If you are of the belief that there is no weirdness left in music these days, you clearly haven’t heard Alex Cameron. Along with his “business partner” Roy Molloy, a stoic saxophone player, the Australian singer has turned eccentric loserdom into danceable music. Since re-releasing his album Jumping The Shark in 2016, Cameron has been on the road almost constantly, building a fanbase mostly in America, where his oddball style of music has been met with open arms. On February 14, Cameron and Molloy stirred up the love for a Valentine’s Day crowd at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, Oregon.
Following a short but sweet opening set from Lola Kirke, the duo of Cameron and Molloy took the stage with the darkly humorous anthem “Studmuffin69”. The bouncy electro-funk of “Country Figs” found Molloy exploding with a saxophone solo that segued nicely into the simplistic synth and drum machine beat of “Happy Ending”. Minimal synth grooves with occasional touches of saxophone were at the core of the performance, with Cameron brooding and dancing like a blue collar David Bowie. In between songs the singer shared seemingly abstract theories on life; part evangelist, part comedian. He even shared the story of how Roy Molloy came to be silent during performances, only to have the audience vote to let him speak again. This was followed by Roy casually reviewing the stool he was sitting on (he gave it a 3.5 out of 5).
Lola Kirke would join Cameron for the emotional duet “Stranger’s Kiss”, doing a fine job of handling the part normally sung by Angel Olsen. Slower, weirder songs like “Candy Man” and “Real Bad Looking” showed the singer’s penchant for spinning the plight of down and out misfits into lyrical magic. While Cameron’s last album was 2017’s Forced Witness and much of the set was composed of songs from that and Jumping The Shark, he did treat the crowd to one new song. “Miami Memory” balanced sunny synths with a thick, danceable beat and included the truly memorable gem of a lyric “eating your ass like an oyster” as Cameron waxed nostalgic about sleazy nights at strip clubs and depressed sexual experiences. This was followed by the final song of the night, “Marlon Brando”, which kicked off with Cameron striking a disco-like posture before launching into another pop anthem about a trashy guy struggling to stay relevant. Cameron’s tight set came in at exactly one hour with no encore. In that time the lanky singer showed off his delightfully oddball dance moves while Roy Molloy inserted just enough saxophone to make each song soar with sensuality. The crowd offered an enthusiastic response, and when Cameron remarked, “if you keep coming, we’ll keep coming”, it was clear his loyal followers would happily oblige.
