Festival Coverage: Project Pabst 2025

At the picturesque Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon, Project Pabst struck the perfect balance between accessibility and intimacy, merging eras of punk with indie and emo. Thanks to thoughtful ticket pricing and Pabst Blue Ribbon’s sponsorship, the event felt welcoming to all, with affordable drink options, from the classic PBR tall can, to the brand’s crisp new Pabst Light. The park’s layout allowed fans to move freely between stages, and staggered set times on just two stages allowed festival-goers to watch every set. There was a vibrant yet cozy atmosphere, wedged between Portland’s downtown skyline and the Willamette River.

Within Project Pabst’s well-curated lineup, attendees spanned generations – from gray-haired punk heads reliving the glory days to younger fans coming onto the scene. This diverse gathering set the tone for two unforgettable days of punk and indie music, uniting fans across ages and backgrounds in celebration of the sounds that unite us.

Day One: Old-School Meets Modern Punk

The opening day of the festival drew a diverse crowd spanning all ages, from seasoned punk veterans to wide-eyed newcomers. Old-head punks proudly sported The Damned shirts, making FIDLAR’s late-breaking set feel like both a surprise and a tribute. Saturday’s lineup curated a recurring theme of old punk merging with new punk. Legendary acts DEVO and Iggy Pop set the foundation, while modern trailblazers Gustaf, Gouge Away, The Chats, and Mannequin Pussy showcased punk’s evolution. Each band exemplified a different strand of the genre:

DEVO’s proto-punk defined sounds that would lead into new wave.
Iggy Pop/The Stooges, who influenced garage rock for decades, is embedded in punk’s DNA.
The Chats represented street/skate punk.
FIDLAR embraced party-punk chaos.
Gouge Away and Gustaf represented female-fronted hardcore and post-punk.
Exploding Hearts bridged garage rock to the swagger of New York Dolls.

Gouge Away took the midday stage and played with so much energy, even with the sun blazing. Their performance became the perfect warm-up for a day of punk rock. Gustaf followed with an emotive, high-voltage set, their stage presence impossible to ignore. Exploding Hearts captured the crowd with matching energy, solidifying their reputation as garage-rock torchbearers.

FIDLAR entered with the weight of high expectations, and delivered the most fun set of the day. Dressed for the beach rather than a riot, their laid-back surf look contrasted with their explosive party-punk anthems. Between songs, they traded playful insults, covered Sublime’s “Santeria” (complete with a cheeky warning when the crowd belted “smack her down”), and even introduced themselves as The Damned, leaning into the replacement joke. The Grillos Pickle mascot also took advantage to crowd surf during this set, only adding to the fun atmosphere that FIDLAR have always been known to curate.

By the time The Chats took the stage, the venue was at capacity. Moshing erupted instantly as fans screamed every lyric, actually drowning out the singer (in the best possible way). Mannequin Pussy followed, kicking off with a reggaetón intro to get bodies moving, before erupting into “Sometimes” from their latest album. DEVO drew one of the day’s largest crowds. Many attendees squeezed into slivers of view, but nobody minded the friendly bumping as the band played a set full of hits. Finally, Iggy Pop closed Day One sporting his classic shirtless look, conjuring the largest and most intense crowd of the weekend.

Day Two: Indie and Emo Converge

Sunday’s lineup pivoted to the indie side of the spectrum, blending emo’s emotive roots with indie’s boundary-pushing sounds. Project Pabst blurred those once-separate lanes by pairing Cap’n Jazz and Death Cab for Cutie with rising acts Wednesday and Say She She.

Dustbunny kicked off under a gentler sky, their raw promise and Chloe’s magnetic stage presence captivating the early risers. Sam Austins followed, hinting at the future of indie-electronic fusion with his genre-blending approach and clear upward trajectory. He went into the middle barricade to pump up the crowd during his final song, it was a beautiful moment of energy feeding energy and left a lasting impression.

Say She She exploded onto the Unicorn Stage with infectious energy, having everyone dancing nonstop for their entire 45-minute set. They debuted several new tracks, even teasing unreleased songs from their upcoming album Cut & Rewind (out this fall). Wednesday continued that streak of fresh creativity, unveiling their new indie-country sound on a batch of new songs that felt both nostalgic and forward-looking.

Cap’n Jazz arrived next, reminding the crowd why they are considered one of the pioneers of Midwest emo back in the 1980s. Their set felt like a revelation for younger fans and a nostalgic triumph for longtime devotees. Then Built To Spill took the Captain Pabst stage, evoking memories of their intimate Urban Lounge gig we saw in SLC just nights before, where the crowd gave one of the longest ovations we’ve heard in a while, beckoning an encore. At the festival, the band proved once again why they stand as indie-alternative pillars.

Death Cab for Cutie closed out the festival on an emotional high. Their set featured beloved tracks from across three decades of their career. When Ben Gibbard announced plans to record a new album, the crowd erupted. Getting to hear a career-spanning set, complete with a crowd sing-a-long and the band sounding vital and excited, was an immaculate way to end a weekend full of great music.

Across two days, Project Pabst delivered an exhilarating journey through punk’s storied past and indie’s bold evolution, with visions of what the future-state of these genres could look like. From the anarchic fun of FIDLAR and The Chats to the heartfelt resonance of Death Cab for Cutie, the festival ultimately underscored music’s power to unite generations. As fans spilled into the night after Sunday’s set, it was clear this weekend of music was a living, breathing celebration of the sounds that shape us.