I’m not sure what it was about Portland’s Mimicking Birds that didn’t sit well with me Thursday night at the Crocodile. Everything on stage sounded just fine. The songs weren’t particularly amazing or offensive in any way, but pleasantly breezy and melodic. It’s just that every once in a while, you see a band that looks absolutely bored out of their heads to be on stage. Like it’s a chore for them to be playing. I got the sense from the crowd (a lot more of the Belltown yuppie/martini set than I would expect from a John Vanderslice show) and the band that it was a mutual toleration society as the band trudged through their set of classic folk-rock tinged jams to polite, somewhat inattentive applause. I’m sure on record Mimicking Birds is a rewarding experience, but the set felt a little lackluster. Pink Mountaintops @ the Crocodile Cafe. Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops took the stage and immediately injected the crowd with a bit more life. Lead by Vancouver’s Stephen McBean (also of Black Mountain), Pink Mountaintops are a rambling rock and roll revue drawing from simple classic rock and garage rock influences. Distorted farfisa, guitar solos, and those long, drawn out blues-y jams all punctuated the band’s set. While at times, the songs dragged a bit too much on simple riffs, there were many more moments that were full of buoyant life and energy (the female violinist and keyboardist added tons of layered vocals, percussion, hand claps, and just the right sass), and McBean’s guitar solos were heartbreakingly awesome. By the end of the set, the Belltown crowd was pretty engaged, dancing and clapping along to the McBean’s dirty, sexy jams. John Vanderslice; kind of blue. San Francisco’s John Vanderslice has been kicking around since 1994, between his previous band (Mk Ultra) and his current solo work. For a while, it seemed like Vanderslice was one of those musicians who makes amazing records full of warm sounds and gorgeous, subtle textures, but can’t seem to pull the subtleties and layered nuances of their records into a live venue. Thankfully, in the last few years, Vanderslice has seemingly scrapped the “make it just like the record” approach and has started working out new arrangements that are more suited to the sweaty, tall-boy-of-PBR chugging rock and roll venue. Having seen Vanderslice 4 times now in the last 14 months, it’s been interesting to see where he’s going with his live shows. Numerous lineup shifts have taken place, but his current band is as strong as he’s ever been. Every player on the stage is, as far as my ears can tell, a virtuoso. Keyboardist Ian Bjornstad has been the one consistent force in Vanderslice’s live show over the past 5+ years, and serves as the glue/closest thing to studio magic that Vanderslice can have in a live arena, adding just the right amount of spacy delay and atmosphere to Vanderslice classics like “Promising Actress”. Guitarist Sylvain Carton is another absolutely critical piece of Vanderslice’s live show; playing either an oboe or soprano saxophone through some of Vanderslice’s quieter numbers, and adding some perfect minimalist twangy guitar to some of the more raucous numbers. His interplay with Bjornstad absolutely floored me on “Tablespoon of Codeine”, a number which is much more subdued on record, but is one of those powerhouse numbers live. Sylvain Carton and Ian Bjornstad hold it down with JV at the Crocodile. I wasn’t as thrilled with Vanderslice’s song choices at this show as I was with his in-store set at Easy Street in Queen Anne (prior to his show at Sasquatch). When you have some songs as brilliant as “White Dove”, “Kookaburra”, “Me and My 424”, or “Time Travel Is Lonely”, it’s almost criminal to skip over them. That said, he balanced his set well between newer songs from Romanian Names and JV staples (“Pale Horse”, “When It Hits My Blood”), and the new rock-ier arrangements of all of these songs are pretty stellar.Notoriously one of the nicest people you’ll probably ever meet, Vanderslice spent the last few songs of his set organizing an impromptu dance party/pizza party/hangout session from the stage, ordering pizzas with the Via Tribunali folks for the band and the crowd to nosh on post-show. After announcing that they would do a two song encore, he and the band grabbed their acoustic instruments and jumped onto the floor of the Croc and did a completely unplugged sing-along in the middle of the crowd. Running through a creepily jubilant version of “Nikki Oh Nikki”, the crowd sang along loudly to the “he’s going to die!” chorus. The palette was cleansed a bit by the more uplifting “Keep the Dream Alive”, with the crowd’s singing nearly overpowering JV and company’s performance. (For what it’s worth, Seattle, you guys have a pretty good sense of melody.) It’s been a while since I’ve seen a show where everyone left seemingly feeling that warm and full of smiles, but that’s the effect that Mr. John Vanderslice has on the world.