Musicfest NW 2012

[Hannahrain]

Sept. 5-9, Portland citywide. $75-$125 for passes, on sale June 1. There are usually adds.

http://musicfestnw.com/lineup/

Silversun Pickups
Passion Pit
Beirut
Girl Talk
A-Trak
Dinosaur Jr.
Sebadoh
J. Mascis
The Tallest Man On Earth
The Helio Sequence
Old 97's performing Too Far To Care
Yelawolf
Hot Snakes
Menomena
Trampled By Turtles
Starfucker
Red Fang
Danny Brown
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
Typhoon
Swans
Lightning Bolt
Purity Ring
Black Mountain
King Khan & the Shrines
Hazel
Fucked Up
Big Freedia
Future Islands
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
Redd Kross
Sloan performing Twice Removed
John Maus
Moonface
Omar Souleyman
Joe Pug
Big Business
The Men
Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three
I Break Horses
Milo Greene
Tanlines
The Growlers
Trust
DJ Mr. Jonathan Toubin
Touche Amore
Ceremony
Nite Jewel
Chelsea Wolfe
Blouse
Julia Holter
Mirrorring
LP
Xiu Xiu
Gardens & Villa
The Builders and The Butchers
Bobby Bare Jr.
The Soft Moon
Cheap Girls
Pete Krebs and the Gossamer Wings
Sad Baby Wolf
Radiation City
These United States
Brown Bird
Joyce Manor
Defeater
Daughn Gibson
Holcombe Waller
Hey Marseilles
Craft Spells
Mean Jeans
The People's Temple
Fort Lean
Mrs. Magician
The Drowning Men
Crystal Antlers
And And And
Alialujah Choir
Quest For Fire
Evian Christ
Tender Forever
Curious Mystery
Onuinu
Pure Bathing Culture
Mac Demarco
Dante vs. Zombies
DJ Beyondadoubt
Sandpeople
Hungry Ghost
Brainstorm
Erik Koskinen
Lake
White Lung
Naytronix
Hosannas
Headaches
AAN
Arrington De Dionyso
Casey Neil & The Norway Rats
Copy
Dirtclodfight
DJ Cooky Parker
Grandparents
Guantanamo Baywatch
Kendl Winter
Lemolo
Old Light
Palmas
Snow Bud & The Flower People
Stay Calm
Sun Angle
Swahili
The Dangerous Boys Club
The Dimes
The Needful Longings
The Suicide Notes
Tyler Lyle
Vice Device
White Fang

[Hannahrain]

Weird, I guess this is part of it, too:

MusicFestNW Launches Sister Event, Embracing Portland Technology and Startup Culture

Portland Digital eXperience promises to broaden the appeal of internationally recognized music festival

PORTLAND, ORE. — April 10, 2012 — Willamette Week today announced that MusicFestNW (MFNW), the internationally acclaimed music festival held in downtown Portland, will be expanding its format in 2012 to include an event focused on technology, startups, and digital creativity, called the Portland Digital eXperience (PDX).

Expanding to a festival format, the panel-driven, tech-oriented programming will run during the weekdays leading into MFNW musical acts and parties in the evening.

“We’re thrilled at the prospect of expanding MFNW to a new — but entirely complementary — audience,” said WW’s Mark Zusman. “This is a natural progression for this event. And we’re looking forward to collaborating with the Portland tech community to make it happen.”
Held in Portland, OR September 5th – September 9th, 2012, MFNW is one of the country’s largest music festivals. The attention to curation that has made MFNW a destination event will be applied to PDX’s programming.

In charge of the event will be Rick Turoczy, a co-founder of P.I.E.(Portland Incubator Experiment) and the man behind Silicon Florist, the definitive blog covering the Portland tech industry. “Many of the entrepreneurs in Portland have talked about the need for an event like this — a festival that puts the Portland tech scene on a bigger stage,” said Turoczy. “I’m thrilled that we are providing the opportunity and resources to help bring that vision to reality.”

[shoegazer76]

Swans, Dinosaur Jr, and Sebadoh make this very tempting to attend.

[Hannahrain]

Yeah, there's a lot to see. Every time I scan the list, something else pops out.

[kucky21]

This sounds pretty good. I think I may need to attend since it is in my backyard

[dorkfish]

September 5th

• Passion Pit, LP @ Crystal Ballroom
• Hot Snakes, Red Fang, Hungry Ghost @ Roseland Theater

September 6th

• Purity Ring, Evian Christ, Headaches @ TBA
• Old 97's, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Bobby Bare Jr @ Roseland Theater
• Tanlines, Naytronix @ Holocene
• I Break Horses, John Maus, Onuinu @ Doug Fir Lounge
• King Khan & the Shrines, Apache @ Dante's
• Passion Pit @ Crystal Ballroom
• Lightning Bolt @ Hawthorne Theater
• Trampled by Turtles, These United States, Erik Koskinen @ Aladdin Theater

September 7th

• Yelawolf, Danny Brown, Sandpeople @ Roseland Theater
• The Helio Sequence, Chairlift, Radiation City, Hosannas @ Crysal Ballroom
• The Paints of Being Pure at Heart @ Star Theater
• A-Trak @ Wonder Ballroom
• Beirut, Menomena, Gardens & Villa @ Pioneer Courthouse Square
• Blouse @ Ted’s Berbati’s Pan
• Trampled by Turtles, These United States, Erik Koskinen @ Aladdin Theater
• Future Islands, Fort Lean @ Branx

September 8th

• Swans, Xiu Xiu @ Hawthorne Theater
• Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, J Mascis @ Roseland Theater
• The Tallest Man on Earth @ Crystal Ballroom
• Girl Talk, Starfucker @ Pioneer Courthouse Square
• Julia Holter @ The Old Church
• The Soft Moon @ Ted’s Berbati’s Pan
• Light Asylum, DBC, Vice Device, Trust @ Holocene
• Typhoon, Holcombe Waller, And And And @ Aladdin Theater

September 9th

• Silversun Pickups @ Pioneer Courthouse Square

[Riggins33]

Is this at Coachella?

[fikus222]

lawl

[Hannahrain]

Swans, Xiu Xiu @ Hawthorne Theater

This is a really unfortunate location/band pairing.

King Khan & the Shrines, Apache @ Dante's

This, on the other hand, is a perfect one.

Also unfortunate:

• Swans, Xiu Xiu @ Hawthorne Theater
• Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, J Mascis @ Roseland Theater
• The Tallest Man on Earth @ Crystal Ballroom

On the same night. They do stagger shows enough that it may be possible to catch more than one, though. Crossing my fingers for good scheduling.

[Hannahrain]

The Hives and Flying Lotus have been added. Wednesday is supposed to see more adds as well.

[know ID ya]

Yeah, this doesn't need another new thread, but, someone on the Sasquatch board is confirming Animal Collective, and Godspeed is already confirmed for two nights.

[Bumblebee]

http://www.monqui.com/event/245691-m...arty-portland/

CHVRCHES doing the launch party = doing the festival itself? They have the dates open but they are in Ireland Sept 1st.

[clumsy342]

Deerhunter 09/04 @ Crystal Ballroom

And I suppose Alt-J is part of MFNW seeing as how they're playing the Crystal on 09/03.

[Eddie S.]

I'm thinking about attending this year, I have visited before but never during the fest. Anybody who has gone before care to share their experience?

[thekube]

I'm thinking about attending this year, I have visited before but never during the fest. Anybody who has gone before care to share their experience?

I've been the last 2 years. The benefits it has over other festivals are:

1) Cheap - I believe it was around 60 bucks for 5 days of music. While it doesn't have giant headliners, the past couple years you got bands like Beirut, Phantogram, Dinosaur Jr., Lightning Bolt, Explosions in the Sky, The Antlers, Charles Bradley, Flying Lotus, Passion Pit, Purity Ring, Little Dragon, Givers, Shabazz Palaces, Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Well worth it.

2) Less crowded - the venues at MusicFestNW hold anywhere from 100 - 1500 people and I haven't had any trouble getting in anywhere with a wristband. Used to live in Austin and getting into popular shows at SXSW was a challenge. MusicFestNW is pretty low key, so it isn't really obvious a music festival is going on.

3) KEXP day shows at Doug Fir Lounge - these are free and awesome. Last year you could see Dinosaur Jr., Purity Ring, Menomena, Black Mountain, and some others for free. Year before they had Phantogram, Explosions in the Sky, Little Dragon, and The Antlers there for free. Doug Fir is one of my favorite venues, sounds great, and only holds 300 people.

4) Portland - the weather is pretty awesome during September, and if you have time you can ride a bus/Amtrak up to Bumbershoot the days before to catch a day of music in Seattle. Or take a side trip to the Gorge, Edgefield, or a nature spot.

Clips of KEXP day shows:




Long-ish clip video I made over the course of the 2011 MusicFest, skip around and you can get a feel for the shows, most are at small venues:



So yeah, bottom line is that it's cheap, not crowded, and is in Portland in the Summer.

[Eddie S.]

Thanks Kube! I normally like to visit during July because it is craft beer month but since I am visiting friends this year, I want to schedule my trip around the festival. How many acts can you normally catch in one day? Are all the venues walking distance from each other? I really appreciate it, thanks again.

[thekube]

Thanks Kube! I normally like to visit during July because it is craft beer month but since I am visiting friends this year, I want to schedule my trip around the festival. How many acts can you normally catch in one day? Are all the venues walking distance from each other? I really appreciate it, thanks again.

Made a little map of the most common venues to see shows:

http://goo.gl/maps/c6crP

It's an easy walk between the downtown spots that have "bigger" shows - Crystal Ballroom, Roseland, Pioneer Square are all within 6 blocks of each other. You can also walk to some of the inner East side venues (Doug Fir Lounge and Holocene) from there, slightly longer walk across the bridge.

The venues that are a little more out of the way are Aladdin Theater, Mississippi Studios, Wonder Ballroom, and Hawthorne Theater. For those it would be good to ride a bus or have a bike. Nothing is really that far, I walk to Wonder Ballroom and Hawthorne Theater sometimes, just a bit further than most people would want to walk.

Here is what the schedule was in 2011 for the night shows:

http://www.portlandmercury.com/Blogt...st-nw-schedule

I coupled those with the KEXP day shows (4 a day):

http://blog.kexp.org/kexp-events/musicfest-nw-2011/

The first night it's just getting started and not that much going on, so you probably just pick up your wristband, stay at one place and watch a few bands at the same venue. The Kills kicked it off in 2011.

Then I would do the KEXP day shows, morning to afternoon.

Then early evening do the Pioneer Square stuff, which is like this:

4:00pm — 4:40pm - Eluvium at Levi's Pioneer Stage at Pioneer Courthouse Square
5:00pm — 5:40pm - Typhoon at Levi's Pioneer Stage at Pioneer Courthouse Square
6:00pm — 7:00pm - The Antlers at Levi's Pioneer Stage at Pioneer Courthouse Square
7:30pm — 9:00pm - Explosions In The Sky at Levi's Pioneer Stage at Pioneer Courthouse

Then from there head to your venue of choice and catch maybe 3 shows to close out the night. Hard to jump venue to venue for back to back sets, but you could probably do a 9-10pm one place, then 11-12 somewhere else. There is definitely a good amount of downtime during the day where you just kinda chill around town since there isn't _always_ something going on like other festivals. But it's only 60 bucks for the festival ticket, which is about the cost of seeing a couple mid-level acts these days, so def worth it in my opinion.

[PJandBompton]

hoping to be there this year, artist I manage might be performing.

[Hannahrain]

Conflicts can be sort of brutal, last year's discussion earlier in the thread is a pretty good representation. I also find that despite my best intentions to see everything and all the things, I typically wind up picking a venue and hunkering down after a certain point in the night. Still, I will continue to go as long as I live here. It's always worth it.

[kfordham]

Some of the venues are so far away to from the rest of the venues it almost doesn't seem worth it. Getting to the Hawthorne and the Aladdin would be such a mission. It seems like it would be best just to stay what's around burnside. The courthouse is a quick bike ride or max ride away. There's a good 8 or 9 venues that you can hit within a short 10 minute walk between them.

[Eddie S.]

Sounds like this fest is a lot fun for the price. Conflicts are expected at every fest and the fact that some of the venues are out of the way can be a problem but overall I think I'm going to pull the trigger on this one. Thanks for taking the time in making that map, kube.

[TomAz]

[Hannahrain]

There really is nothing quite like an evening spent basking in the fading sun as the soothing, dulcet tones of Swans wash over you and lull you into a soft silk euphoria. Good reference. Well-constructed joke.

[Hannahrain]

Fucked Up, on the other hand, is a little less like an evening sun bask and a little more like a calming aural salve.

[TomAz]

Sparklepony.

[gam3g3ni3]

Sounds like this fest is a lot fun for the price. Conflicts are expected at every fest and the fact that some of the venues are out of the way can be a problem but overall I think I'm going to pull the trigger on this one. Thanks for taking the time in making that map, kube.

Nothing is really out of the way. From a downtown location you can get to almost any place in under 10 mins by cab or Tri-Met.

[Inthecolumbiagorge]

Definitely easy to get to all the venues even without a car. Portland has a pretty good transit system in these areas. I love this fest! I have been a volunteer the last few years, and it has been a blast. Definitely worth the cash expenditure.

[Listening]

Definitely easy to get to all the venues even without a car. Portland has a pretty good transit system in these areas. I love this fest! I have been a volunteer the last few years, and it has been a blast. Definitely worth the cash expenditure.

Agreed on the transit system. I've gone to the festival twice...flown in, caught the Trimet (http://trimet.org/max/) at the airport, taken it to downtown where I've stayed....it's very easy to walk to Pioneer Courthouse Square, Voodoo Doughnuts, and some of the other music venues (though not all).