October is peeking around the corner (because October is a creepy month, and that’s how creepers do), but September still has a lot of stuff to squeeze into this weekend before the month is up. There’s a pair of block parties, a pair of amazing comedians, a pair of tributes to an amazing actor, and a couple comebacks from some truly influential musicians. And that’s not even getting into the mile-long list of amazing local music on display. It’s a busy, busy weekend, you guys: Hit the links below and load your plate as full as you can get it.
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Friday, Sept 22

Cameron Esposito & Rhea Butcher
Comedian couple Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher’s short-lived SeeSo show Take My Wife is one of the most accurate depictions I’ve ever seen of what it’s like to experience comedy culture while female. They’re both deeply funny in their own totally different ways, and you shouldn’t miss a chance to see them on the same bill. MEGAN BURBANK
8 pm, Revolution Hall, $32.50
Sneaker Week PDX Block Party
How it took until 2017 for the epicenter of the country’s sneaker industry to host its own weeklong paean to the kick game, we’ll never know. We’re just glad it’s finally here. The first-ever Sneaker Week PDX promises not only to scratch the itch of committed sneaker heads, but also to buff that itch with a tasteful nubuck. The event features talks and films related to shoes, treatises on colors and materials, and a sneaker swap meet. If you’re not willing to get that deep into the life, though, stop by the sneaker week block party, which features performances from the likes of Mic Capes and Jon Belz, sets from Rev Shines and O.G. One, food carts, and on-site vendors. It’ll be great. Just make sure to bring your A-game, kick-wise. DIRK VANDERHART
4 pm, Wacom Experience Center, free
Robert Michael Pyle
Nature writer, ecologist, and Guggenheim fellow Robert Michael Pyle isn’t your usual Bigfoot hunter: His acclaimed 1995 book Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide examines not only possible evidence for the hairy legend, but also the rich traditions, landscapes, and histories of the Pacific Northwest. Tonight, Pyle hits Powell’s to read from a newly expanded edition of Where Bigfoot Walks—expect to hear some gorgeous nature writing, and to have your preconceptions tested. ERIK HENRIKSEN
7 pm, Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, free
The Space Lady Cometh
Susan Dietrich Schneider left her small Colorado hometown in the ’60s for San Francisco, where she met her first husband Joel. When he was drafted in the Vietnam War, they retreated into the wilderness of Northern California, making their home in a cave atop Mount Shasta. The couple had three children, and to support her family, the Space Lady would busk on the streets and subways of San Francisco and Boston throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Sporting her signature winged Viking helmet, she’d perform celestial, electronic interpretations of classic rock songs like Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” and the Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night,” singing through an echo unit and plugging her Casio keyboard into a phase-shifter pedal. In 2000, the Space Lady moved back to Colorado, where she became a nurse and met her second husband, Eric Schneider, who’s also a musician. He coaxed her out of retirement about five years ago, and last year she performed a sold-out show at the Hollywood Theatre, where she’ll return this Friday. CIARA DOLAN
8 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $8-10
Fresh Hop Pop-Up Beer Fest
For the second year in a row, Burnside Brewing transforms its parking lot into a pop-up festival featuring 10 taps rotating daily through a selection of over 20 fresh hop harvest beers this season, from brewers including Fremont, Laurelwood, Breakside, and Fort George, as well as an Oktoberfest styled ala carte menu. Visit fresh-hops.com for a list of participating breweries and scheduled tappings.
Sept 22-24, 11 am, Burnside Brewing Co., free
Alison Moyet
Here in the US, Alison Moyet is primarily remembered as one-half of Yaz, the ’80s project she shared with former Depeche Mode/current Erasure member Vince Clarke. It was her brassy, bluesy vocals, after all, that were the centerpiece of the dance club hits “Don’t Go” and “Situation.” In her native UK, Moyet is considered musical royalty—her solo albums always score high in the charts, and the material on them intelligently embraces the tone of the times. Even if your interest in Moyet is simply nostalgic, you’d be forgiven, as her Portland performance is part of her first world tour in almost three decades. ROBERT HAM
9 pm, Star Theater, $23.50
Speechless: Champion Edition
The Siren Theater’s improvised PowerPoint presentation show Speechless is back, with the best kind of organized chaos: a delightful lineup of funny Portlanders making up lectures on the spot—”TED Talk, startup pitch, even a self-help seminar” are all fair game—to accompany surprise slides and placate a team of judges. Next slide! MEGAN BURBANK
8 pm, Siren Theater, $10
Lenore., Edna Vazquez
An album release party for Lenore.’s self-titled LP, full of the unique style of “witch folk” that duo Joy Pearson and Rebecca Marie Miller have become known for.
8 pm, The Old Church, $12-15, all ages
Widowspeak, Clearance, Wet Dream Committee
Chicago-via-Tacoma singer/songwriter Molly Hamilton and her self-described “cowboy grunge” outfit return to Portland for a headlining show supporting their new full-length, Expect the Best. Joining them are fellow Chicago-based quartet Clearance, who make infectious guitar-driven indie rock in the same vein as Pavement.
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $15
Skull Diver, Childspeak, Kulululu
Portland rock trio Skull Diver recently released Chemical Tomb, an unapologetically dark sophomore album that wanders with a zombie’s sinister drive between proggy riffage, pop swagger, and stoner metal haze, exploring shadowy corners while never quite settling into a groove. The record is united not just by this densely curated sense of disquiet, all fuzzy guitars and cavernous organs, but by a gripping melodicism and singer Mandy Payne’s nimble voice floating over the darkness—less ethereal and more a foreboding siren’s call. It’s not the most cohesive album, but anyone who likes their music on the heavy side will find something to enjoy. NATHAN TUCKER
9 pm, Bunk Bar, $5-7
Sweeping Exits, Tig Bitty, First Church Of The Sacred Silversexual, Dyke Tension
Hot on the heels of an excellent KEXP live session, local glam-punk outfit Sweeping Exits hit the Tonic Lounge in support of their acclaimed new album, Glitter & Blood. They’ll be joined by San Francisco-hailing Bowie tribute act First Church Of The Sacred Silversexual, along with fellow locals Tig Bitty and Dyke Tension.
8 pm, Tonic Lounge, $7
Women Writers Against Trump
A fundraiser for humanitarian organization No More Deaths, featuring striking, evocative words from local writers including Paulann Petersen, Monica Drake, Becca Owen, and Timmy Straw.
7 pm, Ford Food & Drink, free
Saturday, Sept 23

Daniel Norgren, William Tyler
Swedish artist Daniel Norgren has spent the last decade building a sizable fanbase in Europe, but it wasn’t until Pickathon 2016 that the folk-rock singer/songwriter got around to making his debut here in the States. It won’t be long before Norgren becomes as beloved here as he is overseas, so be sure to catch his first full-fledged North American tour when it rolls through Revolution Hall tonight. CHIPP TERWILLIGER
8 pm, Revolution Hall, $20-24, all ages
Repo Man
Harry Dean Stanton was an omnipresent figure in film. Independent, mainstream, blockbuster, uber-low-budget—chances are if you watched more than five movies in your life, you saw Harry Dean Stanton’s hangdog face in one of them, cigarette dangling out of one corner of his mouth, dialogue flowing from the other. And it almost never mattered what that dialog was, it sounded like philosophy as he delivered it, whether it was just the single word “right,” in Alien, relationship advice in Pretty in Pink, or the sweaty, meth-fueled pearls of wisdom in Repo Man, the 1984 Alex Cox masterpiece that used Stanton as expertly as any director ever has—which makes this tribute screening a great choice by which to remember such an unforgettable man. BOBBY ROBERTS
6:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $7-9
Lil Yachty
Twenty-year-old rapper Lil Yachty rose to mainstream fame after collaborating with street fashion brands, hustling for Instagram likes, and dropping his certified platinum single “One Night.” The mumbling, goofy trap star with the off-kilter beats has found himself modeling in Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 3 line and working with big-name artists like Migos, LeBron James, Diplo, and YG. His 2017 debut, Teenage Emotions, displays an irreverence and innocence that fits in with the new wave of young, bright-haired Soundcloud traplords eschewing dark themes for ditties about crew love and chasing girls. And his bubbling personality extends to his entire brand—look no further than his recent merch/restaurant pop-up, Yachty’s Pizzeria, fitting for a dude who claims to have eaten pizza every day since the second grade. Check his Twitter for some sincere, if naive, nuggets of wisdom: “Becoming older than 5 was my worst decision ever.” DANIELA SERNA
8 pm, Roseland, $27.50-105, all ages
The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses
Now that everyone’s finally come around to the fact video-games are absolutely art, people are understanding that the music from those games is just as magnificent as anything John Williams or Bernard Herrmann ever wrote. If The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses is good enough for Colbert’s Late Show, it’s good enough for you. BOBBY ROBERTS
8 pm, Keller Auditorium, $35-100
Turkuaz, Sinkane
Ahmed Gallab—the man behind Sinkane—has always been a busy musician, playing with Of Montreal, Yeasayer, Caribou, and leading the Atomic Bomb! Band, an all-star crew that plays the music of Nigerian legend William Onyeabor. This may be why the world has tended to overlook his Sinkane catalog, which now includes six full-length albums of cosmopolitan beauty. The latest is this year’s Life & Livin’ It, a lovely and lively burst of breezy pop, airtight funk, Afrobeat vibes, and carefree rock. Bass lines snap and guitar riffs sparkle. Horns blaze across the mix. Rhythms roll in from across the globe. And at the center of it all is Gallab, a man with a perfect voice and a talent for making great, complex music that doesn’t sound laborious. Life & Livin’ It is exuberant, exquisitely crafted, and absolutely essential music for our times. BEN SALMON
9 pm, Wonder Ballroom, $22
Deschutes Street Pub Block Party
Deschutes Brewery rolls out its traveling pop-up bar and sets up shop on SE Stark for an outdoor block party benefitting Farmers Ending Hunger, Cascade AIDS Project, and the Children’s Cancer Association. Drink new Deschutes beers, special tappings of old favorites, and enjoy a variety of activities made available by event parners Hydro Flask, Humm Kombucha, Breedlove Guitars, and KEEN Footwear. Featuring musical performances from Autonomics, Life During Wartime, Medium Troy, Elke Robitaille, Gold Casio, and more.
2 pm, W.C. Winks Hardware, free, all ages
Sera Cahoone, Barna Howard
If you haven’t heard any of her three critically acclaimed solo albums, you might know Seattle musician and longtime Sub Pop artist Sera Cahoone from her work in beloved indie rock bands like Carissa’s Wierd or Band of Horses. Over the last 10 years Cahoone has found her element in Americana and alternative country-rock. Her comfort in the genre could have to do with her home state of Colorado, where her father sold dynamite for a living. (Wile E. Coyote, anyone?) Cahoone’s music is nostalgic but not played out—songs like “Deer Creek Canyon” (from her 2012 record of the same name) exemplify her direct, emotional songwriting. ANNA McCLAIN
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $15
Psychomagic, Sunbathe, Woolen Men, Charlie Moses
Artist and singer/songwriter Carolyn Grigar, AKA Charlie Moses, brings her slow-burning blend of gothic folk and experimental pop to the Know stage for a hometown headlining show. Fellow local acts Psychomagic, Sunbathe, and the Woolen Men round out an excellent bill.
8 pm, The Know $7
Kelli Schaefer, Iska Dhaaf, Arlo Indigo
For almost 10 years, Portland artist Kelli Schaefer has tapped into the emotional pulses of an ever-changing pop culture landscape, inviting electronic flourishes to glaze her avant-garde pop gems. That evolution is why Schaefer is one of Portland’s best and most inventive artists. RYAN J. PRADO
9 pm, Bunk Bar, $8
Ride, Lo Moon
Ride’s wash of swirly, noisy dreamscapes is the perfect opportunity to eat a pot cookie and swim down the jangly river to Nowhere, a near perfect artifact of the ’90s. COURTNEY FERGUSON
8 pm, Crystal Ballroom, $30-35, all ages
Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments
The August Wilson Red Door Project is bringing back the revered Hands Up, a monologue set commissioned in the wake of Michael Brown and John Crawford III’s murders. Each of the seven testaments were created by individual Black playwrights. Past runs have sold out quickly, so get your free tickets in advance. EMILLY PRADO
7:30 pm, Multnomah Arts Center, free w/ rsvp
Sextile
The Los Angeles-based trio consisting of Melissa Scaduto, Eddie Wuebben, and Brady Keehn bring a noisy and primitive blend of post-punk and industrial rock to the Kelly’s Olympian stage for the Portland stop on a tour supporting their sophomore full-length, Albeit Living
9 pm, Kelly’s Olympian, $12
Glass Animals, Amber Mark
Thank goodness for Glass Animals and their inviting, sonically neon world, a mesh of video-game blips, tight percussion, and simple synth licks that take on a smooth R&B edge against Dave Bayley’s sultry vocals. ROBIN BACIOR
6:30 pm, Edgefield, $44
Sunday, Sept 24

Television
It’s mostly because of happenstance that Television got called a punk band, but while they were scene figureheads during the punk explosion in downtown Manhattan in the mid- to late ’70s, the music made by the virtuosic, jam-heavy quartet is even farther from the punk genre than that of their peers Blondie and Talking Heads. Television broke up in 1978 but have reunited intermittently in the ensuing decades; this visit to Portland—which, according to the internet, is their first since playing the Earth Tavern in 1978—sees guitarist Jimmy Rip (of Paul Collins and the Beat) taking Lloyd’s spot. With rumors of new songs and the presence of “Marquee Moon” all but guaranteed in the setlist, this is an unmissable event. NED LANNAMANN
9 pm, Aladdin Theater, $35, all ages
Sellwood Sunday Parkways
Say goodbye to summer with one of Portland’s funnest events, Sunday Parkways, in which miles of neighborhood roadways are shut down for the sole use of bikes, skateboards, and pedestrians! And today, Parkways is celebrating the Sellwood/Milwaukie route, which goes by both Sellwood and Westmoreland Parks, through Milwaukie (and its increasingly cool downtown) and back again. Plus lots of fun along the way, including live music, food, mini golf, a salmon celebration, and ice cream treats! Move over cars—you’re in the way of my ice cream!! WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
11 am, Various Locations, click here for the route map, free, all ages
Singin’ in the Rain
It’s the 1920s in Los Angeles, and Hollywood up-and-comer Kathy Selden has come to make a name at a studio. Instead, she’s going to have to save it. Within this sound stage high above the city, 12 terrorists have declared war. They’re as brilliant as they are ruthless. Now, the last thing Selden wants is to be a hero, but she doesn’t have a choice. She’s an easy woman to like, and a hard woman to kill. Debbie Reynolds in: Singin’ in the Rain. Yippe-ki-yay, motherfuckers. ELINOR JONES
2 pm, NW Film Center at Whitsell Auditorium, $6-9, all ages
Marvel Universe Live!
If you’re into seeing grown-ass adults dress up like the Avengers, Spider-Man, and Marvel villains, and watching them fight as acrobatics, explosions, and motorcycle daredevilry goes on in the background, then you should not miss the insane spectacle known as Marvel Universe Live! All others, I have nothing more to say to you. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
1 pm, 5 pm, Moda Center, $20-95, all ages
Vagabon, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya
Cameroon-raised and New York-based Lætitia Tamko taught herself guitar using instructional DVDs and early Taylor Swift songs, but traded hopes of stardom for coding classes and a career in circuit-board engineering. But after dropping her lo-fi recordings via Bandcamp, she found herself suddenly lifted up in New York’s indie rock scene, supported by a community of fellow noisemakers who recognized her talent. Tamko’s vocals are deep, powerful, and tinged with an empathetic vulnerability, set against a shimmering background of heaving guitar swells and moments of careful dishevelment. It’s important to note that, among Tamko’s skilled instrumentation and evocative musicianship, she provides sorely needed representation for young Black women in a whitewashed genre not known for its multiculturalism, a fact she takes to heart. She’s joined by Chicago genre-bender and eccentric multi-instrumentalist Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, whose expansive recording history encompasses everything from math rock to screamo to hip-hop to funk-punk. DANIELA SERNA
9 pm, Holocene, $12-14, all ages
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Courtneys, The Prids
Saying that the Pains of Being Pure at Heart is singlehandedly responsible for renewed interest in classic British shoegaze is maybe myopic—certainly, Slumberland Records in its totality is owed some of the credit. But they were its spearhead, as evidenced by the band’s 2009 self-titled LP, a pitch-perfect paean to the last unanimously great era of melodic guitar pop that very possibly spurred Ride, My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive out of retirement. Any initial charges that Pains were mere flash-in-the-pan revivalists have been quashed with subsequent releases, and their latest, The Echo of Pleasure, is their best work in years. Standout tracks like “Anymore” and “Falling Apart So Slow” don’t just recall the genre’s most essential tracks—they deserve a place in the pantheon alongside them. MORGAN TROPER
9 pm, Doug Fir, $17-19
Apocalyptica
The Finnish cello metal band from Helsinki return to Portland to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Plays Metallica by Four Cellos, featuring instrumental cello-driven Metallica arrangements that helped to influence the future of the genre.
8 pm, Crystal Ballroom, $29.50-35, all ages
J. Roddy Walston & the Business
The sultry, succulent tunes of J Roddy Walston and the Business have their roots in the South, but the Baltimore outfit’s rough-and-tumble, soulful rock is nationwide. With shards of glam, some Beatlesesque sunshine, and a jagged punk spirit, it’s growly, howly, and loud—just the way you like it. NED LANNAMANN
8 pm, Hawthorne Theatre, $20
Lemolo, The Breaking
Since 2009 Seattle’s Lemolo has garnered acclaim for their icy mix of just-so piano recital songwriting, astronomical synth textures, and bandleader Meagan Grandall’s languidly sleepy voice. WILLIAM KENNEDY
7:30 pm, The Secret Society, $10-12
Southpark Oyster Roast
Happy Hour gets slick at Southpark with this three-hour long celebration of the oyster, featuring roasted oysters, corn on the cob, snap pea salad, tomato salad, and cornbread, with no rsvp necessary, and no limit on how much you can pack into that tummy of yours.
3 pm, Southpark Seafood, $38
Animal Eyes, Tribe Mars
Portland psych-rock band Animal Eyes headline the latest installment of Sunday Session at Rontoms, with local neo-soul and R&B outfit Tribe Mars kicking things off.
8 pm, Rontoms, free
Alien
Once upon the ’70s, before there were doll-eyed albino Michelin Men, before fanged vagina-mouth Rasta-monsters from outer space barged in for a good rassle, before all the Winona-ing and cloning and sad Muppet Baby abominations, before the AIDS allegory and the Vietnam metaphors, before the titular nasty became just a screeching bug you can run over in your car, there was Alien, a movie about tired space truckers stuck in a floating haunted house with an unknowable, unbeatable Freudian nightmare made of genitalia, teeth, and KY Jelly. It is probably the best horror movie ever made, and it screens in tribute to Harry Dean Stanton, who counts among his myriad indelible movie moments the first ever on-screen death via full-grown xenomorph. A death witnessed only by Jones the Cat, who basically got him killed and didn’t do shit to stop it because cats are dicks. BOBBY ROBERTS
4:30 pm, 9:35 pm, Academy Theater, $3-4
Don’t forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!
