A couple weeks ago Travel Oregon presented our state as a sort of Miyazaki-esque wonderland. This month the Hollywood Theatre makes it a Miyazaki wonderland by putting all his films on their giant curved screen, starting with Princess Mononoke. But that’s not the only magic available to you, dear adventurer. Jungle takes over the Wonder, Naked Giants bestride the Analog, Haim and Lizzo enchant the Schnitz, and Acid Mothers Temple melts down Dante’s. It’s a pretty mind-altering week awaiting you; hit the links below and feed your head accordingly.
Jump to: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday
Monday, Apr 2
Kevin Morby, Hand Habits
With his 2017 album, City Music, Los Angeles singer/songwriter Kevin Morby sounds like a wayfaring Lou Reed—his metropolitan love songs capture the electric feeling of being dwarfed, surrounded by life, and high on the communal energy that only exists in cities. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $16
Nasty! Anthology Reading
Editor Tiffany Scandal presents from Nasty!, a new collection of essays focused on body positivity, sexual empowerment, and overcoming adversity. Contributors Tara Dublin, Jennifer Robin, Cervante Pope, Rocket, Diana Kirk, and Kathryn Louise will join Scandal for the event.
7:30 pm, Powell’s City of Books, free
Triathalon, Inner Wave, L. Martin, Mustrd
Sometimes the best bands are also the hardest to categorize. Such is the case with Triathalon, who play velvety, synth-heavy music that hangs somewhere between the genres of bedroom indie pop, lo-fi R&B, and surf-punk. The seductive and slightly smug air of the Brooklyn band’s new album Online pairs well with tender, sincere lyrics, along with the smooth voice of Adam Intrator and soft, sultry beats. Listening to Triathalon is guaranteed relaxation, whether you’re on your high-stress evening commute or just chilling at home. DELANEY MOTTER
6 pm, The Analog Cafe & Little Theater, $10-13
College Basketball Championship Game
Why sit alone in your home while nursing a cheap alcoholic beverage as you witness the last fully sanctioned American mafia, the NCAA, award a championship trophy to the school that has best exploited its student body for untold profit they’ll never see or touch? Instead, come to Revolution Hall, where the game is on a huge screen, the drinks are way better, and the booze and noise of an excited crowd can help drown out your complicity in this neverending mockery of our already broken educational system!
5:30 pm, Revolution Hall
Durand Jones & the Indications
Durand Jones and his Bloomington, Indiana-hailing soul and R&B outfit bring their groovy sounds to the Doug Fir stage in support of their self-titled debut.
9 pm, Doug Fir, $14-15
My Own Private Idaho
Imagine you’re Gus Van Sant in the early 1990s. You’ve living in Portland, you’re fascinated with the grime and grunge of the city. You’ve got three partially formed ideas for screenplays: one based on Shakespeare’s Henry IV, one about a young man trying to find his mother, and one about a narcoleptic sex worker with the face of an angel. Well, Early ’90s Gus Van Sant, mash those ideas together into one problematic-but-somehow-still-charming script and call Keanu! You’re about to make My Own Private Idaho! BRI BREY
7:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $6-9
Tuesday, Apr 3
Haim, Lizzo
The sisters Haim are the undisputed masters of anthemic synth-pop, middle parts, synchronized dance moves, and Shania Twain covers. With their latest album, 2017’s excellent Something to Tell You, the Los Angeles trio draws inspiration from Motown-era R&B, the layered harmonies of Fleetwood Mac, and the new wave pop of the Go-Go’s. Queen Lizzo rounds out this magnificent bill—if you haven’t yet listened to her uplifting, empowering 2016 EP Coconut Oil, do so immediately. CIARA DOLAN
8 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $39.95-69.95, all ages
Acid Mothers Temple, Yoo Doo Right, Cambrian Explosion
Though the “soul collective” formed in Japan in 1995, Acid Mothers Temple’s mind-melting experimental psychedelia sounds like it was born in some distant galaxy and hurtled through outer space, only to crash-land on earth in the middle of the ’70s. It’s meditative, cosmic, and trance-inducing, with endlessly spiraling guitar riffs, gurgling electronics, unpredictable bursts of percussion, and bizarre, droning vocals. Acid Mothers Temple are legends, and you should absolutely experience their strange, hypnotic, extraterrestrial-sounding music live. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Dante’s, $12
B-Movie Bingo: Revenge of the Ninja
Your monthly opportunity to literally check off a bingo card full of B-movie clichés! This month: Ninja master Sho Kosugi plays ninja master Cho Osaki, whose family is ruthlessly murdered by a band of ninja. After murdering the ninja band in return, he takes the surviving members of his mostly murdered family and flees to America, where he goes to work for a man named Braden—who is secretly drug trafficker and also an American ninja! But before the two ninja can face off to determine who will get the ultimate ninja revenge, they have to wipe out a mob of heroin dealers, who are not ninja at all, just plain-ol’ shitty heroin dealers. Directed by Sam Firstenberg, the first name in ’80s-era ninja revenge. BOBBY ROBERTS
7:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $6-9
WIlly Vlautin
Willy Vlautin made his mark with the superlative Portland band Richmond Fontaine, and their lonesome tales of hard luck and desolation in the American West. Vlautin’s brought his keen, humane eye for storytelling to a small shelf’s worth of just-as-wonderful novels—including Lean on Pete, which has been adapted into a devastating, marvelous film coming out this spring. Tonight Vlautin reads from his brand-new book Don’t Skip Out on Me, which also features a soundtrack by Richmond Fontaine. NED LANNAMANN
7:30 pm, Powell’s City of Books, free
Nils Frahm
Nils Frahm has long been a brilliant artist, and now he has a place to focus on being brilliant full-time. The German composer and musician—whose work generally sits somewhere near the centerpoint between ambient, electronic, and modern classical music—spent the past few years building his dream studio inside an old Berlin art space called the Funkhaus. He named it Saal 3, and it’s as much a part of Frahm’s incredible new album as the man himself. Throughout All Melody, you can hear him exploring new territory by modifying sounds, adding voices, repurposing instruments, and not only capturing the atmosphere of the room, but incorporating it seamlessly into the whole. By pairing Saal 3’s possibilities with his own command of dynamics, Frahm takes his music to more humanly beautiful heights than ever before. All Melody is a breathtaking work, and if you want to see him perform parts of it, here’s hoping you already have a ticket to tonight’s show, because it’s sold out. BEN SALMON
8 pm, Revolution Hall, $25-30
The Garden, Tijuana Pathers, Cowgirl Clue
The Garden used to be my favorite band. Twins Fletcher and Wyatt Shears make weird, aggressive new wave punk with just drums, bass, and sometimes an 8-bit video game synth beat. Songs like “We Be Grindin’” are repetitive, but with catchy hooks dramatically contorted as if to see whether dancers can still keep up with the spikes in energy, like a hardcore game of musical chairs. I was obsessed, but after the Garden signed to major punk label Epitaph Records for their sophomore LP, 2015’s Haha, the Shears twins did something unforgivable: They started dressing like French clowns. The Orange County band’s alliance with one of the most objectively creepy things in the world made me feel a little betrayed, but I’ll just listen at home, because their new single “Stallion” (from their brand-new album Mirror Might Steal Your Charm) is still so good. CAMERON CROWELL
6 pm, The Analog Cafe & Little Theater, $13-16, all ages
Acid Tongue, Cat Hoch, Robin Bacior
The Seattle-hailing garage rock trio bring their soulful, fuzzed-out psych music back down the I-5 corridor for a show supporting their recent full-length, Babies. Portland’s Cat Hoch and Robin Bacior round out the proceedings with their own psych and folk sounds.
9 pm, Doug Fir, $7-10
Wednesday, Apr 4
The I, Anonymous Show
The long-running Portland Mercury column “I, Anonymous” is famous for allowing readers to send in their most whacked-out rants and confessions—anonymously and without being judged. NO LONGER! In “The Portland Mercury Presents: The I, Anonymous Show” host Caitlin Weierhauser will read some of the wildest, uncensored I, Anonymous submissions ever, which will then be judged by our hilarious jury. Watch some of the funniest people alive judge the most awful people ever for your fun and enjoyment!
7:30 pm, Curious Comedy Theater, $10
Naked Giants
I witnessed Seattle trio Naked Giants play the finals at 2015’s EMP Sound Off! battle of the (underage) bands. With technical proficiency and stage moves well beyond their years, they created an energy that was so exuberant and stage banter so vigorously chipper, I thought maybe they weren’t really underage, but rather hired actors to play the perfect, super-fun young band to inspire musically inclined youth to “FOLLOW THEIR DREAMS IN ALL CAPS [high jump with guitar]!” Much of their rock/alt/blues music nods to the early-2000s garage-rock revival à la the Hives and White Stripes (thankfully without the severe color schemes), plus healthy pinches of more modern fuzz guitar like Ty Segall. EMILY NOKES
6 pm, The Analog Cafe & Little Theater, $10, all ages
Hsiao-Ching Chou, Karen Brooks
Award-winning Seattle journalist Hsiao-Ching Chou reads from Chinese Soul Food, her accessible guide to preparing Chinese comfort food, including dry-fried green beans, braised beef noodle soup, green onion pancakes, and potstickers, right in your own home. Chou will be joined in conversation by James Beard Award-winning food critic Karen Brooks, author of The Mighty Gastropolis: Portland.
7:30 pm, Powell’s City of Books, free
Kulululu, Sheers, Dominoes Gonzales
Burnside Brewery presents a dynamic evening of local music on the cheap, with local avant guarde rockers Kulululu splitting a co-headlined bill with experimental pop trio Sheers.
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $5
The Terminator
One of the sadder ongoing stories in the film industry is the strange saga of the Terminator‘s sequels. As of this writing, James Cameron is helping shepherd another attempt at reviving this hapless series after its third failed reboot (fourth, if you’re counting the television show that got canceled so Joss Whedon’s dumb spy-brothel show Dollhouse could live). The only hope for whatever it is Cameron is cooking up is that he cease chasing the misguided, corny, bigger-is-better mindset of T2: Judgment Day and go back to source. Stripped clean of all the bloated, pandering bullshit that’s come to represent Cameron’s reign as King of the World, 1984’s The Terminator is a lean, mean, straight-for-the-throat horror movie containing maybe three wasted minutes in total, and it’s still the best use of Schwarzenegger ever captured on film. BOBBY ROBERTS
9:30 pm, Laurelhurst Theater, $3-4
Don’t Stop Me Now: The Freddie Mercury Experience
Courtney Freed’s one-woman tribute to one of the greatest vocalists of all time reinterprets the man’s life and songs in a cabaret-style, jazz-influenced way.
8 pm, CoHo Theater, $25
Thursday, Apr 5
Jungle, Omar Apollo
Ever since 2013, UK modern soul and funk outfit Jungle have been on the rise. Now a seven-piece band, Jungle is perhaps best known for its irresistible music videos featuring people bustin’ a move while wearing fresh Adidas gear: Two older gentlemen have an amicable dance-off (“Time”); a six-year-old slays at breakdancing (“Platoon,”); group choreo in “Busy Earnin”; and a couple of dudes show off their ability to dance while roller skating (“The Heat”). It’s safe to say their show tonight will be a sweaty one. Wear comfy shoes. JENNI MOORE
8:30 pm, Wonder Ballroom, $25-28, all ages
The Thesis
For the last three years (and counting!) the Thesis has prided itself on creating both a monthly platform for local, high-quality hip-hop and a first-Thursday destination for fans and creatives. That’ll likely be the case again this month, with Thesis vets Dead Phone Dummies headlining, Naturally Grown Misfits, and a special appearance from Fountaine. Full disclosure: I help out with the guest list, and in recent months the show has sold out quick. Don’t be late! JENNI MOORE
9 pm, Kelly’s Olympian, $7
Hayao Miyazaki Celebration
The best-known Japanese filmmaker is so beloved in this town that he gets—and deserves—a whole month of celebration. Starting Thursday with a showing of Princess Mononoke and ending April 29 with a showing of My Neighbor Totoro, the Miyazaki celebration showcases all your animated favorites. KELLY KENOYER
7:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $6-9, all ages
Soccer Mommy, Madeline Kenny
Nashville-hailing singer/songwriter Sophie Allison-AKA Soccer Mommy-brings her blend of infectious indie rock and introspective pop music back to the Doug Fir stage for a headlining show supporting her acclaimed new full-length, Clean.
9 pm, Doug Fir, $10-12
Bianca Del Rio
If you’re not familiar with the sharp-tongued comedy of drag artist Bianca Del Rio (real name Roy Haylock), let’s get you up to speed! Bianca took home the crown in season six of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and is widely regarded as one of the world’s most hilarious insult comics. BUT THAT IS NOT ALL. She’s also the quick-witted darling who will beguile and entertain you with wild true life stories, all peppered with her signature filthy language. In other words, dirty birds, miss this at your peril. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
8 pm, Revolution Hall, $39.50
Sama Dams, Kelli Schaefer, Pool Boys
Portland experimental trio Sama Dams explores some exciting musical territory, evolving from the band’s math-y origins, infusing polyrhythmic grooves beneath Sam Adams’ fragile, soaring croon.
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $10-12
Krystyna Hutchinson & Corinne Fisher
The Sorry About Last Night comedy duo and hosts of the popular anti-slut-shaming podcast, “Guys We F#@$!D”, bring the “Bridget Bishop Tour” to Portland for a full weekend of shows at Helium Comedy Club.
Apr 5-7; 8 pm Thurs; 7:30 pm & 10 pm, Fri-Sat; Helium Comedy Club, $22-28
The Maine, The Wrecks, The Technicolors
An evening of alternative rock and pop with the Tempe, Arizona quintet who are currently touring in support of their 2017 full-length, Lovely, Little, Lovely.
8 pm, Hawthorne Theatre, $23-25, all ages
Pizzas of the U.S.A.
Nicki Yowell, the self-proclaimed “Madcap Pizza Queen” and creator of ‘Za the Pizza Zine, helps educate attendees on the various ways cities can be represented by their slices, with different styles available for sample, and a no-host bar to help you wash down the deliciousness.
7 pm, American Legion Local #134, $20
Rex Sorgatz, Chuck Klosterman
Rex Sorgatz reads from The Encyclopedia of Misinformation, his new book exploring the ways in which science, religion, pop culture, sports, and law have utilized propaganda and deceit to manipulate humanity throughout the ages. Sorgatz will be joined in conversation by Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and But What If We’re Wrong?
7 pm, Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, free
Don’t forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!