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There’s something weighty about longtime Portland musician Laura Veirs’ new single, “Pulse.” Not the actual song, which has a jazzy saxophone section and lyrics about knowing when something wonderful is about to happen, but actual weights. In the “Pulse” music video, Veirs gets to work in a home gym, doing dead lifts, planks, weighted squats, kettlebell swings and many more gym rat favorites. Her whole blended family—husband, four teenagers, pet Chihuahua and hamster—gets physical, too. Veirs also gets shot by a ton of Silly String.
“It’s Jane Fonda surrealism,” Veirs says.
“Pulse” is the lead single off of Veirs’ new album, Temple Songs, which comes out Aug. 14, ahead of shows at Music Millennium on Aug. 15 and Polaris Hall on Oct. 24. “Pulse” is a bright, beachy song, with a video that adds a feminist message: Veirs is 52, lifting heavier weights than she ever has, and looking like a rock star doing it. The look: red high-top Converse, silver hair in pigtails.
Weightlifting is for everyone, Veirs says, even though it’s traditionally thought of as a young, male space. The video is “a mix of political, and also just fun,” she says. “Those two things can go together.”
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2026 here!
