Tender Loving Empire SE Hawthorne Store Grand Opening Party w/Sama Dams, Bud Wilson, Luz Elena Mendoza, and more; Tender Loving Empire, 3541 SE Hawthorne
Jared and Brianne Mees founded Portland's preeminent indie business after migrating to Portland nearly a decade ago. And while Tender Loving Empire—at once a record label, art collective, screenprinting shop, and storefront, among other things—didn't do particularly booming business initially, the move to a more conspicuous location on SW 10th near Burnside in 2010 helped catapult the budding enterprise into the national spotlight. Nearly five years later, Tender Loving Empire is expanding to a second location in perhaps an even more ideal spot: SE 35th and Hawthorne. Tonight's celebration will be replete with raffles and beer samples (for the grownups), in addition to doubling as the release party for the Christmas compilation PDXmas, featuring performances by Sama Dams, Bud Wilson of Aan, Luz Elena Mendoza of Y La Bamba, and more.
Robot Boy w/Caregiver, Sioux Falls; Smart Collective, 6923 SE Foster
Maudlin, classicist pop-punk is alive and well in tonight's matinee bill at nascent all-ages venue Smart Collective. Closing the show—which goes from 5 to 8 pm—is Robot Boy, fresh with a new lineup. I've gushed over their mercilessly tuneful digital single "It's Only a Tuesday" in previous installments of this column. Joining them are likeminded revivalists Caregiver, who are more than a little indebted to punk luminaries I Hate Myself, and Sioux Falls, who in recent months have shifted away from the ebullient, geometric, Keep It Like a Secret-esque leanings of their early efforts and more toward throaty, vintage Midwestern emo territory.