By now, Portland being famed for it’s ‘indie cred’ is old hat – everyone knows about the smart growth initiatives, all the bike lanes, Portlandia, etc. One of the most sterling examples of this is Music Fest NW, when bands play across the city’s many venues, with big name acts and small up-and-comers, Pacific Northwest locals and acts from around the world.
So QRO headed (north)West, Tuesday to Sunday, September 3rd to 8th.
Roseland Theater
Gang$ign$
What better way to kick off one of the Northwest’s biggest festivals than with a local Portland musician? Nick Sisouphanh – better known in these parts as Gang$ign$ – tried his best at the Roseland Theater to properly kick off this year’s Music Fest NW with his indistinguishable brand of electronic music, but unfortunately it’s tough to stand out in that scene and it’s equally tough to get too excited about a guy who stands behind a computer and bobs his head for an hour while he pushes some buttons and moves some slides. It’s a seemingly unending cycle of build up and beat dropping. Lather, rinse, repeat…
However, in true Portland fashion, it was like something straight out of the ‘90s. Gang$ign$ is a short, heavy-set guy who wore a black beanie with a Stüssy shirt, of all things. And what could be more ironic than sampling the famous Oompa Loompa song from Willy Wonka?
It’$ tough to know if this guy i$ trying to be $illy or if he’$ fully being him$elf and he’$ in the be$t hometown po$$ible for that per$ona. Either way, hi$ DJ $et wa$ mildly entertaining and if you don’t live in Portland you won’t be mi$$ing much if you don’t go out of your way to $ee him when he come$ through your town.
Nacho Picasso
This Seattle-based rapper sounds (and sort of looks) a lot like Lil Wayne. It’s difficult to take someone completely seriously when his or her style so closely matches that of something you’ve already heard. That being said, Nacho Picasso – who helped launch the first day of Music Fest NW at Portland’s Roseland Theater – isn’t a bad hip-hop artist, he’s just not that much of an original one.
This was a pretty standard hip-hop experience in that there were plenty of tattoos (yes, at one point he claimed he was “hot” so he could take his shirt off), crotch-grabbing, showing of boxer briefs, and exclaiming things to his DJ such as, “What’s the next joint man? I don’t give a shit!”
Dante’s
Summer Cannibals
The three females and one male that make up Summer Cannibals also call Portland home. They helped round out night one of Music Fest NW by playing the utterly seedy venue that is Dante’s. It was a tad difficult to pay attention to the show when you had to look past many chains and stripper planks hanging from the ceiling, but this group’s brand of loose garage rock helped aid in that endeavor. Their music and playing style was so loose, in fact, that if you put them to a click track they would probably fall apart.
With Emma Stone’s doppelgänger as their drummer, this quartet couldn’t be swingier in their pursuit of the perfect crunchy guitar and pummeling drum sounds. Despite some apparent technical difficulties in the first part of their set where you couldn’t hear the bass guitar whatsoever (at first I thought this was intentional), they managed to power through and had the crowd won over just a few short songs in. Speaking of short, it got awkward at times because certain songs were so short and ended so abruptly that the audience barely knew to start clapping. All water under the bridge for the sake of good old rock and roll though, I suppose…
