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Portland radio station XRAY.fm will host a birthday concert on Friday, April 19, to celebrate 10 years of broadcasting independent music and local voices. Experimental rock bands The Minus 5 and Abronia will play Polaris Hall in honor of XRAY.fm’s decade on the airwaves, along with a surprise guest DJ from XRAY’s roster.
“I think it’s always good to have some hometown heroes, especially to celebrate something like this,” says Chase Spross, XRAY’s station director. “It felt special and a nice way to cap off 10 years.”
Spross wasn’t sure which lineup of the famously fluid Minus 5 will appear at Polaris Hall—The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy and John Moen were both recent members—but confirmed it’s no coincidence that such a groovy lineup kicks off the 4/20 high holiday weekend.
“Honestly, I was trying to get 4/20 proper, but it didn’t pan out,” Spross says. “There’s going to be a lot of cool lights and trippy effects at the show. I don’t want to ruin any surprises, but there will be a lot of cool psychedelic things.”
XRAY’s call sign, KXRY, was launched in March 2014 as a home for local music and progressive talk shows. KXRY took over the signal previously used by the Reed College Radio Club, and is named in honor of the legendary all-ages venue from the 1990s the X-Ray Cafe.
XRAY’s 10th birthday show will also be a launch party for a series of new events and other “secret projects,” including a film series with Tomorrow Theater and a summer vinyl record fair. Spross said all will be revealed at the show, pending success of the station’s ongoing spring fundraising drive, but confirmed the events are a return to form following the pandemic’s lockdown restrictions.
“It will be a good community event, and give the people who have built this station over the past 10 years a chance to hopefully relax and celebrate that,” Spross said.