The return of the hotly anticipated Portland music festival Project Pabst was worth the wait, paying emotional dividends with every set from Nasalrod’s massive opener energy all the way to Iggy’s closing words, “Fuckin’ goodnight! Fuck everybody!”
Greeted by the now iconic giant unicorn right inside the festival's gates, energy was high even with the cloud cover of the early afternoon: The Chairman, lead kook of Portland favorites Nasalrod, came out the gate swinging—or should we say kicking?
Gouge Away tore it the fuck up with their flavor of noise-punk hardcore crossover, dropping the news that half the band is now based in Portland. When we caught up with them backstage, they said they moved from their home state of Florida to Portland for the obvious reasons as well as wanting to lock in with the city’s currently exploding music scene.
The power-pop Brooklyn post-punks Gustaf had pitched down femme vocals, played rubber chickens as instruments, and found a legendary piece of duct tape: “There’s just a piece of tape on the stage that just says ‘Iggy,’ where’s the DEVO tape?”
The first set of the day that really made the fest feel packed was the Exploding Hearts reunion. Old heads were out in force donning Dead Moon tees, sporting Wipers buttons, and reminding us how deep Portland’s punk history goes. The Chairman was caught rocking in the Exploding Hearts pit—hope nobody got kicked in the face.
Other Portland luminaries spotted attending the festival include members of Help, Black Shelton & the American Dream, Obedient, Usnea, and Nonbinary Girlfriend. Larry Peace Love Yes was spreading his hippie joy, while Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records was in the press pit for DEVO with the biggest smile splashing across his face. DEVO WAS RIGHT!
With the Damned having to drop due to personal reasons, FIDLAR pulled up to Project Pabst in their stead. While FIDLAR aren’t the punk royalty we were promised, they came through delivering bratty party punk that whipped the crowd into a frenzy, setting the tone for the rest of day one.
Coming up from Down Under are the real deal bogan party boys the Chats. They drink, they smoke, they play fast, and they’re fronted by a ginger menace called Eamon. Australian epithets like sick cunt, rough Sheila, and ciggy-butt brain come to mind when conjuring the Chats—needless to say the shredding was top notch.
Early in their set a text from Mercury photographer Nic Kielbasa came through saying, “holy shit mannequin pussy is destroyingggg.” Kielbasa’s not wrong, Mannequin Pussy go hard—the Dillo’s Pickles pickle mascot can attest to that as he/she/they were throwing 'bows in the pit, getting tossed around like a little mini gherkin.
Audio-visual icons DEVO took the Unicorn Stage in head to toe black—a surprise to the entire front row of the audience who had dawned the ubiquitous red cone hats and were throwing looks ranging from classic ’70s punk to Y2K PLUR raver. The hits were played, fans dotted the Morrison Bridge overlooking the stage, and dreams came true when the band changed costumes several times. So many in the audience knew every word to every DEVO song, a deeply powerful moment of generational cross pollination.
Closing Project Pabst day one was the man, the myth, the living legend Iggy Pop. The grandfather of punk has been continually revolutionizing music since the late ’60s. He teased with a snippet of “Nightclubbing” before the massive crowd lost its shit for “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” Age being but a number, the 78 year old jumped down into the photo pit several times to connect with the front row diehards—the last of which held onto Iggy’s hand for a moment longer than the rest, making Pop think he could use the fan’s weight as a counter balance, and started leaning back to dance. A security guard charged up, slapping the fan’s hand away, dropping Pop to the ground. Completely unbothered, Pop bounced right back up and continued destroying the set, before delivering a parting message to fans: ,“Fuckin’ goodnight! Fuck everybody!” We love you too, Iggy!
Check back for a round up of day two and peep the playlist below. See you there!
