Love Our Arts & Culture Coverage?
You can help fund it!

Give now
Avatar photo

Kendall Porter

Kendall Porter is a writer and freelance journalist based out of Portland, Oregon. She writes on occasion with not much to show for it.
Posted inMusic Issue 2026

After-School Programming Never Sounded So Good

Electronic Music Club takes modern approaches in teaching students music.
Avatar photo by Kendall Porter

What follows is one of the many articles in the Mercury‘s 2026 Music 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. The “lightbulb” moment behind Electronic Music Club (EMC) started when Erik Carlson, founder of […]

Posted inMusic

Healing Through Dance at Process PDX

The new-ish club and rave space in a SE Portland warehouse focuses on intentionality, harm reduction, and specialty sound.
Avatar photo by Kendall Porter

Stepping into Process, an underground rave club in the Watershed PDX building on SE Milwaukie Avenue, is a portal into a utopian vision of the future. The bar, tucked behind the ticket stand, faces cubic wooden benches and tables, custom-built for the space and its needs. Illuminated shapes cut out of the walls act as […]

Posted inMusic

Free the Rave!

Barn Radio’s Cole Johnson understands the need for community-building events in Portland and isn’t afraid to do something about it.
Avatar photo Kendall Porter

Fog and EDM pour out of Barn Radio until 4 am, well past the closing time of most of Portland’s bars and venues. The unassuming storefront straddling Portland’s South Waterfront and Old Town frequently hosts DJs into the night. When ravers come out of the front doors laughing, lighting cigarettes, the heavy bass music accompanies […]

Gift this article