When Barak Obama came to town a while back the coverage he received worldwide no doubt awakened many people to the fact that the 72,000 people who turned out to hear him talk were gathered in Portland’s Waterfront Park. Where Obama took the stage was at the southern end of the park nestled between the Hawthorne Bridge and Riverplace, a retail and residential development. It’s just one part of the 29 acre downtown riverfront park.

Although Portland is well known as the independent music capitol of the USA, the city offers a variety of music. For instance the Portland Jazz Festival that takes place every February played host to Sonny Rollins this year and currently the Waterfront Blues Festival, now in its 21st year and the second-largest blues festival in the country, has kicked off with none other than the soul legend Isaac Hayes. It continues throughout the July 4th weekend with literally hundreds of blues artists too many to mention here. Visit the web site for a full list of performers.

Indie music fans can get their fill with three upcoming festivals. First up PDXPOPNOW! 2008 which takes place July 25-27 at Rotture. As the festival folks quite simply say on their web site it’s - Free. All-Ages. Tons of Portland Bands.

In August the 10th Annual Pickathon Roots Music Festival takes place featuring artists Jolie Holland, Bad Livers, The Gourds and many more. It takes place at Pendarvis Farm on Portland’s outskirts and the three day weekend is set up for camping and RVs too. As the web site says - Pickathon is the Indie-Roots Music event of the Year. More than 35 bands on 5 stages. Camping, Hiking and Sustainability amongst Oregon’s Doug Firs on an 80 acre wonderland just 20 minutes from Portland, OR.

September 3rd to the 6th brings us the annual MusicFestNW festival, a three day music festival not unlike Austin’s SXSW. The festival grows in stature every year and this year’s lineup is exemplary - Vampire Weekend, TV On The Radio and The Murder City Devils headline and the rest of the lineup is stellar too - Del the Funky Homosapien, M Ward, Menomena and Polvo to name a few. Visit the site to see the full roster.

A little extra good news is that you can get a hotel deal if you’re thinking of attending any of the festivals this summer. On this site you’ll see an ad to help you find a hotel room and get a free CD or a download that features 12 Portland indie bands.

Yacht sweating it out at Holocene. Pic ©Nilina Mason-Campbell

Nilina Mason-Campbell reports from the PdxPopNow! show last night:
I was a bit surprised that Fist Fite opened the PDX Pop Now! CD release show last night at 9:25, but maybe it was so drummer Christian Carmine could still make it to work on time as he works as a night cabbie. For me the highlight of their set was the final song which had a more dance-able beat than the songs it followed. It definitely got me psyched on their new material which you can find streaming on their myspace.

Next up was Southern Belle who I caught last Saturday at the Hush when I DJed a set before them. I reached a new level of excitement by seeing how everyone in the audience was also excited for them. That excitement had not dissipated by the time it came to the Holocene show. They were super tight despite bassist Nicole Perry’s bout of bronchitis that left her unable to fulfill her backing vocal duties. While the quartet didn’t play its cover of Britney Spears’ “Lucky,” they do welcome stage invasions which always earn a gold star from me.

If there’s any band in Portland that I have a crush on, it’s definitely White Fang. Big time! If they sold posters, my room would be decorated with them. Actually, I’m going to start lobbying that a poster series become a part of White Fang’s merch offerings. I will buy. And on a regular basis seeing as their line-up seems to change with every show. I’ll own one of every current and past member!

Last night not only did they have four drummers for a total of five percussionists, but States Rights Records honcho Steve Schroeder and White Rainbow pulled techie duty by making sure everything stayed plugged in while White Fang went about their brutal, but totally fun show.

About third of the band played on the floor while the others moved about the stage as if navigating an obstacle course. I use the word “third” liberally since I couldn’t quite tell how many people were actually in the band on Thursday. Does their seemingly official photographer count? I’d say he was just as much apart of the show. I’m gonna go with seven, but if the photographer counts, that’ll round it up to eight and then with the additional of two techies would make White Fang two shy of a dozen.

They ran through their set with inevitable speed, stage diving, audience participation (I briefly screamed into the mic for “Breakfast”) and when it was over no one needed a gurney to exit the mosh-pit. A success! The supposed reason for White Fang playing second to last on the bill was a rumored set cross-over with fellow Marriage act Yacht, but alas there was a proper set change over with DJ Manny Lennox providing the entertainment during the transition as he had for all those before.