October is here. Well, it gets here this weekend. We can just go ahead and say Friday and Saturday are prequels to October, and not really part of September, right? Sure. Lets go with that. Especially since prequels typically aren't this good: Jackpot Records turns 20; Janet Jackson finally (maybe?) hits the Moda; there's two festivals celebrating the ecology (in film and beer varieties); the Widmer Brothers throw an Oktoberfest party at Pioneer Courthouse Square—and then October officially starts on the count of three like (1) Tank & The Bangas, (2) Rakim, and (3) Nick Offerman! It's a huge weekend ahead; hit the links below and load your plate accordingly.


Jump to: Friday | Saturday | Sunday

Friday, Sept 29

Moses Sumney, Angelo De Augustine
Singer/songwriter Moses Sumney’s voice is soulful and very strange. He’s got a superhuman falsetto that swells and soars over a luminous electro-folk melody on the 2016 single “Lonely World” (which features Thundercat on bass), one of the most spellbinding pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Sumney just released his debut LP, Aromanciticsm, last week, but he’s already got fans in artists like Solange and Sufjan Stevens. Prepare to flood your ears with some heavenly new material. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Doug Fir, $18-20

Sturgill Simpson
This is the concert I’ve been most looking forward to since I moved to Portland—this 39-year-old progressive southern country singer/songwriter is just awesome. Check out his last two albums: Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (“Turtles All the Way Down” is one of the best modern country songs, and his cover of British new wave song “The Promise” is so good), and last year’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, which won a Grammy for best country album. DOUG BROWN
8 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $39.50-69.50

Melt
In the vast world of electronic music, much of what you’ll hear on the radio is canned, watered-down, and thriving off pure hype. But there’s a growing faction of musicians dedicated to fighting such mediocrity, and you can find them at the heart of the underground scene. Melt—a new IDM experimental dance music night in Portland—features artists who are focused on a different side of the genre. EVAC is a sound designer and experimental breakbeat composer whose work has seen success on labels like Touchin’ Bass, Addictech, and Muti Music. Trying to compare his work to commercial EDM is like comparing an awesome interactive MOMA exhibit to a bad fruit painting. CHRISTINA BROUSSARD
9 pm, Bit House Saloon

Vanport Exhibit: A Story Lived. A Story Told.
Vanport was Oregon’s second largest city before a flood displaced the 40,000 people who called it home. This multifaceted exhibit mixes archival photographs, oral histories, and more to provide vivid personal accounts of Vanport’s ongoing impact. EMILLY PRADO
Sept 28-Oct 5, 10 am, Oregon Historical Society Museum, free

Janet Jackson
The Moda Center swears it’s for real this time. After cancelling two previous engagements in Portland earlier this year—to have a baby!—the most talented Jackson (I don’t care) is finally coming to town. Janet, y’all! Tonight’s not about new tracks, or post-partum insights. Tonight is about the hitzz. Two Zs. DIRK VANDERHART
8 pm, Moda Center, $24.95-135

The Dream Syndicate, Eyelids
Quick history lesson: The Paisley Underground was a vibrant music scene that bubbled up across California in the late 70s and 80s, eventually coalescing in Los Angeles. These bands played jangle-pop with the spirit of punk, the sprawl of psychedelic rock, and a hint of twang here and there. The Bangles were the scene's breakout stars, and bands like Green on Red and Rain Parade made great records, but the best of the bunch was the Dream Syndicate, led by a guy named Steve Wynn. They made a classic album (The Days of Wine and Roses) in 1982, followed it up with three more over six years, and then broke up. But they reformed in 2012 and now are releasing How Did I Find Myself Here?, their first record in nearly three decades. Good news: It’s a lovely, lived-in blend of cool Velvets vocals, six-string shredding, and gnarled urgency. It sounds like rock ’n’ roll made by folks who know what they’re doing. BEN SALMON
9 pm, Star Theater, $20

GoldLink, Masego
With his familiar rap boasts, fest-friendly electronica, and a left-of-center flow, GoldLink's music synthesizes a number of sounds that folks are into these days. It's no wonder he's rising so quickly. BEN SALMON
8 pm, Hawthorne Theatre, $20, all ages

Thunder Fest 2017
Swab out your ears with two days of mighty music at the first-ever Thunder Fest—a marathon celebration of all things loud and local, with a special emphasis on the disciplines and crafts these musicians purvey when they’re not in the practice space. Local riffers like Blackwitch Pudding, Satan Spelled Backwards, the Thornes, and Chronoclops will be on hand, giving you enough metal, punk, doom, and DIY rock ’n’ roll to last you all autumn long. NED LANNAMANN
Sept 29-30, Fri 6:30 pm, Sat 6 pm, Hawthorne Hideaway, $10-15

Gwendolyn Oxenham, Allie Long
Journalist and award-winning documentarian Gwendolyn Oxenham reads from Under the Lights and In the Dark, her new book following women’s soccer players from around the globe in an attempt to chronicle their inspirational stories. Oxenham will be joined in conversation by Allie Long, midfielder for the United States Women's National Team and the Portland Thorns.
7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books, free

Portland Fresh Hops Fest
Beer is a staple in Portland. Hoppy beer is also a staple in Portland. Fresh-hopped beer is an ephemeral thing, arriving only during hops harvest season, with its piney, citrusy taste and delicate fizz. Beer festivals abound in Oregon, but the Portland Fresh Hops Beer Fest is the only fresh hoppy one at Oaks Park, where you can get drunk and go on amusement park rides. Wheeeeee! SHELBY R. KING
Sept 29-30, Fri 5 pm, Sat noon, Oaks Amusement Park, free admission, $20 a glass + 8 drink tickets


Saturday, Sept 30

10th Letter, Strategy
Signal PDX & Gravitate present a night with Atlanta bass master 10th Letter, supported by Strategy and his dubwise sound. Read our story on 10th Letter.
9 pm, Bit House Saloon, $5-10

Jackpot Records 20th Anniversary Record Show & Celebration
The year 1997 might not have been the most auspicious time to open a record store—vinyl was in a slump, downloads were just around the corner, and all the big players like Tower Records would be gone in a few short years. But Isaac Slusarenko’s independent music shop, Jackpot Records, has stuck it out for 20 long years and become not just one of the finest record stores in town, it’s become a hub of local music, expanding their purview to live performances, special releases on their own label, and even film events. Jackpot’s pulling out all the stops for their 20th anniversary celebration, kicking things off with a giant record sale with more than 10,000 used slabs of wax for sale, and there will be a ton of giveaways throughout the day, too, with swag from the Criterion Collection, Audio-Technica, and more. Finally, there’s a live show with a stacked bill of local luminaries, including the Shivas, the Builders and the Butchers’ Ryan Sollee, and Kyle Craft. And the whole thing’s a benefit for Planned Parenthood, so this is pretty much the greatest possible way to show your gratitude for an excellent shop that’s become a local institution over the past 20 years. NED LANNAMANN
3 pm, Eagles Lodge (F.O.E. #3256), $5-15

Months, The Wild Body, Mujahedeen
Months puts on a noise party, with a buffet of moving parts and an indulgent bevy of layered guitars. With vocals that at times sound like a toned-down Adolescents and at others like Thurston Moore, Months' tone and style can vary greatly within the spectrum of rock 'n' roll. Sometimes they set the mood for a makeout party and sometimes for a crust-punk rager. CIARA DOLAN
8 pm, The Know, $6

Love Theme, Mattress, Sun Pack
An evening of sax- and percussion-fueled experimental sound and drone with Love Theme, the new trio spearheaded by Taiwanese-born Canadian musician Alex Zhang Hungtai, known for his output under the Dirty Beaches moniker, as well as his appearance in the new season of Twin Peaks where he performed at the roadhouse along with the fictional bar band, Trouble.
7:30 pm, Holocene, $12-14

Portland EcoFilm Festival
While Trump’s national and international fuck-ups can feel impossible to influence, local environmental battles can be won. And there might be no better way to get started than by checking out this year’s Portland EcoFilm Festival. Now in its fifth year, the Hollywood Theatre’s fest offers four days of curated documentaries, shorts, and filmmaker Q&As—nearly all of which deal, directly or indirectly, with environmental issues affecting Oregonians. ERIK HENRIKSEN
Sept 28-Oct 1, Hollywood Theatre, see hollywoodtheatre.org for titles and showtimes

Kacy & Clayton, The Parson Red Heads
Kacy and Clayton’s Bandcamp profile lists the folk duo’s hometown as Glentworth, Saskatchewan, and Wikipedia lists Glentworth’s population as “52 people 75 cats 37 dogs and 3 horses.” Now, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, but the point is this: There’s a reason the music of Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum sounds like it’s from another time. The second cousins grew up far from record stores or radio, so they picked up influences like Doc Watson, the Carter Family, and Bob Wills on long drives with their grandpa/grand-uncle and his cassette tapes. They experimented with instruments, played live for residents of the local elderly home, and scoured the internet for more contemporary artists—a relative term, in this case, for ’60s and ’70s British folkies like Davey Graham and Shirley Collins. The result: Kacy and Clayton’s music is at once traditionally twangy, gently psychedelic, and touched by the blues. Their new album The Siren’s Song is gorgeous through and through. BEN SALMON
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $13-15

Norska, Maximum Mad, Greenriver Thrillers, Drunk Dad
Yes, Maximum Mad could share the stage with bands like Red Fang or Lord Dying, but their musings have more of a murky catharsis to them. If Red Fang’s riffs were introduced to the ugliness of Unsane or Botch, the result would sound a lot like Maximum Mad. ARIS HUNTER WALES
9 pm, Tonic Lounge, $7-10

Portland Thorns vs. Chicago Red Stars
After spending the entire season sidelined with a lingering back injury, Thorns’ midfielder and 2016 US Soccer Female Athlete of the Year Tobin Heath is finally set to bring her unrivaled flair back to the field at Providence Park. With a home semifinal playoff match booked for the same time next week, the Thorns will look to use this afternoon's meeting with Chicago to jell with their returning star ahead of next week’s must-win game. CHIPP TERWILLIGER
12:30 pm, Providence Park, $14-55

Toadies, Local H
The Toadies are primarily, if not exclusively, known for "Possum Kingdom"—a song that boasts one of the most infectious guitar riffs of all time, even if the rest of the song after the initial "Make up your mind..." is impossible to remember. I'm not gonna argue that the group's canon beyond that is underrated; this is not the Big Star of the post-grunge era (that's a tie between Superdrag and the Gin Blossoms). But the group had a much more rounded and enduring hit with "Tyler," also off the band's debut album, Rubberneck. It's probably the best "Where Is My Mind" ripoff of all time (of which there are numerous). MO TROPER
9 pm, Star Theater, $21

Widmer Brothers Oktoberfest
SONOFABITCH! For 12 straight years the Widmers have taken over Pioneer Courthouse Square with their Oktoberfest extravaganza, and 2017 will be lucky number 13, transforming the city's living room into a celebration not just of the season, but of beer itself, with their regular roster of delicious beers as well as a bunch of special small-batch beers only available at the fest. And providing you some fine drinking music: Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats!
2 pm, Pioneer Courthouse Square, $35, all ages

Todd Glass
People who know comedy, know and love Todd Glass. The stand-up legend—who’s also the host of the great The Todd Glass Show podcast and the writer of a critically acclaimed and revealing 2014 memoir about his intense life, the LA comedy scene, and his sexual orientation—brings his trademark high-energy act to town. He’s doing five shows, so you have no excuse not to go to at least one of them. DOUG BROWN
7:30 pm, 10 pm, Helium Comedy Club, $17-33

Bacon Ball XIII
For 2017, the mad geniuses at Savory Events have decided that in order to top the 8-bit porky wonderland they created last year, they're gonna throw a party that combines the best of bacon and booze with burlesque and carnival-styled entertainment, with music provided by some of the Northwest's best DJs.
8:30 pm, The North Warehouse, $20

Oregon Recovers: Rally for Recovery
Deaths from drug overdoses have rapidly climbed in the US, and Oregon ranks 45th for access to addiction services despite ranking in the top 10 for drug abuse. Rally in support of Oregon Recovers’ launch, and, if you’ve lost someone to addiction, bring an old shoe to be used in a demonstration illustrating the magnitude of loss. EMILLY PRADO
10 am, Shemanski Park, free

Bill Orcutt, Sir Richard Bishop
Bill Orcutt has, for the past eight years or so, primarily stuck to using acoustic guitar on his various albums and small batch releases of improvisation, groaning blues, and tortured free jazz. But he’s never been far from the electric guitar that he throttled rapturously as a member of the trio Harry Pussy. Still, there’s something bracing and fresh about Orcutt’s approach to the instrument on his most recent album, a self-titled effort that he released on his own label Palilalia. His mastery of tone is crystalline on this record, sticking as he does to an unprocessed sound free of effects pedals. There’re just the small breaths of reverb surrounding every note as he pulls fractious melodies and a quiet drone that flutters underneath it all like a cushion. And he’s left ample room for us to cuddle up with him. ROBERT HAM
8 pm, Turn! Turn! Turn! $12

Becky with the Good Jokes
Becky Braunstein's all-star comedy extravaganza returns to the Funhouse stage with stand-up sets from special friends including Adam Pasi, Joann Schinderle, Jeremiah Coughlan, and Paul Schlesinger, with music from Jenny Conlee, and the premiere screening of the Alaska Video Special.
10 pm, Funhouse Lounge, $8-12


Sunday, Oct 1

Tank & the Bangas, Sweet Crude
At Pickathon in August I was blessed with the opportunity to see New Orleans’ Tank and the Bangas, whose exciting and dynamic sound knows no bounds. They’re masters of funk, jazz, R&B, and soul, but often allow their music to explore elements of rock, folk, gospel, and hip-hop via spoken word. The group’s pint-sized, big-haired frontwoman is Tarriona “Tank” Ball, a highly skilled powerhouse singer who doubles as a slam poet and often surprises even herself with the sounds that come out of her mouth. With backing vocals by Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, the pair have mad chemistry as they lead the group’s well-oiled machine alongside flautist Albert Allenback, drummer Joshua Johnson, keyboardist/bassist Norman Spence, and keyboardist Merell Burkett. Onstage the group fuses for a quirky, New Orleans-flavored jam session that, if I had my way, would go on forever. This year Tank and the Bangas won NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest, signaling their rise to mainstream stardom. Just watch videos and performances of songs like “Quick,” “Rollercoasters,” and “The Rhythm of Life” if you don’t believe me. After seeing Tank and the Bangas’ invigorating live set turn a lawn full of Portlanders into a jumping, clapping, sweaty dance party, I knew I’d be snatching up every chance to see them again. JENNI MOORE
7:30 pm, Star Theater, $15-20

Rakim, Libretto, Jonny Cool, DJ Wicked
We tend to give venerable artists a bit of leeway when it comes to performing in the twilights of their careers. It’s easy to get nostalgic, but we have to remember that as they age, an artist's vigor fades. That’s why news of MC Rakim’s lackluster performances as of late is disappointing but not surprising. That doesn't mean every show on this tour will be bad. He’s on the road celebrating the 30th anniversary of Paid in Full, the 1987 debut from him and his rap partner Eric B. They shared a stage in July for the album's actual birthday, but Rakim’s flying solo for the rest of the tour. Without his comrade and collaborator by his side, Rakim may be a little bit off his game, but not enough for him to stay out of it entirely. He's teased the prospect of actually releasing some of the more excitable and meaningful material he records at his home studio, so ideally there'll be a bit more pep in his step if he takes any of it to the stage tonight. CERVANTE POPE
9 pm, Wonder Ballroom, $22.50

Nick Offerman
America’s number one lovable curmudgeon woodworker (that would be Nick Offerman) has returned to Portland to seduce you with his comedy and body hair. Nick Offerman: Full Bush is his newest show, in which you can expect the Parks and Recreation star to speak on various topics, including survival skills, enthusiastic living, naughty sexual things, and… did I mention body hair? Body hair. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
5:30 pm, 8 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $39.50-59.50

DACA Renewal Fee Fundraiser Dinner
Chow down on delicious vegan chile rellenos, flautas, and more at this dinner benefiting Momentum Alliance’s DACA renewal assistance. Tickets guarantee a full meal with dessert and a non-alcoholic drink. Event will be capped at 150 guests, so be sure to get your tickets quick. EMILLY PRADO
6:30 pm, Jet Black Coffee Company, $25

Zoë Quinn
The video game designer behind Depression Quest reads from her new memoir, Crash Override, which chronicles the relentless stream of death threats and online harassment she faced when a crazed blog post by her ex-boyfriend sparked #Gamergate lunatics into attacking her and every other prominent women in the game industry.
7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books, free

Genders, Helvetia
If Portland had a house band, it’d probably be Genders. The four-piece plays around town all the time, tours nonstop (with Built to Spill, no less), and cranks out new music like a goddamn machine. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Rontoms, free

Drouth, Surgeon, Taarna
Portland black metal outfit Drouth spearhead a night of epic and heavy vibes at the Know. Seattle's Florida Man and like-minded locals Snakes round out the bill.
8 pm, The Know, $8

Vance Joy, Amy Shark, Chappell Roan
Australian singer/songwriter Vance Joy has stayed pretty quiet since releasing his debut LP, Dream Your Life Away, in 2014. You can only coast on one album and a Taylor Swift endorsement for so long. But Joy returned earlier this summer with the single “Lay It on Me,” and now he’s hitting the road with fellow indie artists Amy Shark and Chappell Roan. The guy knows how to write a radio-ready anthem (“Riptide”), but will he eclipse one-hit-wonder status with his forthcoming sophomore album? Joy’s challenge will be adapting to the current indie-pop landscape. DELANEY MOTTER
8 pm, Crystal Ballroom, $42

Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!