Calendar

Note: Ticket holders receive free admission to Dante's Sinferno Cabaret, portland's longest running exotic dance extravaganza, at 10:30.

Moxi & Loon
Like a beached whale bubbling in the hot sun, Moxi & Loon exploded on the coast of San Diego and immediately demanded attention. Their origin was a bizarre, captivating scene that materialized on piers and boardwalks in early 2019. The duo (Nick Fulsher and Jake Jarz) led impromptu performances out of their converted vans, drawing audiences in with fierce energy and an alchemical blend of dirty blues and psychedelic desert rock. Without homes or a practice space, Nick and Jake wrote all of their original material during live street performances. They quickly gained support and recognition through their eruptive energy conjured from a simple two-piece approach. “People often told us how shocked they were to turn the corner and find it was just the two of us,” says Jake Jarz (guitar/vocals). Nick and Jake performed and toured relentlessly and quickly claimed their spots in historic San Diego venues like the Casbah and Belly Up Tavern. To date they have performed for over a hundred audiences in venues across 9 states. 

A circus of fire-dancing, DJs & debauchery. Every Sunday night for 24 years...the longest-running weekly cabaret show on the west coast!

SEATING IS VERY LIMITED and is first-come, first served. SEATING IS NOT GUARANTEED!!!
 

The original live karaoke band, rocking in Portland for 25 years and counting. Come see us every Monday at Dante's!
 

Four albums in, Dune Rats are still finding new ways to connect with the creative chaos that is at the core of their music.

The band, beloved for their carefree and no-holds-barred approach to rock music, have demonstrated time and time again that a formula for memorable music and longevity doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. The secret to Dunies’ success lay in the band’s unshakeable dynamic and their unabashed love for music that just makes you feel good. With Real Rare Whale, Dune Rats take this simple formula and kick it up an extra few notches - the final output representing a new phase for the group; perhaps their most ambitious and cohesive collection of work to date.

Released two years on from 2020’s Hurry Up And Wait, Dune Rats’ new album may see the band at a new punk-saturated, pun-filled peak, but when it comes to its composition and underlying intentions, Real Rare Whale captures Danny Beus (guitar / vocals), BC Michaels (drums / vocals) and Brett Jansch (bass) in a reinvigorated, refocused creative zone. The melodies are strong, rhythms relentless; the way the group worked together over sessions under the production eye of Scott Horscroft on New South Wales’ south coast resulted in, as BC describes, ‘a bit more of a sophisticated album’. This doesn’t mean Dune Rats have lost their edge or have grown soft with age: they’re very much still about keeping that same energy fans have loved about them since Dune Rats first dropped back in 2014. It’s just manifested in new and different ways.

“We’re pretty honest dudes with each other,” Danny says. “We’ve grown up, but we’re pretty fortunate that we haven’t grown apart. We’re now twelve years in, but I feel like we’re writingbetter tunes and finding that we’re getting to the core of who we all are, even though we’re still changing.”eviewing Real Rare Whale with the release of singles including ‘UP’, ‘What A Memorable Night’ and ‘Melted Into Two’, Dunies were showing fans early on that the album had different vibes to it. Love songs could meet songs that leaned heavy into nostalgia for days gone by. Moments of introspection could be threaded through ratbag-favouring arrangements and not feel alien.

They still have the same energy, but they don’t lean on gimmicks as much.” BC says. “I don’t think there’s one swear word on this entire album, or any direct direct drug references, but it definitely still feels really fun. I didn’t even realise that until the album was written. I guess that’s part of growing older as well, it doesn’t mean it has to get boring, but it doesn’t mean it has to be cheap, either.”

LiquidLight is a true rock band. In an age where popular culture pushes to “out-extreme” the latest and greatest, LiquidLight pursues balance and clarity with respect to great rock tradition. With their first full length album, 2015’s Uninitiated, they were named Best Emerging Alt Rock Band by the prestigious Deli Magazine. Their debut showcased the band’s tremendous potential as a post-punk, alternative powerhouse. Referencing such formers as Husker Du and The Replacements, LiquidLight has

been described as “melodic, thoughtful and jingle-jangly as well as shred-crazy and powerful.”

LiquidLight’s sophomore LP Wicked Radio, released in September 2017 was mastered at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and " ...is a commentary on the divide between pop songs and having strong instrumental personality. Those things used to be wrapped up in one package but they have been growing further apart for decades. Our goal was to bring them together in our own way.” 

LiquidLight has the psychedelic energy of a 70s band on the road for the first and last time. Living on the edge, living through the hurdles of existence and most of all living for the love of creating something that adds a sparkling narrative to the rock scene. With a high standard of execution, strong melodies and elements of psychedelic and alternative influences, the music conveys a new, yet referential optimism.

“LiquidLight has managed to produce an album that is not quite like anything else hitting your eardrums lately” - Eleven Magazine

Songwriters Anthony Medici and Cory West, both Berklee College of Music alums, honed their craft while performing with bands in Boston and along the East Coast. They are each highly accomplished multi-instrumentalists backed by an explosive and versatile rhythm section. Medici's lead vocals lend a cryptic yet powerful element to the sound and structure of the band, echoing the melodic sensibilities of the college/alternative era.

A circus of fire-dancing, DJs & debauchery. Every Sunday night for 24 years...the longest-running weekly cabaret show on the west coast!

SEATING IS VERY LIMITED and is first-come, first served. SEATING IS NOT GUARANTEED!!!
 

The original live karaoke band, rocking in Portland for 25 years and counting. Come see us every Monday at Dante's!
 

Mickey Avalon’s life story plays out like an episode of VH1′s ‘Behind The Music,” marred by personal tragedy, triumphs and immense pain. Avalon’s back-story begins on the streets of Hollywood, California.  Raised by his heroin-addicted father, he began selling pot at a young age, a trade he acquired from his mother. In an attempt to clean up his act, Mickey converted to Orthodox Judaism in his late teens, an effort that didn’t last due to constant family tragedy, such as his father’s death in a tragic drunk driving accident.

By his early 20s, Mickey had married, had a daughter, and moved out of California, relocating to Portland, Oregon.  The serine surroundings of the Pacific Northwest couldn’t hide Mickey from his past for long, as his drug addled Hollywood lifestyle caught up with him in the form of an uncontrollable heroin addiction.  As his life neared rock bottom, Mickey found himself broke, divorced, and turning to prostitution, just to support his smack habit. With a desire to once again get his life back on track, Avalon moved in with his sister, and the pair set out on the road to recovery. Tragedy struck again when his sister relapsed, and died from a heroin overdose.

After the deaths of both his father and sister, Mickey decided that he wanted more out of life, moved back to Los Angeles, and chose to make one final attempt to clean up his act.  Shortly after his return, Mickey was befriended by ex-MTV VJ Simon Rex (aka Dirt Nasty), who encouraged Avalon to pursue his passion of hip-hop and even collaborated with him on some tracks. At the time, Avalon was staying in a sober living facility and had a strict curfew, so Dirt Nasty began passing out Mickey’s demo at Hollywood clubs, which helped Mickey develop a following among fans of the Los Angeles nightclub scene.

As Mickey’s popularity grew, he began to sell out clubs throughout California with his legendary live show. Soon after Interscope Records took notice of the guerilla promotions tactics and signed Avalon to the label in 2005. Through Interscope, Avalon released his now classic self-titled debut album, which showcased his unique rhyming style and indulgent lyrics. Inspired by his experiences on the streets with drugs and prostitution, the raw honesty of his songs immediately resonated with audiences. Fan favorites “Jane Fonda,” “Mr. Right” and “My Dick” quickly spread across the internet and mainstream radio, turning Mickey Avalon into a household name. Avalon quickly took to the road and was performing sold-out shows alongside the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Travis Barker and DJ AM, Snoop Dogg, Stephen Marley and Slightly Stoopid.

Mickey’s contagious demeanor and unique writing style has made him a hot commodity in the music industry as hip-hop artist Young Jeezy and producer Jermaine Dupri jumped at the chance to collaborate with him for a Boost Mobile commercial. His music has been featured in countless movies and television series including the HBO’s series Hung, the animated series American Dad, the Duke Nukem Forever video game, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and most recently in the trailers for the Cameron Diaz film “Bad Teacher.”

A circus of fire-dancing, DJs & debauchery. Every Sunday night for 24 years...the longest-running weekly cabaret show on the west coast!

SEATING IS VERY LIMITED and is first-come, first served. SEATING IS NOT GUARANTEED!!!
 

The original live karaoke band, rocking in Portland for 25 years and counting. Come see us every Monday at Dante's!
 

A circus of fire-dancing, DJs & debauchery. Every Sunday night for 20+ years...the longest-running weekly cabaret show on the west coast!

SEATING IS VERY LIMITED and is first-come, first served. SEATING IS NOT GUARANTEED!
 

The original live karaoke band, rocking in Portland for 25 years and counting. Come see us every Monday at Dante's!
 

He’s been described as a Chicano Flannery O’Connor playing chiptune Ministry, the Sleaford Mods of the American Southwest, Suicide for the 21st Century and Ghostmane meets darkwave synthpunk dashed with early Ween’s glue-huffing pop. Lyrically, his sometimes romantic, oftentimes violent storytelling tunes lean toward Narcocorrido, the bloody ballads of Mexican drug cartels. It sounds dark on the surface, but really N8NOFACE’s music is a lot of fun, and as exciting and cathartic as the birth of punk rock and hiphop. 

Nate, or N8, NOFACE is animated and all over the map when he speaks. But, he always gets straight to the point, just like his music. His songs often clock in around 1-minute long, typically abruptly ending before even repeating a chorus. The songs are built around a few stark, evocative mantra-like lines about life’s struggles over a simple, hummable hook. That he’s so prolific with these 50-60 second dark pop masterpieces is astonishing. “If you can’t explain it simply you don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says.

“I do scream rap, but after that I might pick up a banjo and do outlaw country,” N8 says, discussing the multiple personalities of his music. “I want to do it all. I am a little bit of everything, why can’t I use every frequency to tell those stories?”

He’s been making and posting glitchy synthpunk since the days of MySpace, when he first gained attention in chiptune duo Crimekillz. Even before the demise of that band, however, N8NOFACE was disseminating his dadaist lo-fi rants online, recording them on the cheap on his home computer setup. “Even to this day, everything I do is recorded in my closet,” he says. “I’ve never recorded at a studio. My goal was always to try to make these genres with the gear that I have, which comes from hip hop. I just do it the wrong way and it comes out my sound.”

“I grew up around some guys living outside the lines of the law,” N8 explains. “When I first started doing this I called it Narco Punk. I’m not glorifying it, I’m giving both sides of the story. Telling the heartbreaking side of the dark side.” Coming from a hiphop and border town culture, he found it difficult to share his esoteric tastes with friends. “How do I make my friends enjoy this music?” he wondered. “I’ll take some Suicide music and twist it to get my friends to listen to this.” 

It worked. Slowly at first, but 2020 proved the year N8NOFACE truly broke out, thanks to the world briefly hitting pause. “COVID leveled the playing field, I’ve never toured and people just found me through the Internet. I did some streams that launched me.” Today, N8NOFACE is quickly becoming the, uh, face of a raw, exciting sound.  Having done national tours with City Morgue, Ho99o9, and playing festivals, N8 is putting in the work that attracts fans far and wide.