By Ben Niesen

PORTLAND, Ore. — Project Pabst returned to Tom McCall Waterfront Park after a seven-year hiatus on Saturday and revitalized the picturesque riverside with a lineup of 10 artists across two stages between the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges for the 21-and-over crowd.

The day’s lineup included headliners Billy Idol and T-Pain, as well as several independent acts like the Bay Area’s Shannon and the Clams and Portland’s STRFKR. The day started calm with the pall of an overcast morning lingering as local artists Alien Boy kicked off the festival on the Unicorn Stage. On the other side of the grounds, Edmonton post-punk outfit Home Front debuted on the Captain Pabst Stage. Lead singer Graeme McKinnon provided the early energy, pouncing across the main stage like a panther.

Tickets are still available for festival’s second day, which is under way.

Billy Idol

The 68-year old championed a touring band that played with purpose in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Rebel Yell, his multiplatinum 1984 album, Idol and company played the hits like “Daytime Drama,” “Eyes Without a Face” and the title track.

Idol pranced around the stage like a mischievous imp, engaging his backup vocalists and proffering a toy laser gun to lead guitarist Steve Stevens for his solo on “Rebel Yell.” The performance was a general commemoration of Idol’s success as a touring artist, showcasing Stevens on an extended solo jam and throwing it back to Idol’s earliest days by repurposing The Doors’ “L.A. Woman” to “Portland Woman” and crushing “Hot in the City” during the encore.

Idol then personally thanked the crowd for “giving me an incredible freaking life.” The crowd reciprocated the good feelings as Idol brought the house down with “Dancing With Myself” and a singular “White Wedding” to shut it down on Saturday.

T-Pain

T-Pain’s set was highlighted by quick-fire hits like “I’m In Love With a Stripper” and “Buy U a Drank,” but it wasn’t all just the crowd favorites. The rapper also showcased his talent as a singer, leading the audience in call and reponse during Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me.” Between this variety, T-Pain offered some well-honed vamping. He playfully jeered the crowd multiple times over.

“What are all these people doing in my apartment?” he asked DJ Montay. Afterward, he made sure to inquire how many attendees had a Pabst in hand.

“If they didn’t get a picture of that, then whoever’s working this festival screwed up,” he said as tall boys shot upward.

Violent Femmes

As the sun began to set behind Portland’s World Trade Center, the Violent Femmes took to the Captain Pabst stage. The vaudeville punk band rocked the crowd with an acoustic bass guitar that looked like it was designed by Salvador Dali and a horn section featuring an 8-foot subcontrabass saxophone. Lead singer Gordon Gano added a violin to mix, and then finished the set leading the crowd in an a capella rendition of “American Music.”

Gossip

Gossip proved that it had not lost a step after a 12-year hiatus. The queer rock icons showcased their classic ability to transpose genres within genres, interpolating a Dolly Parton cover of “Working Nine to Five” within the bridge of “Standing In the Way of Control.”

STRFKR

The Portland indie rock and dance band impressed with a stage show that included shifting visuals and dancers cloaked in glittering gold and silver Bene-Gesserit-meets-Daft-Punk robes. Astronauts dotted with album artwork also took the stage, and then crowd-surfed off of it. It was clear that attendees, most of them locals, planned to beat the summer swelter by dancing the heat away to the local legends laying songs that included ones from the band’s latest, February’s Parallel Realms.

Shannon and the Clams

At the Unicorn Stage, Shannon and the Clams took things into an Americana space, featuring songs from their latest album, The Moon Is In The Wrong Place. The Bay Area band indulged every bit of its sound as it threw it back to Brill Building pop music of the ’60s, as well as ’50s rockabilly that made Elvis Presley a household name.

“It’s a very Oregon record,” Shannon Shaw said of the new album, which tracks her grief over the death of her fiancé, an Oregon native. The crowd hollered back with appreciation.

La Luz

As La Luz took to the Unicorn Stage, so did the sun. The clouds departed, and instantly the heat began to turn up. While the audience was afforded a straightforward path to the stage, the path for La Luz was little more convoluted.

“We woke up this morning in Chicago,” vocalist Shana Cleveland explained, to an audible “oooh” from the audience. “It’s OK, though … [It] has been a good, good day—a good day for ice cream.”