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So if you don’t see or here from me for the next five days, you’ll know why.  I’ve been mentally preparing my mind and body for this, training if you will (hey some train for marathons, I train to drink and listen to music for five hours a day for five straight days on nothing more than four hours of sleep a night), all year for MusicFest Northwest.  If you’re going to any of the shows here in Portland hit us up on Twitter or send us an email and we’ll try to meet up.

This year’s a bit disappointing because there are too many conflicts happening to truly see every band I’d want to.

I’m going to save any videos or write ups for one post, probably on Sunday.  Tonight kicks off with Will Sheff, of Okkervil River, solo at Berbati’s Pan.

So I’m still alive, sort of.  It’s been grueling going to shows and work and pretending to maintain this whole blog thing.  I should, when time allows tomorrow morning, have some awesome video for you guys.  Over the past two days I’ve caught some great bands and made some nice discoveries.

However, there is much to hate about the festival and that all stems from the planning by the Willamette Week.  Twice now, I’ve bolted concerts to go to another location and twice have been met with long lines and the inevitability of disapointment.  On Wednesday it was making a break for the Mogwai show at Roseland Ballroom after being slightly disappointed by the lineup at Berbati’s Pan and last night it was leaving M. Ward midway through his set to see Starfucker and Deerhunter across town at Holocene.

Of course, not knowing anything about Holocene (cut me some slack I just moved here) I assumed because Deerhunter was playing there that it had to be a large venue, right?  That’s a good assumption to make.

I was met with looooooooooooong lines both times.  Last night was especially crushing because both Starfucker and Deerhunter were high on my list of shows to see, though I never imagined that they would schedule Portland’s most popular local band and one of the most popular festival bands back to back in the tragically tiny Holocene.  But this is Portland and that’s what happened.  Seriously, there’s something askew about this town and one day I’m going to put my finger on it.  The whole Deerhunter episode is indicative of that, but I’m not quite sure how it’s connected to long lines at coffee shops and waiters who could care less about serving you and buses that run whenever they want.  I know it’s all connected somehow.

You could hear the grumbling from people in line about why on god’s earth would Deerhunter be playing Holocene, especially given that the Wonder Ballroom wasn’t being used. One guy jokes, while leaning up against garbage cans, “Now this is how I imagined my night going” and another girl, upon seeing the monstrously long line said with utter defeat, “Can this day suck any more?”

Sucky for sure.  Still, I got to see No Age at the Wonder Ballroom and they totally rocked my socks off.  I didn’t know much about them accept for reputation only and shit, those two guys played louder and more furiously than I was anticipating.  It was just an hour of high-tempo, hard hitting music.  Battles followed them up and it’s safe to say, I can appreciate the band for what they are, but not my cup of tea.  I thought, perhaps they would sound better live but no.  Better on the record.  They are a band that’s good in theory, but again it takes a special person to love the sort of mathy-prog-rock that sounds like smurf music on acid and I’m just not that special.

We’ll have more in depth looks at the bands tomorrow. As for tonight we’ve got Britt Daniel of Spoon going solo acoustic.  Well, I’m not positive about the acoustic part but definitely solo.  And then Built to Spill performing their album Perfect From Now On in its entirety.  Then, busting ass to the Crystal Ballroom for Lackthereof, John Vanderslice and Vampire Weekend.  Maybe.  I still really wanna see TV on the Radio, but I’m not waiting in any more lines.  If that happens than I’m putting the entire city of Portland on notice.

Music Fest Northwest starts up tonight with Fuck Buttons, Mogwai, Langhorn Slim and Old 97’s.  Not sure how much this will effect things over the next few days, i.e. Thursday and Friday, but you can make the assumption that posting will be light, very light.  Maybe only one or two things a day.  When time fits.  Much apologies, but there is too much great music to try and catch!

I just finalized my tentative schedule for MFNW.  It’s going to be a doozy.  Of course, I’ll probably have to make a backup plan.  This will be the first time attending and unlike multi-artist festivals that happen in one place, this is taking place throughout the city of Portland.  There are lots of conflicts of interest and too many good bands, both well-known and not, to not get upset at not being able to see everything.  I think that last sentence was a quadruple negative.

The main problem is that you can’t just walk across festival grounds if you want to catch a different set.  Here you either have to stick in one place each night or, well, I don’t see any other option.  Suggestions?

But among the bands playing from Wednesday to Saturday that I’d be retardedly excited to see are (deep breath): Old 97’s, Fuck Buttons, Mogwai, Xavier Rudd, Port O’Brien, Nada Surf, Eskimo and Sons, Calvin Johnson, M. Ward, The Whigs, Oxford Collapse, Starfucker, Deerhunter, The Cool Kids, No Age, Battles, Southern Belle, Matt and Kim,  Nick Jaina, John Vanderslice, Vampire Weekend, Laura Gibson, Team Evil, TV on the Radio, White Fang, Eat Skull, Swim Swam Swum, Super XX Man, Britt Daniel solo, Built to Spill, Menomena, Fleet Foxes, Blitzen Trapper, Helio Sequence, Loch Lomond, Blind Pilot, Dirty Mittens, Dan Deacon, Horse Feathers, Panther, Shakey Hands, and Les Savy Fav.

And yes it seems that all those bands are all playing at the same time on opposite sides of the city.  Sucks.  Expect me to be useless come Wednesday.  I’m not sure how I’m going to spend all night watching music, write about stuff before work the next day and still keep up thing here.  Should be exciting, no?

I’m very confident in my picks, click to see them bigger.