QUASI | North Six Review

Quasi isn't the type of band to give it to you straight. This Portland duo of Sam Coomes (played bass in Heatmiser and for Elliot Smith) and Janet Weiss (the drummer in Sleater-Kinney) along with a backup bassist played North Six Tuesday. Describing their first few songs, Sam said, "Sometimes it's like butter, sometimes it's like shards of glass." Now, butter is an apt term if you are talking about the popiness of their best songs—smooth structure and catchy lyrics—and shards of glass is equally accurate if you are talking about the messiness of their best songs—discordant melodies and murky distortion. Quasi wields raw distortion using a rocksichord, which is a keyboard that emulates a harpsichord, filtered through many different pedals. When Sam hammered away at the keys, you might think his amp was blown too if the sound wasn't so clear.
But back to butter and glass, these ingredients could also represent the randomness of their set list. The band focused on songs from their new album When The Going Gets Dark, which is their best work since the late 90s and delivers more experimentation with guitar than previous albums. The smattering of tracks they played from their six other albums was not the group of Quasi hits I was dying to hear. There was no "I Give Up," or  "The Happy Prole," or "Ghost vs. Vampire." However the band was open to requests, and while most were denied, they were slightly flexible with their written set list. Somebody in the crowd shouted, "I Never Want To See You Again." Janet sarcastically responded, "We never want to see you again either," then they played the song. The band also played a very redeeming four-song encore including "My Coffin," another request. So while Quasi's songs were morbid and cynical, and we appropriately did not get all the songs we expected, I think most people went home happy.

Comments

[Matt]

Sorry I missed em. One of the great, underrated bands. FYI, the backup bassist is Joanne Bolme of the Jicks and, prior to that, the wonderful Minders.