Spoilers ahead, fair warning, @ScoJo!
Not your average Wednesday night out in Portland:
But the outing started much earlier in the day to catch the Meet & Greet:
^John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies were all there, and were also signing Lost Themes items if you brought one. I brought two!
Some of the M&G swag:
My significant other really wanted to go to this show (and she rarely, if ever, wants to attend anything else I'm interested in). The power of John Carpenter! Since you had to buy seats together to attend the M&G, we ended up getting two more things signed:
There was a very large amount of merchandise for sale (smart guys...), including lots of new shirt designs from various JC films. I also remember a
They Live hooded sweatershirt which featured the cartoony alien designs. Plenty of vinyl of all the recent material from the group, and also these ridiculous shades:
^Not exactly RayBan replicas, lol, but I still bought them and some stickers. As @Mateo mentioned, lots of cool merch though, including a signed tour poster similar in design to the M&G t-shirt. I did not get a good photo of all the merch, but there are some on IG. After a small break in the action for the band to get ready, there was some time for conversation and whiskey. ;)
Now, on to the show!
The Arlene Schnitzer concert hall seats 2,776 people:
It was a decent turnout, although not a full house. JC and family took to the stage:
...and proceeded to melt minds for almost two hours:
JC looked very comfortable on stage, and had some great interaction with the crowd. From the start, he was very much into the performance, and the crowd ate up the basslines and drum breaks on both
EFNY and
Assault on Precinct 13 to get things started. JC was even bopping around on the lead synth really enjoying the sound in the hall. The other band members were working the mix rather well, and it was enjoyable to see them all having a good time and rocking out. I am not going to spoil the entire set list and order, but all the classic themes were performed, even Morricone's
THE THING!
It was fantastic to hear an updated version of this classic theme (definitely one of my favorites from Morricone), and really sets the tone for Carpenter's film. Full credit was given to Morricone by Carpenter before they started it, and I believe he named him the greatest composer of all-time. The band added a great 4/4 kickdrum to the second half of the track which nicely kept the tempo up and the tune engaging. I really hope this gets released on vinyl!
The backdrop featured a 5-way multi-projection that gave it a subtle 3D effect that worked well. Some clever video editing showed great scenes from the film for each theme:
Halloween, of course, sounds incredible. I heard a sneak peek of this on the Primavera live stream, and already knew I would love it. A very fast tempo, and they killed it. JC gave a special shout-out to Cody Carpenter for performing the majority of the synth work on this track. Hope it sounds as good on the Sacred Bones vinyl.
Highlight of the night was JC speaking of his love for horror films, and ending with a resounding proclamation of, "
Horror films will live forever!" Huge cheer for this one.
Several tracks from both Lost Themes I and II were performed, and it was great to see the different elements of the band (Daniel Davies on guitar, Cody Carpenter on synth/keys, JC on lead synths) working together to create the sound. The track
Night really features Davies guitar work at the lead voice of the track. Excellent music, of course, and sounded quite good in a live atmosphere.
What better finale could you ask for than the theme from Christine?!
What an absolutely amazing night out to see the Carpenter family perform. Cheers to JC for going out on tour with his sons. Happy Father's Day:
After Goblin in 2013, Fabio Frizzi in 2015, and now this show, I feel I could die happy with the majority of my bucket list shows now checked off the list. Ah wait, Alessandroni, Morricone, and Edda Dell'Orso...
