four stellar bands to perform at RiverRun Bookstore

Typically, bookstores are quiet places. Snare drums and guitars can be a distraction for attentive readers. Odd, then, that RiverRun Bookstore in downtown Portsmouth should become one of the city’s premiere music venues. Not only has the store on Congress Street been attracting renowned authors, like Steve Almond, Joe Hill and Jim Shepard, but it is bringing in some excellent local and national bands, as well.

On Sunday, Nov. 4, four musical acts will perform within the store’s cozy confines, filling the space between bookshelves with song. West Coast band Mount Eerie will join three area acts—Breakfast Song, Tiger Saw and Jason Anderson—for a night of music in Portsmouth’s downtown corridor. Organized by musician Chris Greiner, the $5 show begins at 7 p.m. and is open to all ages.

Mount Eerie comes to Portsmouth from a home base about 3,000 miles to the west, in Washington state. Formed by songwriter Phil Elvrum in 2003, Eerie is the reincarnation of The Microphones, a prior Elvum project that gained considerable recognition in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Microphones released its final studio CD, “Mount Eerie,” in 2003, and Elvum adopted the album’s title as his new artists’ moniker. His music is comprised of a bizarre smorgasbord of sounds, with static fuzz and electronic feedback enveloping melodic tunes with soft, dreamlike vocals. In their most pared down form, the songs are dreamy acoustic guitar melodies with sparse, poetic lyrics.

Formed earlier this year, Breakfast Song is a highly promising Seacoast band based in Portsmouth. Led by singer-songwriters Seth Gooby and Isis Alis, the duo has already won over Portsmouth’s indie-folk community. Although their musical partnership had rather spontaneous origins, Gooby and Alis sound like they were destined to sing together. Their simple vocal harmonization and folky guitar playing casually reach into the core of musical creation, evoking heartfelt tranquility that captures life’s beatific simplicity. In their own words, the music sounds like “Lollipops melted in a bowl of liquid sunshine.”

This will not be Tiger Saw’s first appearance at RiverRun. The Newburyport-based band performed at the store in April in support of its fourth and most recent album, “Tiger’s On Fire,” joining Little Wings and Tan Vampires. Like most of the groups on Sunday night’s bill, Tiger Saw is known for its slow, melodic and melancholic sound. But, the latest album features some peppier tunes, demonstrating a range of tempos that diversify the group’s sonic appeal. An indie band with roots that stretch across state lines, Tiger Saw has utilized dozens of area musicians at shows and in the studio, borrowing personnel from numerous Seacoast bands to create an extended family around songwriter Dylan Metrano.

Although all the bands on Sunday’s bill have slow-core, lo-fi leanings, they are not out to bring you down. Jason Anderson is well-known for his uplifting musical mentality, encouraging audience participation from even the most bashful crowd members. The New Hampshire native’s contagious positivism is reflected in his personal brand of folk-rock, which is dispensed like free therapy for the Seacoast’s vast melancholia. Anderson has spent much of the last eight years touring the country, crowd-surfing and fist-pumping across the nation with a guitar case and a song list.

RiverRun Bookstore is located at 20 Congress St., 603-431-2100, www.riverrunbookstore.com.