During last year’s Pickathon, there was an air of uncertainty lingering over the beloved indie festival that takes place each August just outside Portland, Oregon. The once bucolic Pendarvis Farm that has hosted the Pickathon for almost the entirety of its two-decade run now sits mere feet from half-a-million dollar in-fill homes, and the suburban development only continues to encroach. Beyond that, the festival’s permit renewal was coming up, and a lot had changed since the last time, which meant that its fate was truly in jeopardy. Much of the Pickathon identity – with its stages tucked amongst the trees and pastoral views of Mt. Hood – was tied to Pendarvis Farm. Luckily for us, the festival team and their fans managed to lobby the county and miraculously secured a renewal of their permit for another decade just in time to book the 2024 edition.
Fast forward to this year and Pickathon radiated a new sense of vigor as it landed on its feet August 1- 4, having made its way through the trials and tribulations of the pandemic and the risk of its demise in its longtime home. The suburban sprawl is impossible to ignore, but walking through the gates of Pendarvis Farm was a reminder that the eclectic, free-thinking spirit and gorgeous surroundings that have always set Pickathon apart from an increasingly homogenous music festival landscape is still very much intact. Between the architecturally distinct stages, commitment to sustainability, local food and drink offerings, and a lineup filled with surprises, Pickathon is undoubtedly one of the best festival experiences you can have.
While post-pandemic Pickathons have seen fewer heavy hitters topping the bill as years past, the festival has doubled down on the element of discovery as a selling point. The large turnout – especially on Saturday and Sunday – offered proof that this strategy has largely worked. Attendees entered with open minds and the confidence that they could very likely discover their next favorite band or multiple bands. This was very much the case this year with a lineup that might not have grabbed attention on paper, but provided more than a few gems in reality. These are a handful of the acts that impressed at this year’s Pickathon:
JJUUJJUU at The Grove
Phil Pirrone is no stranger to festivals, having founded Desert Daze, one of the few events to rival Pickathon in its coolness. This may have explained how he was able to captivate the audience with a powerful set from his own band JJUUJJUU. During their afternoon set in the Grove, Pirrone took on the role of gloriously deranged psychedelic messiah as he led his band through a set that thrashed, sludged, and droned with band members veering from fast and technical guitar chops to hypnotizing trance jams. Meanwhile, Pirrone often wielded the microphone stand like a Viking warrior charging into battle with his axe. Without question, JJ would have been more fitting for a late-night set, but their Saturday performance provided a healthy jolt to the afternoon.
Dean Johnson at Woods and Paddock Stages
Word has been spreading about the Seattle-based folkster since the release of his 2023 debut LP Nothing For Me, Please, and clearly, that word found its way to Pickathon judging by the impressive crowds Johnson drew to both of his sets. In the serene setting of the Woods Stage, Johnson and his small band charmed the audience with his Deeply harmonic folk for an easygoing summer day, which was perfectly fitting for a lazy summer afternoon. “Faraway Skies” was a charming and swooning lullaby that stirred up the kind of emotion that encapsulated thePickathon ethos of putting an up-and-coming artist in front of a big eager and musically curious crowd. Johnson’s magic hour set on the larger paddock stage on Sunday was accentuated with fluffy pink clouds and a painting-like view of Mt. Hood. It was here that the delicate Rhodes keys work of his bandmate Charlie Meyer truly complemented his folk music in a way that felt like you were pulled into its warm embrace like a talk with a long-lost friend
Theo Lawrence at Paddock
It’s hard to believe Theo Lawrence hails from Bordeaux, France as the young troubadour speaks perfect English and makes the kind of country-soul that originated in the American South and West. This is what Lawrence and his dapper band put on display to an enraptured crowd. Songs like the gospel classic “I’m Working on a Building” pulled them up and got a small group doing Pulp Fiction-style shimmy session in front of the stage, while “Prairie Fire” was a positively dreamy Western ballad. Lawrence’s voice carried the kind of country-cool smoothness of peers like Charley Crockett and JD McPherson, and his band The Hearts showed off their swinging chops on tunes like the waltz “Hill of Love.” By the end of his set, Lawrence had practically charmed the boots off everyone paying attention.
The Soul Rebels Brass Band at Woods Stage
If you’ve spent time in New Orleans, you may have been lucky enough to catch one of the Crescent City’s finest gifts to the world: the brass band. And one of the best acts to emerge from that scene in the last few decades is the mega-talented Soul Rebels Brass Band. For their Saturday night set, they set the woods on fire with a New Orleans-style party that brought a level of funkified heat that surely cranked up the humidity level of the dancing crowd to tropical levels. Indeed, the Rebels got the late-night dust kicking up as they railed through an hour of intense brass music that swirled up a potent cocktail of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and classic New Orleans R&B.
La Lom at the Woods Stage
With their new album The Los Angeles League of Musicians coming this week, the instrumental trio that is quickly gaining traction drew a massive crowd for their Sunday evening set. Their skillful, dashing style of cumbia-meets-chicha-meets-surf-psych proved to be a stunning mix that kept the energy up throughout their set. While La Lom at times touched on the kind of dreamy, globe-trotting psych instrumentals as groups like Khruangbin and it’s sort of easy to understand their appeal considering the overnight success of instrumental duo Hermanos Gutiérrez, their Pickathon set offered far more complexity and fun than those acts. Guitarist Zac Sokolow kept the music guitar-forward as he often veered into early Santana territory while he and his bandmates never lost control of their deep grooves. Bassist Jake Faulkner alternated between electric and standup bass, adding the trio’s rockabilly sense of fashionable cool, while Nicholas Baker held down percussion and steady drumbeats simultaneously. With their high level of skill and energy, it was easy to see that La Lom is on a fast upward trajectory, and their Pickathon set only added to that momentum.
Geese at Woods Stage
If you’re over the age of thirty and you spend your days puzzling over the fate of rock and roll in the hands of Gen Z, look no further than New York outfit Geese. Not to be confused with the jam band blandness of Goose (too many birds!), these young, tank-top-wearing punks hit the stage in the Woods with brooding fashion in front of a crowd that had streamed down the dusty path eager to catch them live. While the band eased into the set in a way that was sloppy like a soundcheck jam in the best kind of way and worked in elements of glam rock alongside a bouncy and jagged Radiohead-meets-Minutemen sound, they soon announced they would be playing their new album Alive & In Person cover to cover. That album is a contender for the year’s best, and in the live setting they injected the songs with a raw intensity that saw them spewing out a heady combo of post-punk and classic 70s-style balls to the wall rock and roll.
All photos by Greg Homolka
