There’s no use in denying it: Spring is here. It is sprung. And it’s easy to get sprung right along with it when you have gloriousness like Blossom‘s taking the stage, or the Hollywood Theatre dedicating hours upon hours of screentime to the magic of Miyazaki, or Chromeo putting in that fancy footwork they’re so well known for. There’s a weekend’s worth of darkwave sorcery at the Tonic, the girls behind Guys we Fucked go fuckin’ heads up at Helium, and speaking of headfucks: Nothing tops Hausu. NOTHING. And that’s only the tip of this entertainment iceberg awaiting you; hit the links below and load your plate accordingly
Jump to: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
Friday, Apr 6
Chromeo, Phantoms
Their fifth album,ย Head Over Heels, doesnโt have a street date just yet, but thatโs not stoppingย Montreal electro-funk meisters Chromeoย from taking their uber-catchy, booty-motivating disco party out on the road. And if advance singles โJuiceโ and โBedroom Callingโ are any indication, the duoโsย โ80s-cribbing dancefloor manifestosย are sounding as fresh as ever. NED LANNAMANN
8 pm, Roseland, Good Luck on the Ticket Resale Sites
Briana Marela, Ever Ending Kicks, Mindparade
On her most recent LP, Call It Love (released last year via Jagjaguwar), Olympiaโs Brianna Marela examines the ecstasy and serenity of loveโbeing in the thick of it (โBe in Loveโ), craving more of it (โGive Me Your Loveโ), and ultimately, watching it drift away (โQuitโ). Aided as always by her looping pedal, Marela soundtracks the cyclic nature of falling in and out of love with kaleidoscopic ringlets of heavenly electro-folk. Plenty of albums focus on the intoxication of new romance and the seismic devastation of breakups; few track the whole process with such honesty and empathy. Throughout Call It Love, Marela lets pop hooks coexist with ambient waves of synth, and the result is dreamy and surprisingly uplifting. Sheโs one of the best musicians in the Pacific Northwestโdonโt miss the chance to see her work magic in such an intimate setting. CIARA DOLAN
8 pm, Turn! Turn! Turn!, $8
Brown Calculus, DJ Lamar Leroy
Local outfitย Brown Calculus bring their cosmic blend of jazz, hip-hop, and soul out to the Atlantis Lounge for a special fundraiser show to help get the duo out to the LAUNCH Music Conference in Lancaster, PA.
9 pm, Mississippi Pizza Pub & Atlantis Lounge, $7
Out from the Shadows IV: Day Two
In just four years, XRAY.fm DJ Dave Cantrellโs Out from the Shadows Festival has grown from a relatively modest affairโjust one day with 11 bands, nine of them local in 2015โto one of the premiere post-punk/darkwave gatherings anywhere. This year, the event spans three days at the Tonic Lounge, with bands from across the US and beyond. Highlights are abundant up and down the lineup, but donโt miss the ominously throbbing murk-pop of Azar Swan, the melancholy new wave of Wingtips, and the icy post-punk perfection of Actors, plus local shadow-dwellers like Ritual Veil, Die Robot, and Arctic Flowers. New this year: Out from the Shadows will benefit not only XRAY.fm (as it has in the past), but also the Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Resource Center. BEN SALMON
7 pm, Tonic Lounge, $12
Spirited Away
Hayao Miyazakiโs filmography is an embarrassment of riches, each movie an almost-perfectly sculpted work of magic, wonder, action, and emotion. Spirited Away is the master at his most whimsicalโbut what separates Miyazaki from most storytellers is that he can (and often does) wield whimsy like a scalpel. Something as airy and light as Spirited Away would be not much more than an empty confection in even the best directorโs hands. But Miyazaki, working without a script (!), weaves a modern fairy tale so affecting that for many, his story of a 10-year-old girl on a mystical journey to free her parents is still the bestโand most humanโanimated film ever made. Part of Hollywood Theatre’s Hayao Miyazaki Celebration film series. BOBBY ROBERTS
7:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $7-9, all ages
The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher, Vive la Void, DJ Ian Hicks
The Soft Moon is a good post-punk band from Oakland that deserves your attention, but the most interesting thing about this bill is that it includes one of the very first live sets by Vive la Void, the new solo project of Moon Duo keyboardist Sanae Yamada. Vive la Voidโs self-titled debut will be out next month on Sacred Bones, and itโs a killer cloudland of steadfast drones, pulsating synth, motorik rhythms, and Yamadaโs transcendental vocals, all dressed up for an endless journey to the outer zones. With Moon Duo, Yamada has had a hand in making some of the best trance-inducing music of the past decade. Vive la Void stays right on course. BEN SALMON
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $15-18
Stephen Petronio Company
Renowned choreographer Stephen Petronio and his New York City-based company return to White Bird with a new show that bridges elements of music, visual art, and fashion into one modern production.
7:30 pm, Newmark Theatre $26-70
Club Nitty Gritty
If you’re looking for a dance night that sets the evening on fire, check out Club Nitty Gritty, hosted by the always down for a good time DJ Action Slacks (Shannon Wiberg). She’s been pounding the turntables for years with righteous choices in down-home dirty soulโthe kind with raw sax and voices that wail and scratch. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
9 pm, (The World Famous) Kenton Club, $7
Krystyna Hutchinson & Corinne Fisher
The Sorry About Last Night comedy duo and hosts of the popular anti-slut-shaming podcast, Guys we Fucked, bring the “Bridget Bishop Tour” to Portland for a full weekend of shows at Helium Comedy Club.
7:30 pm & 10 pm, Helium Comedy Club, $22-28
Sean Penn
Mic Crenshaw, Scarub, Serge Severe, Andy Stack, Ozroc
Mic Crenshaw is a veteran emcee and staple of the Portland hiphop scene, having performed as a member of Hungry Mob, Cleveland Steamers, and Suckapunch. RYAN FEIGH
9 pm, Alberta Street Pub, $7
Saturday, Apr 7
Hausu
There are lots of movies in this dumb world, but the only one that matters is 1977โs surreal, kooky, blood-drenchedย Hausuย (AKAย House). Japanese TV commercial director Nobuhiko Obayashiโs first feature film is a torrent ofย haunted-house creepiness, surgically imprecise dismemberment, and child-nightmare logic, but itโs bathed in aย gooey, soft-focus layer ofย kitschย and anarchic comedy that makes it utterly unique.ย Hausuย is the only movie. NED LANNAMANN
9:30 pm, NW Film’s Whitsell Auditorium, $8-9
Blossom, Bells Atlas, Amenta Abioto
Any chance to experienceย Blossomย live is worth your time and moneyโsheโs the undisputedย queen of Portland soul,ย and her debut LPย Teaseย (with producer Hot16) was one of the best records of last year. Throughout, Blossomโs velvety voice glides over slow-burning beats (โSuperwomanโ) and throwback funk breakdowns (โLoves Comingโ), and the result is hypnotic, empowering, and sure to make you move. CIARA DOLAN
9:30 pm, Bunk Bar, $10
Orquestra Pacifico Tropical, Chanti Darling, DJ Anjali & the Incredible Kid
Anytime Portlandโs Orquestra Pacifico Tropical take over a stage, itโs a reason to party, and that goes double tonight when the sprawling cumbia ensemble pull into Holocene to celebrate the release of their new album, El Tren. Itโs a fitting name for the bandโs latest collection of locomotive rhythms and soulful psychedelic outbursts, so grab yourself a ticket to ride and hop aboard the dance party of the weekend. CHIPP TERWILLIGER
8 pm, Holocene, $10-12
Alvvays, Frankie Rose
Though theyโre probably best known for the 2014 anthem โArchie, Marry Meโ (and for severing a perfectly good โwโ),ย Alvvaysโ latest albumย Antisocialitesย pushes theirย windswept popย into brand-new waters, especially on tracks like โDreams Toniteโ and the breathless โLollipop (Ode to Jim).โ The Canadian band will be joined byย Frankie Roseย (Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls), whose strangely beautiful 2017 LPย Cage Tropicalย sounds like the Go-Goโs got sent to outer space. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Roseland, $17-20, all ages
Puentes, no Muros! Portland Mercado 3 Year Anniversary
Portland Mercado in turning three years old and celebrating in the spirit of community and culture with a full-day of food, drinks, kids activities, and music from Tito Amaya, Cilantro, Ache Son, Salsanova, Dina y Los Rumberos, and DJ Chavez.
noon, Portland Mercado, free
Kate Nash, Miya Folick
Throughout her newest EP, Give It to Me, Miya Folickโs songs tend to bend to the will of her voice, commandeering the mood and style in a way that makes even simple, heavy rock โnโ roll sound fresh again. Opening track โTrouble Adjustingโ is a driving grunge-rocker that recalls early Ours or even Live, with โAgingโ and the title track also playing off the solid foundation of these โ90s influences. A potent cover of Joni Mitchellโs โWoodstockโ closes Give It to Me, with a pitch-perfect Folick channeling the effortless lilting of an American classic. Tonight she opens for British singer/songwriter Kate Nash, whose new Kickstarter-supported record, Yesterday Was Forever, dropped last month. RYAN J. PRADO
8 pm, Hawthorne Theatre, $22.50-25, all ages
Mรธtrik, Abronia, Center Pieces
Portland krautrock outfit Mรธtrik head out to St. John’s to celebrate the release of their new record. Local experimental acts Abronia and Center Pieces round out the proceedings.
9 pm, The Fixin’ To, $7
Dolphin Midwives, Chaga, Multi-Verse Ensemble
Portland-based musician Sage Fisher (AKA Dolphin Midwives) creates enchanting experimental music using layered harp and vocal arrangements.
7 pm, Mothership Music
Shadow of a Doubt
Alfred Hitchcock is best known for being both a silhouette and a shadow: his profile branding some of the sharpest popular entertainment ever filmed, his shadow dwarfing the multitude of directors toiling within it. But Hitch didnโt just cast shadows, he used them, and the ink-black work (both visually and morally) in this 1943 noir is why Shadow of a Doubt is widely considered his first real masterpiece, pitting the unctuous Joseph Cotton against Teresa Wright, whose wide-eyed innocence very quickly turns rancid in a relentlessly tense battle of wills. BOBBY ROBERTS
1 pm, Hollywood Theatre
Hunger, Lavender Flu, Day Dos
Turn! Turn! Turn! presents a special reunion show with Hunger, the short-lived, but influential Portland psych-rock band who gained a following as part of LA’s Sunset Strip psych scene in the late 1960s.
8 pm, Turn! Turn! Turn!, $10
Sunday, Apr 8
Soft Kill, Choir Boy, Vowws, Vacant Stares
Soft Killโs new record Savior was inspired by a nightmarish experience on the road: While the Portland band was driving through the middle of nowhere, frontman Tobias Graveโs pregnant wife began to bleed out in their tour van. Thankfully they were able to get her to a hospital in time, so she and their newborn survived. The songs on Savior tiptoe around the perimeter of this narrowly avoided tragedy, mirroring the simultaneous anguish and gratitude with combustive post-punk. Tonight Soft Kill will celebrate its release with Salt Lake Cityโs Choir Boy, whose 2016 debut Passive with Desire sounds like the Cure playing Draculaโs castle. Anchored by the angelic and androgynous voice of Adam Klopp (who also fronts the equally excellent SLC band Human Leather), itโs gothic synth-pop thatโs periodically filled out with strings and drum machine beats. CIARA DOLAN
8 pm, Tonic Lounge, $10
Nasalrod, Marriage + Cancer, Bobby Peru
Beloved Portland art-punk outfit Nasalrod bring their unrelenting live show down to the Liquor Store basement for a tour homecoming show, with like-minded locals Marriage + Cancer and Bobby Peru lending their own punk and noise rock sounds to the proceedings.
9 pm, The Liquor Store, $7
Ice Queens, Skinny the Kid, PennyMart
Portland indie rock shredders Ice Queens headline the latest installment of Sunday Sessions at Rontoms, with Moscow, Idaho’s Skinny the Kid and local psych-punk act PennyMart rounding out the bill.
8 pm, Rontoms, free
Ravelโs Daphnis and Chloe
Maurice Ravel may have been the greatest orchestrator in history. The French composer transformed Modest Mussorgskyโs piano piece Pictures at an Exhibition into the full-blown orchestral suite we all know and love today, with its famous trumpet fanfare, and for his own Bolero, Ravel arranged a single rhythmic motif and a short, simple melody into a steadily crescendoing edifice of musical suspense. Daphnis et Chloรฉ, commissioned as a ballet by Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes and premiered in 1912, is a near hour of Ravelโs orchestral splendor, with all members of the orchestra showing off their aural colors like a synchronized flock of exotic birds. The story of Daphnis et Chloรฉ follows the love of a goatherd boy and a shepherd girl amid the company of nymphs and pirates and satyrs, but its pagan revelry is merely a clothesline for Ravel to weave his musical ideas together, each sweep and swoop more decadent than the last. Tonight the full music is performed start to finish, instead of the two excerpted suites most audiences hear today. NED LANNAMANN
7:30 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $24-120, all ages
Nausicaรค of the Valley of the Wind
Almost everything you could, should, and do love about Mad Max: Fury Road, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Avatar (both the blue-kitty-people version and the kid-with-the-arrow-on-his-head version) was already present in this 1984 anime classic, but made more visually interesting and emotionally engaging (if you can believe that, and you should), thanks to the beautiful mind of legendary storyteller Hayao Miyazaki. Part of the Hollywood Theatreโs Hayao Miyazaki Celebration series. BOBBY ROBERTS
7 pm, Hollywood Theatre
Bitch’n, No Kind of Rider, Merล
Portland’s Bitch’n bring their driving punk-rock jams down to the Doug Fir Lounge for a hometown headlining show with support from No Kind of Rider and Merล.
9 pm, Doug Fir, $10
Daniel H. Pink
The bestselling Author of Drive returns with When, exploring how the presumed art of perfect timing is actually based in data and science.
7:30 pm, Powell’s City of Books
Nightwish
The long-running symphonic metal act out of Kitee, Finland return to the Roseland for the Portland stop on a world tour supporting Decades, a new career-spanning double disc compilation album
8 pm, Roseland, $50-109, all ages
God Bless the Queens (and Fund their Tour)
Democracy is officially in the hands of four local drag queens, thanks to the new nonprofit, The Liberty Belles. Help fund the first nationwide tour of its kind as the queens embark on an adventure across the United States full of comedy, performance, and plenty of opportunities for voter registration and political engagement! Enjoy stellar performances, bomb raffle prizes, and more at this fundraiser. EMILLY PRADO
5 pm, Darcelle XV Showplace, $20
Nina Diaz, Wild Moccasins
The frontwoman for the long-running San Antonio-based punk trio Girl in a Coma brings her acclaimed solo project back to Portland for a headlining performance.
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $12-14
Don’t forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!