LIVE REVIEW: Doubledutch, Tango Alpha Tango Sunday, Dec. 21, At Rontoms

[December 24th, 2008]

[COLD PLAYERS] Storm of the century? Arctic Apocalypse? Ice Capades of Doom? The members of Tango Alpha Tango and Doubledutch laugh in the face of such hyperbole. As the bitch-goddess known as Mother Nature smothered Portland in 8-plus inches of frost and less ballsy groups pulled out of their gigs last weekend, this tandem plowed forward with their Rontoms show like, well, a pair of snowplows. Admittedly, this was probably made a bit easier by the fact the East Burnside Street bar is one of the cozier venues in town—it kinda looks like a ski lodge, and the bands performed in front of a roaring fire. Still, they and the respectably sized crowd that turned out get major scene points just for leaving the house Sunday night.

Other than a shared postmanlike tendency to rock regardless of the forecast, however, the two bands don’t have much in common. Doubledutch plies a loose-limbed brand of modest, electro-tinged indie pop, while Tango Alpha Tango actually does “rock” in the traditional sense of the word. However, you wouldn’t have guessed it from the way its set started: frontman Nathan Trueb finger-picking an acoustic guitar all by his lonesome and singing in the soft, delicate voice of Donovan at his gentlest. Once the rest of the four-piece joined him and Trueb grabbed his electric, the audio pyrotechnics began. He rarely raised his voice past that opening hush, but his fiery, bluesy leads screamed for him. At times, Trueb’s never-ending solos obscured the songwriting and overpowered the economically tight rhythm section, his pained ax-god expressions pushing the band’s folk-flecked, spacey power-pop dangerously close to bar rock. But damned if the dude doesn’t wail.

By contrast, Doubledutch just sorta mumbled. The band has good ideas—sampling “Flashing Lights” and “Umbrella” among them—but much was lost amid the clutter of a poor mix. Singer/keyboardist/Lisa Loeb look-alike Jordan Bagnall has a pretty, crystalline voice, and the group’s debut album, Gungle Dungn, (performed entirely by Bagnall and bandmate Dhani Rosa) is highly alluring, but little of that came across Sunday night. Maybe it was the weather.