Report From the Show: Portland indie-pop band John Craig & The Weekend at The Starry Plough in Berkeley

Despite the fact that two of the Bay Area’s best power-pop groups, The Bye Bye Blackbirds of Oakland and Angel Island of San Francisco, were playing at The Starry Plough in Berkeley on Friday night, the crowd was a bit sparser than I’m used to seeing. Maybe that’s because it was Labor Day weekend, or maybe it’s because I’m used to seeing the Berkeley pub on Tuesday when it’s crammed full of open-mic hopefuls and their fan bases.

By the time Angel Island took the stage, things had gradually filled up so that most seats were occupied, but those latecomers—and everybody who was out of town—missed out on what I thought was the discovery of the evening: Portland band John Craig & The Weekend, which had driven 12 hours that day for the first show in a mini-tour of California. Even I didn’t get there in time to hear the band’s keyboard player, Nicole Berke, open the show with a solo set, but based on her work with the full ensemble, I’m sure it was impressive.

Berke and Craig had great interplay between their harmonizing vocals. In fact, I think what I like best about the whole band was the way each intricate part meshed together to make one danceable whole. Craig laid down some complicated bass lines while simultaneously singing (no easy task, take it from me) and operating a board that added buzzy, electronic loops to compliment drummer Josh Lava’s disco beats. It reminded me at times of the rhythmic world-folk of Paul Simon and exuberant dance-pop of The Format, while others have mentioned everything from Ra Ra Riot to Erasure in describing the group—and it is reminiscent of all of those things at once without ever sounding like an imitation. That’s the sign of a band that’s found its own little comfortable nook in the pop clubhouse.

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