Have an event coming up in Portland you’re looking to spread the word about? Send an email to events@xray.fm to see how we can help!
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TICKETS | $18
From the deepest and darkest soul-snatching pits of the inescapable swampy hellscape known as Florida, arose an unlikely glimmer of light... The Sponges. Blending classic scrunchy-faced funk with next level bass house production, The Sponges have carved their own lane in electronic music.
Having gained support from artists such as GRiZ, Zeds Dead, Tchami, AC Slater, The Floozies, Manic Focus and Jauz, it’s clear that their infectious sound is the perfect addition to peak party hours.
Due to their deep-rooted love for hippie fests and nightclub debauchery, the duo’s mission has always been to blend sounds, bend bodies, and deliver the most fun and energetic listening experiences to audiences everywhere. After FIVE #1 records on Beatport, The Sponges are well on their way to establishing themselves as one of the greatest acts to ever grace the sonic wasteland known as the electronic music industry. Prepare your playlists for the dukes of disco, the future of funk, the lords of the low-end, the czars of certified bangers, the emperors of ecstasy, the rulers of the rave, the bassline bastards, and the gods of groove as they gear up for an explosive year in 2023!
Made up of Frank Cueto and Rusty Belicek, the All Good Funk Alliance has opened up for James Brown, DJ'd all around the world, written songs for commercials, T.V. and movies, and have appeared on the Breakspoll Top 50 list. In other words, these guys are no strangers to the funk. And while their musical tastes range the gamut, when Frank and Rusty join forces the end result is always the same: they deliver a sound that is funky, fun and fresh.
All Ages | 4:00 PM | TICKETS | Pay-what-you-want ($5-$100)
Portland Lesbian Choir is proud to continue its 37th season with Breaking the Ice, a one-act showcase of some of PLC's finest singers. This concert is designed to allow our singers to share their talent and some of their favorite songs with you, our amazing audience. There will be PLC soloists and small groups singing about Winter, relationships, and uncomfortable situations!
Please join us at 4:00 pm in the Alberta Abbey at 126 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211. All ages are welcome.
Doors open at 3:00 pm, and the show begins at 4:00 pm. Free parking is available in the lot across the street until full. Food and beverages will be available for purchase from Alberta Abbey. This venue is ADA compliant and ASL interpretation will be available during the concert.
COVID Policy: Masks are strongly encouraged for our audience members.
Tickets are available in a "pay what you want" format at $5, $15, $25, $50, and $100. All ticket prices include general admission entrance to the show. Purchase tickets here. Come enjoy some of the best PLC has to offer!
A History of North Portland Music with Calvin Walker & Bobby Smith
Beaverton City Library, Beaverton
6:30 to 7:30 p.m. | Free and open to the public
Portland musicians and Albina Music Trust founders, Calvin Walker (XRAY FM Board Member) and Bobby Smith (former host of Night School on XRAY) will discuss the vibrant Black music culture of North Portland from the 1960s through the 1980s and the political and cultural changes that immobilized it. This event is part of Beaverton City Library’s One Book, One Beaverton community-wide read program.
FREE | Feb 3-11 | ALL AGES | At sites throughout Portland, with anchor locations* at Pioneer Courthouse Square, World Trade Center, and Electric Blocks
The Portland Winter Light Festival (PDXWLF) is Portland’s premier outdoor winter art activity that transforms, illuminates, and animates Portland’s nighttime urban landscape.
The Portland Winter Light Festival (PDXWLF) kicks off its most significant and dynamic festival with a full roster of over 100 works of art. The free, all-ages outdoor festival will take place February 3 - 11, 2023. Returning for the festival’s eighth year is Presenting Sponsor is PGE, with additional critical support from Prosper Portland, Downtown Portland, Travel Portland, and more. The PDXWLF 2023 theme is “The Light of Stars.” Admission is free.
More information: www.pdxwlf.com | Facebook | Instagram
*(Anchor locations will only be operating on weekends, 6 pm - 10 pm Friday and Saturday nights, February 3 - 4 and 10 - 11.)
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
PDXWLF 2023 will feature major anchor art sites with large-scale interactive art and performances and pop-up art in storefronts, retail spaces, front yards, and public spaces throughout Portland. Guests are encouraged to embrace this citywide art scavenger hunt and visit as many locations as possible! Anchor sites are open only on the Friday and Saturday nights of February 3-4 & 10-11. Many pop-up installations will be viewable from the street throughout the eight-evening event. Visitors are encouraged to check the times before heading out.
Festival highlights include --
Mechan 42: Space Explorer, PDXWLF’s first formal artist commission by local artist Tyler Fuqua. This 16’ tall space robot will be displayed at Salmon Springs Fountain throughout February.
Pioneer Courthouse Square: Featuring the return of Fire Art to the festival after a two-year hiatus! Portland’s living room will be filled with fire sculptures, interactive art, ice sculptures, pop-up performance, food carts, and more. The site will feature an opening night fire performance on February 3rd; stay tuned!
The World Trade Center: Featuring two levels of interactive light art, a water vortex, Pop- up performances, opportunities for hands-on art exploration, food carts, and more!
Electric Blocks at SE 2nd and Clay: Featuring large-scale projection mapping, the silent disco dance party, interactive art installations, food carts, and more.
Pop-up light art installations, projections, sculptures, and more throughout the city!
“Now, more than ever, we need art and creativity to help us celebrate the special vitality that makes Portland unique and gives us a reason to come together for some fun and levity after a few hard years,” says Portland Winter Light Festival Executive Director Alisha Sullivan. “We are honored to work with so many incredible artists, venues, businesses, and organizations that bring this citywide event to life. It is a collaborative effort, and we can’t wait to fill Portland with light art again in February!”
FREE EVENT | All ages until 9pm | 832 N. Beech St | ADA Accessible | Indoor/outdoor on covered heated patio
Stormbreaker Brewing is celebrating its 9th anniversary, and all are welcome to join the party!
Featuring Meet the Brewer tastings of two special release anniversary beers – a four year Barrel Aged Belgian Golden Strong Ale and Cloud 9, a special IPA hopped in 9 different ways – as well as tastings of a collaboration whisky, Barnstormer, distilled by Stone Barn Brandy Works from 2-5pm.
From 3-5pm, a balloon artist for the kiddos and the young at heart.
And from 5-8pm, don't miss live sets from XRAY DJs DNA (Beautiful Music), Jason Urick (Galaxy My Dear), and DJ Womb Service (Much Finer)!
TICKETS | $39.50 advance, $45 day of show, $49.50 21+ reserved balcony
The Charlatans UK
The Charlatans have reached a higher state of grace. Twenty-seven years since they first bagged a Number One album with 'Some Friendly', they're still achieving fresh career highs, dreaming up new music that redraws their own map, increasingly assured of who they are as a band.
Their trajectory has few parallels in British rock, and it's all set to continue with the release of 'Different Days', their brilliant 13th album, which finds them never more forward-looking, yet equally never more self-defining, or relevant.
RIDE
One of the leading lights of the early 90's shoegaze scene, Ride reformed in 2014, releasing their first album in over 20 years in 2017. 'Weather Diaries' was produced by Erol Alkan and greeted by a raft of critical and commercial acclaim, reaching number 11 in the UK album charts. It also saw Ride reunited with Wichita Recordings' Dick Green and Mark Bowen, who worked with the band during their early years on Creation Records. The follow-up, 'This Is Not A Safe Place,' came together in a matter of weeks at the end of 2018 and start of 2019, the sound of a band embracing their new found creativity and rejuvenated dynamic. As well as working with Erol Alkan for a second time on production, their sixth record also saw Ride reunite with sound engineer Alan Moulder, who is on mixing duties for this fourth Ride record, following 'Weather Diaries,' 'Going Blank Again' and their 1990 seminal debut album 'Nowhere' (an album whose artwork is wonderfully echoed on the cover of 'This Is Not A Safe Place'). 'This Is Not A Safe Place' charted at UK #7 on release in August 2019, the band's highest chart position in 25 years.
Ride are currently working on new material, as well as touring 'Nowhere' for its 30th anniversary throughout 2022. The band's classic Creation Records albums 'Nowhere,' 'Going Blank Again' and '4 EPs,' the first collection of Ride's early EPs on one record, will be reissued on vinyl, cd and digital 4th November by Wichita Recordings.
Free Virtual Events
SURJ PDX (Showing Up for Racial Justice - Portland) is offering 8-10-week, 1.5-hour small discussion groups for learning, accountability, and community. Pods...
• Are comprised of 5-6 community members plus a facilitator.
• Center the Movement for Black Lives Policy Platform.
• Grow understanding about racism and white supremacy within in a learning and collaborative space.
• Offer a chance to reflect on our roles in the movement.
• Push us to hold ourselves accountable to continual learning and weekly actions.
• Foster connection with fellow community members who are committed to realizing racial justice.
This space is designed for white learning, but anyone is welcome.
TICKETS | $20 advance, $25 day of show $30 21+ Reserved Balcony
Shades on and shirts unbuttoned, Magic City Hippies generate the kind of heat that could've powered a high seas yacht party in the seventies or shake a Coachella stage next summer. If the trio-Robby Hunter, Pat Howard, and John Coughlin-stepped off the screen from some long-lost Quentin Tarantino flick in slow-motion (instruments in hand), nobody would question it. Embracing everything from AM radio rock and poolside pop to nimble raps and salsa, they lock into an era-less vibe with no shortage of psychedelic funk or hooks. The three-piece deliver the kind of bangers you can play on the way to the party, during the party, and to smooth over the comedown as the sun comes up.
As the guys so eloquently describe it, they "give people a choice to enjoy this on the surface level, feel funky in their bodies, and dance...or go deeper into the music."
As legend has it, the origin of Magic City Hippies can be traced back to Robby's days of permit-less busking in Miami. Eventually, Pat and John proved to be better accompaniment than his loop pedal, so the trio played regular bar gigs and built an audience locally. They formed as Robby Hunter Band, released the Magic City Hippies album, and adopted the title as their name. That LP gained traction in 2013 with syncs on The CW's iZombie and Showtime's Ray Donovan. On its heels, 2015's Hippie Castle EP catalyzed their breakout as "Limestone" piled up over 21 million Spotify streams followed by "Fanfare" with another 20 million Spotify streams. They toured endlessly and moved crowds at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Hulaween, Okeechobee Fest, Electric Forest, and Austin City Limits, to name a few. Along the way, the band also picked up acclaim from Relix and OnesToWatch as they dropped the fan favorite Modern Animal in 2019. When the world shutdown, the boys settled in different parts of the country (Rob "doing his Johny Mayer thing" in Bozeman, MT, Pat in Los Angeles, CA, and John still in Miami). Remotely, they wrote what would become their third full-length album, Water Your Garden, out January 2022. As things opened back up, the musicians put it all together in person.
Armed with singles such as "Queen," the falsetto-spiked "High Beams" [feat. Nafets], "Diamond," and "Ghost On The Mend" Magic City Hippies are ready to heat up their next chapter now.
Tickets Available Soon!
All Ages | $12 advance, $15 day of show
"Walloping heaviosity threaded with streams of blues and thrash... doesn't begin to describe The Macks' sound. This is music that takes you places." (WIllamette Week)
The Macks are brothers Josef and Ben Windheim, Sam Fulwiler, Jacob Michael Perris, and Aidan Harrison. In 2022, the band came out with their lockdown project "Rabbit." Their raw and progressive take on rock and roll launched the band towards festivals and tours from Idaho to Mexico City.
After Willamette Week dubbed The Macks "the masters of controlled mayhem" and Portland's Best New Band of 2022, the band could have taken a breather. Instead The Macks finished the year with another full-length album release.
Self-produced in their Portland home, "Dajiban" builds on the creative successes of "Rabbit." The album drives listeners deep into expansive, catchy, gnarly, and unmistakably "Macks" territory. "Dajiban" is "Elemental rock ‘n' roll" that "flourishes in a liminal space between raw creation and perfection." (Eugene Weekly)
"The approach of this album was to avoid overdeveloping anything," says lead guitarist Ben Windheim. "We're in a creative hot spot. Our group cohesion is at an all-time high. It's at the point we don't have to think about the idea a whole lot. If we're enjoying playing it together, then we can trust that process and see it through."
The band's 2017 "Camp Poppa" and 2019 "Yup" LPs documented their lively shows and garage rock energy. 2022's "Rabbit" was born in pandemic isolation and made solely for themselves. The result was adventurous and eclectic.
Now The Macks are embracing opportunities to play live again in bigger spaces. With shows at Crystal Ballroom in Portland and the MonkeyBee Festival III in Mexico City the band is focused on meeting the moment.
The Macks began in 2015 with Sam (vocals), Ben (guitar), Josef (drums). Jacob (keys) joined the band in 2020 to create and record Rabbit. In 2021 Aidan (bass) began touring and recording with The Macks.
ALL AGES | TICKETS $25-28 | Doors 7PM, Show 8PM
Free parking is available in the lot across the street until full.
Back by popular demand after last year's sold out performance, The Music of Twin Peaks invites you to step into the Black Lodge, take a seat in the Red Room and sidle into a booth at the Double R for a slice of true 90s nostalgia. This homage pays tribute to the musical mastery of vocalist Julee Cruise and the sublime work of composer Angelo Badalamenti.
Experience the world of Twin Peaks with songs from the soundtrack plus ethereal originals performed live by Rachel Brashear, a Portland-area musician described as American Gothic meets American Songbook. Brashear will be accompanied by a cast of local luminaries in the theatrical setting of the Alberta Abbey. Support act Dream Date perform lush, lulling soundscapes inspired by 80s balladeers, reverb and pretty lights.
Musical guests accompanying Brashear include Aaron Tomasko, Rivkah Ross, Kyleen King, Ben Landsverk, Raymond Richards, Kate O'Brien, Adriana Wagner, Matt Sulikowski and additional muses.
TICKETS | $30 advance, $35 day of show, $40 21+ advanced reserved balcony, $45 21+ day of show reserved
"I've been in the game a long time, but I've always considered myself a student," says G. Love. "Finishing this album with Keb Mo' felt like graduation."
Recorded in Nashville with a slew of special guests including Robert Randolph, Marcus King, and Roosevelt Collier, 'The Juice' is indeed diploma-worthy. Co-produced and co-written with GRAMMY-winning icon Keb Mo,' it's an electrifying collection, one that tips its cap to more than a century of blues greats even as it offers its own distinctly modern pop spin on the genre, mixing programmed beats and hip-hop grooves with blistering guitar and sacred steel. G. Love's lyrics are both personal and political here, artfully balancing his appreciation for the simple joys in life with his obligation to speak out for justice and equality, and his performances are suitably riotous and rousing to match, with infectious call-and-response hooks and funky sing-along choruses at every turn. Easy as it is to succumb to cynicism these days, the songs on 'The Juice' refuse, insisting instead on hope and determination in the face of doubt and despair.