The local bar just down the street has started to have bands playing every Friday and Saturday night during the summer. No matter how cold it might be — Portland Spring means that the weather can go anywhere from that’s really nice, actually to why do we need heavy coats again, it’s fucking June at a moment’s notice — around 7 o’clock each of those nights each week, we get the soundcheck starting up, and then somewhere close to 8, the bands start up.
It’s a weirdly nostalgic, pleasant experience hearing it all from inside the house each time. We’re close enough, and the bands are loud enough, that we get more or less the entire show no matter what — I had the weird experience of having to turn up a horror movie one night because I couldn’t hear the blood-curdling screams, the music was so loud — but it’s that kind of distorted version where everything’s kind of bass-heavy, and the vocals are echoing and indistinct. Given the types of bands (and especially vocalists) that are invited, the odds that the night will be soundtracked that resembles nothing so much as a Pearl Jam dub remix are high.
The nostalgic part of it all is very specific; for reasons I can’t completely decipher, every time it happens, I’m reminded of living in Aberdeen when I was a student and walking home after seeing friends, past pubs where bands would be playing and you wouldn’t hear anything properly, just this muddy hum of almost-music and occasional applause that I’d walk past as my teeth were chattering.
The music is nothing alike — there aren’t so many Britpop wannabes in Portland in 2025, unsurprisingly. Although, it’s been 30 years; someone is probably planning on reviving it again momentarily. But the feeling is the same, somehow; the sense of… almost the opposite of FOMO, if that makes sense: taking pleasure in other people’s pleasure of being in that musical moment, even if it’s very much not my particular thing. Knowing that the dull thud of the drums and the meandering bassline is thrilling the audience in question, and smiling everytime the song ends and there’s a breath before an inevitable cheer.