KPSU 24-Hour Broadcast w/Wild Ones, The Ghost East, Jesus Miranda, Load B, Mikey Fountaine, & more; listen at kpsu.org
The KPSU 24-hour broadcast, now in its second year (which I guess technically makes it a station "tradition") is exactly what it sounds like: so many Portland bands playing live sets in a 24-hour time frame. This year's diverse lineup—expertly curated by KPSU staff—features scene heavyweights like Wild Ones and the Ghost Ease in addition to some of the city's most promising up-and-comers, like Jesus Miranda and Mikey Fountaine. It's practically a music festival (minus the swamp ass and $2 bottles of water). Part of KPSU's 30 Shows in 30 Days series to raise awareness for the college radio station.
Hemingway w/Jake Stein-Ross; Anna Banannas Alberta, 2403 NE Alberta
I've raved about Hemingway before in this column, but I don't mind repeating myself: The group's debut Pretend to Care (originally released on tape and reissued on vinyl by 6131 Records last fall) is an extremely solid debut that brings to mind the poppier hemisphere of the '90s emo oeuvre (specifically Weezer's Pinkerton, Knapsack, and the Promise Ring records Nothing Feels Good and Very Emergency). Tonight, the group performs a rare acoustic set with likeminded emo bard Jake Stein-Ross.
Mushroomhead w/Doyle, the Family Ruin, Toxic Zombie, Amerakin Overdose; Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez
For every pop star feud as surreal and theatrical as Blur vs. Oasis, Biggie vs. Tupac, or Morrissey vs. Robert Smith, there's a rivalry as profoundly dumb and calculated as the one that occurred between Mushroomhead and Slipknot during the golden era of nü-metal. (That might have been the stupidest sentence I've ever written.) It seems like nobody can really determine what the conflict was, except for the fact that both bands embodied a similar "evil clown" aesthetic and that Mushroomhead apparently "existed first" though were less popular (which makes sense—they're musically inferior and possess a significantly stupider wardrobe, if that's even possible). The hilariously imbecilic refrain to the group's latest single "Qwerty" is "fuck you, I had a bad day," a line that singlehandedly encapsulates all that is awful and adolescent about this genre of music. To say the least, they never had shit on Slipknot.
