teesquare_p2gaov The Biggest Concerts in Portland this Winter — Tyler, The Creator’s *Chromakopia* tour hits the Moda Center at the end of February.

Music might be our most nostalgic medium. Wedding songs, movie soundtracks, that one track you listened to ad nauseam while playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater—nothing jolts you into a memory faster. Nevertheless, we’re in a particularly sentimental musical moment. Instead of tours promoting new releases, anniversary gigs dominate marquees across the country. Sometimes, this is great. Instead of time traveling in the shower or the car, you get to spend a night in the past with hundreds or thousands of strangers hoping to fall into the same wormhole. The hangup is the current trend of playing a 20- or 30-year-old album cover-to-cover: a great idea in theory that’s proving to be a slog in practice. “No More Nostalgia Concerts, Please,” reads a recent New York Times headline. Closer to home, a recent Modest Mouse anniversary show dropped us into an uncanny rendering of 2004—a mostly good, if unsettling, time.

Local venues are holding plenty of space for the past in the coming months. Team Dresch and the Dandy Warhols are both 30, Ural Thomas is turning 85, and, in its 21st year, the Jazz Festival is taking over most of the city at the end of February. But the coming months are also packed with concerts from some of the most inventive current artists touring their new work. Tyler, The Creator, in his Chromakopia era, is taking over the Moda Center, and the chart-topping “Escapism.” singer and producer 070 Shake is bringing her latest album to town. Meanwhile, Portland’s own Dandy Warhols, who never stopped blending past and present like their Pop Art muse, are touring a new album in their 30th year as a band. Looking forward and backward, these are the upcoming shows we’ve got our eyes on.

The Dandy Warhols

8pm Thu, Dec 12 | McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, $42–57

One of the biggest bands to come out of Portland—ever—the Dandy Warhols are on tour celebrating 30 years of pushing the iconoclastic agenda set by the underground art god whose name they borrowed. Rockmaker, their 12th album, released in March, is as weird loaded with references as anything the band’s put out. And it features Frank Black and Debbie Harry…and Slash?

Black Belt Eagle Scout

7pm Jan 8 | The Reser, $28

Portlander Katherine Paul’s 2023 album, The Land, The Water, The Sky, marked a homecoming. During Covid, she took a trip to her ancestral Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, on the Skagit River in northwest Washington, and made songs about the experience, mixing in her riot grrrl influenced sound. Part of the Reser’s American Strings series, this show will start with Paul in conversation with ethnomusicologist and public historian Kelly Bosworth.

Beethoven X Beyoncé

7:30pm Thu, Jan 23 | Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $25

It’s exactly what it sounds like: Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony transposed with Beyoncé’s discography. Concocted by conductor Steve Hackman, the show features hits like “Single Ladies” and “Cuff It,” sung by vocalists Kaylah Sharve, Brayla Cook, and Malia Civetz, and accompanied by the Oregon Symphony.

Bright Eyes

7:30 Sat & Sun, Jan 25 & 26 | McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, $50–55

The Omaha-based sad boys Bright Eyes released their 11th album, Five Dice, All Threes, in September, with features from Cat Power and Matt Berninger (the National). But singer Conor Oberst quickly ran into vocal problems and the band had to cancel their shows for the year. Come January, however, they’re back on the road, playing back-to-back nights in Portland.

Reggie Watts

8:30pm Thu, Feb 6 | Aladdin Theater, $45

Hard to say what you’re going to get at a Reggie Watts show. As a rule, he doesn’t know either. Broadly speaking, his show is an improvised mix of looped, beatboxing music and comedy. But he also does stand-up, was famously on Comedy Bang! Bang!, and he’s a regular guy-about-town on the absurdist comedy circuit of TV shows and podcasts. Even the audio book of Watts’s autobiography, published in 2023, features beatboxing.

070 Shake

8:30pm Sat, Feb 15 | McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, $39.50–65

070 Shake made a name for herself with celebrated features on songs by Ye, Nas, and Pusha T (she signed to Ye’s record label in 2016). But her song with Raye, “Escapism.” hit number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the UK Singles Chart. 070 Shake’s solo music wittily melds trap, ambient soundscapes, and soulful incantatory rock tracks. Petrichor, her third album, came out in November, boasting its own impressive features: She sings a “Song to the Siren” cover with Courtney Love, and a Blondie cover with her long-time girlfriend, Lily Rose-Depp.

Erykah Badu at the Jazz Fest

8pm Fri, Feb 21 | Moda Center, $90–275+

The patron saint of neo soul headlines this year’s Biamp Portland Jazz Festival (February 10–March 1) with a Moda Center show. The festival is a massive undertaking, spanning 10 days with shows at 30 venues across the city. Alongside Badu, highlights include the Grammy–winning trumpeter and composer, and frequent Spike Lee collaborator, Terence Blanchard, and Ravi Coltrane, son of John and Alice.

Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy Play R.E.M.

8pm Sat, Feb 22 | Revolution Hall, $35

Michael Shannon isn’t the obvious pick to “play” Michael Stipe—the detective from Nocturnal Animals belting out “Losing My Religion.” But, alongside his bud Jason Narducy (Bob Mould Band, Superchunk), Shannon wears the role well, despite skipping Stipe’s signature glittery blue eye makeup. Last year, Shannon and Narducy toured the country playing through Murmur. They’re reprising their quasi-tribute act to celebrate the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction.

Tyler, The Creator

7:30pm Wed, Feb 26 | Moda Center, $151–209+

Love him or hate him, Tyler, The Creator is one of the most impactful cultural players of America’s past decade. From hanging out with Frank Ocean and Syd in his Odd Future days to the Adult Swim show to the clothing line, he’s continually exploded the concept of what a celebrity is supposed to be. It’s fitting, then, that Chromakopia, his eighth solo record, is all about killing his past personas to make room for this latest vision. Lil Yachty and Paris Texas open this Moda Center show.

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