The Toxhards ‘Get Destructive’ at Portland’s Hawthorne Lounge

Friday, April 24th, 2026 – I’m driving home from this show, having just seen The Toxhard’s open their Get Destructive Tour to a sold out crowd at Hawthorne Lounge in Portland, Oregon and…reader, do you ever leave a show and think – “What the fu** did I just watch?”

Listen, my last post for Melodic was covering the Pup / Jeff Rosenstock tour and I was lamenting that I was telling you about such an amazing show at the end of the run. But this time…this time, I am catching this at the very beginning and reader, let me tell you, you do NOT want to miss this. The Toxhards are going to be your new favorite band.

The show opened with “Die! Die! Die!” off their debut LP Your Neighborhood on Hopeless Records, then into deep cut, “Out of the City”, followed by “Satan’s Little Hell Song” and “Cruel, All The Way Down” before breaking into a Pink Floyd cover. But this wouldn’t be just any old concert. The Toxhards won’t stop with just some tunes. When you go to a Toxhards show, you’re getting more than incredibly catchy music, you’re getting a performance, you’re getting theatre, you’re getting art. A Toxhard’s show is a gift that should be seen.

The band played for 2 hours – yes, 2 hours, and never seemed to falter or take a break. Being familiar to Portland, and to Hawthorne Lounge (this was their 3rd time playing it in recent years), the band felt comfortable and powerful, wailing through solos and calling out fans by name as they moved through song after song. But there was more, as members swapped instruments several times, briefly paused for a skit starring fan favorite Ængus, The Prize Winning Hog as he fought and killed an evil butcher and even inviting a fan to play a very new, very expensive Rickenbacher bass while Singer-Bass Player-Guitarist Alan Powers tossed plastic Solo cups off the small stage and joined fans with a full pot of coffee to give out to anyone who got one of the Solo cups.

I’ll stop being a reviewer and be real for a second. I’m a photographer, much more than a writer and my career has been music adjacent since I started film school 20 years ago. Before that, I was in bands playing small, cinderblock garages and tiny venues with my friends – and still do today. I’ve seen a lot of concerts. So take all that however you’d like, but I was legitimately floored by this band.

The musicianship is astounding, weaving effortlessly through influences that make their sound so damn catchy. It’s a little bit punk rock but it’s also atmospheric but it’s also pop rock, jazz and math rock, with blazing guitar solos, precision drumming and incredibly charismatic stage personas. The theatrics and production value, as well as the engagement with the audience elevates the concert into a performance piece. You’re not just seeing a band, you’re seeing art. And art has a way of making you feel alive even when the world seems like it’s burning down around you.

It felt like being back at the cinderblock garage shows I went to as a kid. There was something nice and familiar about the intimacy. The way they interact with and include the crowd only makes the show even more fun cause you just don’t know what they’ll do next. I gotta say, I went in fairly blind, and left a big fan.

In an age of unreason, I think it’s important that we find those moments of joy and of life. This tour has only just started, and reader, I’m telling you – call a babysitter, take a pause from your studies, call off work the night of, whatever you need to do, this is a show you do not want to miss.

Make sure you’re in the crowd when The Toxhards come through Your Neighborhood. Ha, get it? Do you see what I – yeah, I’ll see myself out. I’m a dad. I couldn’t help myself.

Oh, since you’re still here, Melodic and The Toxhards are celebrating one year of their debut LP, Your Neighborhood with some very special and limited edition items. I hear there is even a golden ticket to be found.

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