The Prince & Michael Experience
Dave Paul dedicates the dance floor to the everlasting magic that both Prince and Michael Jackson created over the course of their careers, including not just the hits, but the b-sides, the bootlegs, and the remixes, too.
Sept 15, 9 pm, The Liquor Store, $10
Minority Retort
Get ready to laugh that forest fire ash out of your throat because Portland’s showcase for stand-ups of color, Minority Retort, is back, with three fantastic hosts—Jason Lamb, Julia Ramos, and Neeraj Srinivasan—even more and performers, including winsome Seattleite Nick Sahoyah to Mohanad Elshieky, king of jokes on Twitter. Go! It’s just what you need. MEGAN BURBANK
Sept 15, 8 pm, Siren Theater, $10
Drag Queen Bingo: CHAP Fundraiser
Hospital stays for children and families are made a little bit more colorful thanks to the Children’s Healing Art Project (CHAP), an organization that honors art as therapy and connects mobile teaching artists with children in crisis for empowerment. Ticket price to this FUNdraiser includes one drink, but subsequent beverages and rounds of drag queen-led bingo are $5 each. EMILLY PRADO
Sept 15, 7 pm, Lagunitas Brewing Community Room, $10
Slay
Slay is a hip-hop party for LGBT, minorities, and open minded people, providing yet another safe space to twerk, blow off steam, and be yourself in our little sanctuary city. JENNI MOORE
Sept 16, 9 pm, Holocene, $10
Usnea, Thrones, Hands of Thieves, Ninth Moon Black
Over the past couple of years, Usnea has taken their blackened, funereal doom from Las Vegas’ Psycho fest to the Netherlands’ Roadburn Festival. Tonight the Portland band’s celebrating the release of their third full-length, Portals into Futility, which was inspired by dystopian science fiction’s depressing crossover into modern reality. It’s rooted in the ideas of novels like Frank Herbert’s Dune, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Carl Sagan’s Demon Haunted World, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, which shares a name with a track on the album. Usnea’s sound has progressed into an introspective realm while preserving their signature downcast dissonance, making Portals into Futility a supreme sonic representation of the blight of modern humanity. CERVANTE POPE
Sept 16, 9 pm, Tonic Lounge, $7-10
Havania Whaal, Bitch'n, Deathlist, Floating Room
Local noise-pop trio Havania Whaal celebrate the release of their third full-length, Elaborate Minor Crisis, with a headlining show at the Know. Fellow locals Bitch'n Deathlist, and Floating Room provide support with their own shapeshifting brands of punk and indie rock.
Sept 17, 8 pm, The Know, $7
Jenny Don't & the Spurs, The Dalharts
Jenny Don't and the Spurs play vintage country and western straight out of the lonesomest corners of mid-20th century America, Don't and her cohorts sound nothing like a museum piece; rather, there's grit, sadness, and an edge of danger to these rumbling-boxcar country songs. NED LANNAMANN
Sept 15, 9:30 pm, LaurelThirst Public House, $7
Ox, Cockeye, Paper Thin Youth, Hoarder
The Olympia-based queer metal trio makes the trip down I-5 to team up with feminist punks Cockeye and pop punks Paper Thin Youth for what's sure to be one hell of a night.
Sept 17, 8:30 pm, High Water Mark, $5
Babe: Pig in the City
People tend to trip out when told the Mad Max guy is the guy behind Happy Feet and Babe. The confusion is understandable on a surface level—cutesy talking animals having family-friendly adventures doesn’t fit too well with one-armed feminist shit-wreckers blowing up the desert in bone-crunching, fast-and-fiery fashion. But when you actually watch writer/director George Miller’s Babe: Pig in the City, the storytelling similarities quickly make themselves apparent. The amazing (and amazingly efficient) worldbuilding, the emotion that’s shared but not spoken, and the pitch-perfect humor that stops the encroaching darkness from blotting out the hard-earned triumphs. Granted, the pig isn’t diving off the back of a truck with spray-paint on its snout, but somehow Pig in the City, with its simple-yet-complicated story of a family trying to win a state fair ribbon, feels like there’s just as much at stake. BOBBY ROBERTS
Sept 16-17, 1:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $3-6, all ages
BBQ Benefit for Oregon Fire Rescue
The more hotdogs and burgers you eat, the more money you raise for the Eagle Creek fire at this barbeque benefit hosted by a collection of car enthusiasts. Beyond fiscal donations, the group will also collect toiletries, bottled water, clothing in good condition, and pantry goods. For folks attending the Red Door Meet in the evening, you can wash your own car on site at no charge. EMILLY PRADO
Sept 17, 1 pm, PREracing, free
Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!
