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Festival coordinators faced a big, silly problem the first night of PDX Pop Now! 2025: They were already running low on silly straws. “The Jurassic Sunset” and “DinoSour”—custom cocktails for this year’s dinosaur theme—were hitting.
By the time tropical dream pop group Caicedo hit the stage at 6:30 pm, nearly every complimentary squiggly straw had found its way into the hands of eager festivalgoers swaying to the band’s irresistible Latin grooves and hazy, late summer hooks. In beautifully all-ages PDX Pop Now! fashion, the crowd consisted of scene kids with purple hair nodding their heads, as well as children with giant earmuffs jumping up and down alongside their bigs.
Since 2004, PDX Pop Now!—the non-profit as well as the festival it produces—has been an institution embedded within Portland’s many music scenes. This year, between the annual song compilation and the festival itself, PDX Pop Now! offers platform to nearly 75 Portland-based artists. The three-day affair, free and open to the public, might be the city’s most accessible and comprehensive celebration of Portland’s music communities. Even the audio engineers came from Friends Of Noise, a local nonprofit fostering and expanding young people’s involvement in Portland’s music scene, set to open an all-ages venue in North Portland as early as November.
The ice cream at the festival was free too, thanks to The Ice Cream Man—AKA Matt Allen—who has given away half a million free ice creams at concerts and festivals, including Pickathon, this summer. As it turns out, Matt also happens to be the Project Manager of Midtown Beer Garden, the venue of this year’s PPN! “I can’t think of another event more than PDX Pop Now! that I would like to see people in the city support,” he said. “It’s all Portland. This is what Portland really is.”
This year’s festival closed down Harvey Milk between SW 4th and 5th, creating space for a slew of local vendors, including a table for PDX Pop Now! volunteers to greet the public. Donning their now coveted trademark blue t-shirts, the volunteers are the backbone of the festival. Many have been involved for years. One pair of volunteers was a father-daughter duo, while another pair are the parents of the first “PDX Pop Baby,” who met volunteering at PDX Pop Now! in its earlier years.
Friday night saw hyperpop rap group Scumbag take the stage. The blue-jeaned, next-generation-boyband comes through with explosive energy that can only be described as “hella hype.” EDM beats paired with shout-able hooks and captivating stage presence brought audiences of all ages to their feet (both literally and metaphorically—we see you PDX Pop Baby). They dropped their high-octane, self-titled debut the day after their PDX Pop Now! performance.
Kerry Clark, one of the co-founders of PDX Pop Now! described Scumbag’s set as somewhere between the Backstreet Boys and Rage Against the Machine. For Clark, a champion of many PDX Pop Now! sets over the years, Scumbag’s presence on the festival’s stage serves as a meaningful reflection of the lineup’s sonic evolution across genres and generations, especially for younger audiences.
Sonia Weber, lead singer and songwriter of Alien Boy, used to attend PDX Pop Now! in high school, coming full circle as Friday night’s headlining band. The set was characterized by power-pop melodies, expansive guitar work (Weber’s Marshall stack spoke for itself), and heaps of headbanging in the crowd.
Related: Read our review of Alien Boy’s new album, You Wanna Fade?
Saturday brought a festival first: A collaboration with the Portland Songwriters Guild, a nonprofit nurturing community through open mics and writers rounds. The event festival spilled across the street into the J.K. Gill Building’s lobby, with guild members performing originals in the round throughout the day. Nearby, a display showcased PDX Pop Now! CD compilations from years past.
Elsewhere on Saturday afternoon, Tiff2icy brought soulfully laidback vocals and beats. The vibe shifted abruptly during the next set, when Jake Habedank, a guitarist in noise-rock band Rango, shouted into the mic, “I thought this was Portland! Aren’t you motherfuckers supposed to know how to have a good time?!” A slick guitar lick launched the start of their tune, “Would You Still Love Me If I Wasn’t Your Brother,” the audience heeding the call to rise from their picnic tables and hit the pit.
Rousing Saturday afternoon sets from The UpKeeps (if Green Day were Britpop) and Swiss Army Wife (climate-aware PNW emo) brought blaring guitars. Both bands are best experienced in sweaty, packed basements, but they still brought heat in the center of Midtown Beer Garden.
Perhaps the band most due for an appearance on the festival’s stage was The Prids, a group curating alt-rock, interstellar musical voyages in Portland for over 25 years. They delivered their post-punk flare on Saturday night, including a spectacular jam session set-closer, transporting the crowd to outer space and back.
On Sunday, PDX Pop Now! partnered with the Curbside Serenade non-profit for a lineup of street performances on the corner of Harvey Milk and SW 5th. On the main stage, Friends Friends sang lush five-part harmonies, accompanied by a crunchy rock ‘n’ roll edge. DMN followed—a synth-pop quartet firing up a drum-machine—turning the late afternoon into sunrise at the discotheque. Next up was Coo Era, a hip-hop ensemble led by MCs Tyre Pinlight and Elameen, delivering rhymes alongside a horn section frightening away our Sunday scaries.
As night fell, PNW punks The Wild Jump stormed the stage with, “I’m Not Stuck In Here With You, You’re Stuck In Here With Me.” Shouting, “It’s about being stuck in an elevator with a billionaire!” In the crowd, a pack of PDX Pop Now! volunteers wielded inflatable instruments from the festival’s kid zone, rocking out and celebrating another epic closing to PDX Pop Now!
Raise your DinoSour, the festival just turned 21—here’s to 21 more years of PDX Pop Now!
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Cody Tracey
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