Camera Obscura and Portastatic
Bimbo's 365 Club, San Francisco, CA
February 16, 2007

After a long week of work i rendez-voused with V in the city, and after a royally crappy Italian dinner in North Beach (this restaurant seemed to operate under the mantra "you can serve frozen pasta and get away with it if your location is good") we walked down the street to Bimbo's for the evening's performace by Scottish indie pop outfit Camera Obscura. We had a brief chance meeting with old Presidio roommate Alex and his girlfriend on the way, and arrived at the venue for the last three songs of openers Portastatic. V had mentioned that they were from Chapel Hill, NC, and after listening to a song and studying the singer/guitarist's face i concluded that the band was a side project of Superchunk frontman/Merge Records kingpin Mac McCaughan. We only caught three songs, but they were acoustic indie pop gems performed by McCaughan and a female compatriot playing a handheld keyboard. I was impressed enough to buy two of their CD's. The Scots came on a half hour later and began playing their country-fied, downtempo numbers. A cell phone went off in the front of the crowd, which elicited an annoyed rebuke from the singer. V and i were exhausted and as the band weren't offering a whole lot to look at, we retired to the bar. A few songs later we retired from the show completely. I wasn't hugely impressed with Camera Obscura despite my fondness for their record, but consider the show worthwhile if only because of my introduction to the enchanting Portastatic.

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