{"id":53219,"date":"2025-12-04T20:54:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/04\/sleater-kinney-and-portugal-the-man-perform-at-sonesta-portland\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T20:54:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:54:26","slug":"sleater-kinney-and-portugal-the-man-perform-at-sonesta-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/04\/sleater-kinney-and-portugal-the-man-perform-at-sonesta-portland\/","title":{"rendered":"Sleater-Kinney\u00a0and Portugal. The Man Perform at Sonesta Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThere\u2019s no question that the Pacific Northwest has played a key role in modern rock and roll. That fact was on full display when Rolling Stone<\/em> and Sonesta International Hotels hosted the final installment of their 2025 Musicians on Musicians live tour on Thursday night in Portland, Oregon. In an intimate ballroom on the 10th floor of the Royal Sonesta Portland Downtown, a crowd of dedicated music lovers and Sonesta Travel Pass members watched as Sleater-Kinney and John Gourley of Portugal. The Man sat down with Rolling Stone<\/em> senior music editor and Nashville Now<\/em> podcast host Joseph Hudak for a music-driven conversation before taking the stage for a pair of intimate performances. Sipping themed cocktails and mocktails\u2013including the Riot Grrrl Refresher and the Feel It Still \u2013guests chatted excitedly about their music, travel and their Portland favorites.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tOnstage, Sleater-Kinney\u2019s Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, who moved to Portland in mid-1990s, talked about the artistic community in their adopted home city, and the role Portland, and the Pacific Northwest overall, has played in the music industry.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really about community. Connecting with people, not just virtually, but really making an effort to be with other people. It\u2019s really vital,\u201d Brownstein said onstage. \u201cNot just for creativity and art, but for humanity. In order to ward off cynicism and pessimism, you need to immerse yourself among other people. And it helps make you compassionate. Community is just a way of being yourself. And it\u2019s an allowance of hope with other people. To me that\u2019s what Portland is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAs for Portland\u2019s musical secret sauce, Tucker credits the rainy weather. \u201cIf it\u2019s sunny and nice out all the time, you\u2019re just walking around and doing your thing, but it\u2019s not. You\u2019re inside thinking about things, ruminating, and then you pick up a guitar and it makes it a little bit better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\tGourley made his way to the city from his native Alaska in the early 2000s and found a circle of fellow misfit creatives with whom to make music, similar to the camaraderie of the Riot Grrrl movement that Sleater-Kinney spearheaded in the Nineties.<\/p>\n\n
\n\t\u201cSeeing people wanting to uplift each other and support the scene and everybody\u2019s in each other\u2019s bands, there\u2019s just something about being around that sort of energy,\u201d he said of the Portland music community.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd while music was the focus of the evening, Hudak couldn\u2019t help but bring up Brownstein\u2019s comedic tribute to the city, Portlandia<\/em>. The sketch comedy series\u2014a satirical look at the town and the people who live there\u2014ran on IFC from 2011 until 2018 and co-starred Fred Armisen. When Hudak asked the panel if the show accurately portrayed the city, Brownstein was quiet, but Gourley couldn\u2019t help answering for the group. \u201cAll my Portland friends were walking around like, \u2018It\u2019s not fucking like that.\u2019 And it is<\/em> like that,\u201d he said, eliciting knowing laughs from the locals in the crowd.<\/p>\n
\n\tFollowing the conversation, Gourley was joined onstage by his wife and creative partner Zoe Manville for an acoustic set that leaned heavily on Portugal. The Man\u2019s new album, Shish<\/em>. The duo performed several of the album\u2019s tracks for the first time, before teasing their 2017 breakout \u201cFeel It Still.\u201d But true to their Portlandian buck-the-system roots, they didn\u2019t play their biggest hit, instead ending with the live debut of a powerful new track.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThen, Tucker and Brownstein took the stage for a duo performance of songs from Sleater-Kinney\u2019s career-spanning catalog, including the title track of their 1996 album, Call the Doctor<\/em>. It was a rare opportunity for fans of the globally renowned group to see them perform in such an intimate space.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
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\n\tThe exclusive evening was a testament to both loyal music fans and devoted Sonesta Travel Pass members. As Hudak said at the end of the evening, it was the kind of event that only Rolling Stone <\/em>and Sonesta International Hotels could bring to life. Now the countdown is on for 2026 as Sonesta Travel Pass members gear up for even more musical events across America\u2019s most celebrated cities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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