A fully spontaneous live music experience led by conductor Matt Butler with a rotating cast of world-renowned musicians, creating unique, high-energy grooves on the fly.
Everyone Orchestra plays The Mission Theater on Friday, October 23, with conductor Matt Butler leading a rotating cast of musicians. If you've never heard of them, the name is pretty literal: it's a fully spontaneous explosion of live music where the songs are made up on the spot. There's no setlist, no rehearsal, and nothing written down. Every show is 100% unique, built in real time under Butler's direction.
Butler runs the whole thing from the front, guiding the band through high-energy, danceable grooves and songs created on the fly. He works with cues and improvised whiteboard directives, so the music shifts and evolves as he calls it. The sound doesn't come from other artists' song lists, either; it draws on the funky, jazzy, soulful, electronic and Americana roots of the musicians on stage. Over 20 years and more than 1,000 different performers, that's how the orchestra has built its reputation.
Butler himself comes from a country and folk background, and he's conducted musicians from a wide range of bands—the Grateful Dead, The Meters, Ween, King Crimson, Phish, Jane's Addiction and String Cheese Incident. For this Portland date, the lineup includes Lebo of ALO, Mimi Naja of Fruition, and Natalie Cressman of the Trey Anastasio Band, along with Asher Fulero, Brett McConnell, Aniana, Doug Stringer and Rudy Slizewski. It's a mix of familiar names and local players, all playing something that's never been played before and won't be played the same way again.
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The show is at The Mission Theater, a historic McMenamins venue in the West End, and it's an all-ages room. Doors open at 7 PM and the music starts at 8 PM.
