Japandroids / The Dodos

Willamette University hosted their annual spring social event, Wulapalooza, yesterday afternoon in the middle of their campus in Salem, OR. I made the 45 minute drive from Portland to the show based entirely on the fact that one of my favorite bands in the world, Portugal. the Man were playing. And it was a free show! We arrived somewhat late into the event, mere minutes before Vancouver, Canada’s Japandroids took the stage. Luckily I was able to find my way to the front of the stage and positioned myself for the night against a floor amp.

Japandroids hit the stage as the sun was beginning to set and played a 40-minute set of their two-piece indie rock/punk a la The White Stripes. They were a great live show with a lot of on stage chemistry between the two performers. Guitarist Brian King favored the road case turned ego riser placed in front of the catacorner drums when he wasn’t singing or wailing or shouting into the microphone. It made for a lot of great shots of the two together.

Stage lighting during the set consisted of a large variety of multicolored cellophanes and cans, but were most ineffective with the bright sun coming from the right of the stage. The challenge for their set were the long shadows cast by the setting sun that had me spinning the dials in order to capture David on drums who was in more shade than Brian who had more sun over on stage right.

The Dodos were backed by a quickly changing horizon, bright at first, nearly completely dark by the time they finished. Bright blues were replaced with navys and purples while I snapped away. Stage lighting became more and more prevalent and I swear the use of reds was increased with each song.

The rowdy college crowd brought out some beach balls to toss around. One landed on stage and after the band threw it back the crowd decided that for the rest of the night all beach balls must quickly be thrown on stage. The band spent the rest of their set juggling playing and kick the beach balls back to the anxious crowd.

Unfortunately, Portugal. the Man’s custom stage lighting made it impossible to shoot from my position. A set of floor LEDs, a couple strobes, and a laser machine were used intermittently along with a fog machine. I didn’t come away with any usable shots from their set. Their live show, though cut short, was incredible though. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch them again soon in a club.

Click here to view photos from the rest of the show.

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