THURS MARCH 14
Sun of Goldfinger, Teton
Sun of Goldfinger brings together three of the most adventurous players in jazz—guitarist David Torn, saxophonist Tim Berne, and drummer Ches Smith—to make the kind of untethered racket that will leave your internal organs humming for hours. The debut album from this trio, released earlier this month on ECM Records, features three 20-minute songs that feel like a Jackson Pollock-esque sonic painting being created in real time, with smears of sound loops and electronic splashing and guitar squealing providing the delirious, almost maniacal latticework. (Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, 8 pm, $15) ROBERT HAM
FRI MARCH 15
Music Millennium’s 50th Anniversary: The Crazy 8s, Jon Koonce and the Lost Cause, The Dandy Warhols
Read our story on Music Millennium’s 50th anniversary. (Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, 7:30 pm, $25, all ages)
Supercrush, Alien Boy, Mo Troper, Gardener
As frontman of Seattle’s Supercrush, Mark Palm—who has got a history of playing in hardcore, punk, and metal bands—writes sugary power-pop songs bearing clear influences from the genre’s forbearers, like Big Star, Redd Kross, and Teenage Fanclub. Later this month, Supercrush will release Never Let You Drift Away, a collection of bonus tracks and previously released singles, including the ultra-catchy standout, “I Don’t Want to Be Sad Anymore.” It’s a masterpiece of a song built from deceptively simple parts, like layered guitar riffs, perpetually crashing drums, and anthemic lyrics about extricating yourself from bummer situations. (Valentines, 232 SW Ankeny, 8:30 pm, $5) CIARA DOLAN
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SAT MARCH 16
CRITIC’S PICK: Better Oblivion Community Center, Sloppy Jane, Christian Lee Hutson
Earlier this year, beloved singer/songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst shocked and delighted fans with the surprise release of Better Oblivion Community Center, the duo’s first collaborative LP. The album is named after an imagined wellness center where residents are blindfolded, as depicted in the music video for “Dylan Thomas,” and they’re billing concerts on their nearly sold-out tour as Better Oblivion Community Center “meetings” where attendees will be invited “to celebrate the common path toward ultimate relaxation.” In an interview with NME, they say “Dylan Thomas” was inspired by a ludicrous right-wing conspiracy theory that Trump is a “maniacal super-genius.” However, the album is never explicitly political; it plays like a series of character studies of how people are coping (or not coping) with the overwhelming amount of pain in the world today. Lyrics revolve around this moment in history’s particular strain of hopelessness, the desire to tune out the news and your own thoughts with white noise, and the resultant guilt for doing so (as captured in self-deprecating lines like “I’ve really never done anything for anyone” from the song “Didn’t Know What I Was in For,” which could’ve alternately been titled “I Didn’t Ask to Be Born”). Even if the way they’re promoting the project is a little gimmicky, and even if it’s a little unclear what the point is, Better Oblivion Community Center is a solid album of confessional, emo-tinged folk-rock that finds Bridgers and Oberst harmonizing their despair and finding solidarity within the proverbial dumpster fire. (Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, sold out) CIARA DOLAN
SUN MARCH 17
The Suffers, Etta’s World
Portland’s shoegaze tunes got you down? Show up and get down to the Suffers at Mississippi Studios this month. The Houston soul band, guided by the powerful vocal chords of Kam Franklin, blends Gulf Coast jazz with funk, reggae, and a little Tejano rhythm—the kind of soulful cocktail to keep you jumping and shaking and twisting the night away. No looking at your shoes. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 9 pm, $20) ALEX ZIELINSKI
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MON MARCH 18
Baroness, Deafheaven, Zeal and Ardor
On 2012’s Yellow & Green, Savannah, Georgia, heavy metal band Baroness toned down the sludge of their previous records and explored their sharp instinct for melody. A year later, Bay Area howlers Deafheaven scored big with their album Sunbather, a beautiful collision of black metal and shoegaze. And in 2016, it was Zeal and Ardor’s turn to attract fans with their fusion of blues, soul, metal, and Black spirituals. All three bands have made good records since their breakthroughs, and now they’re on tour together. Cynics might call this “hipster metal,” but you can call it one of the best heavy tours to hit Portland this year. (Roseland, 8 NW 6th, 7:30 pm, $27.50-30, all ages) BEN SALMON
Low
The wintry slowcore pioneered by Low on their first few albums is pristine and singular, and although no sounds are inviolate, the Minnesota trio’s turn-of-the-century reveries are so fragile that one feels the need to whisper in their presence. But the band itself hasn’t been at all precious about its trademark sound. Since 2001’s Things We Lost in the Fire, Low’s meditative practice has also been a regenerative process, a sometimes noisy and disorienting journey that frustrates expectations and builds to new revelations. 2018’s fractured Double Negative is a career-capping deconstruction that sounds like a goodbye, but Low will keep coming back, bolder and better. (Star Theater, 13 NW 6th, 9 pm, sold out) CHRIS STAMM
WED MARCH 20
Amyl and the Sniffers, Mr. Wrong, B.R.U.C.E.
The latest great band to come out of Melbourne, Australia, is Amyl and the Sniffers, a quartet that brings a ton of ’70s swagger to its sound without coming off as a bad pastiche. The centerpiece is frontwoman Amy Taylor, who sing-shouts the ultra-catchy songs with a sharp, staccato style and a charming snarl. Her band rips, too, hovering somewhere between the chunky rock riffs of AC/DC and the buzzy punk of the Ramones. Amyl and the Sniffers don’t even have a full-length album out yet, but you absolutely have to see their live show. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 9 pm, $12-14) BEN SALMON
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Graveyard, Demob Happy
When Graveyard called it quits in 2016, it felt like the death knell of riff-heavy hard rock. Up until that point, the Swedish band had been the arbiters of blues-based metal à la early Black Sabbath and Soundgarden, with a loyal following throughout the US and Europe attending their blistering live shows. Luckily, the band regrouped and released their fantastic LP Peace in 2018. It’s likely their most nuanced collection of songs to date; Joakim Nilsson’s gravelly vocals tear and crack in all the right places, leaving ample room for a tsunami of fist-pumping rock. Prepare for a hellish bangover. (Roseland, 8 NW 6th, 7 pm, $25-30) RYAN J. PRADO
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THURS MARCH 21
Amenta Abioto, Kokio, ThomasHenry, Emcee Dimension, DJ Tita
Calling all beat-heads! For A Beat Happening’s 14th installment, they’re showcasing the endless talents of singer/songwriter Amenta Abioto, who’s known for her intimate, mesmerizing performances where she uses a loop machine to weave together her powerful voice with stories and African sounds. Many tracks, like her latest single “Plant It,” were created through improvisation. Buckle up for Abioto’s soul-powered performance of the aptly named “Revolution,” and expect beat sets from 17-year-old producer Kokio, Nashville transplant ThomasHenry, and hip-hop beatmaker McDimension, along with an appearance from DJ Tita of Noche Libre. (Future Shock, 1914 E Burnside, 6 pm, FREE, all ages) JENNI MOORE
Maren Morris, Cassadee Pope
Fun fact about Maren Morris: The Nashville country star was selected to sing “The Middle”—her 2018 mega-hit with EDM producer Zedd—after more than a dozen other vocalists auditioned, including pop queens Carly Rae Jepsen and Demi Lovato. It’s one hell of a song, with Morris pleading for compromise over a tick-tockin’ beat until her she’s literally hoarse. I’ve listened to it about 500 times and will listen at least 500 times more. (PS: Her debut LP, 2016’s Hero, is definitely worth revisiting, too.) (Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside, 8 pm, sold out, all ages) CIARA DOLAN
Yves Tumor
The protean work of Yves Tumor soars over categories. It is an invisible city with porous borders and a million overlapping plateaus. On last year’s breathtaking Safe in the Hands of Love, the Tennessee-raised shapeshifter weaves through a transcendent dimension in which the club, the basement noise show, and the bedroom studio share a single heart. It is a world of bliss and catastrophe, machines and animals, words and whatever exists beyond words. It is our world but it is not our world, a place where familiar forms morph and melt into unreal shapes, and you need only drop the compass and get lost. (Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, $20-23) CHRIS STAMM
FRI MARCH 22
Wet and Kilo Kish, Helena Deland
If deadpan, electro-tinged pop music is up your alley, head to the Wonder Ballroom for a bill that’ll get your head nodding and your eyelids drooping. Co-headliners Wet and Kilo Kish are a good match, given the former’s deeply chilled take on funk and soul and the latter’s hazy brand of hip-hop-influenced alternative R&B. But don’t be late and miss Montreal singer/songwriter Helena Deland, whose icy cool fuzz-folk tunes are more interesting than both of the acts playing after her. (Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell, 9 pm, $25-27, all ages) BEN SALMON
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SAT MARCH 23
Naked Giants, The Black Tones, Anemone
The Black Tones have steadily gained traction over the past year as one of the buzziest bands in the Pacific Northwest—a feat, considering the Seattle trio only has few songs available to stream. But the blues- and funk-infused tracks they’ve released online are captivating: “Mr. Mines” is a deep dive into the catchiness of frontwoman Eva Walker’s talented wah-wah effects, and the sprawling “The Key of Black (They Want Us Dead)” tackles America’s racial tensions, backed by a staunch bassline and powerful lyrics. (Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, $10-12) ANNA KAPLAN
Mike Baggetta/Mike Watt/Stephen Hodges, Dan Phelps, Mike Gamble
As an elder statesman of punk rock, Mike Watt has never shied away from experimentation. His recent collaborations have explored jazz, improvisational funk, wild punk freak-outs, and everything in between. For his stop in Portland, Watts’ chameleonic bass playing will be accompanied by noted percussionist Stephen Hodges, who’s worked with Mavis Staples and Tom Waits, as well as virtuosic jazz guitarist Mike Baggetta. (Turn! Turn! Turn!, 8 NE Killingsworth, 8 pm, $15) RYAN J. PRADO
Vince Staples, JPEGMAFIA, Channel Tres
After dropping 2017’s well received album Big Fish Theory, landing his single “Bagbak” on the Black Panther soundtrack, and “Home” on the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack, Vince Staples’ reach as an artist has only continued to expand. In November he released his third full-length, FM!, as well as a mesmerizing music video for “Fun,” which is edited to look like we’re watching Staples’ neighborhood activities via a Google maps street view. He’s even voicing Vinz in the anime film MFKZ, which is set in a dystopian LA-inspired metropolis and sees its main characters discover their superpowers and fight crime. Judging by the last of couple times Staples came to Portland, these two shows will not disappoint. (Roseland, 8 NW 6th, 9 pm, $30-130, all ages) JENNI MOORE
SUN MARCH 24
Delicate Steve, Thick Paint
New Jersey-based guitar hero Steve Marion has been invited to record with the likes of Paul Simon, Yeasayer, and Kanye West, but even the heftiest of name drops couldn’t drown out the electrifying, guitar-centric instrumental music he releases under the moniker Delicate Steve. Marion’s new album Till I Burn Up ditches the fun, outsized “Cartoon Rock” of his last record, 2017’s This Is Steve, in favor of super-moody, futuristic synth-pop that’s less exciting than his previous stuff, but gleams on standout tracks like “Selfie of a Man”—the catchiest song on the album—and the thrumming, cataclysmic “Madness.” (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 8 pm, $15) CIARA DOLAN
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WED MARCH 27
Cass McCombs, Sam Evian
You can learn a lot about singer/songwriter Cass McCombs from the stories he weaves into his wistful, lovely songs. His latest album, Tip of the Sphere, is tinged with weirdness; one of its best tracks recounts a rambling, Melville-esque mystery about a robbery, an explosion, and a whaling ship. McCombs doesn’t let listeners get too romantic, though—later he sings drolly about an “American canyon/Where trucks and homes are bigger/And the cops are mostly white/And they have a recycling center.” Rock might be dead, but McCombs has found a way to reanimate it. (Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, 8 pm, $18.50-20, all ages) ISABEL LYNDON