until you see them live. The drummer was pouring down with sweat within the second song due to his drumming with complete adandon and wild gesticulating movements. He was asolutely fascinating to watch and his facial expressions were pretty amusing. They played a great energetic set and I found myself only not liking 2 of their choices and both of them were pretty slow. The rest was upbeat and a lot of fun. They played two pretty cool encores one was a Beatle sog and I am not sure what the other one was. The band is pretty dang good and you should check them out. Preferably live but the latest album will work too.
Check them out at one of these sites:
http://www.subpop.com/artists/the_helio_sequence
http://www.myspace.com/theheliosequence

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