Halloween. Begins. NOW. And while a lot of you are gonna attempt making room for all the Tuesday candy by hitting the kajillion dance parties happening over the next 72 hours, a lot of you are gonna either stay inside and binge Stranger Things until you pass out, or you’re gonna hit the movie theaters and scare the shit out of yourself via some bonafide classics. The tricks and treats are too numerous to even attempt to enumerate so you know the drill—hit the links below and (over)stuff your plate accordingly.
Jump to: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
Friday, Oct 27
Stranger Things 2
Stranger Things 2 hits Netflix this weekend, so chances are good that your weekend plans, like mine, consist of (1) Stranger Things 2, and (2) eating and sleeping at some point, probably. Unlike the first season of Stranger Things—which quietly appeared on the streaming service, then grew into a cultural juggernaut—this season is arriving with fanfare and hype, all of it promising what worked the first time around: a weird, fun, ’80s-set series that mashes up horror, sci-fi, drama, and comedy. ERIK HENRIKSEN
All day, all night, your couch, Netflix (yes I’m still watching stop fucking asking me)
A$AP Mob
The sprawling hip-hop crew out of Harlem bring their acclaimed live show to the Theater of the Clouds for the Portland stop on their “Too Cozy” tour.
8 pm, Theater of the Clouds, $39-50
The Black Heart Procession, Sam Coomes, Dramady
There are times when sadness feels more like an unholy haunting than a mental slump, times when time itself, destroyer of love and manufacturer of regret, reveals itself as the real enemy. Those are not fun stretches, but such painful retrospection is necessary, and the Black Heart Procession has always understood that. Between 1998 and 2009, the San Diego band made six albums that map this melancholic zone, this land where we long for people and places that have become phantoms of the mind. Although it never made a bad or even halfway mediocre record, the Black Heart Procession earned a spot in the sadsack pantheon with its first three albums. Unassumingly titled 1, 2, and Three, they compose a devastating triptych of gothic Americana that evokes the kind of disconsolation that doesn’t end until every last tear has been wrung out. This is music for crying until your face hurts. Give yourself over to it. CHRIS STAMM
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $15
Near Dark
Kathryn Bigelow’s second film, 1987’s Near Dark, is a weird, low-budget, slightly disjointed vampire western. If it didn’t feature a completely unhinged Bill Paxton, it might have only been remembered for the many shots of apocalyptic beauty Bigelow and cinematographer Adam Greenberg captured. But Bill Paxton is in this film, and while his recent (and way-too-soon) death might still sting, it’s almost impossible to watch him work and not feel joy. There is no catchphrase, no one-liner, no throwaway look that he doesn’t turn into pure gold. Which is basically what Paxton did all the time. BOBBY ROBERTS
9:30 pm, NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium
Jai Ho! 7th Annual Bollywood Thriller Dance Party
DJ Prashant presents the latest iteration of his Halloween-themed dance party, blending Bollywood excesses with bassy beats, costumes, choreography, and more.
10 pm, The Whiskey Bar, $7-10
Omni, Turtlenecked
Long ago, critics overused the word “angular” when writing about guitar-based rock bands, and now that word comes off as corny and clichéd when you try to use it to describe music. So let’s say just say this: Multi-task, the new album from Atlanta’s Omni, sounds like a Rubik’s cube taped to a T-square that’s glued to a geometry textbook… and go ahead and draw a scalene triangle around the whole thing for good measure. These dudes put out a really good debut in 2016, all wiry post-punk and breezy vibes. But Multi-task is a significant step up, sharpening the trio’s corners while also exploring some heavier, funkier grooves. If a band that sounds like the whirs and clicks of a machine dipped in dead-eyed cool and understated melody appeals to you, you must bring Omni into your life ASAP. BEN SALMON
9:30 pm, High Water Mark, $10-12
A Giant Dog
Austin-based glam-punk outfit A Giant Dog bring their invigorating live show to the Kelly’s Olympian stage for what’s sure to be a memorable stop on a tour supporting their new Merge Records-issued full-length, Toy.
9 pm, Kelly’s Olympian, $12
Simon Scott & Marcus Fischer, Dolphin Midwives, Indira Valey, F–K
S1 presents a night of collaborative performances, featuring music by Slowdive’s Simon Scott and Portland musician Marcus Fischer, along with a set from local experimental scene staples Dolphin Midwives and Indira Valey. The evening will be rounded out with a DJ set from F–K (Felisha Ledesma & Kevin Holden).
8:30 pm, S1, $10
Kwaktoberfest
Artisinal Imports returns to Bazi to once again offer up samples of world-renowned brews by Bosteels Brewery, including Kwak, Tripel Karmeliet, and DeuS—which you normally can’t get in any other form but 750mL Dom Perignon bottles. But for $15 bucks you get a 5-ounce pour of all three in a souvenir glass.
5 pm, Bazi Bierbrasserie
Kumoricon 2017
The return of Portland’s biggest celebration of anime, manga, and Japanese pop-culture, with panels, vendors, costume contests, and much more.
Oct 27-29, 8 am, Oregon Convention Center, $40-65
Saturday, Oct 28
Nosferatu
Vampires are a cottage industry, but F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, the first film adaptation of Dracula, is the greatest vampire movie of all time, and it’s not even a talkie! Let’s all scream in unison as Max Schreck wiggles his long, elegant vampire fingernails and moves his eyes before the rest of his head over a live score by Mood Area 52. YIKES!
8 pm, Hollywood Theatre
The Lost Boys Ball
In what is becoming a cant-miss Halloween tradition, Cooky Parker rounds up his boys (Lamar Leroy, Jimbo, and Bobby D) and hits the decks for one of Portland’s guaranteed best dance parties. This year, his boys are lost ones, and the night pays homage to those sweaty, denim, shirtless sax-lovin’ vibes from the 1987 Joel Schumacher classic.
9 pm, Eagles Lodge (F.O.E.#3256), $10
EMA, The Blow, Decorum
I was lucky enough to move to Olympia in 2002, at the very moment Khaela Maricich was doing her first performances as the Blow. Existing somewhere between show and conceptual art, early Blow performances were perfectly odd events that everyone could see was the beginning of something remarkable. Soon after, the Blow became a Portland band and created the electropop masterpiece Paper Television, before moving to Brooklyn and solidifying the project as Maricich and Melissa Dyne. Last month they put out their first album in four years, Brand New Abyss, a largely successful plunge into modular synths that contains my pick for single of the year, “Get Up.” A raw, playful, much-needed battle cry against apathy, the song features Maricich playing the role of the badass aunt who’s been there, seen the limitations of cool, and is now filled with a boundless enthusiasm for life that she can pass along to you, if only you’ll listen. JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $15-18
Lyrics Born
Japanese-American rapper and producer Tsutomu Shimura–AKA Lyrics Born–brings his “Still The Funkiest” tour to the Star Theater stage with a full band in tow.
9 pm, Star Theater, $17
Poltergeist
It may seem like the Academy is running two Tobe Hooper horror classics in honor of Halloween, but of all the worst kept secrets in Hollywood, maybe its most obvious is Poltergeist wasn’t really Hooper’s movie. Even if you could write off the presence of Spielberg’s name in the credits and all his favorite storytelling fetishes in the story, it’s pretty hard to ignore the film itself, a careful, candy-coated snowglobe full of monsters and meat that is utterly unlike anything else in Hooper’s filmography—but fits perfectly between, say… Close Encounters and E.T.. Regardless who shot the thing, what was shot is still a beautiful blend of frights and dark suburban satire that works just as well now as it did 35 years ago. BOBBY ROBERTS
7 pm, Academy Theater, $3-4
Blowpony’s Homoween
Queer Halloweens are the best Halloweens, so get yourself to the always INSANE Blowpony’s Homoween with an appearance from Shea Coulee (RuPaul’s Drag Race)!
9 pm, Bossanova Ballroom, $19
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
The long-running electronic industrial rock band out of Chicago swing through Dante’s for the Portland stop on a tour celebrating their 30th anniversary.
9 pm, Dante’s, $20
Shape/Shift/Temple/Space
Billed as a sequel to last year’s Invisibility ritual, this multi-act concert has lofty aims: “to transform physical space and consciousness as we know it,” according to the Facebook event page. Knowing the artists on this lineup, there’s a good chance they will achieve that spiritual goal. Key to the cause is Dolphin Midwives, the ever-evolving project of Sage Fisher. Her sets of late have been foggy and staggering mixes of harp melodies distended by effects pedals and her own impassioned vocals. Fisher will be joined by collaborators like the Institute for Creative Dying, a composer of guitar-based agitations, and Francisco Botello, an artist who uses field recordings captured in the jungles of South America. Throw in a gamelan ensemble and a gaggle of other experimentalists for good measure, and you’ve got a night of heady sounds ahead of you. ROBERT HAM
7:30 pm, Leaven Community Center, $5-15, all ages
Paul Oakenfold
The veteran DJ and producer out of London brings his pioneering blend of trance, acid house, and electronica to the 45 East dance floor for the Portland stop on his “Generations World Tour.”
10 pm, 45 East, $25-35
Halloween ComicsFest
Combining the fun of the spooky season with a celebration of local comics creators, with appearances from The Flintstones‘ Mark Russel, Rick Marcks of Outroute 12, Equinox‘s Juan Heinrich, and Aaron Humphries of Rosco: Alien Wildlife Photographer. Costumes encouraged, free comics and candy available.
11 am, Cosmic Monkey Comics, all ages
Killer Pumpkin Fest
A one-day mini-beerfest focused on the wonderfulness of taking pumpkins and turning them into beers, with Rogue providing a whole bunch of actual pumpkins to bowl, decorate, carve, and/or smash, with the kitchen providing a special pumpkin menu to pair with the over 40 pumpkin ales to sample. Also featuring costume contests for kids, grown-ups, and even your dogs. Proceeds benefit Camp Ukandu.
11 am, Rogue Eastside Pub & Pilot Brewery, $5
Billy Strings, Trout Steak Revival, Whiskey Shivers
Pickathon hasn’t forgotten its roots, even as it’s grown from a tiny folk and bluegrass fundraising party to the nationally renowned festival it is now. Though recent years have seen increasingly more diverse acts, from Afrofuturist hip-hop to stoner metal to legendary soul singers (RIP Charles Bradley), you can still count on finding plenty of old-timey guitar picking and banjo hammering. This summer saw the Pickathon debut of Billy Strings—a baby-faced singer and guitar virtuoso from Traverse City, Michigan. The aptly named Strings (born William Apostol) played in heavy metal bands before embracing bluegrass, and his flat-picking style is a sort of mix between Doc Watson and Randy Rhoads. Strings returns to Portland in support of his solo debut, Turmoil & Tinfoil, a collection of neo-traditional bluegrass songs addressing such contemporary matters as meth addiction and police shootings, while remaining rooted in dusty fields and muddy rivers. SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY
9 pm, Revolution Hall, $17-22, all ages
The 18th Annual Portland Erotic Ball
Portland’s biggest adult Halloween party returns, with over 2000 revelers getting down to live bands, burlesque artists, aerial performances, stilt walkers, and fetish demonstration stages. Hosted by Sasha Scarlett.
8 pm, Crystal Ballroom, $49-110
Sunday, Oct 29
Cat Videos Live!
The internet is bad almost all of the time, but you know what isn’t? Its bounty of cat videos. Cats playing with stuff, cats wearing funny clothes, cats falling asleep, baby kittens making little baby kitten sounds. Catch ’em on an even bigger screen at Cat Videos Live! at the Aladdin Theater, which just sounds like good self-care to me TBH. MEGAN BURBANK
8 pm, Aladdin Theater, $31, all ages
Colleen, Derek Hunter Wilson
Multi-instrumental French composer Cécile Schott’s 2005 record The Golden Morning Breaks was a total showstopper of earthily sampled, heavenly looped bliss, especially the imperfect, halting “I’ll Read You a Story,” which was composed using a modified music box. Her later record, Colleen et les Boîtes à Musique (which translates to Colleen and the Music Boxes), was devoted entirely to music boxes—including some large, antique models that she played with small mallets. Around the time she released 2015’s Captain of None, Schott’s compositions began to include sparse but poetic vocals. Thrill Jockey signed her, and brought her work from experimental to larger indie listening audiences. If there are feelings of rhythmic emergency or loving homages to city sounds on Schott’s latest, A Flame My Love, a Frequency, they are likely influenced by the November 2015 Paris terror attacks, which she missed by a matter of hours and cites as a major influence on this new record. SUZETTE SMITH
8 pm, Mississippi Studios, $13-15
Halloween Bingo
The Siren hosts a Halloween party that hearkens back to the days of hairspray and polyester, cigarettes and coffee, daubers full of bingo ink and hyper-competitive old people matching numbers and letters. Jed Arkley and Erin Jean O’Regan host this throwback afternoon complete with prizes and mimosas.
1 pm, Siren Theater, $5
The Oregon Dope Cup 2017
The Staver Locomotive Building is the stage upon which we celebrate both the Halloween season and Oregon’s finest growers of cannabis, and the cannabis community they serve, with vendor booths, food, and live music—including a performance by hip-hop legend Warren G, with support from local artists as well.
6 pm, Staver Locomotive Building, free w/ rsvp, VIP upgrades available
Dispatches from the Dead: Golden Era Trailer Scare Show
For those of you who firmly believe the trailers are the best part of going to the theater, Jackpot Records has raided the collections of filmmakers Joe Dante and Jon Davidson for a night of nothing but trailers, and the cheesiest and most shameless examples of horror advertising from the 1950s through the 70s at that.
7 pm, Hollywood Theatre
FrightTown
For 13 years the ghoul-lovers of FrightTown have been putting on the most technologically advanced, pants-shitting haunted house in the area—all in the creepy basement of Memorial Coliseum. And for 2017, FrightTown returns with three horrific walk-throughs, including the classic monster mash Grimthorne Manor, the witty scares of Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors, and new this year, Sector 13, in which hangry aliens have a lustful thirst for human (your) blood. PLUS! Smaller exhibits include the pitch-black maze “Fear the Dark,” the Ghost Gallery (exactly what you expect), and “Buried Alive” (again, exactly what you expect). Pro tip: Bring extra underpants. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
7 pm, Rose Quarter Memorial Coliseum, $18-25, all ages
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Tobe Hooper’s debut feature is also his magnum opus, which is also a lot more subtle than both its title and your memories might have it. Hooper’s southern-fried horror classic is notable for how violent it isn’t—Massacre nails its oppressively disconcerting tone through almost perfect pacing, framing, and amateur performances whose rawness lends sweaty desperation to an increasingly breathless movie, steadily escalating to a full-on hyperventilating freakout of almost incoherent imagery that just… stops. Hooper never got this good again, but almost nobody else in the genre has either. BOBBY ROBERTS
9:25 pm, Academy Theater, $3-4
The Great Pumpkin
You don’t need to sleep all night in a pumpkin patch to enjoy the Great Pumpkin. Besides, that sort of behavior is just asking for a head and/or chest cold. Instead, sleep comfortably indoors, and then at around 10am head down to King Market and enjoy their Great Pumpkin, which includes pumpkin carving with free pumpkins, games for the kids, and goodie bags for those who are good.
10 am, King Market, free, all ages
Don’t forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!