Pickathon 2016 - The world's BEST music Festival



I have previously put forth the hypothesis that Pickathon (in its current state) may be the perfect music festival: perfect size (3,500 festival-goers), great line-up vs size, perfectly accessible and yet it feels like it could be a big festival, perfect balance of family-friendly vs escape-from-reality festival. Very well thought-out and well planned. Excellent food and beer choices, at reasonable prices. And the list of how they are doing this right, goes on and on. Having returned this year for Pickathon 2016, I feel more confident that this festival may just be the perfect festival.

Again the food was awesome, supplied by Portland’s excellent array of restaurants and food-trucks. The beer gardens are each supplied by a local brewery, offering a variety of delicious microbrews, which differ at each stage to keep your taste-buds stimulated, to match your other sensory inputs.

The festival has upped-their-game on these lanterns that light the path into the woods. I loved the prior iteration of these, but this year’s were absolutely stunning. I seriously want to high-five whoever designed these, because they are incredible.


Here is a video of the lanterns being amazing, to a soundtrack of a live version of Wolf Parade's great song, Dinner Bells. There is no visual trickery here, just an awesome LED lantern being awesome, and my shaky camera-work (sorry for the shaky video).



Dramatic Skies over Pickathon
The 2016 Bands

This band is a major throw-back nostalgic band for me, and has been on my to-see list for a decade since their Apologies to the Queen Mary album.They have been on an "indefinite hiatus" for the last 5 years, shattering my hopes of seeing them. But Bam! They kicked-off their new tour at Pickathon!  Their inclusion on the line-up sealed the deal for my ticket purchase. 

Their 1st show on the main stage focused mainly on their new material which has promise, (as it sounds just like the old-stuff!), just not as familiar to me. I look forward to delving further into the new album. But during that 1st show I was worried that they wouldn’t be hitting all the tracks that I so desperately needed to hear. Someone shouted-out the title of one of the hits, to which Dan Boeckner responded  “We’ll be playing that one tomorrow!” and I knew juuust where I would be on the next night.


Their show at the Woods Stage was awesome. I caught the show from the back to take advantage of the nighttime visual appeal of the Woods Stage. It was a cool show. I was in just the right vibe, and they delivered all the favorites, fulfilling my needs.


I was also stoked to see Beach House, a long-time favorite of mine. They did their standard mysterious dimly-lit, wet-blanket stage-presence, but I didn’t expect anything else, and wouldn’t know what to do if they did do anything more energetic. They also hit many of the hit tracks and it was a very enjoyable show for patiently awaiting all of the little perfect nuances that make-up their hauntingly beautiful music.


While I never have gotten into Wilco (for no reason in particular), I did recognize a few Wilco songs, and it was a good set. The setting: chillin on the grass with a view of Mt. Hood in the background; looking nearly too picture-perfect to be believable. Good vibes in the grass.

This set seemed very lack-luster. It was his last set of the festival, and maybe he was worn-out from partying, but I thought this set was kinda tame. It was nice to hear some of my old favorites, as well as some of the new tunes I like.


This is another band that I sadly have never gotten into, mainly because of their massive discography spanning … what … a century? But this show was also enjoyable, and there were several songs that sounded like they should be some of my favorite songs, and I just don’t yet know it (?). Good tunes and good vibes. I was talking with some of our crew at the show, and they confirmed that they need to delve into the Yo La Tengo catalogue atleast annually to fulfill a mental quota. As far as musical critiques go, that’s a pretty damn good one. Depressingly, that still does not help me find a launching-point into their daunting discography.


I don't recall. but here is a picture.


After a recommendation from a friend to check this band out, I studied-up and found it to my liking, so I was excited to catch this band. Their 1st set was 45 minutes late, due to a thorough sound-check. They sounded great after all that, but only played 4 songs, so that was a huge let down. But my prep paid-off in grooving along to those 4 songs. I think I caught their later set, from the lawn outside the Galaxy Barn.


I only know this band by name, but I caught this set from the lawn outside the Galaxy Barn, and it was decent.

I caught 2 sets by this band, and while they were overall enjoyable, there is nothing that particularly stands out about this band to me, so I think I’ve met the capacity at which I have for them. What did stand out to me was the odd way he stands and holds his guitar, which kept cracking me up.


I am a big fan of Dan Deacon, having loved his Bromst album, but fallen out of touch as of late, mainly due to seeing him perform live a few times, which has been, in my experience, lack-luster and cripplingly awkward due to his annoying insistence on crowd-participation. Sooo, given that history, I timidly caught his first night-time show from outside the Galaxy Barn. Which to my surprise turned out to be really great!

Since the festival vibe at Pickathon is much more…. (how to put this…)  of an easy-going, participatory vibe, the antics worked, and worked incredibly well. At one point he started a high-five war, challenging everyone to see who could achieve the most high-fives during the song, which went ok inside the Barn for a bit. But outside, completely unbeknownst to Mr. Deacon himself, the high-fiving spiraled out of control into a wild torrent of high-fives that went on-and-on spreading like some kind of mania. I know that probably sounds lame to read, but it was wild to see in person.

He even managed to successfully pull-off some very difficult emotional pleas (Black Lives Matter) and many political rants (Healthcare, etc, and a funny rant about the Metric System) which bordered on over-the-top banter. That type of stuff is difficult to deliver without totally killing the vibe, but most of it went off without a hitch, to which I give props. (Although I would have preferred a dialed-down version.)
The apparent word-of-mouth about that 1st show, led to another high-participation successful show at the Woods Stage, which was also fun. Oh, and some of the new material sounds pretty good, so my interest in Dan Deacon has been restored!


I like the Small Town Heroes album by this band, so I was excited to see them. The set was good and the performance was good. Even made me feel emotional at one point during “The Body Electric”. But somehow I left after this show feeling like I am kinda over this band, and I don’t really know why. Didn’t expect that. haha!


I’ve been wanting to see this (previously-from) Seattle band for a while, and they delivered! Surf Rock is hard to not enjoy, but they really nailed it. Supported, of course, by the stunning visuals of the Treeline Stage’s lighting effects. A beautiful visual and auditory treat. Their latest release, Weirdo Shrine, is a great album.


Caught this set. She and her lyrics were dark, morbid, and comical at times. It was odd in a novel way, and surprising in the shock-factor. If her intention was to get people’s attention, it worked. (or maybe that is just the way she is?). Either way, I’ll be checking out this music some more, to try to understand what is going on here. haha.

I have since found her album Beyond The Bloodhounds to be an enthralling and impressive 1st album. Check it out! Seriously good.


I caught at least some of one of these sets, and I remember thinking it was alright, but it didn’t really make an impression either way, so I dunno what that really says.

Since this festival I have had the Singing Saw album on heavy rotation, and love it. I wish I had known this album prior to catching this show, b/c it would have changed everything.


I caught this late-night set, and thought it seemed really lame.


I caught this late-night set, and thought it sounded lame and more lame. This is not my type of music. I gave it a try and reaffirmed that I don’t need to give this band any more of my time.




An Aside About the The Feral Children of Pickathon

Another thing that I was marveling at this year is the absolutely fascinating co-existence of the festival-children along with the average festival-goer. This is a very family-friendly festival; the kind of festival that a previously unencumbered veteran festival-goer would frequent once they have spawned offspring; toting  the whole family along for a magical weekend of camping in the woods with thousands of weirdos. Therefore this festival has a fair share of dirt-covered feral children that litter the sides of the wooded trails, peddling wares, busking for change, and generally running completely wild. The entrepreneurial spirit of these kids is incredible. Someone should do a documentary on these kids and there money-making schemes. I don't mean any of this in a negative way. It is seriously fascinating. The level of freedom that the parents grant their children is astonishing and honestly refreshing. 

Most impressive is that those kids can coexist amongst thousands of other festival-goers who have a completely different experience, but who share a common goal: a childlike carefree appreciation for uninhibited fun. 

These two groups exist together seemingly uninhibited by one another. It's as if they exist on the same plane, but as if they are on different dimensions, which don't overlap. (the interaction of the parents and the kids is likely a different story).  

A festival weekend must be an amazing weekend for a kid, and it must really have a major impact on them. I imagine that once grown-up, festival children must look back and marvel at their naiveté about the goings-on around them during their childhood music festival attendance. haha.

The Hammock area at the Woods Stage

Another rave about the Treeline Stage Design

While 2014’s Treeline Stage was really cool, this year’s Treeline Stage was really aesthetically pleasing, especially when lit up with colorful kaleidoscopic lights. The structure was built of 1,280 2x4 pieces. Major props to this year’s Portland State University’s School of Architecture for designing such a brilliant structure and having the forethought to consider how the stage-lighting would mesh with the texture of the structure to make a beautifully visually-rewarding experience for my brain. Thanks! This rendering shows that they had thought the visual appeal through.


A  quote from PSU’s webpage about the project’s so-called “Diversion Architecture” design:

“Like its two eponymous predecessors, the structure will leave no trace once the festival is over, except in the memories of the attendees who will have the chance to experience its beauty. All its components will be re-purposed and reused, making minimal to no impact on the site or on the waste stream.”

Anyway, in summary, another great festival! The best festival!