Spoonbenders, HELP, Kill Michael, Dr/unk

On Friday, March 31, The Community Center for the Performing Arts proudly welcomes Spoonbenders, HELP, Kill Michael, Dr/unk to the WOW Hall. 

Spoonbenders

Spoon Benders are an up-and-coming garage/psych punk band out of Portland. Their debut album Dura Mater was forged in studio and on stage one year before the COVID-19 shutdown. Inspired by bands such as Goggs, the Pleasure Seekers, Black Sabbath, Thee Oh Sees, and the Stooges, they have managed to create a diverse and highly dynamic sound that promises to hold your undivided attention.

HELP

Help is the frenzied sound of a broken and collapsing society.

In a world beset with anti-human reactions to daily struggles, Help responds with ways to dismantle evil machines and systems: Remove fear from decision making. Act in defiant joy. Refuse to dominate others. Do not hoard the gifts of the universe. The future is uncertain. Ends don’t justify means. Solidarity now.

“If Ram Dass says: Be Here Now, I say Class War Now,” says drummer Bim Ditson, “Because ‘here’ is becoming more and more unlivable with every millionaire, much less billionaire.“

“Meditation is cool though, actually," he adds.

It is this pro-human mindset that brought Help band-mates Ryan Neighbors (guitar/vocals), Boone Howard (bass/vocals) and Bim Ditson (drums) together. All three had spent the last decade or so in other, perhaps more restrained, bands. Ditson with grinding indie rockers And And And, Neighbors with alt-pop dynamos Portugal. The Man and with his electronic project Hustle and Drone, Boone Howard with his band of the same name and the psych-leaning The We Shared Milk. With Help, they are retrieving punk roots each member had put down in their teens. They are ripping the seams back open to see what’s really inside. “Everyone is angry,” says Neighbors, “Make some art about it.”

So they did. The trio holed up for two blood-soaked days at The Map Room studio in their hometown of Portland, OR with producer Sonny DiPerri (Portugal. The Man, Animal Collective, Protomartyr, Emma Ruth Rundle) whose unblinking production captures the band’s urgency without taming their ferocity. The resulting EP is a mere six songs but each one cuts like a power-saw with the safety off. Bruised and gnarled, there’s an unfiltered sense of humanity, pain, solidarity and even optimism. This is the plain justice of anarchy.

The recordings come with a layer of sweat and volume that hammers the point deeper, and there’s a bent-nail feeling that’s just as good onstage.

“Playing live in this band is a revelation…” Howard says, “[I’m] used to fronting bands of my own, I’m learning how rewarding it is to sit back and complement these other guys whether accenting the kick and snare while locking in with Bim or just solidifying the melodic structure of the songs through Ryan’s completely unhinged guitar playing.”

Help refuses to bow to a world where the counterculture has been nullified by corporatism and surveillance capitalism. Help is the band Portland needs right now.  It’s the band the whole world could use a heavy dose of if we want to climb out of the dark ages of greed and into the next century of mutual aid and collaborative self-directed communities of creativity.

Kill Michael 

Band from Portland, OR we play hard music. We are very kind, nice, friendly people but enjoy playing with fire, chains, and our fists. Our height & weights: Zoe 5'5" 195 LB Sam 5'10" 160 LB Myra 5’7” 210 LB Jarl 6’0” 170 LB We have some beefy amps and we like to have a good time. We hope you enjoy our music

DR/UNK

             Dr/unk is a self-described queer, drag-punk band.  They play original punk music and dress in drag.  Each band member has their own drag persona and stage personality — drummer Tristan Day becomes Patricia Violence; bassist Isaac Andreason becomes Miss Treat; guitarist and vocalist Chris Heer becomes Suzie Slaughter; and Dakota Seven becomes Daisy Chained.

“The band formed the summer after the members graduated high school in Aug. 2019,” reports Nika Bartoo-Smith (Daily Emerald).  "Andreason is credited with bringing the idea of drag to the band, although who thought of combining the words drag and punk to create the name ‘DR/UNK’ is a bit of a debate. The band highlights the intersections of drag and punk through its performance — punk music has roots in pushing boundaries and questioning gender norms. The genre is known for dark makeup on people of all genders and political songs. DR/UNK’s music is definitely that.”

Sign up link - https://signup.com/go/frTMJiS