Part of the fun in heading out to a summer festival is getting there: hitting the road, rolling down the windows and blasting the radio. The trip north (to the Portland area) is as adventurous as the music offering: The swooping charm of the cliffs and bluffs, and the awe-inspiring vistas of satin-draped Mt. Hood […]
Summer Music Guide
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Dusty Doings to the East
There are more than cowboys out on the range
Heading inland, the options for summer entertainment don’t dry up. It’s all wide-open spaces, and the options for summer music entertainment are just as vast as the landscape. From cow town rodeo festivities to the angriest and most disturbing strains of metal imaginable, a few tanks of gas can take concertgoers just about anywhere they’d […]
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Southern Oregon Rock!
Down south for summer
Fittingly, traveling south from Bend drops into a more bluesy and gritty music scene, as well as a healthy cowboy offering. There are festivals nearly every weekend throughout the summer, most falling into that unique overlap between cowboy and hippie (is that laidback, tie-dyed desperado?) Equal parts reggae, C&W and heavy metal, the Southern Oregon […]
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Summer Music Calendar
June 1 Burnin’ Moonlight Broken Top Bottle Shop 4 Vandella McMenamins Father Luke’s Room Tango Alpha Tango Volcanic Theatre Pub 5 Kathryn Claire’s Birthday Tour McMenamins Father Luke’s Room HUMP Tour with Hopeless Jack and The Handsome Devil Volcanic Theatre Pub Greg Botsford Feast From the Fire Brasada Ranch 6 Carribean Moon Country Catering Party […]
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Summer Concert Guide
Here’s the best of the best
In his wonderful book "Blink," Malcolm Gladwell discussed the concept of “thin slicing”—that is, the ability to partition just the smallest bit from a larger whole to tell the complete story. Said differently, any one part of your summer can indicate the entire attitude for the next three months—whether it will be a wild Class […]
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Summertime and the Living Smells Like Patchouli
More than 20 years ago, I swore off hippie concerts. At the time, I was a budding intern at San Francisco Weekly and went off on my first investigative reporting story. My editor wanted copy about nitrous oxide—or, “hippie crack,” as he called it. Allegedly, hippie concerts were awash in a new fad—brain-freezed buzzes from […]
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Five Summer Concerts Not To Miss
Get out your iCal
DAVID BYRNE & ST. VINCENT—In the adorable St. Vincent (formerly from Polyphonic Spree), David Byrne has found his greatest musical partner. With his original band, The Talking Heads, Byrne was the undeniable frontman, hogging the musical setups with his youthful oddities. But in this duo, the two truly balance each other with quirky and fun […]
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Up and Coming Summer Concerts
These are gonna be big
WTF FESTIVAL—Electronic music is exploding in the U.S. Need proof? It can be found at the newly minted What The Festival. Now in its second year, WTF is sporting new, expanded digs at Wolf Run Ranch, located in the wilderness a couple of hours outside Portland. It’s basically a three-day camping electronic-palooza. The festival features […]
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Family-Friendly Fun
Bring ’em all
The first rule of bringing Junior and Baby to the summer concert is to recognize the concert is no longer about you. Forget what flight attendants tell you about taking care of yourself before taking care of those around you. Oh, sweet pea, no, no, NO! The first rule of order is to take care […]
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In the Bag
Tips for summer concerts on the road
Take it from a seasoned concertgoer, there are some staples that you must not forget when preparing to hit the road. Ticket. Yeah, duh! But it is the easiest thing to do, and the most obvious to avoid. When you’re busy grabbing last-minute items for the car (Cellphone? Check! Potato chips? Check!) your ticket might […]
