Haley Bonar, Halloween, Alaska and Alpha Consumer at Cedar Cultural Center on 11/28/09

By: Jake Mohan

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Halloween, Alaska - Promotional Photo

The between-song banter at an Alpha Consumer show is usually worth the price of admission alone. Opening the second night of the Haley Bonar/Halloween Alaska double-header at the Cedar, Consumer guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker introduced the wistful “Yellow Sun” by announcing, “This song’s about cancer.” The audience’s laughter was ample but nervous, even more so after bassist Mike Lewis added “Don’t get cancer. It’s expensive.” The jokes kept coming throughout a set that was, perhaps due to the Cedar’s sit-down atmosphere, relatively subdued, and leaned more toward the trio’s softer, country-tinged numbers. Bonar hopped onstage for a cover of “The Rainbow Song” by retired Boston bus driver Bob Shea (seriously—check out his MySpace), and the band also cruised through a Steve Earle cover alongside a few songs from their upcoming full-length, Kick Drugs Out of America.      

The sonic progression of Halloween Alaska’s three albums over six years is significant: the songs on their debut are drenched in synth and treated percussion, while the ones on this year’s Champagne Downtown are far more epic, edgy, and elaborately orchestrated. But live, all of Halloween Alaska’s compositions get the same sophisticated treatment: James Diers’ lush keyboards punctuated by Jake Hanson’s clean guitar embellishments and the savage bite of Dave King’s schizoid electro-jazz drumming. Their set at the Cedar hit some early melancholic notes with a gorgeous cover of Sade’s “Love is Stronger Than Pride” and “Knights of Columbus,” a eulogy for Diers’ grandfather. But they also provided the night’s loudest moments, tearing through Downtown standout “In Order” and the frantic crime noir of “A New Stain.”

If Haley Bonar’s felt estranged from the cities since moving to Portland earlier this year, it didn’t show when she took the Cedar stage and settled right back in, as if she were doing a residency. Lewis and Ylvisaker returned to help out, though she did perform a chunk of songs solo in the middle of the set, and the band provided appropriate doses of electric atmosphere and rhythmic anchor. “The Cedar is as folky a venue as you can get,” Bonar said, encouraging the audience to sing along on, well, “Sing with Me,” and while introducing “Skinny Days”—a brief shuffle over which Ylvisaker laid down some big-sky slide guitar—she remarked on her recent tour. “It was good, for the most part. But sometimes it felt like—let’s just get through all these other cities so we can just get to Minneapolis. There aren’t a lot of cities that care about music like Minneapolis does. And I miss you.” We miss you too, Haley. Come back anytime.

 

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Location Info: Cedar Cultural Center
Artist Info: Alpha Consumer, Haley Bonar, Halloween, Alaska

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