The Portland Cello Project

In Seattle we walk though a chicken coop type structure to get in the venue. It seems fitting.

This is the Moore Theater, 3,000 seats which confront you like a 4 story wall of people who seem to go straight up in front of the stage.

Buckethead’s crew isn’t even here yet, so we try to climb to the top, but we get stuck on the first balcony. We’re on the first balcony and we don’t see any stairs up to the top balcony. The sight from this mezzanine is already magnificent: There’s a total phantom of the opera chandelier hanging over the main floor. This is clearly a vaudevillian stage. Very ornate decorations around the hall.

But we want to make it to the top. Matt yells down to someone who looks official and asks how we get up there, and we’re told to go back down to the first floor and take a very non-descript stairwell by the theater entrance.

We do, and we find ourselves going up a spiral staircase for a long, long time, getting mesmerized the way one does climbing up bell tours in old cathedrals, or up the spire in Astoria, and as we get to the top a figure in black jumps out at us and scares the living daylights out of us.

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When people know you’ve been backstage with Buckethead, they ask you *a lot* of questions. Matt made friends with the tour manager who said he sometimes wants to just make things up.

“What does Buckethead say to you in the van?”

“Nothing. Not a word.”

In Eugene we were accosted by people who either, really loved our set, or were pretending to love our set because they wanted to ask us many questions about Buckethead.

“Dude — you are so lucky you get to be with him!”

“I haven’t even met him yet — we got kicked out of backstage before he arrived.”

“Dude — no way! What did he say!”

“Nothing — we weren’t backstage when he got here.”

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The stage setup is surprisingly modest at first glance. Two Mesa-Boogie half-stacks side-by-side about 5 feet from the front edge of the stage… a modest array of effects… just one white Les Paul on a guitar stand behind the setup. There is no microphone stand for singing or talking.

You look closer and you notice there’s also a mixer there with a stereo DI and maybe an iPod, but then your attention is drawn to the couple of masks sitting on top of the amps. They look like disembodied heads and your imagination starts to run wild… “does he take off his mask and put these on during the show? Are they there just in case his mask falls off so he can put one on really quickly?”

You see a plastic unicorn. You see a pair of nunchucks.

If you look in the wings you see a pair of twin animatronic dolls, still in boxes, sitting side-by-side on a bar-stool with a microphone in front of them. If you look really closely at the rear of the stage you see a couple of bags full of packaged toys.

Buckethead PreShow from Portland Cello (Documentary) Pro on Vimeo.

Our set has been over for almost an hour now and the crowd is restless. I’m in the house to feel the energy when Dr Buckethead comes on stage.

(I call him “Doctor” because he clearly has a Ph.D. in Shred.)

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Perhaps as penance for playing 3 shows with a heavy metal guitar shredder, we’re switching things up next Friday, January 9th by playing at the Community Music Center in Portland for their Family Fridays concert series. This show will be entirely acoustic! (A rare pleasure for us!) We’ll probably throw in a Pantera song, though, just to do it. We hope to see you there!

Show is at 7pm. Families welcome! No earplugs necessary!

Here’s a link to a video of us in the newly framed balcony on the construction site of Norfolk and Western. This video was made as part of the ongoing Razing Misssissippi project, for which Jim Brunberg has been getting various musicians (Laura Gibson, Ritchie Young, Stephanie Schneiderman, for example), to come onto the construction site and perform a song documenting the construction process.

Portland Cello (Documentary) Project from Portland Cello (Documentary) Pro on Vimeo.

Yes.

We’re going on tour with BUCKETHEAD.

Saturday, December 27 at The McDonald Theater, Eugene
Tuesday, December 30 at The Crystal Ballroom, Portland
Wednesday, December 31 at The Moore Theater, Seattle

ALL SHOWS ALL AGES
All Shows Doors: 7:00pm Show: 8:00pm
$20-$30

Announcement:
THE PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT WILL BE OPENING FOR
BUCKETHEAD on his NW TOURDATES

They will be playing songs such as:
Slayer’s Raining Blood mashed up with The Super Mario Bros. Theme Song
Manuel De Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance
Norfolk and Western’s Turkish Wine
Pantera’s Mouth for War
The Theme Song to the Video Game Halo

We will indeed be playing at The Old Liberty Theater in Ridgefield, Washington this Saturday, December 13th at 7:30pm.

Come see us play some of our greatest hits and accompany both Laura Gibson and Justin Power in this nice and intimate space.

Tickets available now

Thanks to all who made it to our Holiday Sweater Spectacular last night! And apologies to all who couldn’t get a ticket when it sold out. We are very much in the planning stages of figuring out how to do these larger shows over multiple nights next time around so that none are left out.

Our set list from last night:

1. Ritchie Young, performing,
• Alice Left with Stockings and Earrings (available on the Lone Fir Cemetery Benefit CD)
(12 cellos. Arranged by Douglas Jenkins)
• Happy Christmas (War is Over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Featuring The Flash Choir, Dave Depper (piano), Matt Berger (drums), and Amanda Lawrence.
(12 cellos, SATB. Arranged by Douglas Jenkins/Pat Janowski/Sarah Dougher)
2. Cello Concerto No. 1, 2nd Movement by Dmitry Shostakovich.
Featuring Justin Kagan, soloist
With Joe Berger (Horn), Matt Berger (percussion/glockenspiel), Seth Lorinczi (Bass).
(4 cellos + solo, horn, bass, perc and glockenspiel. Arranged by Douglas Jenkins)
3. Ali Ippolito, performing,
• On The Rag
(4 cellos. Arranged by Ali Ippolito)
• Here We Are
(4 cellos. Arranged by Ali Ippolito)
4. Allegra M, performing,
I Put a Spell on You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
(8 cellos. Arranged by Allegra M.)
5. Justin Power, performing,
• Seeds May Fall
(12 cellos, perc, ukulele, vox. Arranged by Douglas Jenkins)
• Cut The Rope, featuring The Flash Choir
With Paul Christensen and Nick Delffs
(12 cellos, perc, bass, SATB. Arranged by Douglas Jenkins/Justin Power/Sarah Dougher)

Intermission
1. Pictures at an Exhibition (Excerpts)
• Promenade
• Gnomus
• Promenade
• The Old Castle
Featuring Jennifer Conlee, organ soloist
(8 cellos and Hammond B3 organ. Arranged by Douglas Jenkins)
2. Halo
(8 cellos, 2 percussionists. Arranged by Kevin Jackson.)
3. Mad World by Tears for Fears
Featuring Adam Shearer and Alia Farrah
(8 cellos. Arranged by Kevin Jackson)
4. Dave Depper Dedicating, “I Believe I Can Fly” by R Kelly, to his fiancee, Joan.
5. Calynco, performing,
Electric Moon
(4 cellos. Arranged by Yascha Noonberg)
6. Matt Sheehy, performing,
With Ryan Dolliver and Holly Sheehy
• Go Missing
(8 cellos, 2 guitars, vox. Arranged Douglas Jenkins)
• Song About a Rose
(8 cellos, 2 guitars, vox. Arranged Douglas Jenkins)
7. Mirah, performing,
• Lost in the Stars, by Kurt Weill
Featuring The Flash Choir
(12 cellos, SATB, vocals. Arranged Douglas Jenkins/Jat Janowski/Sarah Dougher)
• Hounds of Love, by Kate Bush
Featuring The Flash Choir and Christopher Doulgeris
(12 cellos, SATB, vocals. Arranged Douglas Jenkins/Jat Janowski/Sarah Dougher)
• Generosity, by Mirah
Featuring The Flash Choir and Christopher Doulgeris
(12 cellos, SATB, vocals. Arranged Christopher Doulgeris/Jat Janowski/Sarah Dougher)
• Hard Times are Over, by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Featuring The Flash Choir and Jennifer Conlee
(12 cellos, SATB, organ, vocals. Arranged Douglas Jenkins/Pat Janowski/Sarah Dougher/Jennifer Conlee)

ENCORE:
Super Mario Brothers Theme Song

With special guests, Mirah, Ritchie Young, Jenny Conlee, Justin Power, Ali Ippolito, Matt Sheehy, Shostakovich, The Flash Choir, a fake fire for roasting fake chestnuts, and much more!

We’ll be wearing cheesy holiday sweaters. And if you wear a holiday sweater, we’ll give you a FREE CD of unreleased PCP music!

Tickets on sale now!