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Holly Hazelwood

Holly Hazelwood is many things: A freelance contributor for the Portland Mercury, a senior editor and contributor at Spectrum Culture, co-host of the Enjoy Your Life podcast, and a concert photographer at Show Goose. If you spot her in the wild, she’d love to talk to you about the best concerts you’ve seen lately.
Posted inMusic

Ten Bumbershoot Acts Worth the Trip to Seattle

We run down the best and brightest playing at this year’s festival.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

Good ol’ Bumbershoot. The long-running, constantly morphing music festival that takes place September 5-6 at Seattle Center is just a week away, capping off the unofficial end of summer with a bang. Sadly, Portland doesn’t have our own end-of-summer blowout (we did; it was MusicFest Northwest, and I miss it like some dead relatives and […]

Posted inMusic

Getting Baptized in Confetti With the Hold Steady at Mississippi Studios

On the eve of their Pioneer Courthouse Square headliner, the world’s best bar band crammed themselves onto the Mississippi Studios stage for a truly killer party.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

It was Friday, August 7, and we were packed like happy little sardines at Mississippi Studios. As the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn began to sing “Your Little Hoodrat Friend,” local sticker artist Jane McDonald held out a handful of smuggled confetti for me to take.  At some point after 2014 (the last time the Hold […]

Posted inMusic

A Pickathon Recap and Future Forecast: Which Acts Will Make It Big?

We take a look at the bands we expect to blow up imminently, based on their sets at Pickathon 2026.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

After many years of reliably booking bands on the cusp of their big break, beloved local music festival Pickathon has finally started to lean into what I like to call the “Pickathon Bump.” While any given year’s lineup might be full of acts you’d never heard of, looking back a year or two often dazzles […]

Posted inMusic

Yr City’s a Sucker: The Best LCD Soundsystem Songs (Released Since They Last Played in Portland)

Sixteen years after their (alleged) final bow in Portland, we look back on the best songs they’ve released since their last Portland show in 2010.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

I was there. I was there on May 29th, 2010, when LCD Soundsystem played their last show in Portland, at the Roseland. I was exhausted and the drunks at the barricade were seriously obnoxious, but I knew it would be my very last chance to see James Murphy’s beloved dance-punk act, who had announced that […]

Posted inMusic

A Complete Newbie’s Guide to Pickathon

Considering coming out to Pendarvis Farm for the world’s greatest music festival? Let us help make it way less terrifying!
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

Is it already almost time for Pickathon again? It feels like the annual journey to Pendarvis Farm comes quicker every year. Now entering its 26th year, the four-day, genre-agnostic blowout, taking place this year from July 30-August 2, never seems to last long enough. It’s important to squeeze every last bit of juice out of […]

Posted inMusic

The Mercury’s 20 Must-Catch Acts of Pickathon 2026!

Our resident Pickathon ambassador gives you the supernerd scoop on the best and brightest of this year’s lineup.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

If you ask Pickathon founder Zale Schoenborn about Pickathon’s lineup on any given year, he’ll tell you it’s the best lineup they’ve ever had. While the Happy Valley music festival mainstay has changed a lot in its booking practices, it’s hard for us to argue with Schoenborn’s outlook in 2026. With so many phenomenal, under-the-radar […]

Posted inMusic

Sons of Analog: A John McEntire & Sam Prekop Primer

Ahead of their live album recording at Holocene, we trace the roots of the Tortoise frontman and his Sea and Cake brethren’s collaboration with four great records.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

According to Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” If you’ve ever watched the creation of modular synth music, you’ve probably felt as if you were watching what could easily be described as magic. That is to say, it’s technology applied in ways that exist beyond conventional explanation. The […]

Posted inMusic

The Riot Grrrls Are Back in Town! Heavens to Betsy Reunites After 32 Years Away

Corin Tucker and Tracy Sawyer played a career-spanning set for a sold-out Turn! Turn! Turn! audience.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

Late one night, while assembling a list of potential future shows for the Portland Mercury’s Do This, Do That column, I stared at the website for Killingsworth’s record bar Turn! Turn! Turn! with an unshakeable sense of confusion.  Heavens to Betsy is playing a show? There? Is this a cover band, or some kind of […]

Posted inQueer Issue 2026

The Many Queer Saints of Stumptown

Shining a spotlight on a few of Portland’s legendary gay greats.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

What follows is one of the many articles in the Mercury‘s 2026 Queer Issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you’re feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds. I don’t have the data to back it up, but based on anecdotal evidence […]

Posted inMusic

GZA Makes Up for Lost Time at Hawthorne Theatre

But he needs to buy himself a watch next time!
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

As Portland-grown rapper Vursatyl finished his set on May 12, he demanded the crowd get hyped for GZA, the Wu-Tang Clan deity visiting the Hawthorne Theatre in celebration of 30 years of his classic Liquid Swords album. The respectably sized crowd squealed with joy—after all, it’s not often you get to see one of the […]

Posted inTheater & Performance

Shaking the Tree’s Glass Menagerie Shines Despite the Darkness

Samantha Van Der Merwe delivers the feel-bad hit Tennessee Williams would have wanted.
Avatar photo by Holly Hazelwood

Many, many years ago, I had my first taste of The Glass Menagerie, the foundational memory play by Tennessee Williams. My high school staged it. So as I entered Shaking the Tree Theatre’s performance space, the gleeful words of our drama student aide rang in my ears: “Let’s get DEPRESSED!”  It’s always a crapshoot how […]

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