MUSIC LOVERS DANCE AWAY THEIR TROUBLES

Diet Cig, Great Grandpa, and The Spook School – three DIY rock bands – put on an uplifting and empowering show at Portland’s  Aladdin Theater on Tuesday night (Feb. 12). They joined forces to create a safe space for their fans, especially for those in the LGBTQ+ community.

For those who haven’t been there, the Aladdin is a seated, primarily general admission venue that looks a lot like a high school auditorium or a movie theater. The space between the stage and the first row of chairs was open for standing at this show, but the crowd naturally split about 50/50 between sitting in the chairs and filling that space. The show wasn’t sold out, but by the end of the night, there were at least a couple hundred people in the venue.

Scottish band The Spook School started the night off with a set of melodic-punk songs with vocals alternating between each member. The band was full of passion from the get-go and occasionally explained what certain songs were about. Most of the topics involved being queer, transgender, nonbinary, or issues involving toxic masculinity.

The Spook School were unabashedly themselves, and full of pride. Their drummer, Niall McCamley, was the most outwardly expressive of the bunch. Between songs, he’d yell into his microphone about whatever he was thinking. This included anything from thanking everyone, to excitedly shouting about being a queer band.

It’s also worth mentioning that the sound in the Aladdin is quite good compared to most venues where DIY shows take place. That made seeing the second band, Great Grandpa, play somewhere with good sound quality a real treat, especially.

Seattle-based Great Grandpa played a lot of songs from their 2017 album, “Plastic Cough,” and Alex Menne’s vocals were especially great in a setting where she could be heard loud and clear.

Great Grandpa isn’t a quiet band, per say, but their rock songs are a bit slow-paced, so everyone at the show was singing along, swaying and bobbing their heads, as opposed to the dancing that came during the headliner.

After being warmly welcomed onto the stage, Diet Cig’s vocalist, and guitarist, Alex Luciano, greeted the crowd and then explained that their band’s shows are safe spaces, which means that no one should be touching anyone else without consent, and no form of fun should inflict harm on others.

Then, they were off. Luciano is such an upbeat performer, and she moved and danced for the entirety of the band’s set. She’s known for jumping around, kicking her leg out, and also climbing on things, including drummer Noah Bowman’s bass drum.

Unfortunately, all of this energy she lets out on stage resulted in her tearing her ACL at the end of last year, and hurting it again at the beginning of this month. Somehow, as on Tuesday, she still impressively and unwaveringly bounces around with the biggest smile on her face every night.

On top of that injury, Luciano was losing her voice in the Aladdin. She even managed to find a positive angle on that – she told the crowd that this was a once-in-a-lifetime Diet Cig show, where the songs sound just slightly different live than on their records. Luckily for her, the crowd didn’t mind yelling the words a little louder to help her out.

Luciano and Bowman were especially happy to be joined by a keyboardist and a bass player on this tour. They’ve always wanted the chance to play as a four-piece on tour, and it finally happened for them this time around.

Diet Cig played almost every song from their most recent album, “Swear I’m Good At This,” as well as a couple older fan favorites like “Scene Sick” and “Harvard.”

Between songs, Luciano used her platform to lift everyone’s spirits. She reminded everyone to never water down the true version of oneself to try and appeal to other people – one key part of the noncommercial, DIY music ethic – and she thanked women, trans, nonbinary and queer folks for speaking up and being who they are.

Diet Cig’s set passed quickly as fans danced along with Luciano, and yelled especially loud to lines such as, “And I’m trying so hard to be mad, but so far I’m just really fucking sad,” in “Bite Back.”

The band finished the night with a cover of “Closing Time” by Semisonic, at which point a bunch of members of The Spook School and Great Grandpa appeared and danced around the stage with Diet Cig, joined by a giant stuffed penguin.

There couldn’t have been a more perfect ending to such a wholesome show. It was a joyous evening, and a great place for everyone to break free from the stress of work and school because at the end of the day, we all “Just want to dance.”