Live Review: The Quick & Easy Boys

Doug Fir, Portland
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

Portland funk/punk/jam rock trio The Quick & Easy Boys are comprised of a guitar player who looks like a cracked out version of Jimmy Fallon with a bad haircut, a bass player who looks like a younger less athletic sketch of the Fan's Big Suke, and a drummer who now tops my list of "Person I Would Be Least Surprised To Find Out Is Serving Time In Prison." After the first half of the show, the booze started flying, and the memorable moments started revealing their fugly heads.

It all starts with the "Foxy Lady," Jimi Hendrix rendition, with a crowd member stripped down to his underwear dancing on stage. He was facing the right side of the crowd when his drawers were pulled down by the bass player. Picturing a narrow minded homophobic male having pushed his way to the front of the crowd, only to be met by a fully nude man a couple feet from his face still makes me crack up.

Later on, the drummer (who appears to be the mascot, and definition of a Quick & Easy Boy) petitioned the crowd to bring them shots of whiskey. Local celeb, "Free Throw Guy," was the first to arrive with shots. Nice work Free Throw Guy.

Later in the evening, the naked dancer re-appeared on stage, and the drummer, wearing nothing but boxers, emerged from behind his kit to briefly dance with him. I thought a real life "sword fight," was about the ensue. After another shot, the drummer dropped his boxers while standing on the drum stool.

I imagine the conversation the next morning between drummer and friend went something like this:

Friend: "Man, you looked wasted last night."
Drummer: "Yeah, I feel like crap. I'm not sure I remember much after the Life of Riley."
Friend: "The Doug Fir was crazy."
Drummer: "Really, we ended up at the Doug Fir? Who was playing?"

I know I'm going to eventually get punched in the face for writing reviews like this. It's insulting, dirty, ruthless, and mildly immature, but it's meant to be entertaining, which is exactly what this show was all about. Some people take life too seriously. If anyone can read a review like this, and chuckle instead of getting pissed off, it's these guys. (Note to law enforcement and owners of the Doug Fir, I tend to glorify events, no one actually got naked. Settle down already).

All kidding aside, having seen this band once before, the guitar player was the main reason I came back. He is one of the more bad-ass lesser known guitarists in the region. Aside from the memorable antics, watching his skills was worth the price of admission. Not to take anything away from the rest of the band. They played all out for an hour and 45 minutes straight, which included covers of Robert Palmer's, "Simply Irresistible," and David Bowie's, "Moonage Daydream." The bass player has a soulful multi-ranging voice and was doing the funk dance the entire show. As for the drummer, [thinking...], you still creep me out.

Either way, The Quick & Easy Boys are exceedingly fun live, and more than worth the price of admission. With their following still relatively small (there were about 175 people at this show), they are much more affordable than paying to see the next sensitive indie flop loved by the Internet community. Don't expect them to get naked, but expect a engaging, energetic, and entertaining performance. Better yet, expect to have fun, which is what live music should be all about.