Buko Magazine - Music in the Northwest

Music in the Northwest with resources
and information for the music community.

"I support Live Music" T-shirt
This is a great gift for the music fan.

Video interviews and music with members
of the music community.

Oregon Music History
Read the "History of Portland Rock"
by SP Clarke, look at old photos that were
never published, and download PDFs
of Two Louies Magazine.

by Ty Hitzemann

Live Show Review

Boogie Bone
Pro-Bone-O CD release party
Roseland 1-15-11

Note to self: Quit buying top-dollar tickets for national acts, when I've got it all right here with top-notch live and local music-night after friggin' night for a fraction of the price.

Other note to self: Always make sure to drag even my economically lazy friends out to see local acts- especially when Boogie Bone plays. They hang out with the audience during the opener set and hand out worthy prizes to their fans!

Half the city was in attendance. That's right…they all squeezed in to be part of one of the best shows this year so far. They also got a free full-length CD of the band's new release, 'Pro-Bone-O'. A richly decorated album containing a collection of cleanly recorded killer numbers. There's backwood boogies, uptempo Texas style shuffles, with shit-stomping Telecaster leads. There's four-bar baddies mixed with some funk- driven horn sections, and informal r&b, bringing both Smokey Robinson and Tower of Power to mind.

I especially dig the jump-blues inspired "Insight Out" with its spanish vis-a-vis arabesque slant. Nice. For all its variance, the band keeps it all wrapped up tightly in the blues.

In celebration, the band was red hot and ready from the first song out. It was as if they just finished one of the best gigs in their life but still had four hours worth of boogie in them to hoist upon the crowd- these cats are adrenaline addicts.
Amazing that Howlin' Jake Johnson can call to mind Al Green, Joe Louis Walker and Vernon Reed all at the same time. Steven Dee Williams carries both great rhythm, dynamo leads and punchy vocals. He toggles between each member of the band, bouncing his chops off of them all.

Seems that one Steve Snyder plays just about everything- sax, keys, harmonica, flute..all at once. Move over Rasaan Roland Kirk!
All this, held down by a very heavy bottomed rhythm duo, Henry Gevaldon and Todd Stevens on bass and drums, respectively.

For a bit I wondered why I didn't recognize too many out in the seats…they came from every walk of life and corner of the city. The CBA regulars were there with their blessed legion of support. Yet there were also whole platoons of youngsters, oldsters and in betweeners; even a couple metal-heads w/ Motorhead t-shirts heard the music and decided to check it out. I lost sight of them amongst the mayhem.

The StrangeTones are so impressed with the 'Bones, they lent themselves as the opening act. The 'Tones are yet another shining example as to why we've got the very best in Portland They played familiar tunes everyone loves as well as a couple brand now songs, unleashed here for the very first time. Wow.

Its no wonder the greatest artists we got are all local. There's almost no reason to catch the National's running through, when we got 'em all right here, for a fraction of the price.

Final note to self: Since half the city was in attendance, let the other half know that their remiss cost them one of the best times they could've had so far this year. They also didn't get cool t-shirts and bumper stickers- you haven't lived until you can walk up to the hottest chick in the room and hand her a "Got Bone?" button.

And the 2 headbangers? I spotted them at the front of the stage, their Pabst pints and horn-forked fingers thrusting firmly in the air as Boogie Bone threw down the last 2 rescinding notes.
That's our PDX!

Boogie Bone- 'Pro-Bone-o' - Self Released
Find it at CD Baby and Music Millennium