About Portside Dive
Based in Minneapolis, Portside Dive brings a high-energy live show where the front row knows every word.
Their blend of fast, poppy, distorted riffs and singable chorus hooks will stay in your brain well past the last downbeat. This band sticks with you, whether you're a fan from day one or joined somewhere along the ride.
Matt
Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Matt writes and fronts Portside Dive. Two decades in Twin Cities bands shaped a songwriting instinct rooted in early-2000s pop punk, and it shows in the hooks: melodic, direct, and built to be sung back.
Spencer
Lead Guitar
Spencer plays lead, bringing a Chicago upbringing and years of playing before relocating to the Twin Cities. He handles the band's melodic lead work and brings an ear for detail to the arrangements.
Dan
Bass, Backing Vocals
Dan came up in the DFW punk and ska scene in the mid-2000s and joined Portside Dive in 2026. He anchors the low end and adds backing vocals, with a rhythmic sensibility drawn from years in fast, horn-driven bands.
Shawn
Drums
Portside Dive is joined live by Shawn Kraft of Halfway Down, a talented musician and longtime friend of the band. He brings the drive the songs are built around.
Minneapolis based songwriter Matt Reed had spent the COVID lockdown writing away, and wishing for more than the local music scene had offered him so far. Using momentum from other projects, he spent the first half of that year writing and tracking five songs which would become the first EP, with the song “Save Me” leading the bunch.
Reed had been active in music since 2006, and has always had a knack for writing catchy, singable songs with bouncy melodies and sugary-sweet hooks. His biggest musical influences were bands like Green Day and Motion City Soundtrack, which you can hear elements of in much of Portside Dive’s catalog.
Reed released all five songs from the first EP that summer, one per week, and began to play shows to support it. Joined by various friends and other local musicians, Portside Dive was becoming more of a fun hobby than a serious musical project. Then, in 2023, Reed was joined by friends in the band Linus to work on the second EP - Closure. The single “January” was inspired by the death of Reed’s mother, who died of in January of 2015. Reed released “January” on January 26, 2024, almost 9-years to the day after his mom’s passing, making the EP’s title more than just that: closure.
During the writing process, Reed connected with Spencer Sterling, a longtime friend, over a shared love of music and guitars. Sterling grew up in Chicago, playing in bands in high school before relocating to the Twin Cities for college. Reed offered Sterling to sit in as lead guitarist for Portside Dive, if he ever wanted to. Sterling met this invitation with surprise, but the two worked so well together, that Sterling joined the band after his very first show! Sterling joined the band in the spring of 2025.
Portside Dive continued to release popular singles; “Figure It Out” and “Different Kind of Me”; which have been growing in popularity on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
In the winter of 2025, Dan Miglets-Nelson reached out to Portside Dive online, after hearing the band on his “for you page”. Miglets-Nelson noticed that the band was missing a bass player, and he and had cut his teeth in DFW punk/ska scene in the mid 2000s. In July, Miglets-Nelson was offered a chance to audition, and play with Portside Dive at their sold-out show at Pilllar Forum on July 24, 2026. Reed and Sterling invited him to join the band that night.
Portside Dive is joined live on the drums by the talents of Shawn Kraft (Halfway Down), a longtime friend of the band.
Portside Dive is entering into their next season: writing new music, playing more shows, and distinguishing themselves as the next band coming out of Minneapolis. Look for new music in early 2027.