BLOGTOWN

Kick It with the Thorns
Wildfang kicks off their new partnership with the Portland Thorns with an evening of drinks, music, and a chance to meet a few select players from the team.
7 pm, Wildfang, free

Amen Dunes, Okay Kaya
New York musician Damon McMahon brings his shapeshifting psych-folk and indie-rock project back through Portland in support of his acclaimed 2018 full-length, Freedom.
9 pm, Doug Fir, $15

Rocky
There is the idea of Rocky, and then there's the 1976 original. The idea is built up over decades of caricature via both audiences and Rock's creator, Sylvester Stallone. And thanks to Stallone's constant alternating between identifying with his Italian Stallion (Rocky, Rocky Balboa, and Creed, the best film in the series, fight me) and being ashamed of him (all the other movies but especially the third and fourth), the character is not unlike Godzilla: fondly recalled as a lumbering, nonverbal implement of destruction, celebrated most for his stupidest exploits. And like Godzilla, all that cartoon bullshit just... goes away when you experience John G. Avildsen's quiet domestic drama (!) about a few broken, forgotten, disrespected people fumbling towards feeling like human fucking beings for just a little while. Yeah, there's a massive (and massively unrealistic) boxing match at the end, scored with some of the most uplifting film music ever composed. But Rocky is great not because it's a greasy, jingoistic, incoherently masturbatory celebration of Stallone's worst impulses (that's IV). It's great because it's one of the most human films the 1970s ever produced, and that's saying a hell of a lot. BOBBY ROBERTS Screens as part of the PDX Drive-In Movie Spectacular. 6:30 pm, Portland Expo Center, $5 per individual, $13 per carload

Surfer Rosie, Long Neck, Fern Mayo, Cool American
A pair of East Coast DIY outfits bring their heartfelt indie rock, punk, and power pop through the Black Water Bar for an all-ages show rounded out by likeminded locals Surfer Rosie and Cool American.
7 pm, Black Water Bar, $6-10, all ages

The Nowhere Band presents: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Members of MarchFourth!, Saloon Ensemble, Love Gigantic, Stereovision, Stolen Sweets, Eels, and more present a full-orchestral tribute to the Beatles and the Summer of Love, featuring a performance of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety followed by a smorgasbord of '60s favorites from the likes of The Who, the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds, and the Kinks.
9 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, $23-40

Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!

Candidate Forum: PDX's 1st African-American Female Councilmember
On November 6, Portland will elect the city’s first Black woman to city council. It’s still unknown, however, who exactly that woman will be. The two contenders: Loretta Smith, an outgoing county commissioner and former staffer for US Senator Ron Wyden, and Jo Ann Hardesty, a longtime advocate for police accountability and former state representative. This candidate forum—the first public event with both Smith and Hardesty since the May primary election—will give Portlanders a chance to reacquaint themselves with both highly qualified candidates. It’s also a rare chance to pepper the candidates with your own questions before the whirlwind of this fall’s election hits. In short: Go ask all the hard-hitting questions so we don’t have to! Thanks. ALEX ZIELINSKI
7 pm, Crystal Ballroom, free, all ages

Alice Wetterlund
The Los Angeles-via-Minnesota comedian and actress best known for her standout roles on Silicon Valley and People of Earth returns to Helium for a one-off set celebrating "Valentine's in August."
8 pm, Helium Comedy Club, $20-65

Ken Jennings
The Jeopardy! champion and author returns with Planet Funny, a deep dive into comedy throughout the ages and its undeniable power as a force in the modern world.
7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books, free

Kung Fu Theater: Five Element Ninjas
This month’s installment in Dan Halsted’s ongoing celebration of all things whoop-ass is the only known 35mm print of 1982’s Five Element Ninjas, a film whose legendary badassery makes itself apparent the second the Shaw Scope logo hits the screen, escalates upon learning the stars of the film are credited not individually but as the Venom Mob, and then—while you’re still working out how self-confident you have to be to just walk around all day as part of something called “the Venom Mob” and not get constantly clowned for that level of corny hubris—fucking GOLD NINJAS appear onscreen. Shiny as fuck, deadly as hell GOLD NINJAS. And they’re only one finger of the deadly fist that are the Five Element Ninjas. This is one of the most relentlessly entertaining (and wince-inducing) kung fu films ever made—don’t miss your chance to behold the gold on the big screen while you can. BOBBY ROBERTS
7:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $7-9

Rodriguez, Vera Sola
Rodriguez’s second coming is just as intriguing now as it was following the release of the 2012 documentary Searching for Sugar Man. Despite the Detroit-born singer/songwriter’s clear talents (which landed him a deal with Impact Records and later the Buddah Records imprint Sussex in the late 1960s), Rodriguez’s music career was basically put on hold following poor domestic record sales. His professional resurrection was precipitated in the late ’90s by years of rabid adoration and influence as a rumored-to-be-deceased folk trailblazer in South Africa and Australia, primarily. Rodriguez was eventually rediscovered in America, and his story is obviously one of artistic redemption and the prickly whimsy of perseverance. RYAN J. PRADO
8 pm, Revolution Hall, $54.50-74.50, all ages

The Fur Coats, WL, Wave Action, Wet Dream Committee
Portland's Fur Coats float on today's wave of psychedelia from a soul-pop perspective. JENI WREN STOTTRUP
9 pm, The Fixin' To, $8

Winter, Vinyl Williams
Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Samira Winter brings her infectious blend of shoegaze noise pop and psych-rock through the Liquor Store in support of her band's latest album, Ethereality.
9 pm, The Liquor Store, $10-12

Olivia Chaney, Lenore
Fresh off her collaboration with our beloved Decemberists, English folk singer/songwriter Olivia Chaney makes her way to Mississippi Studios for the Portland stop on a North American tour supporting her latest Nonesuch Records-issued full-length, Shelter.
8 pm, Mississippi Studios, $15-17

Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!

The Portland Mercury's Burger Week Begins!
From Monday August 13 - Saturday August 18, at 50 of Portland's finest restaurants, you'll find one-of-a-kind burgers that exist only for the Mercury's Burger Week brought to you by New Seasons Market! And even better? Each of these wondrous creations will cost a mere $5! Special thanks to Jim Beam, Widmer Brothers Brewing and Oregon's Finest for supporting Burger Week.
Aug 13-18, Various Times and Locations, check the Burger List for participating restaurants and burger availability

T-Rextasy, Ruune, Kids' Table
New York punk band T-Rextasy played their first show the night before their senior prom and have since dropped an excellent debut LP (2016’s Jurassic Punk) and the new single “Girl, Friend.” Tonight they’ll play all-ages venue and community center Marrow PDX, which is entirely volunteer-run and features shows booked by youth performers.
8 pm, Marrow PDX, $5-15, all ages

Dead Girls
Author Alice Bolin reads from Dead Girls, a critical essay collection examining literature, pop culture, and American society, and the ways women are often used as props in men-focused narratives. Bolin will be joined in conversation by poet Ed Skoog, author of Run the Red Lights.
7:30 pm, Powell's Books on Hawthorne, free

The Turnout
Every second, third, and fourth Monday of the month, the Secret Society and the Turnout join forces to bring you some form of live storytelling, interviews, stand-up comedy, improv, or music from a rotating cast of local acts. For details on tonight's show, click here.
8 pm, The Secret Society, $10

David Foster
The Canadian musician, composer, producer, and arranger known for producing some of the biggest songs of the 20th century brings his solo stuff to the Newmark for a rare and intimate Portland performance.
8 pm, Newmark Theatre, $79-99

The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Nope, this is not a marathon of Peter Jackson’s landmark live-action trilogy—though why would you want it to be that, anyway? Who told you sitting for 12 hours in a theater with odorous strangers watching that pillow fight for the 20th time was a worthwhile endeavor? Whoever it was lied to you. Anyway, this Rings represents the first real crack at adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic by over-ambitious animator Ralph Bakshi. Bakshi’s Rings has a few notable moments (some of which Jackson lifted for his own adaptation) and there’s always a weird otherworldliness to the visuals that makes the fantasy just a little more fantastical. But the budget running out on Bakshi means you’ll end up with only half a story (the film ends after Helms Deep), and a mess of badly adapted, badly acted, badly designed characters gesticulating wildly at literally everything. As a film? It’s a loud, tone-deaf mess. As a rough draft of the trilogy that would come decades later? It’s a fascinating, fitfully entertaining rotoscoped document of failed vision. BOBBY ROBERTS
4:15 pm & 9:25 pm, Academy Theater, $3-4

Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!