brakence returns to Portland for the first time since 2022, this time at the Crystal Ballroom

Two weeks after marroW, his first album in four years, brakence has booked Sunday, April 18, 2027 at the Crystal Ballroom. His last Portland show was at the Hawthorne Theatre in 2022.

The last time brakence played Portland, it was a December night on the east side. On Saturday, Dec 3, 2022, he played the Hawthorne Theatre, the same year his breakout album came out. It took more than four years and a whole new record for him to come back, and this time the room is much bigger.

brakence plays the Crystal Ballroom on Sunday, April 18, 2027, at 7pm. The show was announced Oct 28, and tickets are sold through the Crystal Ballroom's own site. The ballroom holds 1,500 people, a big step up from the Hawthorne Theatre.

The reason for the trip is marroW, which came out Oct 23 on Columbia. The Fader calls it his first full-length since his 2022 breakout, *hypochondriac*, and counts 18 tracks. Stereogum reported the album on Oct 2 with two songs, "crystallized" and "death rolL," and the lead single "ready or noT" came with a video directed and edited by Quadeca. Early reviews describe hyperpop, emo rap and rock colliding on the record, which is about what longtime listeners would expect from a producer-songwriter who has never stayed in one lane.

The Portland date is part of a North American tour behind the album, reported to open March 4 in San Diego and close Aug 21 in Los Angeles. On the way it covers the coasts, the South and the Midwest, with a run into Canada. Portland falls in the middle of all that, on a Sunday in mid-April.

So what has changed since the Hawthorne show? Mainly the scale. In 2022 brakence was touring the album that made his name. Now he arrives with a major-label follow-up only a few weeks old, in a room about three times the size. Fans who caught him on Hawthorne Boulevard will be hearing a different set: by April, marroW will have had nearly six months to settle in, and the 18 tracks give him plenty of new material to work with.

The Crystal Ballroom is one of the best rooms in town for this kind of show. It opened in 1914 as Cotillion Hall, and its venue history and Wikipedia entry both point to the floor. It's a "floating" dance floor built on ball bearings and rockers, meant to give under dancing feet. It carried swing dancers, then the psychedelic crowds of the 1960s, and it was refurbished when McMenamins renovated the hall in 1997. NPR once called it one of the few remaining spring-loaded dance floors in the country. A loud, jumping brakence crowd is exactly the kind of crowd that floor was built for.

A loud, jumping brakence crowd is exactly the kind of crowd the Crystal Ballroom floor was built for.

Practical notes: it's a Sunday show with a 7pm start, so most people will be home at a reasonable hour on a work night. This is his first Portland date in more than four years, and the album is fresh, so don't wait until spring to look at tickets.

Until then, marroW is out now and gives you five months to learn the words. When April comes, expect the floor to move.

Sources: Brakence releases 'marroW,' his first album in four years — The Fader (thefader.com); brakence announces new album marroW — Stereogum (stereogum.com); Brakence Announces North American Tour for New Album Marrow — Archyde (archyde.com); Ballroom History — Crystal Ballroom (crystalballroompdx.com); Crystal Ballroom (Portland, Oregon) — Wikipedia (wikipedia.com); Crystal Ballroom — Frommer's (frommers.com); If the floor's a-rockin', just keep a-bouncin' — KVCR/NPR (kvcrnews.org); Crystal Ballroom tickets (crystalballroompdx.com); JamBase listing (jambase.com)