Concert Review: Emancipator at the Crystal Ballroom

I experienced an irregularity in the space-time continuum at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom last week.  Thick secondhand vape smoke and the bewildering elasticity of the dancefloor helped convince me that I was attending a Shadowfax concert in 1984 instead of an Emancipator show in 2018.  Each so-called ambient trip-hop song performed by a quintet led by Emancipator bandleader Doug Appling seemed little different from a dusty New Age jam.  My bout with astral projection still seems real several days later.  After all, it’s inconceivable that 1,500 status-conscious Oregonians with a median age of 25 would purchase $22 tickets to hear tranquilizing lullabies in the vein of Shadowfax, John Tesh and Yanni in 2018.


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My most recent weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star are here and here.

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I recently featured Howard Iceberg and The Project H on KCUR.

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I reviewed Charles Williams’ Flavors of Jazz album at Plastic Sax.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)