Artwork: Eat Cho
Photo: Lance Bangs
Rigsketball is a basketball tournament for bands, played on a regulation height hoop that’s attached to a tour van. Rigsketball is always free and open to any band who signs up to play in any of our tournaments!
Rigsketball is sort of about basketball, but actually not. This whole thing started as a joke. It is still very much a joke.
We're stoked to meet and hangout with y'all! THIS RIPS!
People playing for your band must be active members of the band (like on stage when you play live).
3 on 3, half court, no out of bounds.
best of 3 games to 21, win by 2.
2's, 3's, and we wrote a 5 point spot on the ground with chalk, it's way over there by that trash can...
Make it take it, except on game point the down team takes ball.
Pass in (no shooting or dribbling in at the start of a possession).
You only have to reset the play (take ball to 3 point line) after the other team hits the rim.
Don't be a jerk, ever. Especially at a Rigsketball game because Bim will hug you until you stop being a baby.
If your band has more than three members, you can sub in whenever.
Don't call every hand slap. Do keep things safe and friendly.
Shoot for first possession. Loser of last game starts with ball after that.
Yes, you can jump off the bumper of the van to dunk. And you can use the van to pass the ball off of.
You can climb onto the van, but if you are on the van you can't call fouls. High risk, high reward.
DOUBLE POINTS IF: You are holding a drink while you make the shot OR if you are dressed like a clown while you make the shot. We will have some clown outfits on hand in case you wanna dress to win. “Dressed as a clown” means you are wearing at least three of the following things: Clown wig. Clown Nose. Clown face makeup (can’t be half-assed, we know it when we see it). Big cumbersome red shows. Clown clothes, again, we know it when we see it.
Rigsektball started in 2011 after some loser named Bim attached a hoop to his dumb ass band's tour van as a joke. They challenged another band to a game of three on three before a show. That summer, Bim announced he was putting together a band basketball tournament on the van-hoop. 32 bands signed up to play. For the first year, all the games were at different locations all around Portland. Each location was picked by the band with fewer MySpace listens, we've come a long way. Haha.
In 2012 we got some other Portland music people involved in the planing process (Rochelle Hunter was a key aspect of this) and started booking shows after the games. They held the games in the parking lots or side streets next to small venues where they had ripper shows afterwards. That was the year they started the Rigsketball compilation as well, which was a tape-only release of songs from all 32 bands in each year’s summer tournament.
Starting in 2013, they hosted the first and second round of the 32 band bracketed tournament at the free, all ages, music festival called PDX POP NOW! Up until 2017, they also put on our own free mini-festival called Rigsketball Musicfest. For this, they closed off a street and built it into a multi-stage setup with bands from all corners of sonic preference, and hosted the semifinals and finals of the tournament at the festival. their focus has always been on community, and non-seriousness. they like things janky and shitty. Everything about Rigsketball starts as a stupid idea that might be funny. They’re always shocked when anyone takes anything they do seriously. Like when VICE.com did a feature piece outlining the project. What? Why? We're just inviting a bunch of bands to play basketball on a van-hoop so we can joke around with them and try to convince the guy with the good parking lot to let us stay until the games are done.
In 2014 Juliet Zulu made a profile video on Bim and Rigsketball which got a Vimeo Staff Pick. That shit ripped! That production team really knows how to make a thing look cooler than it is! That video raised Rigsketball's viability both locally and internationally. Ultimately though, Rigsketball is not about growth or reach or any of the things that people may tell you an artistic project has to be. It's just about bands having some fun. So as long as we're able to provide a setting for that, we consider it a smashing success. Although, we are desperately trying to figure out how to get the van to Japan, do you have a rich uncle with a plane? Hit us up.
Throughout Rigsketball's history the van has been there for bands and artists. Helping folks get to shows when their vans break down or are stolen, giving visual artists a compelling platform to do and show art on. The rig was even involved in a mayoral candidacy. It has hosted satellite tournaments in cities outside of Portland including what has become a Rigsketball tradition at Treefort Music Fest, in Boise, Idaho. In 2015 Bim made a baby van with wings out of yard wood and PVC pipe and Styrofoam that we flew in Red Bull Flugtag in Portland, OR. That shit was pretty absurd and dumb. Fuck corperate branding though, really, fuck that shit it’s evil.
Over the years, they’ve had the pleasure of hosting something like 250 bands in 3 on 3 basketball games on the van. What a joy it is to do something unnessisary. What a good thing it is we don't have spreadsheets. How proud we are that we have no idea what we're doing. THIS RIPS!
In 2018 Rigsketball ended. Bim decided to remove the hoop from the van and pack it all in.
Now, in 2024, RIGSKETBALL IS BACK! After a few overly serious and hellish years off, Rigsketball is happening this summer in Portland! Sign your band up, come hangout, THIS RIPS!
