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Monday, Aug 5
Alison Sudol
After several years of recording music under the name A Fine Frenzy (and playing the role of Queenie Goldstein in the two Harry Potter prequels), Alison Sudol is finally stepping into the spotlight as Alison Sudol. Last fall, she released her first solo EP Moon, a showcase for her patient and atmospheric take on pop and rock. Sheâs followed that up this year with the Moonlite EP, which finds Sudol exploring electronic beats, buzzy synths, string drones, unconventional production choices, and what sounds like a growing fondness for noise. Itâs weird! But in a very, very good way. (Mon Aug 5, 9 pm, Doug Fir, $15) BEN SALMON
New Seasons presents The Portland Mercury's Burger Week
From Monday August 5th through Saturday August 10th, Portland's finest restaurants will be serving up one-of-a-kind burgers created specifically for the Mercury's Burger Week. And even better? Each of these wondrous creations will cost a mere $5! Stay tuned for a complete list of participants and their tasty offerings. For up to date info, be sure to stay tuned to the official Burger Week Facebook event page. (Aug 5-10, Various Locations, $5)
Mumford & Sons, Portugal. The Man
Itâs still a little surreal to be seeing Portugal. The Man listed at venues the size of the Moda Center, even as an opening act. The bandâs veer into the worlds of grimy pop and hip-hop-influenced experimental rock helped them transcend their identity as under-the-radar festival dynamos and into the pop culture zeitgeist with their Grammy-winning hit single âFeel It Still.â That the band has managed to keep their oldest fans even while ascending to the mainstream is a testament to their work ethic; their insatiable flag-waving for all things Portland continues to endear them to new audiences completely unfamiliar with their modest soul-punk-groove beginnings. (Mon Aug 5, 7:30 pm, Moda Center, $39.50-99.50, all ages) RYAN J. PRADO
The Alarm, Modern English, Jay Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel
The Aladdin Theater serves up an evening hits and deep cuts from a trio of pioneering post-punk, new wave and gothic rock bands out of the UK. (Mon Aug 5, 8 pm, Aladdin Theater, $39.50-42)
Brandon Wardell
Mississippi Studios hosts a one-off show with Los Angeles-via-Seattle comedian Brandon Wardell, known for his appearances on Comedy Central's @midnight and The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, his podcast with Jack Wagner, âYeah But Still,â and his 2018 ASMR comedy album, Brandon Wardell: An ASMR Album. (Mon Aug 5, 8 pm, Mississippi Studios, $17.50-20)
Emo Skate Night
Everything about this sounds counterintuitive, and yet that makes it even more emo somehow. Get that hair extra floppy, make sure the makeup is extra-sweat (and tears) resistant, lace up those skates, and hit the rink for a night of emo jams on wheels. (Mon Aug 5, 7:30 pm, Oaks Park Skating Rink, $10-15, all ages)
Tuesday, Aug 6
The B-52s, OMD, Berlin
There should never be a time where the B-52s arenât celebrated unabashedly and with borderline hysterical reverence. Of the late-â70s/early-â80s class of new wave pioneers, there are few archetypes of cool like the Athens pop trio and that alone should compel you to traipse up to the Oregon Zoo. But the triple threat of the 52s with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and Berlin playing opening sets, you may as well go full retro and show up rocking pegged Jordache jeans, a John Bender trench coat, and an elaborately coiffed neon hairdoâunironically, of course. (Tues Aug 6, 6 pm, Oregon Zoo, $55-115, all ages) RYAN J. PRADO
Chuck Klosterman
Raised in Captivity collects nearly three-dozen fun, weird, and surreal short stories from the essayist and bestselling author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and But What if We're Wrong?. (Tues Aug 6, 7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books, free)
Great Grandpa, Floating Room, On Drugs
Seattle quintet Great Grandpa self-identifies as âgrunge pop,â which is a pretty accurate tag; their guitars seem to have been run through Butch Vigâs brain and every melody is an earworm. But the bandâs debut LP, 2017âs Plastic Cough, has way more in common with grungeâs aftermath than the epoch-making span that gave us Nirvana. The woozy exuberance of Great Grandpaâs twentysomething anthems owes a whole lot to Pinkerton and Keep It Like a Secret, and like those landmark albums, Plastic Cough is best enjoyed alone because you will absolutely be singing along with tuneless glee. (Tues Aug 6, 8 pm, Mississippi Studios, $13-15) CHRIS STAMM
Young The Giant, Fitz & The Tantrums, Alice Merton
Yet another case study in the old lesson that you shouldnât let a bandâs success stand in the way of taking them seriously. Fitz & The Tantrums offer a rich marriage of soul, rock, dancehall, and pop sounds, and puts on a dazzling, energetic show. Itâs a pleasure to see a band work this hard for your good time. (Tues Aug 6, 6 pm, Edgefield, $48, all ages)
Nathan Brannon
Riley McCarthy and Carson Crashley IV's "Relentless Splendoer" showcase includes a very special (and familiar) guest in the form of former Portland's Funniest Person winner and Kill Rock Stars recording artist Nathan Brannon, who alongside Amanda Arnold will represent veterans of the Portland Stand-Up scene, while up-and-comers Chris Johnson and Zoe Proval hold it down for newcomers. (Tues Aug 6, 8:30 pm, Suki's Bar & Grill, $5-25)
The Drums, Tanukichan
Jonathan Pierce and his NYC-based band brings a melodic blend of indie-pop back to the Wonder Ballroom for an all-ages show supporting the project's latest album, Brutalism. (Tues Aug 6, 8:30 pm, Wonder Ballroom, $20-22, all ages)
Farnell Newton & The Othership Connection
Whether heâs playing his own âSoul of Jazzâ series at the 1905, appearing as a featured artist on local hip-hop artistsâ projects, creating the first-ever Funklandia music festival, or just gassing other creatives on social media, composer/jazz trumpeter Farnell Newton is one of the Portland music communityâs shiniest gems. Expertly seasoned in his craft, his live performances are a special treat. So anyone who happens to reside in North Portland should consider themselves lucky: his funk-and-soul band, the Othership Connection are playing McCoy Park as part of Portland Parks and Recreationâs Summer Free for All series, which brings free and family-friendly live music events to an array of Portland parks. Oh, and pssst!: Alcohol for personal consumption is permitted during concerts in the park, so you may as well turn this free event into a sunny-jazz happy hour with a picnic! (Tues Aug 6, 6:30 pm, McCoy Park, free, all ages) JENNI MOORE
B-Movie Bingo: Deadly Prey
Your monthly opportunity to literally check off a bingo card full of B-movie clichés! This month, we journey back to the year of 1987, which was a pretty good year for discovering really wild shit on VHS. Like Deadly Prey for example, (very) loosely based on The Most Dangerous Game, but with way more baby oil, jorts, and dismemberments than that classic short story originally had. Deadly Prey is maybe not the most... artistically sound film to come out of the '80s, but direct-to-video used to mean a very different thing back then. Besides, who needs class or prestige when B-Movie eternity awaits in all its oily, jorty glory? (Tues Aug 6, 7:30 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $7-9) BOBBY ROBERTS
Wednesday, Aug 7
The I, Anonymous Show
If you love sick secrets, crazy rants, and side-splitting laughs, have we got a show for you! The I, Anonymous Show stars the fabulous Kate Murphy, who selects the wildest, strangest submissions from the beloved Mercury column and reads them live on stage. Joining Kate is a panel of whip-smart comediansâthis month itâs Philip Schallberger, Jordan Casner, and Seattleâs own Alayna Beckerâwho dissect these submissions with hilarious precision. If youâre looking for serious fun, the I, Anonymous Show is the place to be! (Wed Aug 7, 7:30 pm, Curious Comedy Theater, $10) WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
Gangstagrass
While Lil Nas X is grabbing all the recent headlines for his blend of country and hip-hop, Brooklyn outfit Gangstagrass had quietly laid the foundations for this hybrid for 13 years now. Responsible for the theme song for FX series Justified, this free-flowing ensemble has, as its name should explain, meshed the hard plunk of bluegrass with the hard rhymes of rap. Love it or tolerate it, itâs going to make for a nice, high-energy soundtrack to an early evening, post-work hang downtown. (Wed Aug 7, 5 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, free) ROBERT HAM
James McMurtry, Bonnie Whitmore
The longtime folk-rock and Americana presence out of Fort Worth, Texas returns to Portland for a headlining show at the Aladdin Theater. Fellow Texas-based Americana artist Bonnie Whitmore rounds out the bill. (Wed Aug 7, 8 pm, Aladdin Theater, $25, all ages)
Asleep at the Wheel
The long-running country music group out of Paw Paw, West Virginia pull back into town for a headlining show at Revolution Hall. (Wed Aug 7, 8 pm, Revolution Hall, $25-30)
Pixx, Rosie Tucker
London-based musician Hannah Rodgers brings her synth-laden indie-pop sound across the pond to head up an intimate Portland show supporting her latest 4AD-issued album, Small Mercies. (Wed Aug 7, 8 pm, Polaris Hall, $12-14)
Thursday, Aug 8
The Stumptown Improv Festival
Ah, improv comedy, who knows what fun fruit roll-ups youâll come out with next? Stumptown Improvâs sixth year looks pretty incredible with fan favorites like White Women (LA) and The Future (PHI) returning to zow us, plus a whole slew of new performers entering the gauntlet, following that funny, like Switchie! (LA) and Dark Side of the Room (ATL), a team which improvises the adventures of black characters missing from classic films. Visit https://www.stumptownimprov.com for tickets and showtimes.. (Aug 8-11, Curious Comedy Theater, $15-120) SUZETTE SMITH
Treepeople
Like many of their â90s contemporaries, Treepeople took a hint from HĂŒsker DĂŒ and married punk caterwaul to pop melodyâa winning strategy that made a few people very famous. Treepeople never got close to scraping the commercial heights of some of their peers, but the bandâs resident genius, Doug Martsch, possessed a singular melodic sensibility, one he would refine with his next project, Built to Spill. We all know what happened after that: seemingly every songwriter in the Pacific Northwest spent decades shredding in his shadow. But Treepeople were more than mere connective tissue in the indie rock corpus; a radical force in their own right, they deserve this victory lap. (Thurs Aug 8, 9 pm, Doug Fir, $22) CHRIS STAMM
Saeeda Wright w/ Coco
Join vocalist Saeeda Wright for a night filled with soul, jazz, and gospel sounds that go beautifully with the love letter to music itself that is Pixar's Coco on the big screen. Part of Portland Parks and Recreationâs 2019 Concerts in the Park series. (Thurs Aug 8, 6:30 pm, Woodlawn Park, free, all ages)
Pushy, Restless, Pretty Lethal, Rosey Dust
Portland power unit Pushy likes to riff, choogle, and blow the roofs off places. It's no-nonsense rock 'n' roll, which is the way rock 'n' roll should be. (Thurs Aug 8, 9 pm, The World Famous Kenton Club)
Well-Read Black Girl Book Club
The American Booksellers Association is teaming up with Well-Read Black Girl founder Glory Edim to bring book club meetings to independent bookstores around the country in an effort to spotlight writers of color and amplify diverse voices. The August installment of the event will focus on Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. (Thurs Aug 8, 7 pm, Powell's City of Books, free)
Catching Flies
The rising London-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and DJ brings his downtempo blend of electronica and trip-hop to the Holocene stage when the "Silver Linings" North American Tour stops off in Portland. (Thurs Aug 8, 8:30 pm, Holocene, $13-15)
Slough Feg, Sanhedrin, Time Rift
In recent years, it seems metalheads have come back around to the melodic metal of yore. That wasn't always the case. Mike Scalzi formed the Lord Weird Slough Feg (the band's original name, taken from the villain in a British comic book series) in central Pennsylvania in 1990 before moving to San Francisco a few months later. You could say that Scalzi started a metal band at the worst possible time, as the genre was seemingly on its last legs. "I had to wait 10 years," Scalzi says with a laugh about Slough Feg's initial reception in America. "I got into Priest and old metal, and people thought I was some backwards redneck who knew nothing." What they didn't know is that in high school Scalzi had already been listening to hardcore and post-punk records typically deemed cooler than metal. He fronted the hardcore band Heart of Darkness before turning his attention to the classic NWOBHM bands. By the time he formed Slough Feg and moved to the Bay Area, it became a personal mission to shove metal down the throats of nonbelievers. "It's funny how that worked out," Scalzi says. "We were rejected a lot, but I used that rejection... like, we were going to assault people." Read the rest of our 2015 article on Slough Feg. (Thurs Aug 8, 9 pm, Dante's, $15) MARK LORE
Yellow Claw
The Netherlands-hailing DJ and production duo bring their blend of hip-hop, trap music, and dubstep to the Crystal Ballroom dancefloor for the Portland stop on a tour supporting their latest album, New Blood. (Thurs Aug 8, 8:30 pm, Crystal Ballroom, $35-45, all ages)
Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!
