Several of Portland's best summer music festivals are behind us for the year: Pickathon, Project Pabst, Homie Fest, and others have melted our faces and hearts. But fret not, for there are still plenty of fests coming our way! We've still got this weekend's Northwest Hardcore Fest, Lonely God Fest, and TBA to look forward to. As well as heaps of excellent venue shows, generator shows, house shows, and outdoor shows to tuck into.
If you think summer's winding down, you're dead wrong!
Tuesday, August 12
Club Alive! feat. Saoirse Dream / Bitter Camari / Theresa Sweetheart / Special Permission
For fans of multi-sensory experiences, nu-mall culture, stockings as balaclavas
How alive are you willing to be? Artist-experimenter Kye Grant’s genre-fluid queer performance party Club Alive! has long held it down at Kelly’s Olympian (with an expansive version of the event staged at PICA as part of last year’s Time-Based Arts Festival). Grant’s three-month residency at Lloyd Center’s ILY2 too brings Club Alive to the mall—the vibe is “part club house, party site, television station, art gallery, newsroom, and micro department store.” It can also be part you: Head to Lloyd August 12 for Club Alive TV (filmed live for TV, Grant explains) or for one of the other prongs of this multi-pronged experience, like the “only child club” (fourth Fridays through October). (ILY2 too, Club Alive’s residency runs August 1–October 26, more info here, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO
Wednesday, August 13
Creed / Daughtry / Mammoth
For fans of Creation Fest, Puddle of Stud, Scott’s Tap
Organized religion is violent, justifying billions of deaths in the name of whatever god(s) the faithful are currently proselytizing. I would never suggest anyone pay any amount of money to see a band that has built its entire career on Christianity—except Creed. Scott Stapp’s vocals are so put on, the band's sound is so try-hard, and the lyrics are so absurd, that it feels irresponsible of me not to let you know that they’re in town. I mean c’mon: “Can you take me higher? / To a place with golden streams.” Is Stapp insinuating that he’s into chemsex and piss play? If so, I’d be happy to oblige—if only for the story. (Cascades Amphitheater, 7 pm, more info here, all ages)
Wednesday, August 13 & Thursday, August 14
“Weird Al” Yankovic / Puddles Pity Party
For fans of Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head / Cake / Flight of the Concords
An argument for the inclusion of “Weird Al” Yankovic in queer and trans cannon: Alfred Matthew “Weird Al” Yankovic built his persona and career around taking established facets of society (pop music in his case), turning them into entirely fresh works of art with the same bones as the original. The act of taking what is expected, and turning it into something completely different is queer as hell. If his two Edgefield appearances go as well as expected, this is a bid to have “Weird Al” perform at Portland Pride 2026. Puddles, the 6’8” clown, opens the dark carnival both nights. (Edgefield, 6:30 pm, more info here, all ages)
Thursday, August 14
Mother I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You.
For fans of African documentaries, improvisational music, landlocked countries
Directed by Berlin-based, Lesotho-born screenwriter and visual artist Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Mother I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You. is a stunningly sparse poetic love letter to the documentarian’s mother and sovereign enclave homeland. The screening is part of the Blessings Movie Night series, featuring a live score performed by Portland visual artist Eatcho along with the Whisper Circuit music ensemble. Clinton Street would like to remind you that this isn’t a typical screening, nor is it a typical live scored screening: This evening’s live score will be fully improvised—lock into that energy, letting it wash over you. (Clinton Street Theater, 7 pm, more info here, all ages)
Friday, August 15
Femi Kuti & The Positive Force / The Cosmic Tones Research Trio
For fans of Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Ebo Taylor, Ernesto Djédjé
Nepo baby in the best possible way, Femi Kuti is the eldest son of Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and the grandson of women’s rights activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. Though Femi got his musical start playing in his father’s legendary Egypt 80 band in the late ’70s, he’s carved out a music legacy all his own with his band Positive Force. Firmly rooted in Nigerian Afrobeat, Positive Force pulls influence from other African traditions, funk, psych, highlife, soul, and more. Political at its very core, Positive Force forces you to consider Nigerian, African, and World history in frameworks not understood deeply enough in the US. Led by Roman Norfleet, Portland’s Cosmic Tones Research Trio get the lush evening of Black music started—keep an eye on the Trio, they’ve got a new record slated to drop later this year on Mississippi Records. (Revolution Hall, 8 pm, more info here, all ages)
Ces Cadáveres / Puerta Negra / Piggy Bank / Lazer Bullet
For fans of Dark Chisme, La Isla Electronica, Heterofobia
There has been an explosion of Spanish-language goth, deathrock, and post-punk coming through Portland in recent years, and we are here for it! Even without speaking Spanish, NYC’s Ces Cadáveres hits like a ton of bricks: Lead singer Analía Rip’s vocals soar over hard industrial beats and synth work, pulling you towards dance floor destruction only survivable by dripping sweat with friends, lovers, and strangers in a strobing sea of fog. Portland’s Puerta Negra bring the perfect energy right before the headliners, with fellow locals Piggy Bank and Lazer Bullet sliding in to do what they do best: Rock. (Coffin Club, 8:30 pm, more info here, 21+)
Father’s Milk / Retirement / Machine Country / Bottom Blade
For fans of Help, Carny Cumm, Has/Will
Fuck ICE! Louder for the cops in the back: FUCK ICE! Don’t talk to cops, tell your friends and neighbors when you see ICE in your neighborhood, donate to direct and mutual aid organizations like Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition. In the spirit of immigrant and human rights, Old Town favorite Shanghai Tunnel is hosting one of the tuffest shows (and fundraisers) of the summer—the all-local bill features four noisy, hardcore-adjacent bands that’ll open a pit up in any crowd, blasting ICE fucks out of their path. Rock up early and stay late, the entire lineup is brutal beyond mortal comprehension. (Shanghai Tunnel, 8 pm, more info here, 21+)
The OO-Ray / Amulets / Derek Hunter Wilson / Patricia Wolf
For fans of Alex Zhang Hungtai, Labradford, Stars of the Lid
Portland-based cellist and ambient musician Ted Laderas, AKA The OO-Ray, is releasing his new album Marginals this Friday, August 15, with an accompanying release show at NEPO favorite Dream House. The album’s four available tracks are in turn chillingly sparse and megalithically maximalist, much like the disaster-fixation Laderas is trying to exorcize from himself with these songs. Marginals is being released on Portland record label Beacon Sound, with the release party’s lineup featuring OO-Ray label mates and friends. Patricia Wolf tone-sets before and between the live music, with Beacon Sound providing the post-performance sounds. All show and DJ proceeds will be donated to UndocuPDX. (Dream House, 8 pm, more info here, 21+)
Saturday, August 16 & Sunday, August 17
Northwest Hardcore Fest
For fans of hardcore music, community building, all ages pits
Ok ok ok, not everyone is aware of this, but Portland has a thriving hardcore punk scene—and it’s (finally) getting the national attention it deserves. Not for lack of punks, the city’s scene saw touring bands large and small skip us again and again because our hardcore scene here was extremely diffused: A bunch of sects of the scene working independently of one another, but rarely pulling together to throw collective weight, making something really big happen. Those days are over. In the last few years, we’ve seen several movers and shakers, both in and outside Portland’s various hardcore scenes, collaborate to push regional bands and events to levels previously reserved for the Bay Area, NY/NJ, and Boston. Case in point: Northwest Hardcore Fest 2025. Organized by 777 Booking and Friends of Noise, it’ll be hosted at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art on August 16-17. These three seemingly unconnected Portland institutions have pooled their collective resources and powers to bring together the hands-down hardest-hitting festival in the PNW this year. (PICA, August 16–17, more info here, all ages)
Related: Read our full breakdown of NWHCF.
Also very worth it…
Wiz Khalifa / Dom Kennedy / Earl Sweatshirt / Curren$y / Ab-Soul / Chevy Woods at Cascades Amphitheater - Aug 14, more info here
Accendino at Clinton Street Theater - Aug 16, more info here
Portland Music News:
Applications are being accepted through September 24 for Portland Arts Project Grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. $5,000 sounds pretty clutch when crunching numbers to pay for tour or a new album...
A new, very sick record store has opened in Foster-Powell: Echoes in Space focuses on electronic music, dabbling well in other genres. My opening day snags include Czarface Meets Metal Face, Eccentric Boogie, Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders' Promises, Gil-Scott Heron and Brian Jackson's Secrets, and—I have no clue what this record will sound like—Les Sélections du Cinéma de Gainsbourg. Mercury culture writer Lindsay Costello took home an album by Lebanese singer Fairuz, Talking Heads' Fear of Music, and two tapes: One by Laraaji, the other by Sofie Birch. Also spotted opening day digging, former Mercury music editor Ned Lannamann, Echoes in Space is the place!
