Events

With a seemingly endless selection of music and activities, Project Pabst is certain to provide a singular festival experience that will also serve as a beacon as it shines a light on the wonders of the Portland community.

Getting to Project Pabst

Project Pabst will take place in Portland’s South Waterfront District at the historic Zidell Yards located between the new Tilikum Crossing and the Ross Island Bridge. Zidell Yards is just 1.2 miles from downtown Portland and is easy to get to by walking, biking, and other public transportation options. Parking is limited, so we encourage the use of public transportation. If you do drive, please carpool to reduce traffic in the area and always choose a Designated Driver. Designated drivers will receive complimentary soda and water at Project Pabst. 
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Two of Portland's most talked-about bands, playing one of Portland's smallest spaces, for free. This show will be packed, but that's the best atmosphere for Orquestra Pacifico Tropical's ass-shaking cumbia and Tiburones' sun-scorched melodies. Capping off a week-long residency by Papi Fimbres, our town's busiest drummer.

Deep in the vein filled jungles of each of our hearts beats a music with roots as wide as continents and influence as deep as time itself. Cumbia, music of the Southern American Hemisphere. Orquestra Pacifico Tropical have taken this frenetic, addictive rhythm and accomplished what musicians across time and space have always done, bringing crowds into a blistering dance frenzy. From clubs to the forests of the Pacific Northwest, to hear the ecstatic thump, rumble, and sheer brilliance of the racing rhythms of coastal Columbia side by side with the psychedelic guitar explorations of the Peruvian rain forest is to travel across continents and through time with Orquestra Pacifico Tropical as the guide. WIth respect to those who came and innovated before us, and armed with an arsenal of percussion, woodwinds, horns, accordion and guitars, these 11 friends have come together in the spirit of capturing and breathing new life into this most essential of musics. Cumbia, music of the people.

Featuring members of Sun Angle, Deer or the Doe, O Bruxo, Ioa, Lewi Longmire Band,Tu Fawning, Point Juncture WA, Modernstate, Jippedo and Team Evil, Orquestra Pacifico Tropical's wall of sound is dedicated to expanding the music of Central and South America to the people and dance floors of the Pacific Northwest.

The Rhythm Runners deliver prohibition era jazz - with special guest Pete Krebs

The Rhythm Runners have convened under auspicious circumstances to deliver prohibition era jazz to the Pacific Northwest.  With musicians hailing from New York, New Orleans and Seattle, this group of 5 horn and string players perform music rooted in the sounds of early jazz.  Joining them at their Secret Society show will be Portland vocalist/guitarist Pete Krebs.

As the 2014 Seattle Lindy Exchange featured band, The Rhythm Runners  will debut new work by guitarist Greg Ruby at the historic Washington Hall in Seattle, WA.  The creation and presentation of these compositions are generously funded by the King County arts foundation, 4Culture.  During the tour, the group will be headlining the opening night of DjangoFest Northwest, performing at concert and swing dance venues in the region including the Secret Society and making a studio recording of the new work.  

During Ruby’s research into Seattle’s early jazz scene, he encountered the work of legendary Frank D. Waldron.  A seminal early Northwest jazz musician, Waldron was a cornetist, saxophonist, bandleader, music educator, author and composer.  In 1924, he published Syncopated Classic, a book of his compositions written as a tutorial to study the latest saxophone technique.  Waldron’s book is one of the few documented sources of early jazz composition in the Pacific Northwest.  With the assistance of a Seattle jazz historian, and archivist, Ruby accessed Waldron’s book.  The upcoming concerts will feature The Rhythm Runners performing several of his compositions and audiences will hear Waldron’s music performed for the first time in over 70 years.   

About the Rhythm Runners…  A  2012 chance meeting between Seattle guitarist Greg Ruby and New York multi-instrumentalist Dennis Lichtman ignited the vision for the inception of The Rhythm Runners.  Meeting in a shoebox sized music venue in Brooklyn, Litchman and Ruby struck up a conversation about old time fiddle music that diverged into an exchange about a shared love of vintage jazz.  Mid-conversation Lichtman, exclaimed, “Are you Greg Ruby...from Seattle? I’m supposed to call you tomorrow about a west coast tour...what are you doing here?”  As it happened, Lichtman had been given Ruby’s contact just hours previous as a recommended guitarist for his upcoming tour.  It worked for Litchman and Ruby to join forces playing an East Coast tour through the Virginia Piedmont.  The Rhythm Runners convened, joined by New York trumpeter, Gordon Au, and New Orleans trombonist Charlie Halloran and bassist Cassidy Holden.  The band recorded a 7 inch - 45 rpm vinyl recording of Ruby’s compositions and the inspiration to bring the band west was sparked.

Dennis Lichtman  - clarinet - New York

Dennis Lichtman is a clarinetist at the heart of the New York traditional-jazz scene.  He leads the  legendary Tuesday night jam session at Mona's in Manhattan, described by the Wall Street Journal as,"ground zero for an emerging late-night scene of young swing and traditional jazz players.”  Recently, Dennis released a CD with his western swing band, The Brain Cloud and has been touring internationally playing fiddle and clarinet with roots guitarist/songwriter Pokey LaFarge.

Gordon Au - trumpet - New York

Gordon Au, called “comfortable in any idiom and fearless” by music writer Michael Steinman, embodies a fusion of tradition and modernity.  During a fellowship residency with the world-renowned Monk Institute, he performed with no less than 23 Grammy Award-winners, including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chaka Khan, George Benson, Ellis Marsalis, Benny Golson, and Terence Blanchard. He is a sought-after trumpeter in the New York area, playing with such groups as Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks, David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Centennial Band at Birdland, the Dan Levinson Quintet, and Baby Soda Jazz Band. His own group, the Grand St. Stompers, will be featured at Jazz at Lincoln Center this October.

Charlie Halloran - trombone - New Orleans

In 2009 the Squirrel Nut Zippers pulled Charlie off a Mardi Gras float on St Charles Avenue and brought him on board to tour.  Charlie plays with Meschiya Lake & the Little Big Horns (as seen on HBO’s Treme) and founded the New Orleans Moonshiners,  described in the press as "a trad jazz band with new souls".  Charlie has performed with Allen Toussaint, the Cab Calloway Orchestra, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, the Preservation Hall Hot 4, and Norbert Susemihl's New Orleans Jazz Allstars.

Cassidy Holden - bass - New Orleans

Cassidy Holden is a bassist and rhythm section player performing traditional jazz and Delta blues.  Based in New Orleans, Cassidy can be heard across the U.S. and Europe as a sideman in the company of The Loose Marbles, Gordon Webster, Luke Winslow-King, Dan Levinson, and leading his own group, Cassidy and the New Orleans Kids.

Greg Ruby - guitar - Seattle

“Truly hot jazz” - Vintage Guitar Magazine.  Seattle based guitarist and composer Greg Ruby is a distinctive voice in the Hot Club jazz tradition.  His CD, Look Both Ways celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of guitarist Django Reinhardt.   Featuring 12 original compositions, the recording reached #1 on the Roots Music Review jazz chart.  Greg, formerly of Pearl Django and Hot Club Sandwich, now leads Hot Club jazz group, The Greg Ruby Quartet, French Musette trio, Bric-a-brac and old school New Orleans style jazz quartet, The Post Alley Ramblers.  In 2013, he received funding from King County arts foundation 4Culture to create new work for The Rhythm Runners to be performed at Seattle’s historic Washington Hall.

Pete Krebs - guitar and vocals - Portland - Special Guest

Pete Krebs has been a fixture on the Pacific Northwest music scene for close to two decades, first making his name as guitarist / singer / songwriter for the legendary Portland rock band Hazel. His numerous projects and collaborations have taken him to hundreds of venues around the world, sharing the stage with many well-known artists such as Nirvana and Elliott Smith.  Pete’s one of few souls who’s had the pleasure of performing at both CBGB’s and Preservation Hall. In addition to being an in-demand private music teacher, he works professionally as a swing jazz guitarist and singer for Portland’s The Stolen Sweets, along with his own Pete Krebs Trio and Portland Playboys.

www.secretsociety.net

503-493-3600

Since completing their eight-month, 60-date world tour performing Last Splash, Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Jim Macpherson and Josephine Wiggs have been working on new material. 

MONQUI PRESENTS

THE BREEDERS 

WITH THE NEPTUNAS

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 11

Owen Pallett (born Michael James Owen Pallett-Plowright, on September 7, 1979) is a violinist and singer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and winner of the inaugural Polaris Music Prize. On December 18th, 2009, Pallett announced that he would be retiring his old artist name, Final Fantasy, and would be henceforth releasing his material under his own name. Previous albums released under the Final Fantasy name are planned to be re-packaged and re-released under the new name of Owen Pallett. 

Pallett has been noted for his live performances, wherein he plays the violin into a sampler controlled by foot pedals, which then loops back one or more of the previously played musical phrases as he plays additional parts simultaneously. He has also performed with more traditional string quartets as backing musicians.

He believes his work is somewhat influenced by his sexuality, saying “As far as whether the music I make is gay or queer, yeah, it comes from the fact that I’m gay, but that doesn’t mean I’m making music about it.” in a recent interview. 

“I’m taking a cue from Joel Gibb,” he begins. “He and I are very different people, and we’re very different in terms of the way we’ve assessed our sexual identities, but one thing I really respect about him is that his music has less to do with his identity and more to do with the more interesting aspects of himself.” He states in an earlier interview in Toronto’s NOW Magazine concerning his sexual identity and its use in his music.

Lush and melodic experimental folk from Seattle legends

EARTH

KING DUDE

September, 7th, 2014

Doors: 8:00 pm / Show: 9:00 pm

Swans is a band from New York City, New York, United States, active from 1982 to 1997, reformed in 2010, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira.

Marginally associated with the no wave scene at first, their original sound was slow and extremely heavy, with live performances that were often so brutal and physical that in a number of instances certain audience members were made ill, police were called and venues were shut down. This early physical sound is possibly best heard on the live album Public Castration Is a Good Idea. 

Swans eventually broke up in 1997; Gira went on to release some solo work, later forming the band The Angels of Light, who continue many of the themes and styles found in (later) Swans. Jarboe releases solo work and frequently works with other bands and artists; recently she released an album with Neurosis, a group clearly heavily influenced by Swans.

The influence of Swans upon the music world is profound. Across their 15 years of existence, the various styles they explored gave birth to grindcore (Napalm Death, Nasum) modern “cinematic” post-rock (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mono), and atmospheric sludge metal (Isis, Neurosis).

In January 2010, Michael Gira reactivated Swans and released a new album, My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky on September 2010, and the band simultaneously embarked on a world tour scheduled to last eighteen months. The band had been chosen by Portishead to perform at the ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror festivals that they curated in July 2011 at London’s Alexandra Palace and in September 2011 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

On August 28, 2012, Swans released The Seer, a double-album running almost 2 hours in length. Frontman Michael Gira described the album as taking “30 years to make. It’s the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve ever made, been involved in or imagined. But it’s unfinished, like the songs themselves. It’s one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade.” Describing the songwriting process, Gira said, “The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they’ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while.”