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Wednesday, Aug. 6–Thursday, Aug. 21
PDX Live is back in Pioneer Courthouse Square, kicking off this August’s programming with Aussie indie-pop duo Royel Otis tonight and continuing with alt-rock guitar slingers Dinosaur Jr. and Snail Mail (Thursday); UK club hotshot Jamie xx, also of the xx (Friday); pop-country cult fave Waxahatchee (Saturday); and Portland psych stalwarts STRFKR co-headlining with pop duo Phantogram (Monday). Later this month, catch Men I Trust (Aug. 15), Shakey Graves with Trampled By Turtles (Aug. 16), Ben Harper (Aug. 20),. and The Roots (Aug. 21). Pioneer Courthouse Square, 701 SW 6th Ave. Prices vary. All ages.
Wednesday, Aug. 6
Remember MS Paint, the Microsoft drawing program whose garish and exuberantly low-def aesthetic left an impression on the generation who honed their computer art skills on it? MSPAINT sounds just as cheap and colorful, and the Mississippi band’s fiery new EP No Separation confirms them as one of the best dance-punk bands during the most fruitful time for the genre since the early 2000s. Opening is Lip Critic, a no less exuberant band from the dance-punk capital New York, and the fantastically named Indianapolis band Pat & the Pissers. Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Court. 7 pm. $21.17. All ages.
Friday, Aug. 8
Pixar soundtrack gigs and humongous “Old Town Road” royalty checks haven’t made Trent Reznor any cuddlier; if anything, they’ve just given him more resources to occupy his arch-goth status with the same vampiric grace as his hero David Bowie. His long-running project Nine Inch Nails (now augmented with his film-score co-conspirator Atticus Ross), hasn’t put out an album of pop songs since 2018’s Bad Witch, but that album was so good that there’s a sense of real excitement for what this band could do in its fourth decade as an industrial rock institution. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St. 6:30 pm. $64+. All ages.
