Pittsburgh psychedelic pop act Black Moth Super Rainbow is headed to Northeast Portland.

The project is led by Thomas Fec, who performs under the name Tobacco.

Fec writes, records, and produces all Black Moth Super Rainbow material solo, but the live show features a five-piece band: Fec on vocals, synth players The Seven Fields of Aphelion and Pony Diver, drummer Iffernaut, and bassist STV SLV.

Tobacco's vocals run entirely through a vocoder, giving the music what Willamette Week critic Daniel Bromfield called "the kind of menacing vocoder that old sci-fi movies used to use for robot dialogue."

Bromfield, previewing the show in his July 21 "Shows of the Week" column, wrote that Black Moth Super Rainbow is "the weirdest" of the bands to emerge from the late-2000s wave of synth-damaged psychedelia.

The band has been active since 2003 and has opened for the Flaming Lips and Nine Inch Nails. Their 2018 album Panic Blooms hit No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseeker chart.

Portland listeners may also know Fec's solo work as Tobacco — his track "Stretch Your Face" serves as the theme song for the HBO series Silicon Valley.

Black Moth Super Rainbow's most recent album, Soft New Magic Dream, came out in June 2025 on Rad Cult Records. In a June 2025 Bandcamp Daily retrospective on the band's catalog, Fec described his approach to the record: "This album in particular, I wanted every song to be based around, 'How the fuck did I do that?' I'm the audience. I'm trying to impress myself."

The No. 6 MLK bus stops one block east of Wonder Ballroom on Russell Street for those heading to the show by transit.

Tickets run $37 to $56.25. The show is all ages, with the room split per Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission rules — one side for 21-and-over, the other open to everyone.

The band plays Wonder Ballroom on July 28 at 8 p.m., bringing vocoder-drenched melodies and analog synth textures to the 778-capacity venue in the Eliot neighborhood.

More underground Portland Hip Hop and arts this week

Wednesday, July 29: Music on Main presents The Low Bar Chorale at Main Street, Portland'5 Centers for the Arts.

Thursday, July 30 – Sunday, August 2: Pickathon, the annual music festival now in its 26th year, returns to Pendarvis Farm, 16581 SE Hagen Rd., Happy Valley. The lineup includes Built to Spill and Shakey Graves. Tickets start at $215. All ages.

Friday, July 31: Salt and Sage Theatre opens a Shakespeare repertory — King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream, both directed by Asae Dean — at Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St. The cast features Portland theater veteran David Heath as King Lear, alongside Bobby Bermea and Emma Chang. Performances run through Saturday, August 22, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.