Toro Y Moi-Still Sound

Cloud Nothings-All The Time

The atmosphere at the Doug Fir has the steamy potential of being a backdrop for the movie Boogie Nights.  Of course that is one of the reasons why dancing overcomes the body and forces you to move around.  Not only is the Doug Fir a highly underrated restaurant it is also a vibrant motel, transplanted onto Burnside St. from the Las Vegas strip circa 1966.  In fact many a seasoned veteran swinger could feel right at home there.  Suffice it to say, the Doug Fir is an excellent place to get dinner, some drinks, and see some great music.

Toro Y Moi (the bull and me) is currently on tour with Car Park Rec. label-mates Cloud Nothings, and Montreal shoe-gaze darlings, Braids.  Cloud Nothings took the stage first and played a solid set of fun, jangly power-pop.  Braids took the stage second and laid out a blanket of atmospheric sounds and noises.  Looking around the audience you could see more zoned out freaks than an army of automatons, swaying back and forth.  Epic vocal harmonies, and sprawling electronic bleeps and bops, pushed the crowd deeper down into the abyss.

By the time Chaz Bundick, the pervasive leader of Toro Y Moi, took the stage in front of his band; you may have found a livelier audience at a bingo hall.  Fortunately Toro Y Moi had the forsight to drop some serious disco funk, that jolted us out of our comas.  After the first song the crowd became putty in their hands.  Running the gamut of many different styles, the band began to weave in and out of introspective indie-pop songs, disco bangers, and chilled out chillwave.

I expected for chillwave to live up to it’s name, and feared being lulled into a catatonic state.  On the contrary I gladly danced my ass off as Toro Y Moi ripped it up.  I was pleasantly surprised at the high energy level of the music, and greatly recommend seeing them if they are in you town.