Photos by Jaclyn Campanaro
YACHT album release party in Portland, May 5, 2007
Cinco de Mayo magic with YACHT on a yacht
By Claire Evans
Published: May 12th, 2007 | 10:07am
If your band name is YACHT, there are two angles you can take: either you claim it's an acronym, avoiding any references to things maritime, or you take -- so to speak -- the opposite tack, pull on a navy cardigan and throw your album release party on a boat. Thankfully, Jona Bechtolt chose the latter for the release of his latest, I Believe in You. Your Magic is Real.
Yeah, that's right: an actual boat. The Crystal Dolphin, to be exact, a 140 person capacity yacht more accustomed to Mother's Day champagne brunches along Portland's Willamette River than sweaty, PA-destroying CD release shows.
Despite a string of near-fatal logistical problems -- the budget! The caterers! The bar! The teenagers! The weather! -- the party came together at the last minute, and as the yacht set its motors in motion, everyone was happily munching on vegan canapés and swilling champagne from the miraculously not-carding bar. It was perhaps the total improbability of the event that made it so magical: more than one attendee copped a cheesy Titanic king-of-the-world stance on the ship's prow, and YACHT espoused to the packed audience during his three-song slammer of a set, "I am not a rich man!" while incredulous teenagers snapped digital photos.
Flown up from Los Angeles for the event was laptop crooner Bobby Birdman. He took the Dolphin’s tiny stage after a tight, party-catalyzing set from DJ Beyonda, who knocked everyone on the dance floor with a lazy, lingering mix of Yo Majesty’s “Club Action.”
Birdman, sporting a feathery Mardi Gras mask (a little gauche, considering it was actually Cinco de Mayo) perfectly navigated the fever-pitched adolescent crowd with just a microphone and an overblown sound system. When the subwoofer literally started smoking mid-way through his set, he evoked a Marines slogan (“No, not Semper Fi”) and encouraged the party to “Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome.” The rest of the set’s beats were provided by crowd clap-alongs and swooning voices, while the more adventurous among us uncovered a cache of orange life preservers and had them bouncing around the crowd like a beach ball at a Doobie Brothers concert.
YACHT himself, although he made announcements over the PA throughout the evening, didn’t hop on stage until the boat was practically docking; his short teaser of a set was received hysterically by the kids, who picked him up and forcibly crowd-surfed him up to the ship’s low ceiling while the catering staff were anxiously looking at their watches. Three songs and an ocean of ecstatic vibes later, the Crystal Dolphin had dropped anchor (“Land ho!”) and the procession to the nearby afterparty –- led by van-based noise-jammers Rob Walmart, a ton of confetti, and some dwarf Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade-style balloons – had already begun.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the CD release party to end all CD release parties if it stopped right here. The YACHT ON A YACHT after-party, not unlike its predecessor, was bonkers: In a near-defunct crumbling warehouse space – long a staple of the Portland scene – hundreds freaked out to the likes of Adrian Orange, E*Rock, the Juice Team DJs, and another, completely unexpected, full band set from YACHT, who enlisted the Portland grungerati –- notably Valet’s Honey Owens and Adam Forkner of White Rainbow -- to back him with “real” instruments for four mosh pit-heavy songs.
Issue #35
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