Eugene Weekly : Music : 12.24.08

Eccentric Cellos

Since Doug Jenkins finished his cello studies at the UO a few years ago, he’s been enriching the Portland music scene with his pop band Bright Red Paper, his work with some of the region’s finest indie acts (Weinland, Musee Mecanique, Point Juncture, WA) and, maybe most surprisingly, the Portland Cello Project, which has garnered national attention for Jenkins’ inventive, multi-cello arrangements of everything from Beethoven and Bach to Britney Spears and Led Zeppelin. Having collaborated with much of the city’s indie rock royalty and drawn strong young audiences to its own concerts, PCP is making cellos cool. Now a half dozen of the intrepid cellistas, plus percussionist, are touring with the freaky, inverted-KFC-container-wearing masked electric/eccentric guitarist called Buckethead, who’s unleashed torrents of thrashy experimental metal and various other styles, particularly in his many collaborations, over a baker’s dozen of albums. PCP will try to match the eccentricity ante with music from Manuel de Falla to the Super Mario Bros. theme and other video game sounds to cellicious covers of Pantera, Slayer, Portland’s own Norfolk & Western and more. 

Portland Cello Project  and Buckethead perform at 8 pm Saturday, Dec. 27, at the McDonald Theater. $25 adv., $28 door. — Brett Campbell