Artists and musicians abound this week! Tuareg singer-guitarist Mdou Moctar comes through Portland with psych rock rippers, the Philip Glass Ensemble delivers the hypnotic Powaqqatsi score, and did you know Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma director Jane Schoenbrun wrote a novel?! Plus, solidify your Portland Book Festival plans now—the event has expanded to seven days of should-see shows, concerts, and readings (plus a hot dog cookbook party).
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2
Wicker
Wicker is an unhinged feminist fable of a hateful medieval village forced to face its own flaws and piety when a master weaver (Peter Dinklage) summons an enchanted basket man (Alexander Skarsgård) to fulfill a lonely fisherwoman’s (Olivia Colman) request for a husband. Did I mention that the wicker man is an absolute sex machine? The whole film feels like a beautiful pastoral fever dream that’s just a little bit off, juxtaposing abhorrence with heartwarming romance and the hard-learned lesson, “if he wanted to, he wood.” This sudden uptick in obsession with rattan (see also: Jonathan Bailey in Wicked: For Good) bodes well for Portland thrift stores, and local wine shop Pairings is capitalizing on the trend by offering a Wicker-inspired wine tasting. Ignite your own tinder with this bodice-ripping fantasy! No spoilers and no splinters, please. (Laurelhurst Theater, 2735 E Burnside, showtimes vary through Nov 5, $10, more info, R) BRI BREY
Mdou Moctar
Nigerian rock musician Mdou Moctar released Funeral for Justice in 2024 and followed it up with Tears of Injustice, which presents reworked acoustic versions of the songs. Recorded over a few days in New York—during which band members couldn’t return home because of a coup in Nigeria—Tears of Injustice articulates quiet grief, as opposed to the usual angry, wailing guitars of Mdou Moctar’s music. The acclaimed singer-guitarist’s intimate shows highlight his modern psych rock take on the Tuareg desert blues of the Sahara region. (Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth, 8 pm, $32.36, more info, 21+) SHANNON LUBETICH
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3
Wildwood
With its new Portland-placed fantasy Wildwood, Laika has transcended what a stop-motion animation film can be and proven the form once more. Believe the buzz! It is gorgeous. It’s also the case that many anthropomorphized animals die in it. As we noted in our review: “So many crows explode that people in our theater coined the term ‘crowsplosion.'” Because the movie’s characters are young, it’s tempting to see this as a kids’ story, but if you remember its adapted from a novel by the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy, all the gruesome swashbuckling makes sense. (Open wide release at various theaters, 131 minutes, rated PG-13.) SUZETTE SMITH
Greg Freeman
Something in Greg Freeman’s voice on his latest release, All Set The Bone, feels uncannily familiar. Crackling in one moment, clean and crisp the next, Freeman’s got a raw appeal that pairs well with a twinkly, twangy slacker rock guitar. It’s giving “Farewell Transmission” by Songs: Ohia, in that sad-boy country fragile-emo indie way, and I’m a sucker for it. Raised in Maryland and based in Vermont, his sound embodies a forlorn longing that lives in the cracks of a mid-Atlantic winter, or a dusty New England fall. It’s colorful like foliage, but all at once grey in a pensive, philosophical way. (Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, 8 pm, $33.35, more info, all ages) STARLY LOU RIGGS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Powaqqatsi: Live with the Philip Glass Ensemble
If time is a flat circle, Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi is a set of interlinked rings in a magician’s grab bag. The rollercoaster tone poem collages the cyclical nature of humanity with time-lapse photography. It was a quick (and surprising) sensation upon its 1983 release, so the film, whose title is drawn from a Hopi word meaning “life out of balance,” became the first entry in the Qatsi trilogy. Powaqqatsi (1988), the second installment, deepens Reggio’s nonnarrative, dialogue-free approach with reflections on industrialization and global labor. Philip Glass’ hypnotic score is crucial to the experience of the trilogy, so get stoked to witness the Phillip Glass Ensemble perform it live for this concert-slash-screening. (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 7:30 pm, $29+, more info, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO
Ian Sweet
LA-indie darling Jilian Medford, AKA Ian Sweet, hails from what could be called the glory days of dream pop. Kicking off her career with the release of Shapeshifter in 2016, she climbs her way up the indie charts, landing squarely on Polyvinyl Records with a loyal fanbase. Now, in the wake of her fifth album release, Shiverstruck, Medford is back on the road again. Leaving behind her “sad girl” aesthetic, Medford’s anthemic tracks feel raw and hopeful. Ian Sweet is the admirable combination of grit and heart, setting forth a different sound that’s familiar, yet refreshingly new. (Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth, 8 pm, $26.20, more info, 21+) SLR
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Jane Schoenbrun
Award-winning filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma) returns to one of her favorite topics, “a mysterious realm on the other side of our screens,” with her debut novel Public Access Afterworld. At this special team-up between Parallel Worlds Bookshop and the Hollywood Theatre, Schoenbrun will discuss her new book with dark fantasy author SenLinYu (Manacled, Alchemised) before a screening of Schoenbrun’s 2024 feature I Saw the TV Glow. (Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, 7:30 pm, SOLD OUT, more info, PG-13) SS
Also worth it:
White Bird Presents: Hung Dance, Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, more info
Taiwan’s acclaimed Hung Dance brings its signature work, Birdy, to the stage, blending high-energy choreography with the visual spectacle of traditional Chinese arts.
LUCY (Cooper B. Handy), Mississippi Studios, more info
Cape Cod-born multihyphenate, Boy Harsher collaborator, and bedroom popper Cooper B. Handy, AKA LUCY, drops by following the release of his arty new album Citizen’s Arrest.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6
An Iliad
Here at the close of Hot Greek War Epic Summer, Third Rail Theatre will stage Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s An Iliad. The well-respected reimagining pulls from Robert Fagles’ lauded ’90s translation of Homer’s Trojan War poem, using that to dig down deeper into ancient war, contemporary war, and the immeasurable cost of violence. Conveyed through just a bard and a musician, An Iliad is exactly as good as its central poet protagonist—and in this case he’s played by Isaac Lamb, so we have high hopes. (CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh, times vary Wed-Sun through Nov 22, $59.50 w/ a variety of pay tiers, more info, all ages) SS
La Traviata
There are now only a handful of times a year when we can hear opera in Portland. Many performing arts institutions have made deep cuts to their budgets and programs, especially following last year’s devastating National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) cuts. In the midst of their “Keep Portland Operatic” campaign, Portland Opera will present La Traviata “in concert” without sets and costumes. If you didn’t tell Portland Opera you love her before now, this would be the time to show up and support. If you just want to hear one of the major inspirations for Moulin Rouge, don’t sleep on this rare opportunity to hear a Giuseppe Verdi composition onstage. (Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay, times vary through Nov 8, $31+, more info, all ages) SS
You’ve Got Mail Movie Bingo with Violet Hex
“I lead a small life… Do I do it because I like it? Or because I haven’t been brave?” Kathleen (Meg Ryan) asks herself in Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail (1995). It’s a puzzling line at first. Kathleen’s life seems fairly idyllic: She owns a children’s bookstore in New York’s Upper East Side; she goes to Starbucks, back when that was a kind of cool thing to do. But her worries ring true. Like many, she moves the goalposts for herself, yet clings to the aspects of her identity that are grounded in familiarity and obligation. Things inevitably fall apart. In her case, she falls in love with the nuclear option, Joe (Tom Hanks)—a bookstore magnate who’s actively putting her out of business. Should Kathleen have stolen Joe’s hot and bitchy editor girlfriend Patricia (Parker Posey) instead? Well, yes. But You’ve Got Mail is really charming, even if its central premise is flawed. Test your luck with drag starlet Violet Hex’s bingo sesh themed around the film. (Tomorrow Theater, 3530 SE Division, 7 pm, $15, more info, PG-13) LC
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
Portland Book Festival
Portland Book Festival is SOLD OUT. Are you one of the lucky ones with a day pass? If not/if so, there’s plenty on the program. All week, find Cover to Cover events at your local indie shops, alongside foodie book events and special music programming like Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison at First Congregational and Dessa with Oregon Symphony. (South Park Blocks around Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, Sat Nov 7 SOLD OUT, more info, all ages unless otherwise noted) SS
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8
Portland Book Festival’s Hot Dog Cookbook Party with Farideh Sadeghin
Portland Book Fest expanded its lineup this year to include an entire swath of food-focused events. One of the shindigs that we’re most excited about is this meet-and-greet with author Farideh Sadeghin, who wrote The Hot Dog Cookbook. Admission gets you a welcome cocktail and three hot dogs, each from a different Portland chef: L’Echelle’s Mika Paredes, Han Oak’s Peter Cho, and Sam Smith, most recently of Yaowarat and OK Chicken. It’s also a great opportunity for hot dog enthusiasts to talk shop with Sadeghin herself. (L’Echelle, 4537 SE Division, 1-3 pm, $30 admission only, $50 with cookbook, more info, all ages) KATHERINE CHEW HAMILTON
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
“The little hawk leaned sideways and, tilted, / rode the wind. Its eye at this distance looked / like green glass; its feet were the color/ of butter. Speed, obviously, was joy. But / then, so was the sudden, slow circle it carved / into the slightly silvery air, and the / squaring of its shoulders, and the pulling into / itself the sharp-edged wings, and the / falling into the grass where it tussled a moment, / like a bundle of brown leaves, and then, again, / lifted itself into the air, that butter-color / clenched in order to hold a small, still / body, and it flew off as my mind sang out oh / all that loose, blue rink of sky, where does/ it go to, and why?”—Mary Oliver, “Real Prayers Are Not the Words, But the Attention that Comes First.” Seek not the answer to Mary’s question, but the source of that inquisitiveness, in this documentary on the poet’s life. (Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave, 2 pm, $15, more info, not rated) LC
Wyrd War Presents Tenebre with Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin
Led by keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, Italian prog-rock ghouls Goblin stopped by Portland three years ago to live score a screening of Dario Argento’s lurid, bloody masterpiece Suspiria. The director’s ’82 murder mystery Tenebre falls a little further under the radar, but the band’s utterly freaky soundscapes for the film are just as heady in person. Stick around after the giallo screening, presented by underground record label/programmers Wyrd War, for a full-length concert of haunting tunes spanning Simonetti’s whole career. (Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, 8 pm, SOLD OUT, more info, not rated) LC
Looking for even more events happening this week? Head on over to EverOut!
