Friday was arguably the most popular day overall because there was a great range of popular and upcoming artists spread out over the course of the day. Joey Badass delivered an incredible set with high energy to his die-hard fans. Remi Wolf was an absolute joy and her friendly, but funky stage presence made the crowd feel at home. Opening with “Disco Man” and closing with “Photo ID,” she had the entire audience dancing from start to finish. On the other stage, Ice Spice killed her short, but fabulous set with one of the largest crowds of the festival. New York absolutely showed up to watch the Queens’ native perform on her home turf.

Kim Petras and LIZZO were a perfect end to Friday and were amazing artists to kick off pride month with. Kim opened her set with her new single “Alone” and then proceeded to play the entirety of Slut Pop EP. She was nothing less than incredible and continued fiercely even as her set was interrupted by a downpour of rain. “You guys sure look wet out there” she shouted at one point after “They Wanna Fuck” teasing the crowd with her insinuation. LIZZO took the main stage playing all her hits and giving a killer performance as well as showering the audience with positive affirmations. “Soulmate” and “Good as Hell” had the entire crowd feeling self-love.

Saturday’s highlights included an incredible set from Rina Sawayama. She had earpiece troubles during her opener “Hold the Girl” but quickly recovered to deliver an amazing performance with beautiful visuals set as a backdrop. FINNEAS also delivered an amazing set, fairly simple. He and his band had the entire crowd singing along to “I Don’t Miss You At All”. One other highlight of Saturday was aespa’s Governors Ball debut performance. Although missing one of their members, Giselle, the group still delivered an impressive high-energy performance.

With Kendrick Lamar being the closing act  Sunday was the most packed day at the festival by far. There were people lining up for Kendrick the moment the festival opened. The other artists, however, still drew large crowds for their sets. Pusha T played a really fun set on the Bacardi stage dropping hits like “Diet Coke” and “Runaway”. Pink Pantheress charmed the crowd with her cute demeanor and bubbly personality. She was smiling and clearly having a lot of fun during her set, the audience couldn’t help but have fun with her. Closing with “Boy’s a Liar,” she promised the audience she’d be out there dancing with them to Kendrick later that night.

Lil Nas X had quite the performance as well, although I don’t think he’d argue it was his personal favorite. Halfway through the opening number “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” his earpiece blew out and he stopped the song exiting the stage to solve the issue. Lil Nas X returned soon enough letting the audience know this just was not his day. In all honestly, however, he still delivered an incredible set for the artist being down bad, but you could sense he wasn’t having the greatest time up on stage.

Kendrick took the main stage at 8:45 pm and gave one of the weekend’s best performances. No one would argue that he had the biggest crowd of the festival by far. That being said he had a lot of hype to live up to and his fans were itching for him to take the stage all day. Kedrick did not disappoint and delivered an unbelievably fantastic set. Opening with “N95,” the crowd absolutely roared when the beat dropped. He played a variety of songs from his collection including tracks like “King Kunta,” “Backseat Freestyle,” “DNA,” and “Humble.” One of the biggest highlights of the set was “family ties” where he surprised the audience and brought up Baby Keem. The chemistry between the two of them was remarkable to watch and listen to. It was an unforgettable night and a spectacular end to the Governors Ball.

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Project Pabst that we’ve come to know is actually the combination of two festivals. Prior to joining forces with the corporation, Northwest Music Fest was a small, less corporate version of SXSW for Portland. Northwest Music Fest is also a venture of Willamette Week, a local paper in Portland. Last year the festival sold out, sorry to say but it’s not the same case this year. Not to say that this year’s lineup wasn’t a good one. The grandfather of punk Iggy Pop and the mastermind of genres Beck himself were headlining their respective days. But a lot of other acts on the bill were bands that you see at almost every festival including Whitney, Spoon, and Die Antwoord. All talented and diverse but they have been on the festival circuit heavily for years, so most people have seen them by now at least once and perhaps that kept the ticket sales down.

The festival takes place on the west side of the Willamette river at Tom McCall waterfront. It’s one long corridor packed with beer tents, food stalls, marijuana dispensaries, merch sales, and so on. In the middle is a huge silver unicorn rearing up on its back legs. As the day goes on the corridor becomes more and more congested with increasingly intoxicated  festivalgoers.

Saturday kicked off with Lizzo’s set who carries a strong Girl Power vibe. It was early enough in the day to get right to the front of the stage where the vibration from the speakers literally made my nose hair’s rattle. Lizzo is big on the idea that self-love isn’t selfish and even calls a portion of her set the self-love section. The majority of the set was dance worthy jams and I noticed about half way through that Portland’s own The Last Artful Dodgr was right in front of me. Lizzo let the crowd know she was feeling the love and was feeling so good she started giggling when she should’ve been rapping, apparently this never happens.

Next I make my way over to Die Antwoord‘s very freaky, very debauched set. Images on the screen depict kewpie dolls with giants penises while over sexed back up dancers are clad with masks fit for serial killers. I’m still not sure if DA is taking them selves too seriously of if we are?

Father John Misty has decided to grace Portland with his presence at Project Pabst as well. While some have fully written him off as a megalomaniac I like to think of him more in the vein of the Simpsons or The Family Guy, he’s turning the mirror on society and showing us how much we truly suck. His set is complete with a full band and a millennial pink backdrop. While he does play a majority of Pure Comedy he makes sure to sprinkle in the hits from his self titled album and I Love You, Honeybear.

Iggy Pop closed out Pabst Saturday. There’s a lot to be said for the grand father of punk: he still looks decent with his shirt off and can still really, really sing. A lot of musicians from his era have lost their vocal abilities (I’m looking at you Jethro Tull). He played everything you would want to hear and he even drew in the other heavy hitters of the festival. Once again, right in front of me is another artist, this time it’s Spoon’s Brit Daniel, instagramming the performance. Iggy has been a huge influence for musicians and fans alike so the crowd is about as diverse as Portland can get.

While Project Pabst may not be the premier festival of Portland and some may even think it replaced a better one, it still gets the job done. It offers up great musicians and to be honest $4 for a PBR is better than the $8 you’d pay for a Bud Light at Lollapalooza.

The post Not the best, not the worst: Project Pabst 2017 appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Boston Calling is a semi annual music festival that transforms City Hall Plaza into a safe space for music, beer, cheers, and what’s bound to be lasting memories. The festival launched in May 2013 and has grown bigger with every year. This year’s lineup was a mixture of all genres and nothing short of stunning with artists like Janelle Monae, Miike Snow, and Sia taking the stage.

Day one kicked off as everyone got off work with a band that couldn’t have been more fitting for Boston: Lisa Hannigan and Aaron Dessner. Dessner, well-known from The National, is currently partnering up with Hannigan and helped her produce the upcoming album. Hannigan’s album is due to come out in August and it’s nothing short of exciting to see these two perform live.

Sufjan Stevens is an artist whose music is a mix of genres but somehow comes together quite nicely and the same can be said for his live production. In the first three songs of the set the man brought out dancers, colorful neon-lined clothing, and let’s not forget the enormous wings that he wore. Fans of Sia who were waiting at the other stage, were fascinated and all turned their attention to him. The only other performer that could come close to what Stevens does on stage with his music and his set would be The Flaming Lips.

As Stevens’ set ended the crowd swarmed around the JetBlue Stage as so many fans were eager to see Sia whos show involved a set of talented dancers, much like in the videos that brought her back to the main stream. As Sia sang from the corner of the stage, her touring teammates took the stage to act out each song.

The last two days of Boston Calling kept up the excitement from Friday’s acts. Some key performers were Lizzo, City and Colour, Vince Staples, Robyn, and Janelle Monae.

Lizzo brought sass and class to the stage on day two. The aritst has had a long musical career and released her album Big Grrl Small World just this past December. Her music and what she speaks is turning heads. Lizzo speaks about women empowerment, self-love, and enjoying what life has to offer. Second night ended with the Swedish electropop star Robyn whose set was very different from her typical show, this time Robyn performed remixes of her older songs to be released later this year.

“Remixes make me listen to a song in a different way; they stretch you out as a listener and leave space for other things that a pop song usually doesn’t.  I hope to be able to share this experience with my audiences at Governor’s Ball, Boston Calling, and Field Trip over the next week and just dancing together” she said.

Day three was a cold one but the hype was still high and alive. Janelle Monae honored Prince with a cover of “Purple Rain”. The Disclosure delivered a much more electronic set. Boston Calling isn’t quite over yet for the year, we look forward to checking out their Fall lineup.

See more photos on Facebook. 

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