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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2007)
4QjUSttOUt JANUARY,12.3^ music Under the Covers Thanks for making Boxxes the spot in 2006! Let’s do it again in 07... xoto, ...... * 4 1 I «t the original thursdaynite watering hole with F.S.O. I 4 J sundav f by Timothy Krause relationship with individuals. Anyone interested in n the two years since moving to Portland from his native San Francisco, indie telling a story cannot deny themselves exploring all singer/songwriter Holcombe Waller has facets of media, including characters who inhabit released an acclaimed third album (Troubled worlds of their own. If I had the resources to incorpo Times), and performed at the Portland Institute rate online gaming into this piece, 1 probably would.” for Contemporary Art’s 2006 Time-Based Arts The differing styles of Van Zandt and Griffin Festival and appeared onstage in One; The Musical are so far removed from Waller’s own that they give and Tao Soup. Now he integrates all three creative the musician fresh inspiration. facets in Patty Heart Townes, a new original theatri “Patty’s work is ethereal and in-between cal performance based on the songs of Patty Griffin worlds—songs from the perspective of the dead, and Townes Van Zandt. love and loss, pain and triumph, but all with an eye A music performance at its core, Patty Heart on the big picture, our ultimate mortality. Deeply Townes will incorporate movement, singing, cos human songs, eternal longing, the voice from the tume, video projections and a live string ensemble deep,” says Waller. “The Townes portion is very, following the travails of Mihael Sagalovesky, a sad very different. Poetic storytelling in the vein of a clown seemingly doomed to live out the legends of florid Guthrie or more self-absorbed Seeger.” the songs he sings, transforming from disgruntled In some ways, Patty Heart Townes is Waller businessman to dninken, homeless and perhaps post continuing his education as an artist. “It’s so mortem minstrel. “Mihael has been through the ringer. He’s been fucked over, he’s been hired, fired, loved, forgotten. God has appeared to him, and then disappeared, and now just haunts him with emptiness. In other words, he’s one down-and-out little clown,” says Waller, setting the scene for a character at the heart of a public dream, a being that is neither human nor animal, not of this world nor of another—a tragic com ic cabaret character, a focal point for self Holcombe Waller portrays a sad clown seemingly doomed to live out the pathos, the Zeitgeist of legends of the songs he sings in Patty Heart Townes. disempowerment. “He can’t talk, but he can sing,” explains rewarding to dive deep into the masters’ underwear Waller, “and that to me is also important, because drawer and poke around,” he remarks. But for a it’s obviously going to take a lot more than words, musician obsessed with string arrangement, cover thoughts and intentions to get anything done on ing Griffin and Van Zandt helps Waller get his planet earth, at this point. This is why the living head away from composition to focus exclusively remnants of the ’60s generation all standing around on performance. He wants this show to be an shaking their heads about young people while exercise in efficiency, with limited elements woven finishing their attics can’t repeat their revolution— into something big and seemingly complex, focus but action must come, and draw on those forms, ing on the richness of clean, minimal gestures. but in a new way, and from the new generation. But for as much as Waller touts the artistic Whatever’s after Gen Y.” explorations behind Patty Heart Tonnes, he also Moreover, this character/concert combination is offers this shout-out to his homo homies: “Don’t an experiment in contemporary postmodern sensibi think of it as a show. Think of it as real-life, online dating, with artsy filters.” ® lities hiding a shield of personal armor for the performer himself. “It’s a ritual, like drag war paint: There is a power in costuming, in drag, in character. It is akin to the power of the story in folk music, the kinds of stories that propelled Robert Allen Zimmerman into Bob Dylan,” notes Waller. “The clown is my high drag, an avatar of myself, but masked, abstracted. In this day when everyone with a MySpace profile can market themselves like a pop star, you know the revolution is a highly media- saturated idea. Identity is no longer a one-to-one H olcombe W aller presents Patty Heart Townes 9:30 p.m. Jan. 26 and 3:30 p.m. Jan. 11 at Holocene, 1001 S.E. Morrison St. Tickets are $10 from Brown Paper Tickets, Jackpot Records or the box office. For more information visit aww. holcombe waller . com. This month Q Center will host an art installation of video from Patty Heart Townes at 69 S.E. Taylor St. For details visit www.pdxqcenter.org. 2006 ER1CKAHEIDRICK.COM HEY PORTLAND! Holcombe Waller dives deep into the masters' underwear drawer
