Last night, Nicole Atkins + Night Heron was the first concert I attended since early March 2020, when the world changed. Was absolutely worth the ~1.5 year wait, and what a way to kick off my slate of upcoming concerts.
Night Heron
Neat, vibey band that also happens to hail from Portland, Oregon!! Their setlist comprised most of the tracks from their debut LP. The closest parallel I would equate their sound to is that of Tame Impala's
Currents, but substantially more low-key
. Enjoyable.
Nicole Atkins
Oh so fun! Met up again with
@Ericj32 in between the sets, chatted for a few minutes, and he secured me a can of Prfiem Hazy IPA (IOU!) at the counter. Still wasn't very packed during the intermission.
Nicole's setlist was primarily music from her most recent records, with a healthy six tracks from the excellent N&G RotM from
@Teeeee. It was really interesting to hear her claim that the self-titled track from
Goodnight Rhonda Lee was inspired by Chris Isaak.
Several cool, cute, and crass moments at this show. A slow dancing contest with a hand-drawn portrait of Ten Danson by Nicole for a pair of lucky contestants set to the fantastic "A Little Crazy," a lengthy call-and-response section from a track I didn't recognize, many more references to "secret boyfriend" Chris Isaak, and a brief interlude by Nicole's keyboardist who's lyrics involved kinky grandmother fantasies (not kidding).
The encore was an excellent, sultry, rockin' cover of Led Zeppelin's "What Is And What Never Should Be." Pretty neat how her country-soul, singer/songwriter backing lent well to the track.
Post-Show
I had brought Nicole's two most recent records from home in a messenger bag to the venue with the intent to get signatures, like most of this forum seem to already have gotten through preorders/N&G RotM announcement.
@Ericj32 hadn't yet acquired
Italian Ice on vinyl, and were both equally as interested about getting signed merch. After he got the LP from the merch table, we decided to wait inside the venue for Nicole. Initally, we did see her emerge from the curtains separating the stage from the audience floor, but she went upstairs exiting the venue rather hastily.
Subsequently waiting ~15 unsuccessful minutes for her return, we hesitantly ventured out of the basement venue asking a few employees around for her whereabouts, being met with inconclusive responses. I was disheartened by the time we got to the sidewalk outside...for approximately one minute.
@Ericj32 whispered to me: "I think she's to your right." I turned around, had my eyes take a second to adjust, and then had the moment of realization and almost squealed, realizing how awkward my audible outright disappointment might have been LOL. Nicole was indeed talking to a pair of fans outside for several minutes, based on the conversation we stumbled on. When we caught her attention, we asked if we could get LPs signed and she was so nice about it. She recognized the N&G logo from the sweatshirt I was wearing and made mention of how "crazy" the AMA held on the forum was. It was very surprising to hear that she hadn't performed in a Portland venue in several years. We were able to talk for a minute or two about trivial small-talk before she ended up returning to the venue.
She's the best.
)
