'I'm back': Pitbull announces 35-city North America tour with Lil Jon for 2026
Pitbull, also known as Mr. Worldwide, created hits like "Fireball," "Hotel Room Service," "Feel This Moment" with Christina Aguilera and "Timber" with Kesha.
Mercury Music Picks: Dim Wit's Farewell Show and Portland's New Elliott Smith
Nolan Parker by Nolan Parker Underestimate Capricorn and Aquarius season at your own peril, friends. While there are fewer touring acts coming through town this time of year, it’s an excellent time to catch up on your locals. But what am I saying? We’ve got Uniiqu3, Steve Gunn, and Rehash gracing Portland with their presence this week! Plus a bunch of local talent to boot. Heads up: Mercury Music Picks is on break next week, but will return the week of January 26 to continuing delivering the crème de cassis of Portland concerts. P.S. FUCK ICE :) For fans of Dry Socket, early Korn, Spazz Is one of your new years resolutions to consume (or be consumed by) more local hardcore? Are your friends calling you a poser behind your back? Those tattered Warped Tour tees just not cutting it anymore? Then this is the gig for you. Yes, all the bands on this bill shred harder than a Tillamook cheese grater, but have you locked in with Gekiretsu yet? They’re a bunch of fuckin’ metal nerds, originally forming the band in Spokane, recently moving down to PDX to stomp on fascist necks. And trust, they’ve had their practice in the 509. (High Limit Room, 8 pm, more info here, all ages) For fans of King Lollipop, The Lemon Twigs, Gym Tonic Good news and bad news for this one folks. The bad news: This show is being billed as Dim Wit’s farewell show. My heart broke when I saw this because Dim Wit has been consistently one of the most deeply interesting entities in Portland music for years. The good news: “Farewell” in this context means Jeff Tuyay, AKA Dim Wit, is only leaving Portland, trading the Willamette for the East River and Hudson, and will hopefully continue making music. Dim Wit isn’t chain or egg punk, nor is it outsider electronics or goofball indie. It’s all of the above and so much more. We wish Tuyay the best in the Big Apple, and bid him visit us often. More good news: This show is the hard launch of Digital Warthog, a duo composed of the inimitable Crystal Quartez and Qu Metcalf (of Wet Dream Society). What they sound like will only be known to those in attendance at this farewell-birth party. (Mississippi Studios, 8 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of Flyana Boss, Cakes Da Killa, LSDXOXO Since her Holocene appearance in 2023, I’ve been macro-dosing the Jersey footwork prodigy Uniiqu3 on the regular. The dark, cavernous floor at Process is the perfect place to try cutting new shapes, groovin’ with that cutie you came with. On her new “2 The Bass” track, Uniiqu3 demands we move our asses, making them wiggle and shake, and to “turn the fuck up”—I’m here to do anything this thicc queen says. Why? Because she claims she can get dick anytime she wants… and I’m tryna live that life. (Process, 10 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Lou Reed If you close your eyes while listening to Sam Milton’s new record Nausea, you may just think that Elliott Smith is back, pacing the streets of Portland. It’s an uncanny resemblance, an export Portland is in desperate need of. The young Milton could perhaps be our salvation from the ouroboros of delicate indie that disappears the moment it sees the light of day. This might be an “I saw him before…” show. Fellow Portland plucker Amos Heart is in the middle, with the Mars FM dreamers bumping knuckles with the cosmos in the opening slot. (Showdown Saloon, 8 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of Bing & Ruth, Bonnie Prince Billy, Marisa Anderson It was really sweet of Steve Gunn to put out an album especially for the Mercury staff. On Music For Writers, the first of two albums he released last year, Gunn explores the un-limits of the mind to hypnotizing effect. Atmospheric dalliances converge and swirl with guitar strummed so delicately. Is this music for writers because it’s ambient music with no vocals? Yes. Most of Gunn’s catalog are medium+ interesting takes on experimental roots and folk music. On Music For Writers, we see an artist let himself just be. The perfect local opener has to be the meandering ambient country of Jeffrey Silverstein. If you’re not yet a fan of Silverstein, give his 2024 EP Roseway a spin and reconsider. (Polaris Hall, 9 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of The Vines, Hot Hot Heat, No Age Hailing from the deepest, darkest depths of South Florida, I give you Rehash. The young quartet is touring behind their third album, Mock, an LP filled to the brim with catchy hooks and early-career romance. Rehash doesn’t put the sleaze in indie sleaze, but they would be delicious tour companions for The Strokes. Julian, if you’re reading this, don’t sleep on Rehash. The noisy Los Angelenos in Clarion are along for the tour, with Portland opener Blaize Jenkins setting it off. (Mission Theater, 8 pm, more info here, all ages) Also very worth it… Trigger Object / FO/PO / Insufficient Despair / Miser at Wyrd Hut - Jan 16, more info here Street Nights / Mini Blinds / Naked Mole Rats at Swan Dive - Jan 17, more info here Year of the Coyote / Pauses / South Mouth at Wyrd Hut - Jan 17, more info here Last week, Beacon Sound released Gaza Is The Moral Compass, the first in a string of compilations supporting Palestinian-led mutual aid groups fighting the permanent decolonization of the Palestinian diaspora. This first comp features tracks by Godspeed's Efrim Menuck, Holland Andrews and Methods Body, foodman, Amulets, and more. Pick up the release as a tape in-store at Beacon Sound, or on Bandcamp as a tape or digital download. If you been sleeping on Brooklyn-by-way-of-Portland producer and beat maker Tasa D, wake up! He dropped two releases in 2025, both are truly no skips. The Hati Hati EP is a two-track solo effort of distorted pulsing that would feel at home playing Berlin's A-Tonal festival. The second 2025 release is a collab album with rapper H Man Coker, titled Blasphemous Politickin. BP sees the artists building worlds of power and suspicion, sex and a good time. Though Tasa D is now BK-based, we implore him to snag H Man and come back through PDX! Perhaps a headlining show at Holocene with Tasa D-produced Portlander Cosmos Dark? Is Tasa D reading Hafiz in a rap video??
Mercury Music Picks: The Passion of Lori Goldston, Texas Emo, and a Month of Color & Sound at Clinton Street Theater
Nolan Parker by Nolan Parker Happy new you! Welcome to 2026, you absolute smoke shows! Did we all get home safe after our NYE functions? I barely made it out alive, not because of intoxication, but because the Forty Feet Tall boys and the Nonbinary Girlfriend theys tore it the fuck up at Trouble Bar so deeply it was hard to walk after. And then three days later, Dustbunny almost sold out Mississippi Studios for their record release party (and I mean party), with Femme Cell and Pileup. Both gigs went hard—house show style—distilling the renaissance energy that was Portland 2025, imbuing the first few days of 2026 with an incredible hit of dopamine. Massive shouts to all those bands, both those venues, and to everyone who showed up to support any local music during this “slow” time of year. 2026 LFGGGGGGG! Jabronis do be saying this is the slow part of the year, that there’s not a ton of music happening in Portland (or wherever jabronis live—Spokane? Northern Idaho?). I, and the Mercury, absolutely beg to differ. A few shows I’ve been looking forward to for months are happening later in January (Berlin-based Portlander Colin Self at Mississippi, Cate Le Bon at Rev Hall, and Steve Reich’s Counterpoints at Hopscotch), and this week is no slouch in the sack either with… well, you’ll just have to keep reading if you wanna find out. The Passion of Joan of Arc live-scored by Lori Goldston For fans of cello drones, silent film, biblical reckoning Seattle cello godhead Lori Goldston has been on a Portland tear the last couple months. She cruised down the corridor in October to play several sets at Improvisation Summit of Portland, and live-scored the 1911 Italian silent film L’Inferno with Corey J. Brewer at Tomorrow Theater in December. For this, her first 2026 appearance in the Rose City, Goldston tackles the 81-minute film The Passion of Joan of Arc. This is your chance to see a live score for the 1928 French film that Mercury film critic Dom Sinacola is saying “had a prominent influence on Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012),” and what Minto Press mastermind Meredith Adams is calling “ACAB cannon.” (Hollywood Theatre, 6:30 pm, more info here, all ages) For fans of Mykki Blanco, D’Angelo, SassyBlack If you haven’t picked up on it yet, there’s a powerful current of both Black and trans musicians flowing through this city, challenging perceptions of the largely white (and cis male) dominated scenes of Portland. R&B doll Keeks dropped her massive album Gwendolyn last year that, if I was more on top of it, would have been included in the Mercury’s Best Albums of 2025. On the album, Keeks’ silky-smooth vocals disarm and refresh with look-me-in-the-eyes honesty that might draw a blush as your panties hit the floor. On album hard-hitter “The Chillest, Pt. 1,” Keeks lets you know and expects you to remember her rapping ain't a game: “I do not do blow, I am a fucking lady / If I’m in your venue, you gon’ fuckin’ pay me.” Black futurist experimentalists Cosmos Dark and Yawa bring a powerfully nourishing femme energy in the opening slots. (Swan Dive, 8 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of Everyone Asked About You, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Rainer Maria Eighties and ’90s alternative music changed the game forever. There was grunge, new wave, shoegaze, hip-hop, goth, hardcore, nu metal, and on and on. Most of those genres sank into the background, but have had big resurgences in the last decade. “But what about emo?” *holding gun to back of astronaut’s head* “Emo never left...” Though it has gone through several waves. From the early Rites of Spring days, to the second wave of Braid and Cap’n Jazz, to the Warped Tour 2005 mainstays The Used and From First To Last, emo has continually reinvented itself to remain on the fringes of the underground. Champions of the genre, Portland-based bookers Mallbrawlreds are bringing the Texas emo outfits At First, At First and My Point of You through town—two femme-fronted bands that would’ve been right at home touring the Midwest emo circuit of the ’90s, proving that Texas is, in fact, the reason. Local legends Swiss Army Wife pull up too, shouting one of my favorite lines of all time on their track “Aight, I’mma Head Out”: “It’s a basement, not a gated community.” Setting it off, bringing the brown sound are Portland’s ¡Gonzales! Better get to the gig early. (Leaven Community Center, 7 pm, more info here, all ages) For fans of visual and aural stimulation when it’s needed most Feeling SAD? Need something to look forward to during January? May we suggest Clinton Street Theater’s fourth installment of Color & Sound. On select Fridays this month, Clinton Street will be screening vivid, loud films to brighten up what some are calling the first month of 2026. The aging flamboyance of Swan Song, the riotous Zoot Suit, a Jeff Buckley documentary, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions’ Portland premiere, a jukebox documentary, and Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala are the crown jewels of the series. (Clinton Street Theater, 7 pm, more info here, all ages) For fans of Wolves in the Throne Room, Earth, Bell Witch There’s something about the Pacific Northwest that lends itself to the creation of dark, heavy music burning with catharsis. It’s probably all the low skies and cold and wet, huh? Lucky for us, the Olympia Indigi-queers Ragana and the Portland-based drone manipulator Drowse have banded together, releasing Ash Souvenir late last year. As both bands—and black metal in general—are want to do, the album is filled with gorgeous slow-builds that evolve into anthemic shredding and guttural screaming. This is regional music of the highest order, heavy hangs the head that misses this first Portland excavation of the album. (Mississippi Studios, 8 pm, more info here, 21+) Also very worth it… Isabeau Waia’u Walker & The Noise Boys / Port Velvet at Mississippi Studios - Jan 9, more info here theyhungusfrompowerlines / Middling / For You Always For You / Pretending / It’s You! It’s Me! And There’s Dancing! at Alleyway - Jan 9, more info here Silicon Radio ft. Batom and Crochet at Company - Jan 9, more info here DJ Manny at Barn Radio - Jan 10, more info here Dyke Nite ft. Stas Thee Boss and DJ Aspen at Nova - Jan 10, more info here Larry Beckett at Music Millenium - Jan 10, more info here Swing Girls at Tomorrow Theater - Jan 10, more info here Fundamental / Body Shame / Laughing About Nothing / Long Deer at Wyrd Hut - Jan 10, more info here Hedwig and The Angry Inch at Tomorrow Theater - Jan 11, more info here Pickathon 2026 may feel like a long way off from early January, but it'll be here before you know it. And, to put a little pep in your step, festival tickets are going on sale for the cheapest you'll find this Wednesday, January 7 at 10 am. As a super special treat, Cole Gann of Forty Feet Tall is featured at the top of Pickathon's ticket portal, and who wouldn't pay to see that? (P.S. Scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up for their newsletter to get an extra $15 off.)
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