Bijoux Cone brings disco-tinged synth pop to Mississippi Studios on Dec. 20

The Portland synth-pop artist, a go-to support act for indie touring bands, just announced Sunday, Dec. 20 at the 300-capacity North Portland room.

The Sunday before Christmas is usually a quiet night in Portland, a time for errands, wrapping paper and staying in. On Dec. 20, Mississippi Studios has a better idea: Bijoux Cone, one of the city's own, in a 300-capacity room that feels like a living room with a very good PA.

The show was announced Oct. 30. It starts at 8 p.m., tickets are $26.20 through eTix, and the room holds 300, so this is a small-room night by design.

If you haven't caught Bijoux Cone yet, you may well have caught them by accident. The Portland-based musician has played main support for a long list of touring acts, including of Montreal, Built to Spill, Part Time, Ariel Pink, Television, U.S. Girls and Sean Nicholas Savage, according to their SoundCloud bio. You can see that circuit in the listings: a Belly Up date with Built to Spill and Larry Yes, and a Kansas City show at recordBar on an of Montreal bill.

The music itself is built for a December dance floor. Bijoux Cone's debut album, *Magnetism*, came out on the Los Angeles label Cleopatra Records. Their bio describes it as lush, melodramatic synth pop with disco grooves, songs about love, loss and identity. That mix of heartbreak and glitter is a good fit for the end of the year.

That mix of heartbreak and glitter is a good fit for the end of the year.

Opening slots are a particular skill: you're playing to people who came for someone else, and the job is to win them over in half an hour. An artist who has done that night after night in front of other bands' crowds usually knows how to work a room. A hometown show at Mississippi Studios is the other side of that, a room full of people who came on purpose.

The venue helps. Mississippi Studios opened in 2003 at 3939 North Mississippi Avenue and has long been one of the city's most loved small rooms, the kind of place where local acts and touring bands share the same stage and the same careful sound. At 300 capacity, there's no bad spot, and the bar next door makes it easy to arrive early or stay late.

What to know: it's a Sunday, so plan for an early-ish night and a Monday morning. With a room this size, it's worth grabbing tickets before the holiday week gets busy.

Portland has never been short of bands, but it's always good to see one that has spent years warming up other people's crowds get a night of its own. On Dec. 20, put down the wrapping paper and head to North Mississippi.

Sources: JamBase: Bijoux Cone at Mississippi Studios (jambase.com); SoundCloud: Bijoux Cone (soundcloud.com); Belly Up: Built to Spill, Larry Yes, Bijoux Cone (bellyup.com); Bandsintown: of Montreal at recordBar (bandsintown.com); Wikipedia: Mississippi Studios (en.wikipedia.org)