Mercury Things to Do Staff

FRIDAY, APRIL 17 FILM—Taking over their massive, four-story-tall screen, OMSI’s Sci-Fi Film Fest features 14 classics over seven days. You can’t lose with today’s offerings: Things kick off with the hilarious Galaxy Quest, and then Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the original Planet of the Apes before Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys gives you […]

MUSIC—We all owe a debt to Detroit rap legends Slum Village. Not only did the trio help make the Motor City a major center of the underground hiphop golden age that was the early aughts, it attracted and molded some of today’s best emcees. Black Milk comes from this tradition. Honor it tonight. DIRK VANDERHARTw/Lyrics […]

MUSIC—Pianist Robert Glasper never met a genre he couldn’t play, which is why his music embraces jazz, soul, hiphop, and much more. His two Black Radio albums are state-of-the-union statements on contemporary American music, and tonight the Robert Glasper Experiment hits the Soul’d Out Music Festival with, no doubt, some special guests appearing as well. […]

MUSIC—Charles Bradley, that scream-weeping redemption tale of our lucid dreams, graces Portland yet again this evening. Oldish soul singers with youngish backing bands are a thing these days (see: Lee Fields and Ural Thomas), but Bradley’s in a class all his own. DIRK VANDERHARTw/BadBadNotGood; Roseland, 8 NW 6th, 8 pm, $25-38.50 MUSIC—Best known for her […]

DRANK—Viewed a certain way, Portland is nothing more than a border town, and the Columbia’s an arbitrary line beyond which Safeways sell tequila. Portland author Niki Ganong’s new The Field Guide to Drinking in America painstakingly explains each state’s drinking laws, so you won’t get confused. And its booze-friendly launch is in booze-happy Oregon. DIRK […]

FRIDAY, APRIL 10 COMEDY—Picture This! is a hilarious and sometimes messy monthly mash-up of stand-up comedy and live illustration: Comics do their thang and also-funny artists depict it as they go. Wonder if it works? Take this, their one-year anniversary event, as evidence that it does. Tonight, host Andie Main stacked the lineup with funny […]

MUSIC—Belle and Sebastian time! The wistful Scots bring their sensitive souls to our rainy city tonight. Wear a pastel jumper, open your heart, and prepare to have it cracked into slivers by lovely tunes filled with pain, humor, and upended storytelling. Touring on latest album Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, they’ll be playing new […]

MUSIC—This month’s installment of Ear Candy (your best ticket to free local music, brought to you by the Merc and Mississippi Studios!) features bands with women that bring the volume: Palo Verde plays heavy deconstructed-reconstructed post-rock, Polst wields ferocious hardcore like a chainsaw, and Sei Hexe delivers crust-punk metal that sounds like it’s emitting from […]

MUSIC—It’s time to resurrect the single-suspender overalls and argyle sweater vests: Boyz II Men are bringing their smooth harmonies to Portland, all the way from the ’90s! Fangirl SQUEEEEEEEEE! The self-proclaimed “greatest R&B group of all time” are touring in support of their latest album, Collide, and playing with the Oregon Symphony. SHELBY R. KINGArlene […]

MUSIC—French the insides of your ears with the electromagic pop of Yelle. The French disco-dance diviners, fronted by their charismatic namesake (AKA Julie Budet), combines irresistible tunes with a pop art sensibility, and the result tickles your brain as it simultaneously compels the rest of your body to get out on the floor and work […]

FRIDAY, APRIL 3 MUSIC—So here’s the plan: Tonight you’re going to mount the gangplank of the Columbia Gorge Sternwheeler, and stand in the very same spot your grandma was sitting in just last month. She was eating fish, though. You’re gonna be watching some of the best hiphop this city’s got on offer. It’s KPSU’s […]

FASHION & MUSIC—It’s not often that a retailer’s anniversary warrants a coveted spot on this page, but most retailers aren’t tomboy juggernaut Wildfang. To mark year two, they’re throwing a bash that begins at the shop and ends in a fireball of free awesomeness led by Summer Cannibals and Charts. Sold! MARJORIE SKINNERw/DJ Natasha Kmeto […]