Musicfest NW: Fire, Smoke, No Craft Beer?

 

Last year when Musicfest NW evolved away from it’s SXSW-style roots, once spread out around the city over 4 days and now packed into a weekend festival, it wanted to be bigger – officially now the biggest in Portland.

When it comes to BIG music festivals in the Northwest, the first that comes to mind is Sasquatch because damn, have you ever watched bands play in front of a huge river? So it’s a tall order, yet it was my first corporate sponsored festival since Coachella back in aught-five, so this event was begging for our attention.

The Scene

We showed up Saturday accompanied by a heavy buzz, arriving fresh from the monthly PDX Bottle Share so Hunahpu, White Chocolate and Mexican Cake were already flowing through our veins. While we did miss Friday’s opening salvo of bands, including headliner Foster The People and NYC indie-pop darlings Misterwives, we were not upset to have missed a day at a festival held in one of craft beer’s meccas that was NOT serving craft beer on its premises.

They had that green bottled beer, Mexican cerveza, an English strong cider, a few local wines and a fenced-off area offering a certain Tennessee Whiskey – that was it. There were tons of excellent food options offered by local food trucks, most notably Bunk Sandwiches and PDX Sliders (neither were one of the 30 sponsors on hand), but not one goddamned craft beer option. If you need some help next year Musicfest NW, please let us know.

We also had a steady diet of smoke as the entire Willamette Valley felt like it was on fire over the weekend. From Crater Lake to Central Washington, the whole region was dealing with wildfires. Surrounded by corporate sponsors, devoid of local craft suds, socked in with smoke and people wearing masks, it felt like a dystopian fascist nightmare in China, but then there was the music…

The Bands

Arriving late to the cookout Saturday, we missed Talking in Tongues – a psych-rock outfit from LA with an edge reminiscent of Tame Impala, pre-Currents. And we missed SALES, an indie-pop duo from Orlando, which in retrospect seemed like a bad choice. We instead started with New York’s instrumental powerhouse Battles who always sport angular groves, guitar loop effects and some awesomely mad drumming – punctuated by John Stanier’s high cymbal crashes.

The night was finished by a delightfully fun set by Belle and Sebastian, followed immediately by the horn inflected baroque-pop and folk of Sante Fe’s Beirut. Arguably the most technically proficient act of the weekend, they wowed the crowd with waves of gorgeous melodies, orchestrated southwestern mariachi horns and a dazzling light show.

While recovering from an adjunct beer hangover on Sunday, we decided to steer clear of the cheap beer. I broke down and had an iced(!) strong cider later in the day, mainly to cool down, but otherwise sobered up. The day offered another strong lineup of acts including my favorite of the weekend, the luscious vocals of Lady Lamb, hailing from the other Portland. Fluctuating between post-punk rage, bedroom bop, folk melodies and lovelorn slow jams, she’s definitely one to watch.

We focused on the south end’s Hawthorne Stage, taking in local rock duo favorites Helio Sequence, then the charismatic heartbreaker of indie folk, The Tallest Man on Earth. The acoustic guitar wielding Swede brought positive vibes and beautiful folk rock more than any other we saw. Finishing the night was Modest Mouse who’s now headlined 4 shows in Portland in 18 months. Though lead singer Issac Brock calls the Rose City home, he not long ago referred to the town as “vagrant ridden” and “a collection of turds.” Thus, we saw many poop emoji and Turdlandia signs for the finale.

With so many singer-songwriters and technically focused performers throughout the weekend, Brock seemed like a whirlwind of noise. Playing some old tracks we’d longed to hear interspersed with some disjointed new stuff, it all felt exhausting. With the largest crowd by far in attendance and a longer set than the others, we didn’t survive long enough to witness the encore.

The Verdict

The two stage back-and-forth set-up works well as did the blend of new and old acts, yet we’d also like to see some fresher bands headlining – you’d think the ticket prices AND 30 sponsors could allow for it.  And hey, great job on the food front and the refillable water station, though it was also annoying to watch the “Alcohol Monitors” spending more time busting weed smokers than helping out the visibly drunk fools we saw shambling around.

Having everyone in one location seems like a safer idea than going around town to 18 venues (though Lyft was giving out free rides), yet it’s always going to be safer when no one’s drinking the shitty, mass-produced adjunct imports you had on tap. One of the largest distributors of craft beer lies on the other side of the river, so close they could even bike the kegs over the damned thing. Fix that and we’ll definitely be there again next year.