August 3 2007: The Rentals - Hawthorne Theatre, Portland OR

I was in town for a long weekend to see a cousin get married, and grasped the friday night of the weekend by the fucking horns and saw the Rentals play. What a great band. Matt Sharp just kills me. And on top of it all, I went to the show with my very good old friend Katie, with whom I spent considerable time in my younger days, much of which just happened to be spent making out to “Seven More Minutes.”

We had a couple beers at the Bar of the Gods before the show and then, in a demonstration of just how aligned the stars were on this night, got to the Hawthorne Theatre (which is just a renamed Conan’s, aka that place on Hawthorne and 39th) with EXACTLY enough time for us to get two drinks and then find a bench to stand and dance upon. Because once we had that bench (about halfway back in a small room, along the left wall, easy access to the bar, and pleasantly out of reach of punk ass kids who were into jumping around) firmly underfoot, out come the Rentals with “The Love I’m Searching For.” And we’ve each got some Maker’s in our hands but dancing ensues, especially when tunes like “Keep Sleeping” and “Naive” and “The Man with Two Brains” and “Friends of P” and “Barcelona” and “The Cruise” (with lead vocals by Sara Raddle, with whom I am presently and will forever be in love) get played. And they closed the set with “Please Let That Be You,” only to come back out again and finally close the whole thing with “Waiting.” Wow.

And my only beef with the show (aside from having a non-Sharp member of the band sing on “Getting By”) was the way the crowd fucking exploded when they played “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams” to start the encore. Just like they did in New York last year. Seems to me that you’d get more excited about Rentals songs than Weezer songs if you’re at a Rentals show. And it seems a shame that the biggest crowd response came for a Weezer song. Cause give me those Rentals tunes over Weezer tunes any day of the week.