In what may be the lamest endorsement ever for a young band, the night I first heard the Old Believers I sent an expletive filled email to my friend Arya excitedly proclaiming that this was the first Portland music that I was sure to share with my (future) kids. Why so? Because the song I was listening to – “The Glory’s All Been Done” – came across as so essential and timeless. The conundrum was a case of a band I’d heard of, but never actually heard or even realized I hadn’t put to an end by a MySpace profile song. Ahhh… the internet. Always proving itself lovely, isn’t it?
Anyways, that’s the story behind my first hearing the Alaskan natives and last week I got my chance to catch the act live for the first time during its headlining Doug Fir set. Taking to the stage around midnight, frontwoman Keeley Boyle took to the stage solo to begin the set and slowly the stage began filling up, song by song. I was a bit surprised when “The Glory’s All Been Done” was pulled out of the bag so early as the second song after co-founder Nelson Kempf came out of the wings bringing along a healthy dose of tuning difficulties. Over the course of the seemingly short, but oh so sweet and appreciated set the Old Believers swelled to a full band set-up complete with a drummer, a small horn section, Doubledutch’s Jordan Bagnall on the accordion and vocalist Danielle Sullivan helping to serenade. By the end, the numbers onstage dwindled back to the Old Believers’ original lineup with Kempf and Boyle (having started as a duo) entertaining an encore request on their own to close the night.
The Old Believers – That’s All
Dear Old Believers!
I am from Moldova, one of the former Soviet Union countries. We have big comunity of Old believers here in Moldova, espessily at the North of Moldova – Edinet city. Your music is so nice! Your voices are so beateful! Do you have songs on Old Russina leanguage? With bets regards,
October 26th, 2009 at 2:50 am