The Builders and the Butchers - Wonder Ballroom (Portland, OR; Jun. 18, 2009)

It’s an inevitable truth that being a part of the audience at a show for The Builders and The Butchers means being as much a part of the performance as the band itself. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Ryan Sollee reminded everyone of this with a vengeance on Thursday night, as the Portland darlings held a CD release party at the Wonder Ballroom to kick off their first headlining summer tour. 

Midway through “Bottom of the Lake,” Sollee decided the crowd was simply not doing their part, and so he knelt down, grabbed one of the many self-made instruments scattered at the front of the stage and began to furiously shake it to the tune of the music. Within seconds, the audience remembered their roles and began reaching for tambourines and pot lids and whatever else they could find to contribute their own bit of musical madness to the carnival The Builders and The Butchers were creating, once again.

Chosen by a local publication as Portland’s “Best New Band in 2008,” The Builders and The Butchers have continued to build their fan base by turning each and every performance into a hand-clappin’, devil-shoutin’, hoot-and-hollerin’ good time. Singing of murder and blood and many a sinister subject, the group relishes the positive response they get from their crowds. “It’s great to see people dancing along to such dark things,” mandolin/banjo player Harvey Tumbelson says, with a haunted laugh. 

That darkness in the band’s material was first inspired by the members’ sunlight-depraved history in Alaska, where they all lived before separately relocating to Portland. And their experience in rainy-day Oregon hasn’t exactly injected any cheeriness into The Builders and The Butchers’ catalog. “Stylistically, I never wrote anything in Alaska like I’ve been inspired to write here,” Sollee says.

Getting their start at small venues throughout the city, the band has begun to test waters the size of an ocean with recent appearances at the Sasquatch! Music Festival and an upcoming tour stop at Lollapalooza. Will these larger crowds affect the way the band shines?

“At a festival, people in the crowd are just small specks to us,” bassist Alex Ellis says. “That’s why we prefer smaller clubs, because we can tell if people are into it or not. There’s nothing like connecting with an audience by unplugging and getting down on the floor with them.”

The band stopped just short of doing such a thing at this Wonder Ballroom performance, but the connection with their fans was more evident than ever. Brimming with enthusiasm throughout the show, the crowd seemed eager to send their beloved band out on the road with a reminder they’d be ready to pick up the revival where they left off, once The Builders and The Butchers returned home. 

The band gratified their fans with the songs they know by heart, then captivated them with less tried and true tunes from their newest release Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well, produced by The Decemberists guitarist Chris Funk. Clapalongs and singalongs were abundant through the night, and at the beginning of “In the Branches,” when Sollee asked the fans to hum until he said ‘stop,’ they obeyed, no questions asked.

And in the show’s closer, as Sollee bellowed the lyrics “Your love is so much sweeter when it rains,” the shimmying and shaking reached a frenzied high—both the band and the crowd seemed to encourage the roof of the venue to tear away, inviting some of Portland’s precipitation to bathe and baptize them. 

Returning for an encore after a mere 45 seconds off the stage, all of the band was grinning from ear-to-ear—euphoric, as always, from the joy their performance had brought them and their fans. Sollee grabbed the mic and thanked the group, swearing other crowds would have to bleed to be as good as Portland’s. With the ability this band has at congregating an audience together, blood may, indeed, be shed on the tour. But that’s what every good show by The Builders and The Butchers is all about. 

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