Paying the price of a good night's sleep to see Julie Byrne (absolutely worth it!) for a lateish show to wake up for a 5:00 AM shift the following day. Yes yes yes!
ann annie
A local multi-instrumentalist born and raised in Portland, OR. Their music is a hybrid of modern classical, jazz, and ambient genres, using clarinet, keyboard, guitar, and modular synthesis to achieve their sound. Really enjoyable improvisation, with some beautiful, tranquil moments spread out in the ~30min set.
Julie Byrne
A gorgeously performed ~50min set of mostly all of 2023 AotY candidate
The Greater Wings with plenty of in between chatter. Julie alternated a few songs of acoustic guitar + vocals, and then only vocals.
In addition, I gained insight to a deeper meaning for the inspiration for the album title...which I initially thought was solely about a reflection on the recent loss of her childhood friend and music collaborator. It came about from when Julie was getting treatment from a massage therapist in Paris. During the exchange, the therapist mentioned that the sphenoid bone was one of the most vital and sensitive parts of the human skull and that it bears two pairs of lateral "wings" in its structure. Something about that intimate exchange had resonated with Julie enough to coin the name of her newest record.
She also played an unreleased new song "Twenty-Two" in the middle of the set, which will drop sometime in October.
Encore selection was a solo performance "Sleepwalker" from the excellent sophomore effort
Not Even Happiness, sounding clear as crystal and with conviction.
Video of the gorgeous "Lightning Comes Up From the Ground" from Julie's newest LP. She has a handful of infectious, hearty laughs that aren't shown in this video:
Post-show
Chatted with the local people near the front who have been longstanding acquaintances I have seen at other concerts here over the years. They all were riveted by Julie's music/voice, much like I was.
Looking at the merch table, there were shirts that, as Julie mentioned from earlier, had the text of
The Greater Wings with a graphic of a sphenoid bone with "wings." They looked pretty neat, but I ultimately have too many band tees accumulated at this time. There were also lyric booklets of
The Greater Wings for $15 and vinyl/CDs. I waited around the middle of the room for after the encore in hopes of having my Julie records from home signed. About three other people had the same gameplan.
About 25min pass by, and then with someone saying to another patient, hopeful patron says to him that Julie was actually outside the venue entrance talking to a handful of people and that she had been doing this for the past ~15min or so.
Soo...
The group of us headed outside and saw Julie chatting with a couple that were just ready to take off. She then approached me and asked how I was and if I wanted something autographed. Initially on
Rooms With Walls and Windows, I handed a silver pen to her thinking it would contrast well with the artwork...but it didn't show up great, she commented that it looked very translucent. I had a black pen ready so I instead had her use black ink for all of them, using black to overwrite the preexisting silver signature. After getting my three jackets autographed, I told her to keep the black pen as no one else brought one. She still politely returned it to me after the other people had their autograph requests fulfilled.
I was ready to head home afterwards, but one of my concert acquaintances at the front who was waiting for an autographed ticket stub also suggested I get a photo with Julie. So, I couldn't say no, could I? If you excuse my awkward pose, I think we cute.
EDIT: Added unreleased song info + edited opener.
She also added some personalization; a 2023-labeled heart with Cupid arrow on Sorceress, and a flower in the corner of Time Ain't Accidental. She gave me a hug as well and I wished her well and safe health for the rest of the tour.
