This past weekend, Mild High Club hit Revolution Hall in Portland joined by their jolly opener, JW Francis.
Rumor has it that Mild High Club frontman Alex Brettin is pretty easy going, so we got to the venue early in hopes of getting something quotable from him. As it seemed, if we could only spot Brettin, we’d be clinking our ultra luxurious Modelos together in no time at all.
We kept our eyes peeled, looking for short hair with a bit of a receding hairline, a full brown beard and an outfit that seemed like your average straight man’s take on indie.
Out of the corner of his eye, my buddy sees someone who fits the bill hanging out by the side of the stage. Too damn easy.
We go in for the kill to find out we’re looking at a Portland local named Nick whose only quotable quote was, “I’m stoked.”
Well, no worries, Nick. We’re stoked too.
Mild High Club has changed its lineup around more times than once, but Brettin has seemed to strike gold with the five guys he put on his latest album, “Going Going Gone.”On top of that, the new live setup is absolutely righteous. The highlights include Brettin up front with his modular synth and his big Santa bag of toys to shake in front of the mic — and also the slickest dual keyboard setup ever, where both players sported matching blue tracksuit jackets.
Mild High Club has generally followed an algorithm of creating music that follows the formula first employed by groups overly dedicated to their specific sound like Pink Floyd, Bjӧrk, MF DOOM, Steely Dan and pre-eminently King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. With the first two releases, Mild High Club created songs that followed vaguely the same chord progressions through different keys and on varying instruments in an effort to create a thematic piece of music.
Five years after the hit release “Skiptracing,” the band released “Going Going Gone.” With only two or three really catchy songs, the album was a gorgeous retreat into what can come from an artist who is disillusioned with making pop hits — which, as it turns out, was the central lyrical theme of“Skiptracing” in the first place. At only 29 minutes, the album’s greatest moments lie not in its singles or catchy choruses but the ethereal hodgepodge of instruments swelling through the album’s middle section.
One of the greatest parts of the show was seeing Brettin’s vision for becoming an instrument-based band come to fruition, especially since, in their earlier years, Mild High Club lacked the timbral complexity and sheer membership to be the jazz jam band they’ve evolved into.
There’s a reason you don’t see Rex Orange County pulling out a vintage moog eurorack synthesizer: because that’s not the point of going to see Rex Orange County.
The MVP of the show was without a doubt Derek Howa, the lead keys player. Songs like “Trash Heap” on this new album seemed like a short but sweet little segue — in person, it was a template for permissive bedlam by Howa. His solo was twice the length of the song and transitioned perfectly into “Taste Tomorrow,” where he seamlessly switches styles from bossa to classical.
Brettin used this new group to create obscure electronic jazzscapes, utilizing the loose structures of his new material while also bringing his older material to the next level, which gave classics like “Skiptracing” and “Homage” the lush instrumentation they deserved. If you have seen Mild High Club before and were disappointed in their perhaps stoney and haphazard performance, trust me when I say they have fully realized their potential, pioneered strongly by bandleader Brettin.
