Phosphorescent at the Doug Fir, Portland, Oregon
“It is hard for me to separate spectacle from substance”
This article is based on a show that Phosphorescent played at the Doug Fir in Portland, on April 8, 2013.
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My friend sits at the piano in the middle of the room playing it with Matthew Houck. It's a weekend party in Athens, a thing simultaneously special and commonplace. Matthew is a local we all know, not necessarily personally, but in that way that we know every good musician working in this tiny scene. There is nothing especially strange about my friend playing piano with Matthew, except that we're both big fans and it elicits in us a boyish giddiness.
What I will remember most about this night, however, is how happy I am to sit and talk long with a lovely young woman I'm very fond of who will then go home with my friend. I don't know how Matthew's night ends. He will go on to be more of a rock star—maybe even writing a song about something that happens with him tonight—but for now we are just people at a party. Any one of us could become art. We are what happens in the hours of a life.
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The Doug Fir Lounge is full and warm. Matthew Houck takes the stage with the current round of musicians that are Phosphorescent and launches into the night's set. Phosphorescent has been many things over the years: earnest, delicate solo project; ramshackle country band; horn-laden bombastic beast. This version is tight and rocking, with keyboard and organs spreading like wings out from the rhythm section and Matthew's slightly shimmying body and voice.
They run through a good range of material old and new, with Matthew pointing out some of the oldest songs beforehand. Tunes from the previous record and the newest, Muchacho, sound the most settled into this lineup, suited to the percussive rhythms and keyboard flourishes, instrumental breaks, and the occasional noisy guitar solo from Matthew. The older songs lose some of their inherent intimacy, compressed into the new format, but they still sound good if somewhat lost in this form. My relationship to many of the older songs is so personal that at first I am disappointed to hear them roll out nonchalantly, much of their nuance given over to rock-star swagger, but I let the momentum of the show take me. Matthew seems comfortable and capable as band leader, even putting down the guitar on a couple to take the mic in hand and pace the stage.
It is hard for me to separate spectacle from substance. When I see Matthew perform, he is this great talent reaping its rewards, but also just another guy at the party, someone both mythical and mundane. Phosphorescent songs reflect this dichotomy. They are simple but artful, struggling with the burdens of human existence, yet they sound so clearly like the cries of a single small and human heart. When Matthew's voice breaks into a cracked yelp, it is a sound that seems affected and intentional, but also a sound any one of us has heard deep in our chests, though we might not know how to make it aloud. I don't know if his songs are confessional. What matters is not how personal they really are, but how common their expression.
Early in the encore, Matthew plays solo. At the end of one song he records and loops the last line and puts down his guitar. He begins adding harmonies to the loop, creating a wide choral sound, something he's been doing for years. After a few iterations, he pulls back from the microphone and lets the words out in the broken wail he's best at. The crowd responds with a cheer loud enough to find its way into the recording loop. The next time around, the cheer comes back at us through the speakers and he smiles, which prompts more and louder cheering. He laughs, the loop permanently derailed, and pulls the mic from the stand and points it into the audience, surrendering the process to spontaneous chaos. It is a light and sincere moment, and it reminds me once more of the messiness of art and of the humans who make it, the commonplace moments that can be harnessed; and reminds me of my old friend at that party years ago, casually playing piano with Matthew and planning to break my heart.
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[Photo Via: Phosphorent Music]