Mobile Music Festival
On The Portland Streetcar
The Streetcar Mobile Music Festival is an entirely volunteer run festival, where a dozen local bands took over the streetcar loop between the Rose Quarter and 2000 OMSI, with a band playing on each car. However the night got derailed for a bit when the driver of the streetcar stopped the band mid-song and made everyone get off. Grumpily complaining about it over the PA system as everyone left, he was still grumbling when the streetcar pulled away. However, What Hearts were troopers and played their set in front of Walgreens until the next street car showed up. Sarah Fennel the drummer of What Hearts summed up the feeling of night pretty accurately when she compared it to a strange dream. The disjointed quality of being in motion while listening to a full band play made experience very surreal.
Even more dreamlike was the ten-minute break when the streetcar reached the OMSI station. Everyone poured out on to the platform over looking the industrial district and listened to storyteller Rick Huddle talk about the early days of the streetcar when Portland was just beginning. He told stories about brawls broken up by old ladies and dogs that rode the streetcar alone until the volunteer signaled the two minute mark and he started to play old-timey songs on his ukulele.
After that we hopped on a different train and saw Béisbol made up of brothers Jeff and Ryan Burian, who played acoustic versions of their normally electronic pop. We then caught the streetcar behind Béisbol, which was carrying Au Dunes. Au Dunes played grungy/ fuzzy garage rock that seemed to fit really well in confined atmosphere of the streetcar. The band joked and swigged tequila, “ When are we ever going to get to do this again.” By this time we had done the whole loop and were ready to go it again, so we grabbed another train. We stayed for a couple songs by energetic and self-deprecating rapper Cloudy October.
Then we hopped the train with lo-fi indie rockers Josh & Mer who we stayed with for the rest of the night for the pure joy of seeing an upright bass played on a streetcar. When the car reached Stark Street, Josh & Mer lead everyone off to the after party at Union/Pine playing Blitzkrieg Bop. The Ramones would have been so proud. The Mobile Music Festival is a wild ride, improving both the experience of riding the streetcar and listening to a concert. I hope this festival continues to grow and becomes a permanent fixture in the Portland music scene. Make sure to catch the festival next time around.
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