When Nathan Hazard, regional music coordinator for the EMU Cultural Forum, was trying to set a date for his Agate Hall show featuring singer/songwriter Mirah, Dear Nora, Calvin Johnson and The Dimes, Oct. 26 was the only date that all four musicians could make it together.
“I’ve been tossing dates around with all the bands for over a month, and this was the only date,” he said.
The problem with Oct. 26, though Hazard didn’t realize it at the time, was that The Breeders are playing the same night at WOW Hall.
“I’ve already had a few people say, ‘I really like Mirah, but I’m already going to The Breeders,’” he said.
Mirah was casual about the coincidence and said that certain performing overlaps are inevitable.
“Almost every tour I’ve been on, I’ve been haunted by a band,” she said.
Mirah recounted a tour with Phil Elvrum of the Microphones where they played shows in at least four cities at the same time that another band, Le Tigre, was playing.
“If I could, I would have gone to see Le Tigre,” Mirah said.
Hazard said he doesn’t want any competitive ill will between his show and The Breeders’ performance. At the time this was published, he was working on providing discounted entry to the show with a Breeders ticket stub. But Katy Davidson, AKA Dear Nora, wasn’t afraid to plug the show.
“It’s going to kick ass because I’m going to play, then Calvin’s going to play, then Mirah’s going to play and then we’ll end with a riotous orgy,” Davidson said.
Hazard said he was unsure whether to give the closing spot of the show to Johnson or Mirah, but said he was leaning toward Johnson as the headliner. The founder of K Records, Johnson has been in many bands, including Dub Narcotic Sound System and Beat Happening, aside from doing his own solo work. Hazard said Johnson was a coincidental addition to the show, but he gladly accepted. The only down side, he said, is that performance times will be “squeezed.”
Openers The Dimes, according to Hazard, play “catchy, heartfelt pop.” He lacked musical definition for Dear Nora, but said she’s “kind of a ham.” Davidson said her music has “tinges of hippieness.” Hazard saved his best musical praise for Mirah.

“I like her because she captures a lot of awkwardness,” he said.
Mirah said she writes “self-help” songs for herself simply because she enjoys doing it. She said most of her songs are metaphors for life and the immediate things she experiences. She doesn’t think much about the future, and when asked where she was going, she replied, “I’m going to Salt Lake City right now.”
Dear Nora and Mirah have been touring together around the West Coast since Oct. 16, and Mirah said all the shows have been good. A personal highlight for her was getting to play inside a volcano crater near Flagstaff, Ariz., for a family friend’s wedding.
Mirah said she usually plays smaller venues or house shows instead of large shows such as the one on Friday. Mirah’s last visit to Eugene, in the spring, was a small house show.
“It was, like, the best house show I’ve ever done,” she said.
Mirah appreciates venue variety. “It is good,” she said, “to play in volcanoes, basements and colleges.”
Mirah recently released a five-song LP, “Small Sale,” though not all the tunes on it are new. Some of the songs were previously recorded on a cassette, “parts of human desire,” which is now out of print. Some of the songs on that recording were included in her CD “you think it’s like this but really it’s like this,” (she said the title came to her while swimming in a lake), but Mirah said she wanted the other songs to be made available.
“Small Sale” is an interlude before the release of Mirah’s new album in March. She said most of the songs she has been performing have been from those two recordings.
On her recordings, Mirah pairs up with other friends and artists to add additional elements to her songs beyond guitar and vocals. But when she performs, she usually plays solo.
“I write the songs by myself, so when I play them live in that fashion, it’s the truest form they can be,” she said.
The show starts at 9 p.m. and tickets are $6 for general admission and $5 with student identification.