August isn't playing around, is it? You think you have a handle on all the awesome goings-on in the city and then WHAM: Stumptown Improv Festival. BAM: Portland Radler Festival. THANK YOU MA'AM: KBOO's 50th Birthday Block Party. And that's not even really getting into all the fun stuff that's going down via Shabazz Palaces, Jack White, Lavender Country, Panic! at the Disco, and the Portland Timbers. OH! And there's a meteor shower happening, too. It's a real busy weekend ahead; hit the links below and load your plate accordingly.
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Friday, Aug 10
Shabazz Palaces, Stas THEE Boss
Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire of Seattle hip-hop duo Shabazz Palaces are masters of abstract texture and otherworldly sonic drift. On 2017’s Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star and Quazarz vs. the Jealous Machines, Butler trips through a world that has mistaken the map for the territory. When this strange dream of a universe clarifies and coheres, Butler can flip the modern nightmare into something sublime. CHRIS STAMM
9 pm, Doug Fir, $20
Hop Along, Thin Lips
Hop Along dropped their fourth studio album Bark Your Head Off, Dog in April, and it delivers more of what fans have come to love about the Philadelphia indie rock titans: big hooks, lyrics that cut to the emotional core, and Frances Quinlan’s shapeshifting vocals, with the folksy addition of strings warming up the edges of the band’s heart-swelling anthems.
9 pm, Wonder Ballroom, $16-20, all ages
Stumptown Improv Festival
Stumptown Improv Festival is one of Portland’s best comedy festivals (maybe the best, but we don’t compare Hattori Hanzō swords). I’m continually impressed by the way the Stumptown team ups the ante each year, while keeping the energy high and their hearts pure. Celebrating its fifth year, Stumptown’s lineup looks appropriately awesome with the ridiculously good troupe White Women making their way up from LA and NY hip-hop group North Coast doing their own version of improv Hamilton (whaaat?). SUZETTE SMITH
Fri-Sun, Artists Repertory Theatre, click here for scheduled performances, $15-110
KBOO's 50th Birthday Block Party
KBOO Community Radio celebrates its 50th Birthday with an all-day block party, with food, drinks, speakers, radio station tours, and giveaways, along with live music from Mic Crenshaw, Deena Bee, Rich Hunter, Ayatollah Beats, King Tim 33 1/3, Burial Ground Sound, Los Supremos de los Hermanos Flores, The Stops, Bottleneck Blues Band, Zahira & Rising Buffalo Tribe, Grateful Buds, and Julie & The WayVes.
noon, KBOO Radio, free
Corrina Repp, Luke Wyland
xIt took an ill-fated cross-country migration, a nomadic songwriting regimen in northern France, Los Angeles, and Louisville, Kentucky, and some intense introspection for Corrina Repp to come to terms with the pitfalls of failed romance. And on her fifth solo album, How a Fantasy Will Kills Us All, she bares the soul she took along for that journey. Engineered by Danny Seim of Menomena, the record bends and moans in all the right ways, utilizing loop-laced soundscapes as the bedrock for Repp’s beautifully resonant lyrics. With tinges of experimental folk and art-pop, grizzled ambient layers permeate the fringes of songs like “Need You/Don’t Need You” and the cathartic title track. Shades of Repp’s brilliant collaborative work with Joe Haege in the yesteryear Portland project Tu Fawning abound—a creative palette that suits Repp’s brooding lo-fi psych well. Rejoice in tonight’s record release show as Repp performs solo in the cozy confines of Beacon Sound. RYAN J. PRADO
8 pm, Beacon Sound, free
Jenn Champion, My Body, Briana Marela
Last month, Jenn Champion (the musician formerly known as S) dropped her new record Single Rider, which she wanted to be “a cross between Drake and Billy Joel.” Thankfully, it’s not—instead, Champion makes a screeching left turn away from the introspective pop-punk of S to turn her attention toward smooth, glimmering synth-pop made in collaboration with Seattle producer SYML. With echoing drum machine beats, airy vocals, and simple yet straightforward lyrics about the blurred line between infatuation and love, the album’s 13 tracks conjure strobe-lit dancefloors and drives along the coast at sunset with the windows down (especially standouts like “O.M.G. (I’m All Over It)” and “The Move”). CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $12-14
Mondo Trasho: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The last great (ish) thing Terry Gilliam ever did, his adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo travelogue is probably the closest anyone ever got to lifting the lid on Thompson's dome and accurately portraying the nest of writhing, hyper-aggressive lizards screaming, shitting, and fucking behind his eyeballs. It's also one of the few movies about being fundamentally altered that works best while seen stone sober. Sure, people love getting ripped out of their fucking gourd and putting on the Johnny and Benicio show (btw: this is also probably the last great thing Depp ever did, too), but the real power of Gilliam's work is in how he manages to translate the feeling of Hunter's astronomical fucked-upitude to utterly straight, square minds. BOBBY ROBERTS
7:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $7-9
Beach House, Sound of Ceres
Since Victoria LeGrand first sang about “heartbreak and ponytails” over Alex Scally’s bewitching guitar tones on Beach House’s 2006 debut, the Baltimore duo has proven themselves to be masters of a new kind of woozy dream-pop. It hasn’t evolved too much since then, but that’s a good thing—the band’s new album 7 more or less follows the same formula, with warped electro-pop melodies floating behind LeGrand’s voice, which somehow always seems detached but intense.
8 pm, Keller Auditorium, $27.50-35, all ages
Usnea, Amarok, Hell
Over the past couple of years, Usnea’s sound has progressed into an introspective realm while preserving their signature downcast dissonance, a supreme sonic representation of the blight of modern humanity. CERVANTE POPE
9 pm, Tonic Lounge, $7-10
High on the Hog
A cannabis-themed outdoor all-you-can-eat pig-roast as presented by Paley's Place. What does "cannabis-themed" mean in this case? Its not just a bunch of pot leaves everywhere. The pig they're roasting was raised on raw cannabis at Moto Perpetuo Farm, and the drinks by Coalition and Ablis are CBD-infused.
5 pm, Paley's Place, $85
Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers
The singer/songwriter and keyboardist known for his improvisational live performances returns to Revolution Hall with his backing band in tow.
8 pm, Revolution Hall, $42.50-45
8th Annual Independence Bollywood Dance Party
Jai Ho knows how to throw down, and the 8th anniversary of their Independence Bollywood Party celebrating India and Pakistan's freedom is going to be one of the grandest examples of the positive party vibes they're known for.
9 pm, XV, $7-10
Saturday, Aug 11
Portland Radler Festival
August is hot. Too hot to bike, breathe, or do anything with your life, really. Except drink beer, and there’s no beer more refreshing than a shandy or a radler. Some beer snobs may think, "adding juice to beer? What are you, a child?” And the answer to that is to flip them off and enjoy your fruity, refreshing beverage in peace with the knowledge that the summer drink has a long history in Germany, Beer’s homeland. KELLY KENOYER
noon, StormBreaker Brewing
Jack White
Okay, so Jack White’s new album Boarding House Reach isn’t very good (to be honest, I haven’t enjoyed an album of his since 2012’s Blunderbuss). But he’s still Jack White—former White Stripe and current rock ’n’ weirdo. And in true rock ’n’ roll weirdo fashion, he won’t be allowing any cell phones at this show. CIARA DOLAN
8 pm, Rose Quarter Memorial Coliseum, $40-70
Portland Timbers vs. Vancouver Whitecaps
Tonight’s Cascadia Cup matchup between the Timbers and the Whitecaps brings the Alphonso Davies farewell tour to Portland. The 17-year-old Canadian winger will finish out the season with Vancouver before making his career-altering move to European giants Bayern Munich. It’s a landmark moment for the MLS, and the chance to see one of the top prospects in the world take on the Timbers in a rivalry match at Providence Park is worthy of top billing. CHIPP TERWILLIGER
8 pm, Providence Park, $42-175
Lavender Country, Jenny Don't & the Spurs, Soft Butch
Country music is still overwhelmingly heterosexual, even with the success of openly gay acts like Little Bandit and Brandy Clark. Forty-five years ago, the situation was even worse, with the Nashville establishment opening their minds just enough to allow an African American artist Charley Pride through the gates. Stepping out of the closet and onstage at the Grand Ole Opry? That would have been a death sentence. That’s what makes the lone album by Seattle outfit Lavender Country such a remarkable outlier. Released initially as a private press LP in 1973, it was the first gay country album ever, beating out Peter Grudzien’s The Unicorn by a year. But where Grudzien’s work was steeped in the psych-folk underground of his New York home, led by singer/songwriter Patrick Haggerty, Lavender Country attempted to keep up with the sleepy honky tonk balladry and jumped-up boot-stompers of the time. Even though the band played shows up and down the West Coast, Lavender Country didn’t make a dent in the cultural consciousness of the time. Haggerty hung up his spurs for the next four decades, concentrating on activism and raising a family. The project has finally gotten its due in recent years, thanks to a reissue of the album by North Carolina label Paradise of Bachelors, which has inspired Haggerty to dust off his guitar and cowboy hat and play shows around the US. The messages in the music sadly still resonate to a modern audience, but they no longer have to be delivered from the shadows. ROBERT HAM
9 pm, The Fixin' To, $10
Summer Cannibals, Mini Blinds
Summer Cannibals have been living proof of the greatness of Portland’s indie rock scene since releasing their 2013 debut No Makeup. The band has grown into their moody rock ’n’ roll sound on two full-lengths released on their own record label, and another on iconic Portland label Kill Rock Stars. Summer Cannibals’ unapologetic, empowered lyrics, fuzzed-out guitar riffs, and power-pop hooks will get stuck in your head all day. DELANEY MOTTER
5 pm, Green Noise Records, free, all ages
Ganja & Hess
One of the more unique takes on vampire mythology ever filmed, 1973’s Ganja & Hess returns to theaters for the first time in a few decades with this “director’s cut” version that restores the breadth of director Bill Gunn’s vision of the film, which was commissioned to be a cheap Blacula ripoff. Gunn was not interested in being a party to something so simple, and instead took the $350,000, cast Night of the Living Dead’s Duane Jones, and made a fever-dream of existential horror. Producers saw all this monologuing and angst linking scenes of sex and violence, decided that about 40 minutes of all that could just go away, and proceeded to hack the film down to 76 minutes. All that stuff is back now, and the already rich, kaleidoscopic messiness is just that much deeper. BOBBY ROBERTS
9:30 pm, NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium, $8-9
Bizarre Love Triangle: '80s New Wave & Synth Pop
DJs Gregarious, The Art of Hot, and Narcissus My Reflection dig into their crates and pull out only the finest in new wave and synth pop for your listening pleasure. Hosted by Anna Jenkins.
9 pm, The Liquor Store, $6
1939 Ensemble, Blue Cranes, Amenta Abioto, DJ Derek Smith
The Portland-based instrumental quartet known for playing a blend of percussion-driven krautrock, post-rock, and jazz return to Mississippi Studios to unleash their brand new full-length. Fellow locals Blue Cranes, Amenta Abioto, and KMHD DJ Derek Smith round out the proceedings.
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $10-12
Eternal Summers, Souvenir Driver
The Roanoke-based trio bring their dreamy and shapeshifting indie rock and pop back through Portland for a headlining show supporting their latest full-length, Every Day It Feels Like I'm Dying​.​.​..
9:30 pm, Bunk Bar, $12-14
Farm to Fork Dinner
A dinner benefitting Portland State University's Learning Gardens Lab, featuring a multi-course meal prepared by PSU Eats Executive Chef Matt Steele, made from freshly grown produce at the Learning Gardens. Dinner includes wine and beer pairings, live entertainment, and live storytelling from PSU students.
6 pm, Learning Gardens Laboratory, $75
Willow
Solo: A Star Wars Story was not the first Lucasfilm project Ron Howard directed. In 1987, George Lucas, who created a world-changing film series 10 years prior because he couldn't get the rights to Flash Gordon, asked Howard to replicate that phenomenon after not getting the rights to Lord of the Rings. Thus: Willow, starring Warwick Davis and Val Kilmer as pseudo-Frodo and Asshole Aragorn, off to fight evil witches, skull-faced enforcers, and rescue baby princesses. Willow is an ungainly little family film, pinballing between pulp fantasy, awkward romance, cornball kid's flick (ugh, the fucking Brownies), and Harryhausen-esque adventure, but thanks to Kilmer's charm, Davis' pluck, and one hell of a score from James Horner, Willow—while getting nowhere near the resonance of Lord of the Rings, ends up being a mostly-okay fantasy pastiche. BOBBY ROBERTS
7:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $7-9
That's What She Said: Emotional Labor Day
What better way to celebrate summer than to enjoy some brilliant comedy by feminist comedy collective, That’s What She Said. Hear from Dannie Rae Cannon, Samhita Reddy, Shannon Sales, and Katie Piatt amongst others and rest easy knowing your dollars are going directly to a local nonprofit serving immigrants and refugees.
7 pm, Siren Theater, $10
Belly
The beloved '90s alternative rock and jangle pop quartet fronted by former Throwing Muses and Breeders member Tanya Donelly return to the Revolution Hall Stage in support of Dove, the band's first new album since 1995's King.
8 pm, Revolution Hall, $30-35
Dylan Carlson, Mary Lattimore
If instrumental music were a coin, Dylan Carlson and Mary Lattimore would be its two sides. Carlson is from the Pacific Northwest, he's old enough to have roomed with Kurt Cobain, and he has spent the past couple of decades wrangling doomed drones and dusky tones out of his guitar in an effort to explore the fringes of American sound. His main gig, Earth, is one of the most influential heavy instrumental bands in recent memory, and his new album Conquistador is his first under his own name. Lattimore is from the East Coast, she’s a rising young talent, and her exquisite and ethereal approach to the harp has made her an in-demand accompanist for artists like Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, and Jarvis Cocker. Her new-agey new album Hundreds of Days is one of the prettiest and most calming releases of 2018—a year when pretty and calming music is so very welcome.
9 pm, Doug Fir, $12
Sunday, Aug 12
Panic! at the Disco, Haley Kiyoko
Even if alternative pop-rock band Panic! At the Disco’s music isn’t your thing, there’s no denying they’ve got an overflowing handful of bops—such as 2016’s Sinatra-like “Death of a Bachelor.” With powerhouse singer Brendon Urie as its frontman and lots of supplemental horns and strings, Panic! dropped its sixth studio album Pray for the Wicked earlier this summer. Standouts from the 11-track project include “Dancing’s Not a Crime,” “King of the Clouds,” and “One of the Drunks.” Come for the older hits, but stay to hear Urie’s soaring vocals on his jazz-influenced new material. JENNI MOORE
7 pm, Moda Center, $38.75-68.75, all ages
Spec Script: Entourage
I know little to nothing about the TV show Entourage. (It’s about leisure suits, right?) And I’m looking forward to knowing even less about it thanks to this month’s Spec Script reading, where a local comedian (in this case the super-funny Laura Anne Whitley) pens a script for an episode of a show they have never seen. Is John Stamos on Entourage? It sort of doesn’t matter. What matters is who Whitley THINKS is on Entourage. Minority Retort’s Julia Ramos and many hilarious others help table read the glorious creation. SUZETTE SMITH
7 pm, Kelly's Olympian, $7
Deafheaven, Drab Majesty, Uniform
It can be difficult to align Deafheaven with any one genre—the band’s soft, hazy tendencies don’t quite fit into black metal, yet their harshness alienates them from shoegaze. Regardless, Deafheaven's new record Ordinary Corrupt Human Love contains the best of both genres. Throughout the album, frontman George Lesage Clarke balances melancholy and delicacy while tackling songs that seethe with frustration and rage. CERVANTE POPE
8:30 pm, Wonder Ballroom, $18-20
XRAY.FM's Heatwave: And And And, Plastic Cactus, Miss Rayon, Just Pretend, Natasha Kmeto, DJ Chanti Darling, House of Ada
The local radio station takes over the White Owl Social Club with an all-day mini-festival, featuring music from live bands and DJs, an XRAY-curated record fair with wax from an array of local shops, summer drink specials, food, and a pop-up photobooth.
2 pm, White Owl Social Club, $5-10
Tom Brosseau, Shelley Short, Tomo Nakayama
L.A.-based singer/songwriter Tom Brosseau brings his charming folk music up the coast for an intimate Portland show with support from Portland's own Shelley Short.
8 pm, Turn! Turn! Turn!, $7
The Princess Bride
This movie is 100 percent pure charm in film form. That’s not to say Rob Reiner’s adaptation of William Goldman’s bestselling novel isn’t also shot through with moments of real romance (“As you wish”) and cathartic satisfaction (“I want my father back you sonofabitch,”) but the reason this movie occupies such a precious place for so many is the charm radiating off its styrofoamy sets, through a score that sounds like it’s coming out of a Casio keyboard’s single built-in-speaker, humming under dialogue written so beautifully the actors can’t help but smile at the magic flowing out of their mouths. It proves you don’t need $200 million and two years of post-production to realize pure imagination. Not when you’ve got a big heart and all the charm in the world. BOBBY ROBERTS
2:05 & 7:15 pm, Academy Theater, $3-4, all ages
Elder, Serial Hawk, Holy Grove
Boston-hailing quartet Elder bring their heavy psych and progressive stoner rock landslide through Mississippi Studios for the Portland stop on a West Coast tour supporting their latest full-length, Reflections of a Floating World.
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $15-20
Strum Fest PDX
Portland Radio Project presents a new entry in Portland's ever-growing, ever-wonderful list of local music festivals, this one focused on the region's lively, vibrant Bluegrass scene, with performances from Scratchdog, Jackstraw, Dirty Revival, Left Coast Country, and more.
2 pm, The Evergreen, $30
Olivia Awbrey, Clara Baker, Tara Velarde
Local singer/songwriter Olivia Awbrey brings her psych-punk and indie rock stylings out to the Doug Fir patio to head up the latest installment of "Pickin' on Sundays" along with support from Clara Baker and Tara Velarde.
3 pm, Doug Fir, free
OMSI Star Party: Perseid Meteor Shower
OMSI hosts a massive stargazing party at Rooster Rock in conjunction with the Perseid Meteor Shower, with plenty of telescopes and OMSI staff on hand to answer any questions and help you get a better look at the spectacle.
9 pm, Rooster Rock State Park
Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!
