At first it seemed an odd booking choice – an eccentric Australian crooner opening for one of the loudest, most intense psych rock bands around. Somehow though, the combination of Alex Cameron and Thee Oh Sees playing on a Sunday night in Portland, Oregon was strangely appropriate.
Though Alex Cameron isn’t a big name at this point and certainly hasn’t garnered the cult following of Thee Oh Sees, a large portion of the sold out crowd got to Portland’s Revolution Hall early enough to catch his set. Perhaps they were hip to Cameron’s recently released LP Jumping the Shark or maybe they were just curious, but either way nearly everyone was impressed. Sporting greased back hair and a “safari suit”, the lanky Aussie stuck to songs off his new album. Tunes like “Happy Ending”, “Jumping the Shark”, “The Comeback”, and “Taking Care of Business” relied simply on their minimal synth grooves with occasional touches of saxophone courtesy of Roy Molloy, who mostly stayed seated as he stoically sipped Tecate. Cameron carried on between songs with seemingly abstract theories on life, part evangelist, part comedian. His brooding vocals, pop sensibility, and tales of misfortune gave him a sort of Lou Reed meets a millennial Bukowski quality. This, of course, pleased the audience, taking it all in with equal puzzlement and appreciation.
With the sudden and quiet departure of second drummer Ryan Moutinho just ten days prior, one couldn’t help but wonder if Thee Oh Sees would bring the same level of power as they have over the last two years. The trio wasted no time, sound checking in front of the audience and segueing immediately into the set. Almost as quickly as the set began was the crowd’s eruption into a frenzied mosh pit. Front man John Dwyer careened through one song after another, occasionally interrupting his frenetic, mind-boggling guitar shredding with high pitched, pop inflected singing. Dwyer quickly broke a sweat as he seemed almost incapable of standing still and often raised his guitar and aimed at his bandmates like he was charging into battle with an assault rifle.
Though Thee Oh Sees have released two albums this year, the setlist spanned their catalogue and fans sang along to songs in between crowd surfing and moshing. Their ninety minute set never relented for a moment, unleashing a blitzkrieg on the senses and proving once again why Dwyer and co. have cultivated a big enough cult following to sell out an 850-person venue on a Sunday night in Portland.
