It seems these days that Portland, Oregon couldn’t be sitting any prettier. Receiving accolades for everything from having the cleanest city in America to being one of the top 10 singles cities, PDX (as it’s so lovingly penned) is finally reaping the benefits from the concentrated efforts it has put forth to reinvent itself. With its more-than-affordable housing, insanely efficient mass transportation and artist-friendly, if not inspired downtown, people from all over our great little country are jumping ship from their abodes to wash comfortably ashore on Portland’s rosy banks of the Wilamette River.

So now Portland, get ready to chalk up another glittery title to put up on your Welcome To Portland signs, “America’s Indie Mecca”. Yes, that’s right, Mecca. Slate Magazine recently put up a rather convincing article on their website last Tuesday on just how and why Portland is just so indie-as-fuck. I’ll let you read the article for yourself but I will give you the one reason I concur: MusicFest NW.

Formerly called North By Northwest, the 4-day music festival kicked off its 3rd sunny and scorching installment September 6-9th. Much like a hurricane, the increasingly warm and moist waters of Portland’s indie cred have given speed and rotation to this musical storm that, according to my amateur meteorological skills, will now been upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 4 shit-hurricane of music; a shitticane of monumentally joyous proportions for any lucky concert-goer caught in its path.

The festival is set up like that of its southern cousin, SXSW. The shows are all scattered around Portland at over 10 different venues throughout the weekend. Most of the shows are conveniently between the hours of 9pm and 1am, giving working folk a fighting chance fitting shows into their schedules. Kudos.

The bill this year included the likes of Spoon, Wolf Parade, The Thermals, Dan Deacon, Deerhunter, Girl Talk, Rilo Kiley, The Helio Sequence, The Cool Kids, Aesop Rock, Clipse, Ghostface Killah, Grizzly Bear, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Cat Power, among countless others. Oh yea, by the way, the pass to catch all 150+ shows was a mere $40, or if you are using Canadian currency, $40 CAN (ouch).

Here’s a fanciful recap of some of the concerts I took in during my PBR and sun-soaked weekend.

Aqueduct @ The Doug Fir Lounge
The Doug Fir Lounge is a bit of a time warp. Decked out with walls made of large, raw logs of timber and swank 50’s aesthetic, this gold mine of a venue is one of the cooler places I have ever seen a concert. The décor of the venue and the vibe of the crowd was perfect for a warm and poppy set from Seattle-native Dave Terry, aka Aqueduct. Filled to cozying capacity with 150 increasingly-drunk fans, Dave enthusiastically kicked off the set suggesting that we “do this fucking thing,” and heeding his call, away we went.

The most striking thing about seeing Aqueduct, is just how much they love to play for the crowd. They kept the crowd happily dancing with their raw energy and sing-along numbers off of their tragically overlooked latest, Or Give Me Death. Riding high after their incredible Bumbershoot Festival performance in Seattle the week before, they desperately tried to plow their way through as many songs in their time slot as possible in order to give us maximum Aqueduct-age.

The highlight came as the last song loomed closer and closer, when they gave the crowd the most difficult of choices for the last song: A.) A cover of R. Kelly’s “I’m A Flirt” or B.) “Hardcore Days, Soft Core Nights”. Poised with such a demanding query, the crowd deliberated for all of 2 seconds before announcing their decision: R. Kelly was to be let out of the Aqueduct Song Catalog Closet. What followed was nothing short of pure brilliance. Doubling the original song’s tempo and adding generous amounts of distorted fuzz, Aqueduct turned the track into the most unlikely of rock anthems. If you are curious as to what this might sound like, I suggest tracking down the R. Kelly vs. Broken Social Scene mashup by the same name. According to Dave, that’s what inspired him to make the song his own.