Project Pabst Is Back in a Big Way This Summer

The massive lineup includes Iggy Pop, Devo, Cap’n Jazz, Death Cab, Exploding Hearts, plus so many more!

Matt Braunger’s Elevator Pitch

The Portland-born comedian explains why seeing his upcoming show is a pretty good idea.

Author Q & A: Omar El Akkad on Gaza, Power, and the Stories Empires Steal

The award-winning author discusses his urgent new book and why we must resist the impulse to forget.

The Monkey Is a Comedy About Horror Film Body Counts

The new work from Longlegs director Osgood Perkins helps us laugh at the meaninglessness of life.

Pickathon Hopes To Raise $1 Million by March

Survey shows attendees prefer the farm fest indie and eco-friendly, but will they support with their wallets?

Mercury Music Picks: Erykah Badu at PDX Jazz Fest, Mars Volta at the Moda

Plus three local record release shows + more!

Hear in Portland: Dreckig's EP Release for Eclipse

Plus, a new concert series in a Portland laundry room and Lo Steele spends Valentine's Day at the Fixin’ To!

Gaming the System

Board game creators from across the Pacific Northwest descend on Portland to test (and hopefully realize) their design dreams.

PDX Live Concerts Take Over the Square Again This August

Featuring Jamie xx, returning favs the Roots, and beloved Portland band STRFKR!

Say “I DO!” To Live Music and All-Nighters This Valentine’s Day Weekend

Queer hip-hop, black metal, and underground raves make for a packed V-Day weekend  in Portland!

Gender Ordeal Is a Trans Power Trio Comedy Tour

The Gender Reveal podcast tour is a variety show featuring the star power of show-host Tuck Woodstock, cartoonist Mattie Lubchansky, and author Calvin Kasulke.

Introducing the Portland Mercury’s New Music Editor, Nolan Parker!

How they went from publishing a grass roots music newspaper in Berlin to being Portland’s ONLY music editor.

Portland’s Next Top (Architectural) Model

New installation City of Possibility offers a big picture of the city's urban planning history via tiny buildings.

Hear in Portland: Mal London's New Release on "Fresh Finds R&B"

Plus Julimar headlines the Thesis and the Blacker the Berry II celebrates Black creatives.

Hong Kong Action Star Donnie Yen Seeks Justice (and a Fight Every 25-30 Minutes) in The Prosecutor

Cop-lawyers, brutal brawls, can't lose.

Portland Steakhouses, What's the Secret?

In the chaos of Portland's restaurant scene, where foodies chase the hottest dining trends, the long-standing steakhouses endure.

Profile Theatre's Samsara Is a Comedy About Reproductive Imperialism and Desire

Celebrated playwright Lauren Yee uses cycles of infertility and surrogacy to touch on something powerful and eternal.

A Streetcar Named Desire at Imago Warms up as It Goes

Tennessee Williams' tragedy foretells the doom of living in a dream.

Dig! XX Revisits the Friendship and Fall Out of Two Famously Eccentric Indie Bands

Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre were best-friend bands that eventually became bitter-enemy bands.

Film Review: Wolf Man Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

Like he did with The Invisible Man, in 2020, director Leigh Whannell has tried to bring a Universal Studios monster into an all-too-common family dynamic.

Hear in Portland: Keeks Calls on Femme Queens to “Move!”

Portugal. The Man play Revolutions Per Movie podcast, and Wynne spits “Rug Burn” verses from a sofa.

Portland's Folk Festival Breaks Down the Genre's Walls

Acoustic in Lola's Room, bands in the Crystal Ballroom, and your plans for the weekend—all set.

The Brutalist Looms Large

Everything about Brady Corbet's new film is big—the scale, the runtime, the acclaim.

Where's Portland Music Month This Year?

MusicPortland put the annual celebration on pause for 2025, citing complications from the election and a desire to expand its vision.

Best Bites of 2024: A Portland Pizza That Distilled the Summer Sun

Mercury food critic Andrea Damewood on the 10 best things she tasted this year.

The Mercury's Favorite Culture Moments of 2024

Doing something stupid in Ladds, dressing up for the movies, and finding catharsis at live shows, et al.

Hear in Portland: Three Picks for Live New Year's Eve Shows (That Are Not DJ Shadow)

Nonbinary Girlfriend and Kye Alive co-create a NYE Experience, and Black Belt Eagle Scout feels like a perfect kickoff to 2025.

The Mercury's Favorite Movies of 2024 

Film Critic Dom Sinacola on his 10 favorite features of 2024 and where you can watch them.

A Complete Unknown Satisfies Only Your Lowest Expectations for a Bob Dylan Biopic

Director James Mangold’s latest bit of Oscar bait has the vibrancy and depth of a Wikipedia article.

The Mercury's Favorite Books of 2024

On this list, revolutionary writings share space with Portland zombies and memories of the Barefoot Contessa

Björk Friday Is an Annual Anti-Thanksgiving Drag Show That's Been Happening for Seven Years

Every year, Portland drag performers gather on consumer culture’s greatest holiday and lip sync to Björk.

Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records Is Retiring From Booking Shows

He wants you to take up the mantle.

Steam Rice Roll King Makes the Best Cantonese Rice Rolls You’ll Find in Portland

These handmade, freshly-steamed rice rolls with exciting fillings like Spam and five-spice beef brisket are already in hot demand.

Hear in Portland: PDX Jazz's Once-In-A-Lifetime Erykah Badu Concert

Plus, Cool Nutz planned a Christmas-themed hip-hop "Festivale," and Ural Thomas plays his own 85th birthday party.

Portland Drag Queen, Sue from Corporate, Bids the Scene "Sue Long" For Now

Sue delivers talking points on how many wigs it takes to move cross-country, and why nothing is scarier than corporate culture.

Queer Is a Romance with a Dead Wife Problem

Director Luca Guadagino is out to make William Burroughs romantic. He mostly succeeds.

Theater Review: Waiting for Godot Is Samuel Beckett—Straight, No Chaser

Portland's Irish theater-focused company Corrib has devoted this season to Godot and works that respond to it.

Hear in Portland: Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme's Holiday Humor Intensifies

Plus, the Barbaras play an unmissable irreverent post-Thanksgiving country show and Fountaine's "throw away album" catches flame.

Gladiator II Is Just Gladiator With Jacked-up Howler Monkeys

Ridley Scott's long-awaited sequel could have examined the first film’s legacy and reimagined the warrior archetype. But nope.

Film Review: In Heretic and Don't Move Meek Heroines Fawn and Freeze

This fall, femmes find new ways to survive.

Hear in Portland: Mal London’s Fourth Album Shows off Pretty Sonics and Flows To Match

Plus, a new show case of local duo and trio collabs, and Justin Timberlake adds a 2025 Portland date to his world tour.

Cosplay Break: Bask in the Charm of Costumed Fans at Kumoricon 2024

After 20 years, Oregon's largest anime convention is still volunteer-led and bursting with enthusiastic energy.

Secret Aardvark Drops Hot Nut News

The Portland-area hot sauce company celebrated 20 years of flavorful, spicy sauciness with a new snack.

Salami Rose Joe Louis's Dream Pop Makes Catastrophic Ecological Degradation Sound So Good

See her Tuesday in Portland at Jack London Revue.

Screaming With Meaning: The Definitive Blood Brothers Lyrics Q & A

Ahead of the hardcore band's sold out show at Revolution Hall, Johnny Whitney and Jordan Blilie tell us what the group's intense, abstract song lyrics really mean.

How Portland’s Rose City Rollers Became Roller Derby Champions Again

With standout jammers and unmatched teamwork, Wheels of Justice dominates the track to claim Women's Flat Track Derby Association's highest honor.

Allee Willis: Creative Force, 'Dangerous Woman,' Songwriter Behind Friends Theme

A new documentary The World According to Allee Willis reveals your favorite artists’ favorite artist.

How Portland Became a Roller Derby Mecca

Rose City Rollers commemorates 20 years by hosting the sport’s global championships on their home turf.

Infinite Life: A Play About Pain That Hurts So Good

Third Rail Repertory kicks off its 2024-25 season with a work by contemporary theater star Annie Baker.

Could the James Beard Public Market Rise From the Corpse of Corporate Failure?

Long envisioned as Portland's version of Seattle's Pike Place, the market would also provide an answer to downtown’s dearth of fresh produce.

Hear in Portland: Rihanna’s New Favorite Song Is by Zyah Belle

Wynne postpones the release of Speak of the Devil, but gives us "Bad Girl," and a hot Halloween line-up at Hungry Hungry Hip-Hop

Theater Review: Wicked Found Wanting

The beloved musical is stuck in 2003, which feels a little weird two decades later.

Mikki Gillette's Hero's / Healer's Journey Begins With a Content Warning

 No More Candy is charming and adorable, even as its characters work through very heavy traumas.

Mercury Music Picks: Once Chance To See That At the Drive-In Doc in Portland

Erykah Badu headlines the 2025 PDX Jazz Festival, and we have NEW Haley Heynderickx songs—INCOMING!

What's Wrong With the Dare?

This Portland indie heartfelt went full New York sleaze, and we're dancing to it.

André 3000 Is Seriously Weird Live

Audience members called for OutKast hits, Mr. Benjamin replied with eerie minimalism and a variety of incredible-sounding instruments.

Oregon Folk Singer Jeffrey Martin Captures Live Music Magic at Mississippi Studios

Martin's heart-on-sleeve folk tunes are like walking past a graveyard of love and loss, light and dark, hurt, hope, faith, and uncertainty.

Hear in Portland: Isabeau Waia'u Walker Hits the Hard Stuff of Life on Heavyweight

Seven years of local beatmaker showcase A Beat Happening, and Fountaine flows fast for "Skyrocket (Jump'n)."

FREE TICKETS THURSDAY: Enter to Win Free Tix to See Ta-Nehisi Coates, Haley Heynderickx, Sprints, and MORE!

Portland Opera Makes
History Come Alive

Our Oregon debuts commissioned work about poet and advocate Shizue Iwatsuki.

Pasar Is the Snack Sister of Beloved Portland Indonesian Restaurant Wajan

This Northeast Alberta spot is all about sampling smaller plates of Jakartan street food.

An Abridged Oral History of Seattle’s Greatest Rock Band, Pretty Girls Make Graves

"Our first or second show was opening up for Fugazi. That’s amazing, right?"

Illuminati Hotties' Sarah Tudzin on Writing All Rippers, No Filler

The not-so-secret Arthur Russell fan could see herself writing a folk record in the future—a folk record that rips!

FREE TICKETS THURSDAY: Enter to Win Free Tix to See Shannon and the Clams, Soul Asylum, The Psychedelic Furs & The Jesus and Mary Chain, and MORE!

Comedian Tina Friml on Being “Unforgettable”

Two performers dig into what's so funny about disability.

Megalopolis is Francis Ford Coppola's Gloriously Dumb and Luminous Opus

When it's truly singing, the infectious film gestures at the passion and poetry that come from an artist with nothing left to prove.

Film Review: My Old Ass Is a Horny Teen Sex Comedy Meets Time Travel Tearjerker

It's Fall! So here's your pansexual Hallmark movie.

Portland Opera Makes the Forgotten Resistance of Shizue Iwatsuki Come Alive

FREE TICKETS THURSDAY: Enter to Win Free Tix to See Summer Salt, the Portland Erotic Ball, ScareGrounds PDX, and MORE!

What Art Goes
With Your Job?

Make art, truth, and beauty
work for you for a change.

TBA Review: Yelling Choir by Maxx Katz Commands Sonic Space

Freed from the confines of predictable harmony, riotous sound can stimulate emotional release.

Beatlemania Through the Eyes of a Beatle

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm provides the ultimate insider’s view of a singular cultural event.

Risk/Reward’s Election Anti-Party Is a Variety Show (for the Politically Overwhelmed)

Randoseru-Makers Tsuchiya Kaban Launch a US Outpost in Downtown Portland

TBA Review: Goner Contains Some of the Best Booty-Shaking You'll Ever See

Is Malik Nashad Sharpe's choreography a means of torture, escape, or memory?

Hear in Portland: Lose Yr Mind Fest Adds Afterparty Dance Nights

Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with Alana Rich, and give Oh, Rose's new record some love.

Dreamgaze PDX Revives Portland Shoegaze With a Two-Day Fest in St. Johns

A Look at Portland’s Arts Funding Upheavals, One Year In

Portland no longer runs its arts grants program exclusively through the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC); here's what's changed.

John Early Isn’t Afraid to Be the Asshole

The comedian talks Britney and brattiness ahead of his Portland show.

TBA Review: Te Moana Meridian Proposes Moving the Prime Meridian

Sam Hamilton makes a solid proposal; Mere Tokorahi Boynton sings it in te reo Māori.

Carson Ellis Draws a Snapshot of Old Portland in Her New Diary Memoir, One Week in January

Dyke Hoops Courts Community in Portland's Queer Sports Scene

A growing pickup basketball group ensures all players can shoot their shot.

The Mercury's Time-Based Art Festival Picks

Don't miss the dance parties, itty bitty music collages, and complete cacophonies—planning your TBA 2024 itinerary is an art form in itself.

A Moment of Appreciation for Comedy in the Park

In its fourth year, Kickstand's outdoor comedy experiment continues to expand—with its first-ever, all-day fest!

Foo Fighters Rock the Hell Out of Portland's New 30,000-Seat Stadium

Providence Park's concert mode is a great addition to the city, and those complaining about it uphold a time-honored tradition.

City of Portland Gets Back With the RACC to Distribute Small Arts Grants

After last year's contentious fallout between the the Regional Arts & Culture Council and Commissioner Dan Ryan's office, many worried RACC would be shut out.

In the Shadow of Writer's Block, Blind Pilot Triumphantly Returns

Last summer, frontman Israel Nebeker suddenly found a path through his eight-year compositon drought.

Hear in Portland: Wynne's "Dog In Me" Is an Unapologetic Bop

Plus, a rebrand of the beloved summer block party in front of Green Muse, and Greaterkind's long-awaited Change of Plans.

Photo Essay: Pickathon Night Mode

Our annual photo essay brings you beautiful live music moments from Elephant Revival, Durand Jones, and Pahua.

Pickathon 2024 Maintains the Live Music Magic

The farm music fest sent everyone home with a new favorite band—we were surprised to find plenty were from Portland!

Portland's Favorite Experimental, Time Based Art Festival Bounces Back

On the TBA 2024 schedule: weird music, Black horror, and an opera about the prime meridian.

The Mercury's Guide to Pickathon 2024: Nine Music Picks You Must Not Miss

Listen for La Lom, Andi Oasis, and Lo Steele. Plus, our hot anticipation for Geese's Justin Bieber cover

Behind the Project Pabst Unicorn With Matt Slessler

The music festival returns to Portland with a bill where Billy Idol follows T-Pain, an onsite dive bar, and a brand new big unicorn.

Three Country / Folk-Rock / Psych-Rock Acts That Stood Out at FairWell Festival's Year Two

If you didn't make it down to Deschutes County Fairgrounds last weekend, you should still hear Adeem the Artist, S.G. Goodman, and Black Opry Revue.

Portland Pickles’ Ten Cent Beer Night: Bad Idea Gone Good?

Big professional sporting events kind of suck now; it’s an open secret that neighborhood games with good snacks are what’s actually fun.

Hear in Portland: Oregon Wildfires Ignited Inspiration on Rasheed Jamal's The Mandala Effect

Plus, Blossom and Night Heron split the bill at Hey, Love and a Beat Happening lands at L’Atelier Yaffe.

Remembering Chef Naomi Pomeroy, Whose Vision Cemented Portland’s Rustic Yet Refined Reputation

The culinary force behind Beast, Expatriate, Ripe Cooperative, and recently Cornet Custard, Pomeroy still had so much left to share.

Would a Lloyd Center Music Venue Answer Live Nation's Portland Incursion?

Local promoter Monqui teams up with AEG to compete with reviled music monopolist that is currently being sued by the DOJ.

HEAR IN PORTLAND: We Hear Destiny's Child in Majik9's Catchy New Anthem

Plus, Lambo Lawson headlines the Thesis, and Childish Gambino says he's retiring his stage name—right after all these releases and tour dates.