Friday was amazing...

It could have been Portland, it could have been anywhere - I desperately needed to get out of Corvallis for a day. My fiance, Jen, and I went up to Dantes on Burnside to see Stellastarr* and one of my new favorites, The Editors, play a bar show on their way down to Coachella. I love bar shows, and I hate festival shows.

Before the show, we decided to go out to eat at Kells'. Several fine beers and a shepard's pie later, I stumbled into the bar portion of the establishment, only to find my good friends from Amadan setting up for a show. If you've never seen Amadan, they are the best "get-real-shitty-and-dance-band" ever to grace an Oregon stage. I talked to them for a while, and Jen and I decided to skip the opener at Dantes and watched a bit of their set. Rockin' as always.

We arrived at Dantes just in time to grab a couple more brews and watch Stellastar* go on stage. I'm not an enormous fan, but they put on a pretty impressive live show, despite some technical difficulties (some sort of power short) cutting them off mid-set. Nothing kills the energy in a show faster than a power failure, but fortunately for them the crowd was just drunk enough not to care. For the most part, every one in the building was just staring at Stellastarr's ridiculously hot bassist. In her honor, and because I love making top fives, here is Darrin's Top Five Hotest women of Indie Rock:

5. Melanie Cambell - Bassist - Burning Brides 

4. Amanda Tannen - Bassist - Stellastarr* 

3. Amanda Barrett - Guitar/Vocals - Ditty Bops

2. B. Amber Valentine - Guitarist/Vocals - Jucifer

1. Liza Rietz - Keys/Violin/Vocals - Swords (Swords Project) 

I was going to link to photos, but a good picture of Liza or Amanda Barrett from the Ditty Bops is tough to come by...

The Editors' set was incredible as well. They are a band who will probably never be able to overecome the singer's unfortunate likeness to Ian Curtis, which is far too easy a target for lazy critics. Their set was short, like 8 songs, but they had to play their lead-off single three times due to more power failures. Though visibly upset, they handled it well and managed to keep the crowd interested. My roomates were at the show, shitfaced beyond all recognition, and the night ended with my roommate's ex-Marine brother releiving himself on an ATM machine on Burnside while a security guard watched. The guard started towards Randy, then turned around when he realized how fucking huge the guy is - pretty funny.

It was a good night on the town, but alas. The week has come, and it's back to reality time. Yick.

I have one thing to say to you all: Word up.