Ratboys Bring No Shortage of Catchy Rocking and Alt-country Triumph to Portland, OR’s Aladdin Theater for Sold-out Performance (SHOW REVIEW)

Chicago has long been a bastion of insurgent country and cowpunk, and that fertile breeding ground has given us the twangified rockers Ratboys. Though the group has been chugging along for around 15 years, they have been making buzzier waves as of late with their latest album Singin’ to an Empty Chair. This collection, an early favorite of 2026 for this writer, finds them leaning more into an alt-country sound that clearly resonates with the same fans who are clamoring for peers like MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, Wednesday, and Greg Freeman, among others. The excitement around Ratboys was evident from the sold-out crowd that flocked to the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday, April 9th.

Building suspense right from the start with the acoustically strummed “Open Up” (an apt set opener), the band layered on drums and guitars, gradually building momentum and easing into the music. Frontwoman Julia Steiner ditched the acoustic for one of her beloved flying Vs to launch into what are arguably the two strongest songs on the new record, “Anything” and “Penny In the Lake.” Even with the muddied sound, these songs were irresistibly catchy and rocked out in the live setting, the latter getting a nice twangy dose of pedal steel from Andy Red. “Know You Then” was equally infectious with its bouncy, crashing guitars and drums. Steiner introduced “Anj” as a deep cut before leading the band through its swaying sound, before the charming and dreamy “Strange Love” laced with plenty of pedal steel. 

What Ratboys lacked in any kind of wild stage antics, they made up for with straightforward guitar rock that kept the audience’s attention. Songs like “Light Night Mountains All That” with its grunt pop punk undertones and heaping doses of feedback, and a version of “The Window” that started tender before blowing up into one of the most raucous tunes of the night, were standouts. The band also showed off their chops with extended solos and jamming during “Just Want You to Know the Truth.” 

In watching and listening Ratboys throughout the course of their roughly 90-minute set, it was clear that in another era – perhaps the early to mid-90s – many of their new tunes would be hits. Their set was energetic and loaded with exuberant rock and roll, and by the time they encored with the alt-country “Go Outside” and the quietly swaggering, laid-back “Black Earth, WI,” they had delivered the kind of humbling performance that left their fans clamoring for more.  

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