music
Porch Perfect
EUGENE PORCHFEST RETURNS FOR ITS SECOND YEAR WITH
LOCAL MUSICAL ACTS AND MOVEMENT CLASSES
By Henry Houston
W
ith long days of summer
upon us, it’s time to
kick off outdoor music
season and soak up
the sun at the Eugene
PorchFest.
In its second year,
the outdoors-oriented Eugene PorchFest
is bringing together a variety of local musi-
cal acts for a five-day festival, which started
Wednesday, June 1, and runs through Sunday,
June 5. The festival is held at various locations
in Eugene-Springfield, and it’s giving some
newcomer bands longer set times than the
traditional night venues.
“I felt like they wouldn’t want a band named
Titsweat on their list,” laughs Gracie Schatz,
bassist and singer for the band in question,
who’s performing at the festival on Sunday,
June 5. “I’m really excited that they want us
to play. We’re stoked.”
PorchFest events have occurred throughout
the U.S. for years, from Ithaca, New York, to
Milwaukie, Oregon. Rather than having shows
indoors, the spirit of PorchFest is to have musi-
cal acts perform outdoors, though not limited
to porches. The 2022 Eugene PorchFest’s locations are
the homes of individuals, ranging in neighborhoods from
the Whiteaker to south Eugene to downtown Springfield.
The first year that the Eugene PorchFest was held
was 2021, and it was a hit, organizer Eric Alterman says
via email. “All of the shows sold out, and so many audi-
ence members expressed enthusiasm for PorchFest
for a second year,” he says. “We never doubted that we
would bring it back for another season — it was more a
question of ‘when’ than ‘if.’”
The Eugene PorchFest is working with the local
nonprofit ArtCity, he adds, so it can take donations
from individuals and businesses who want to support
the festival.
Eugene PorchFest features a variety of musical acts,
from the established (Mood Area 52 and Samba Ja) to
the more avant garde (Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble
TITSWEAT
and Project Libracello). In creating this year’s lineup,
Alterman says, organizers followed the guiding principle
of “musical abundance.”
There are more shows than last year’s, which he says
reflects the event’s popularity, and there’s diversity in
the represented genres. “We include everything from
classical music to experimental noise-rock, and musi-
cal traditions from parts of the world including Mexico,
Brazil, Zimbabwe, Senegal, the Balkans and more,” he says.
The festival also includes the genre of “garage glam,”
which Schatz uses to describe Titsweat. Formed in the
summer of 2021, the band’s name was a joke at first, a
description of the sort of sweat that the trio experienced
when practicing in a hot room, she says. “We like the
rawness and looseness of being a garage rock band but
still also getting dressed up, performative and campy
a little bit,” she says about the garage glam descriptor.
And that fits with the band’s influences.
Some of Titsweat’s inspirations are ’80s and
’90s female rock stars, Schatz says, such as
Kate Bush, Alanis Morissette, Bikini Kill and
Sleater Kinney.
“The priority of the music is catharsis,”
Schatz says about the band’s songs. “Some-
times we like to play playful songs that are
really fun and catchy, but we’re not afraid
to dig into more emotional material. It feels
vulnerable at times, but people have a lot of
fun at our shows.”
Schatz says Titsweat has been playing
shorter, 30-minute sets on the local circuit —
Old Nick’s, Luckey’s and other venues — but
Eugene PorchFest is an opportunity to have
an extended repertoire. And she says being
a gender diverse band, the queer community
feels safe at its shows, so it’s a place for people
to shake their bodies.
Titsweat’s show in College Hill won’t be
the only place to move your body. In addi-
tion to several other musical acts, this year’s
event has a movement component, which
Altman says organizers envisioned from the
beginning but wanted to keep the first year
simple. One of the organizers, Amalia Coxe-Treiger, is a
yoga teacher, he says, and has designed the movement
portions and also leads some of the sessions. He adds that
the movement workshops — ranging from Hatha yoga
to voice-oriented exercises — are held in the mornings
and afternoons and can mesh well with the shows later
in the day to give festival-goers a complete experience.
“Our overall intention as a festival has been to nour-
ish the spirit of our community, born out of our collective
experience of isolation during the COVID pandemic,”
Altman says. “Hopefully some people who are drawn
to one part of PorchFest will discover something new,
whether that is a musical artist or a movement practice.” ■
Eugene PorchFest runs Wednesday, June 1, through Sunday, June
5. For more information about locations and to buy tickets, visit
EugenePorchFest.com. Titsweat performs 6 pm Sunday, June 5, in the
College Hill neighborhood. Tickets start at $5.
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