Thursday evening’s intimate outdoor concert at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center was enjoyable for attendees and a nuisance to neighboring ears.
The concert featured explosive performances from progressive rock jam bands Minus the Bear, Portugal. The Man and The Big Sleep, all of which are currently on a spring national tour. A standout set may be hard to discern, as both Portugal. The Man and Minus the Bear pumped out incredible energy and technical skill using everything from bongo drums, to a MacBook and 4-foot-long cases of effect pedals. The two bands even collaborated during “Ice Monster.” Masked members of Portugal. The Man came out from backstage like a tribal procession, banging on miscellaneous instruments, starting a communal chant of the lyrics “it’s come to this.”
AlaskansPortugal. The Man opened up their set with fresh songs that replaced their last album’s Blood Brothers-like flamboyancy with a darker, more blues-inspired direction. Their upcoming record is tentatively titled Censored Colors and is expected to be released sometime this year.
After a roughly 50-minute set, headliner Minus the Bear left the stage and was begged for an encore. But the 300-person crowd did not get one; an especially unfortunate event for Davis’ Minus the Bear fanatics. Two nights before, at the Bimbo’s venue in San Francisco, they came out for a four-song encore that included several songs off the first full-length releaseHighly Refined Pirates, said Erin Stein, a student at California State University, Sacramento, who attended Thursday night’s show in Davis.
Instead of the Seattle five-piece taking the stage for a heavily requested final rendezvous, Davis Chief of Police Landy Black came up to the microphone to announce that the show was now over and the audience should begin to exit. Although the Entertainment Council had a noise permit, the concert was cut just short of itsallotted time of 11:30 p.m. due to consecutive noise complaints, EC director Jasmine Lau said.
The concert was the first live music event at the Mondavi Center annex, and EC’s first experience with renting the location for this purpose. A noise permit was acquired, which was valid until 11:30 p.m. Just after the concert, the EC was told “[Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center] isn’t going to be a concert venue in the future, basically,” said EC staff member Luke Hammons.
–Text by Nicole L. Browner
–Photos by Jon Wiles
