That sensibility, for me anyway, came from being part of the music scene there.”īut for Armisen, 45, the roots of “Portlandia” are found here, in Chicago, where he was a familiar figure on the music and art scene throughout the ’90s, particularly around then-burgeoning Wicker Park, “where I lived for a long time, surrounding myself with the things I loved. For Brownstein, 37, the roots of “Portlandia” are traced to Olympia, Wash., “when I was in my formative years navigating a world with a lot of rules and in-groups and out-groups and an obsessiveness with detail, and this thing about exalting fastidiousness and knowing the inner workings of things. In short, it takes a hipster to know a hipster. Then consider why Armisen and Brownstein know this stuff so well.
Never mind, of course, the legacy of their day jobs - his as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” which he joined in 2002, hers as the guitarist of Wild Flag, the power-pop group she formed in 2010, several years after the breakup of her previous group, the beloved Portland indie band Sleater-Kinney.Ĭonsider their cultural baggage, too: the militant foodies, preening mixologists, blinkered animal-rights activists, hipster entrepreneurs and oversensitive bohos - the precious, upscale artisan urbanity - that “Portlandia,” which began its second season last Friday, so knowingly sends up. When comedian/musician Fred Armisen and musician/comedian Carrie Brownstein swing through Chicago next week for a sold-out show at the Hideout based on their hit IFC sketch series, “Portlandia,” they’ll be carrying serious baggage.