On what is usually the dance floor in Portland's vast, industrial bar and art space, Holocene, sits a small wooden house with a tin roof and tea lights in its open windows. The Free Life Center, as it is called, is about the size of a playhouse and was handcrafted using salvaged materials. This freestanding structure acts as a mobile DIY venue, kicking off a West Coast tour that will include various bands along the way. Within its painted walls, a harmonium, kick drum (encased in red velvet), singular microphone, and various amps are brightly lit by track lighting. Portland's own Weaver, a.k.a. Andrew Joseph Weaver, sound checks while people start to peer in through the windows and assemble inside.

Weaver, bearded and red-faced, begins his set unceremoniously, finger picking a distorted electric guitar. After the ambient instrumental opener, he announces, "That was song number one; this is song number two." His vocals are mostly unintelligible and seem to be meant to blend with the music, not to stand out. He invites a cellist to help on "The Brightest Vision" (from his recent release I Am a Flower), and the set takes on a more melodic, upbeat, folky tone. Weaver sits behind a rickety old harmonium for the fifth song, playing the kick drum and tambourine with his feet. The harmonium, he discovers, is barely audible over the noise from the bar outside and gently asks for a hush among the 15 or so people lining the walls.

The singer is quiet and tender and doesn't take himself too seriously. He wraps up his set, eyes closed, with an achingly slow rendition of "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" by Willie Nelson. "Maybe you could give me some money and I could give you a tape," he tells us, putting away his guitar.

http://www.myspace.com/weaverlives

Photographer: Elisabeth Wilson