Between sincerity and irony: Dandy Warhols with the Oregon Symphony * Oregon ArtsWatch

On November 13 the Oregon Symphony closed the Sounds Like Portland festival with The Dandy Warhols, producing a hypnotic, head-bobbing collaboration. The Dandy Warhols embody post-hippy, Oregon Country Fair Portland, contrasted with The Decemberists' hipster Portland image. Projected visuals included a cheeky reinterpretation of Oregon's state flag with a VW Bus escaping a mik'd amp and a pot leaf replacing agricultural symbols. The band wore sixties-inspired, mod-ish attire; Courtney Taylor-Taylor sang in a breathy tenor. Their banana logo echoed The Velvet Underground with a zipper on the peel. Musically they skew heavier, more psychedelic and dreamy, aligned with Primal Scream and Flaming Lips.

"On November 13 the Oregon Symphony ended their Sounds Like Portland festival with a marquee performance with The Dandy Warhols. The rock band is among the most recognizable names in Portland's music scene and for one night they joined the Symphony for a hypnotic, head-bobbing performance. The Dandy Warhols are a musical symbol of Portland, albeit a very different one than The Decemberists, who performed with the Oregon Symphony the week prior."

"The band looked the part of a sixties psychedelic rock band: Mod-ish, peacock-like shirts, long untidy hair. Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor embodied this look and sang in a breathy tenor. Furthering this sixties nostalgia, their name is a goofy pun on pop artist Andy Warhol. Featured on Brent DeBoer's bass drum was their banana logo, very similar to the one that adorned the first Velvet Underground album, adding a zipper to the peel that makes the Freudian symbolism even more obvious."

"In my previous article about The Decemberists' performance with the OSO, I compared their music to the instrumentally-ambitious folk-influenced indie rock bands of the 2000s such as Arcade Fire, The Mountain Goats and Neutral Milk Hotel. The Dandy Warhols are a bit different; they are a bit heavier, more psychedelic, more dreamy. Their artistic peers are Primal Scream, Flaming Lips, Spiritualized and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. (For more on the latter, check out the insane documentary , chronicling the friendship-turned-rivalry between the Dandys and BJM)."

Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News