Sallie Ford @Doug Fir
With Old Light
Friday night’s show at the Doug Fir Lounge was a dance party that spanned over a multitude of genres: everything from Americana to metal to retro surf-rock featuring Portland’s own Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside and Old Light.
The night began with Old Light’s explosive, reberb-heavy Americana music that sashayed effortlessly through bursts of post rock, punk, and folk. The band’s refreshing take on eclectic Americana music is apparent in its rhythm section, which boasts two drummers with full kits and a very bass-heavy mix that resonated all over the Doug Fir’s famous log-cabin walls. At one point, in a very sincere moment of gratitude, singer Garth Steel Klippert stopped to say, “This is the best room to play in Portland. It sounds the best.”
At the end of Old Light’s set, Klippert trotted offstage and returned with a transparent red guitar, proclaiming, “This is a metal song. It’s a dance metal song. But it’s also a love song. This was advertised as a dance party, right?” With that, they left the crowd dancing and head banging to a track that rivaled the ranks of tongue-in-cheek dance metal heroes Eagles of Death Metal.
After a short break, the musicians who make up Sallie Ford’s backing band, The Sound Outside, set up their drums, guitar and stand-up bass, and began playing a swanky jazz beat. After a few bars, Sallie Ford herself sauntered onto the stage, beer in hand, sporting her signature retro floral dress and horn-rimmed glasses, to a roar of applause and choruses of “YOU’RE SO ADORABLE!” from seemingly every adoring man and woman in the audience. Ford smiled sheepishly, clearly aware of her hometown’s overwhelming love for her, and began to parade through songs old and new about everything from “bad boys: those beer-drinkin’, tattoo-sportin’ pieces of shit that you love”, her love for the city of Paris, and “jobs where you hate your boss” with hard-hitting rock ‘n’ roll vocals, surf-guitar riffs and endearing dance moves that seemed to leap straight out of a ‘50s Buddy Holly show. Even when introducing a darker song called “Poison Milk” and announcing, “This song is about murder!”, her adorable, tiny firecracker persona caused the audience to erupt in cheers.
The show concluded with balloons being tossed into the furiously dancing audience by Ford’s “hype girls”, her best friend and little sister, who helped dance and sing backups onstage. The balloons soared through the audience -- until, that is, they got too close to the lights and popped. But it only added to the show’s loud, triumphant attitude. Portland will always love Sallie Ford.
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