4QjUSttOUt JANUARY,12.3^
music
Under the Covers
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the original thursdaynite
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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