It’s always a treat to see The New Pornographers live, and with the full crew* available for Wednesday night’s show, Portland was in for a treat.  Their potent brand of fun power-pop is the kind of music that’s perfect for sharing with a crowd.  In theory.

The Crystal Ballroom took the band’s name off the marquee as soon as possible.

In theory, a feedback loop should develop wherein the band’s bright, sugary melodies inspires the crowd to respond with some noise and movement, which in turn invigorates the band to play with more energy, exciting the audience even more, and forever and ever amen.  However, last night’s crowd was possibly the deadest group I’ve ever seen at a show in this town, and stood in stark contrast to the music being played on stage.  There was perhaps no better illustration of this moment than when the band hits the chorus to the frenetic “War on the East Coast”, about three people jumped in the air ready to dance as soon as the crunch of the downbeat hit, only to find that they were alone in their enthusiasm (granted, I was one of those three).  And don’t blame it on poor set placement–the band saved their latest single for the second-to-last spot of the main set, so the crowd should’ve already been warmed up at that point.

While a bit deflating, the band didn’t seem to notice all that much, fulfilling their part of the bargain at least.  With both Neko Case and Dan Bejar along for this tour, the band had the full catalog at their disposal.  The band emphasized their recent album, Brill Bruisers, playing ten of the twelve tracks in their hour-and-a-half long set, but also made sure to perform the majority of Dan’s songs, ensuring that Bejar wouldn’t remain off-stage for too long (a fact that Carl Newman joked about early in the show).  Earlier this week, we expressed our opinion about the new album, and many of the same criticisms still apply even in a live setting; “Brill Bruisers” is a decent opener and “War on the East Coast” could really pop, but otherwise we were waiting for old favorites to pop up.  It’s clear that the band however loves the new material (the mere fact that they could rope in both Dan and Neko for this tour says to this, considering that’s not always the case), with Carl mentioning that “Spidyr” is his personal favorite.

The whole gang, though believe me that they’re less blurry in real-life.

The old favorites made for some killer moments–the pop of “Use It” motivated the crowd to move around, while at the other end of the scale the delicate “Adventures in Solitude” moved the audience emotionally.  But it was in the two encores that the band truly shined, with the one-two combo of the rousing “The Laws Have Changed” leading into the epic “The Bleeding Heart Show” bringing down the house, with the band’s replacement for long-time drummer Kurt Dahle stepping up to the plate and nailing that brilliant part.  I haven’t been able to find out who it was behind the kit, but he went all-out (as evidenced by his sweat-drenched shirt)  and did an excellent job all night.  This was followed by a second encore of “Sing Me Spanish Techno” and “The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism” providing a perfect finale to the evening (I for one appreciated Carl taking the time to remember the chords to “Spanish Techno”).  Even if the crowd was half-dead for the most part, those songs shine through regardless.