If you missed much-buzzed-about folk act Field Report this past weekend opening for Counting Crows, they have just been confirmed as openers for Aimee Mann at the State Room on Oct. 6.
Field Report hadn't even performed in public until 2012's South by Southwest festival in March. The band's debut album will be released in September.
But after playing 10 shows in three days at SXSW, Field Report earned the esteem of Adam Duritz and others -- and not just because of band leader Christopher Porterfield's pedigree. (Field Report is an anagram of "Porterfield.")
Porterfield was a member of the now-legendary Wisconsin band DeYarmond Edison, known as the former band of Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and three members of Megafaun. While Bon Iver has gone on to Grammy-winning success and acclaim, and Megafaun is quickly building a solid fan base, people have been waiting for Porterfield to resurface. After five years crafting songs for his debut, he is back.
"It wasn't five years making the record," Porterfield said in a Tribune interview. "It was five years writing songs and killing songs."
The band, which assembled in December, played one of its first non-SXSW concerts at Salt Lake City's Kilby Court, opening for Megafaun. Porterfield admitted the band's contemplative folk-rock isn't "the best pump-up-the-crowd music. ... We have a saying in the pregame huddle: We're here to play small ball. We're trying to hit a single, rather than swing for the fences. We trust in the quiet moments."
After DeYarmond Edison dissolved in 2007, Porterfield settled down. "I got married, bought a house, got a dog," he said. He had a day job working in student affairs at a college in Milwaukee, but at night, he kept working to craft songs and debuting them at open-mic nights.
Porterfield didn't quit his job until last month, despite commuting while opening for Megafaun and then playing a string of dates opening for Emmylou Harris. "In this economy, [resigning] is one of the dumbest things you can do," he said. "[But] it's time to be bold and a little reckless. I'm trusting that this is the right time. Right now everything feels right."
