Willamette Week's MusicfestNW Guide

In Portland, it's easy to exist in a bubble. Megan McGaughy, keyboardist/vocalist for the Gingerbread Patriots (see listing, page 18, and feature, page 7), wrapped it up pretty eloquently in a recent interview: "There's a good show [here] every night. I've never [before] been in a city where, every night, if you wanted to go out, you could find something worthwhile."

Many of those worthwhile, "every night" acts are Portland's own. But there's a helluva lot of fantastic bands making music outside our city limits, too—a reality we're often distracted from here in music utopia. MusicfestNW is that special time of year when Portland adopts the best of music everywhere and gives it a home. It's the four days—lovingly founded and organized by Willamette Week —when Stumptown venues and music fans open their doors and ears, respectively, to a super-concentrated brand of sonic awesomeness. It's a time when, thanks to the painstaking work of festival director Trevor Solomon and the MusicfestNW board, our city's best artists get to play with their idols, musicians from cities near and far.

And they're not alone: Whether it's Virginia-based hip-hop duo Clipse, garage legend Roky Erickson or NYC's pop weirdos Dirty Projectors, there's probably at least one artist on this year's lineup that you'd give your left pinky to see (I'd probably lose an entire hand to witness Austin folk-rock outfit Okkervil River bring down Berbati's house on Saturday). Sure, Portland's musically spoiled; there is a good show here every night. But during MusicfestNW, there's an even better show damn near every hour. Lucky for you, we've put together this here guide to help you figure out how the hell to deal with that.

Amy McCullough

Willamette Week , Music Editor

IT'S OUR FAULT!

Editor Amy McCullough

Writers Erik Bader, Annie Bethancourt, Michael Byrne, Dave A. Clifford, Devan C. Cook, Joe E. Dixon, Josey R. Duncan, Jay Horton, Casey Jarman, AP Kryza, Jessica Machado, Amy McCullough, Jeff Rosenberg, Paige Richmond, Travis Ritter, Anika Sabin, Brandon Seifert, Jason Simms, Ethan Smith

Copy Editors Kat Hyatt, Ian Gillingham

Art Director Thomas Cobb

Production Laura Atkinson, Erik Blad, Brian Brown, Maggie Gardner, Tom Humphrey, Snow Rodriguez, Cari Vander Yacht

THX

MusicfestNW 2007 Advisory Board Byron Beck, Jimi Biron, Ashley Brown, Hannah Carlen, December Carson, Allison Carter, Megan Chouinard, Kelly Clarke, Lee Cohen, Terry Currier, Fasil Debeb, Rachel Demy, Bruce Fife, Kevin French, Tyra Grove, Andrea Haack, Mike Hare, Tom Humphrey, Chantelle Hylton, Casey Jarman, Eric Johnson, Mike King, Anne Koch, Matt Manza, Amy McCullough, Matthew Moss, Alicia Rose, Dave Sanford, Peter Shaver, Jess Sword, Mike Thrasher, Mark Zusman

MusifestNW Staff Richard Meeker, president; Trevor Solomon, executive director; Shawna McKeown, controller; Andrea Manning, cash queen; Thomas Cobb, art director; Connie Wohn, marketing director; Matthew King, volunteer director; Max Bauske, intern

Special Thanks To Sam Adams, Kenric Ashe, Colby Bartrug, Jesse Beason, AJ Beatty, Lynda Bedrosian, Ry Benevides, Tim Bergevin, Pollyanne Birge, Rose Blackson, Ezra Caraeff, Roland Chlapowski, Billy Claire, Kevin Clayville, Kevin Cole, Todd Crosby, Jamie Davis, Timie Dolan, Ricky Engelberg, Food Chain Films, Natasha Figueroa, Michael Fitzgerald, Bob Gandalfi, Greg Glover, Kristi Gordon, Chris Hodge, Carolyn Hollowell, Kevin Imamura, Aaron James, Warren Jimenez, Josey Kinnaman, Melissa Knight, AP Kryza, Travis Labbe, Jim Lillis, Conrad Loebl, Ben London, Karen Lulay, Matt McCormick, Jared Mees, Oregon Music Hall of Fame, Christian Parkes, Dawn Pierson, Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, John Richards, John Rowe, Brooke Van Roekel, Willamette Week staff

WWeek 2015