The 18 Best Concerts to See in Portland: August 1-14

FRI AUG 2-4

Pickathon: Various Artists
Read our story on YOB, and 12 other artists to see at Pickathon 2019.

FRI AUG 2

Toots and the Maytals, The Gladiators, Droop Lion
Just how important is Toots Hibbert to the history of reggae? The 76-year-old is responsible for giving the genre its name via his 1968 single “Do the Reggay,” that’s how. Before and after that pivotal tune, Hibbert firmed up his legacy as one of the building blocks of Jamaican music through classics like “Pressure Drop,” “54-46 Was My Number,” and his soulful take on John Denver’s “Country Road.” Hibbert’s nothing short of a legend and should be greeted as such when he hits the Rev Hall stage. (Fri Aug 2, 8 pm, Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark, $31-129) ROBERT HAM

MON AUG 5

Alison Sudol
After several years of recording music under the name A Fine Frenzy (and playing the role of Queenie Goldstein in two Harry Potter prequels), Alison Sudol is finally stepping into the spotlight as Alison Sudol. Last fall, she released her first solo EP, Moon, a showcase for her patient and atmospheric take on pop and rock. She’s followed that up this year with the Moonlite EP, which finds Sudol exploring electronic beats, buzzy synths, string drones, unconventional production choices, and what sounds like a growing fondness for noise. It’s weird! But in a very, very good way. (Mon Aug 5, 9 pm, Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside, $15) BEN SALMON

Mumford & Sons, Portugal. The Man
It’s still a little surreal to be seeing Portugal. The Man listed at venues the size of the Moda Center, even as an opening act. The band’s veer into the worlds of grimy pop and hip-hop-influenced experimental rock helped them transcend their identity as under-the-radar festival dynamos and into the pop culture zeitgeist with their Grammy-winning hit single “Feel It Still.” That the band has managed to keep their oldest fans even while ascending to the mainstream is a testament to their work ethic; their insatiable flag-waving for all things Portland continues to endear them to new audiences completely unfamiliar with their modest soul-punk-groove beginnings. (Mon Aug 8, 7:30 pm, Moda Center, 1 N Center Ct, all ages, $39.50-200) RYAN J. PRADO

TUES AUG 6

Farnell Newton & The Othership Connection
Whether he’s playing his own “Soul of Jazz” series at the 1905, appearing as a featured artist on local hip-hop artists’ projects, creating the first-ever Funklandia music festival, or just gassing other creatives on social media, composer/jazz trumpeter Farnell Newton is one of the Portland music community’s shiniest gems. Expertly seasoned in his craft, his live performances are a special treat. So anyone who happens to reside in North Portland should consider themselves lucky: his funk-and-soul band, the Othership Connection, are playing McCoy Park as part of Portland Parks and Recreation’s Summer Free for All series, which brings free and family-friendly live music events to an array of Portland parks. Oh, and pssst!: Alcohol for personal consumption is permitted during concerts in the park, so you may as well turn this free event into a sunny-jazz happy hour with a picnic! (Tues Aug 6, 6:30 pm, McCoy Park, N Trenton & Newman, all ages, FREE) JENNI MOORE

Great Grandpa, Floating Room, On Drugs
Seattle quintet Great Grandpa self-identifies as “grunge pop,” which is a pretty accurate tag; their guitars seem to have been run through Butch Vig’s brain and every melody is an earworm. But the band’s debut LP, 2017’s Plastic Cough, has way more in common with grunge’s aftermath than the epoch-making span that gave us Nirvana. The woozy exuberance of Great Grandpa’s twentysomething anthems owes a whole lot to Pinkerton and Keep It Like a Secret, and like those landmark albums, Plastic Cough is best enjoyed alone because you will absolutely be singing along with tuneless glee. (Tues Aug 6, 8 pm, Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, $13-15) CHRIS STAMM

The B-52s, OMD, Berlin
There should never be a time where the B-52s aren’t celebrated unabashedly and with borderline hysterical reverence. Of the late-’70s/early-’80s class of new wave pioneers, there are few archetypes of cool like the Athens pop group and that alone should compel you to traipse up to the Oregon Zoo. But the triple threat of the 52s with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and Berlin playing opening sets, you may as well go full retro and show up rocking pegged Jordache jeans, a John Bender trench coat, and an elaborately coiffed neon hairdo—unironically, of course. (Tues Aug 6, 6 pm, Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon, all ages, sold out) RYAN J. PRADO

WED AUG 7

Music on Main: Gangstagrass
While Lil Nas X is grabbing all the headlines for his blend of country and hip-hop, Brooklyn outfit Gangstagrass had quietly laid the foundations for this hybrid for 13 years now. Responsible for the theme song for the FX series Justified, this free-flowing ensemble has, as its name should explain, meshed the hard plunk of bluegrass with the hard rhymes of rap. Love it or tolerate it, it’s going to make for a nice, high-energy soundtrack to an early evening, post-work hang downtown. (Wed Aug 7, 5 pm, SW Main & Broadway, all ages, FREE) ROBERT HAM

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THURS AUG 8

Treepeople
Like many of their ’90s contemporaries, Treepeople took a hint from Hüsker Dü and married punk caterwaul to pop melody—a winning strategy that made a few people very famous. Treepeople never got close to scraping the commercial heights of some of their peers, but the band’s resident genius, Doug Martsch, possessed a singular melodic sensibility, one he would refine with his next project, Built to Spill. We all know what happened after that: seemingly every songwriter in the Pacific Northwest spent decades shredding in his shadow. But Treepeople were more than mere connective tissue in the indie rock corpus; a radical force in their own right, they deserve this victory lap. (Thurs Aug 8, 9 pm, Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside, $22) CHRIS STAMM

FRI AUG 9

Cool Original, Dogbreth, Alien Boy
I had this sci-fi idea where I could get a sad song with vague lyrics about driving in bad weather implanted near my bicep to release feelings of trauma and being cold. Then I wouldn’t desperately hunger for songs like those found on I Never Said I Didn’t Care, the latest release from Cool Original (formerly known as Cool American). Synthesizing gravelly indie rock with Morrissey-level melodies, the album builds a mountain of hook-laden tracks, inclining in catchiness and peaking at the midpoint with “It’s Not Like That” and “Teething.” (Fri Aug 9, 8 pm, Black Water Bar, 835 NE Broadway, $6) SUZETTE SMITH

SAT AUG 10

Dogheart, Ghost Frog, Super Hit There are a million(-ish) bands in Portland, and a lot of them are even good! Take, for example, this three-band bill, which features dudes doing good things with guitars. Super Hit seems to be a one-man bedroom-pop project from a guy named Kyle Handley who knows how to write a sharp melody. Ghost Frog sounds like a post-punk band playing lounge music in a seedy bar on Jupiter. And Dogheart is one of the best-kept secrets in town. Their new album, Yeah No for Sure, is a lovely blend of bummed-out folk-pop and surf-rock that fits in nicely with, oh, the past 30-plus years of indie rock. (Sat Aug 10, 9 pm, Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water, $8) BEN SALMON

George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic, Fishbone, Dumpstaphunk
Hot damn, what a bill! If the funk lives within you, that is. Dumpstaphunk is a monster funk ’n’ soul band from New Orleans led by Ivan Neville. Fishbone solidified a freaky fusion of funk and punk in the late ’80s. And if that ain’t enough, the night is headlined by George Clinton’s futuristic Parliament-Funkadelic collective, arguably the greatest funk act ever. Clinton has been making people shake it for decades via classic albums like Uncle Jam Wants You and Motor Booty Affair and his deep influence on modern hip-hop. Not for nothing was he awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy this past May. And with this being billed as his farewell tour before he retires from the road, catch a glimpse of Dr. Funkenstein while you still can. (Sat Aug 10, 6 pm, Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Road, all ages, $44.50-250) BEN SALMON

Flying Lotus
Los Angeles-born musician/rapper/producer Flying Lotus released his sixth studio album Flamagra in May, and the project is loaded with some seriously exciting features: from the laidback “More” featuring Anderson .Paak to “Yellow Belly” featuring rapper Tierra Whack, plus appearances from George Clinton, Shabazz Palaces, Solange, Thundercat, and others. Known for also making original scores, the artist’s 3D live show could be a cinematic experience. (Sat Aug 10, 9 pm, Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th, all ages, $29.95) JENNI MOORE

SUN AUG 11

Gauche, Conditioner Disco Group
Gauche makes music for bodies. The DC quintet’s skittering brand of post-punk—all guitar scribbles and bouncing bass—is a tried and true formula traced back to trail blazers like Delta 5 and the Au Pairs. And every song is a demand: move, flail, loosen those limbs, shake it all out. Gauche’s debut album, A People’s History of Gauche, forgoes the shock of the new for the bone-deep pleasure of the familiar. It is a tool for corporeal joy that has worked for decades, and it’s going to continue to work as long as we are all trapped in these weird bone bags that crave ecstatic release. (Sun Aug 11, 9 pm, Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, $10-12) CHRIS STAMM

TUES AUG 13

Feist, Rhye
While Leslie Feist may have had her biggest hit back in the year of our lord 2007 with The Reminder (featuring the indisputably catchy “1234” that graced an iPod Nano commercial), she certainly didn’t let fame go to her head. Instead, she held strong to her indie oddball roots and continued to challenge both herself and her audience musically with 2011’s Metals and her latest, 2017’s Pleasure. Always an inventive guitarist, Feist alternates between quirky rock-outs and introspective cooing on Pleasure, employing poetic lyrics atop bluesy riffs in her songs that whiz by like the Doppler effect of a passing, rattling car. Feist may no longer be chasing the hits, but she’s still producing music that makes you want to come along for the ride. (Tues Aug 13, 7 pm, Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon, all ages, $35-95) WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY

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WED AUG 14

“Weird Al” Yankovic
Our beloved Weird Al has reached the part of any great legacy artist’s career where he’s starting to fuck with the formula. Last year, that meant a tour where he filled the setlist with his original compositions instead of his parody tunes. This time around, he’s bringing an entire symphony orchestra (complete with backup singers) to back him up on every stop of his 2019 trek across North America. Will it make his Coolio spoof “Amish Paradise” that much more dramatic and awesome? You’re goddamn right it will. (Wed Aug 14, 6:30 pm, Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey, Troutdale, all ages, sold out) ROBERT HAM

Giants in the Trees
Since their inception in 2017, Wahkiakum County, Washington’s Giants in the Trees have been a steady presence in the Pacific Northwest, slowly garnering acclaim as a dynamic rock quartet. And sure, their tall bassist/accordionist looks familiar, because he’s Krist Novoselić, who was one in a band called Sweet 75 and used to play bass with Flipper. (And, oh yeah, he co-founded Nirvana.) But Giants in the Trees have mostly played down that angle; their second full-length, Volume 2, was just self-released, following the modest regional success of their self-titled debut. Utilizing lush textures and smart harmonic interplay, the band’s melodic, moody pieces are punctuated by Jillian Raye’s stunning vocals. (Wed Aug 14, 8:30 pm, Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside, $12) RYAN J. PRADO

The War and Treaty, Philippe Bronchtein
Last summer, Maryland-based husband-and-wife duo the War and Treaty played a Pickathon set that effectively took everyone within earshot to church. Powerhouse singers Michael and Tanya Trotter tirelessly demonstrate a mastery of freewheelin’ gospel-tinged vocals, tight harmonies, and soul-drenched adlibs. Their songs, like the gloriously up-tempo “Hi Ho,” as well as “Set My Soul on Fire” and “Til the Morning” are hymns of love and spirituality that sound like they came from a different time. At their intimate Mississippi Studios gig, the lovebird duo will no doubt highlight songs from their new album Healing Tide like “Are You Ready to Love Me,” “If It’s in Your Heart,” and album opener “Love Like There’s No Tomorrow,” which the duo sings, backed up by nothing more than a tambourine shake. (Wed Aug 14, 9 pm, Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, $15-17) JENNI MOORE