Portland Adult Soapbox Derby
Remember when you were a kid and your parent helped you build a death machine to ride down a hill in? Well, now you can be your own dad and build yourself a soapbox racecar! Adults speed down the hill at crazy speeds in their own handmade contraptions. Sounds like the perfect circus to watch on a sunny summer day. (Sat Aug 17, 9:30 am, Mt. Tabor Park, free, all ages) KELLY KENOYER
Street Roots Street Party
Street Roots, your favorite street newspaper and homeless advocacy group, is turning 20 this year! That means theyâre shutting down the street outside their NW Davis and 2nd office and filling it with music by the Jenny Conlee Quartet, pizza and paella by Toro Bravo, and Laughing Planet burritos! Come celebrate Street Rootsâ past, present, and future with its stellar journalists, vendors, and longtime friends. (Sun Aug 18, 1 pm, NW Davis & 3rd, free, all ages) ALEX ZIELINSKI
Portland Metro Reptile Expo
At long last, the annual Portland Metro Reptile Expo is returning to that Holiday Inn by the airport, and this year, there is almost no chance at all that thousands of soulless, dead-eyed monsters will decide to escape en masse, shattering their aquariums and strangling their owners, spitting and slashing as they terrorize the blood-soaked halls of the Holiday Inn, climbing along ceilings and slithering under doors, feasting on the flesh of old women and toddlers alike as they reclaim their world from its complacent interlopers. Will your face be pierced by a cobraâs black-poisoned fangs? Will your skull be crushed by a boa constrictor's vicious embrace? Will your screams be the last to echo through the ruined Holiday Inn, drowned out by the unholy screeches of a cold-hearted army that will not rest until each of us has been slaughtered? No one can say. Earth is their world now. (Sat Aug 17, 10 am, Holiday Inn Airport, $5-10, all ages) ERIK HENRIKSEN
Dark Web Tonight
Ben Harkins and Kate Murphy host this late-night video clip show guiding you through the weirdest and funniest videos the Internet. With special guest comics, music by Mira Death, and media by Eric Klein. (Fri Aug 16, 9 pm, Kickstand Comedy Space, $10, all ages)
Hang '19: Don & the Quixotes, King Ghidora, The Apollo Four
It's one high-speed, four-on-the-floor, thrummin' and hummin' night of surf rock bliss at the Kenton tonight. (Fri Aug 16, 9 pm, The World Famous Kenton Club, $5)
Melt, Mamalarky, Dimwit, Ancient Pools
Portland garage rock and psych-pop quartet Melt head up a hometown show at Turn! Turn! Turn!, with like-minded locals Dim Wit, L.A.'s Mamalarky, and Olympia's Ancient Pools rounding out the bill. (Fri Aug 16, 8 pm, Turn! Turn! Turn!, $7)
The 15th Annual Zach's Shack Hot Dog Eating Contest
Smack in the middle of one hot-ass August comes one of the finestâand definitely the most gluttonousâPortland traditions: the Zach's Shack Hot Dog Eating Contest, where some of Portland's most gastrointestinally-mighty citizens spend 10 minutes facingâand devouringâ a hellscape of buns, lips, and assholes. The Zach's Shack Record? 26 dogs 'n' buns in 10 minutes, courtesy five-time (now retired) champion Ryan "MAX CARNAGE" Rodicker. $10 to try your guts at this sisyphean contest, free to watch the spectacle from the crowd. (Sat Aug 17, 4 pm, Zach's Shack, free to spectate, $10 to enter)
2nd Annual Arbor Lodge Block Party
Look Long gets down properly with this mid-August block party celebrating North Portland, with help from their friends at EaT Oyster Bar, The Arbor Lodge Neighborhood Association, Friends of the Gorge, and Canned Heat, who will have a glass-blowing set-up so you can create a unique glass to drink out of all night. (Sat Aug 17, 4 pm, Look Long, free, all ages)
2019 Homowo & Twins Festival
The annual Ghanaian festival returns to Portland to celebrate tradition, perserverance, fertility, and the year's harvest. Attendance is free and open to all, with live music from the Just Humanitarian Project Legacy Band, Comfort Tetteh, Ekome, and more. (Sat Aug 17, noon, Da Vinci Arts Middle School, free, all ages)
Miss Rayon, Darkswoon, Vibrissae
This isn't just any run-of-the-mill showcase of up-and-coming local talent, this is Cat-chella 3, the combination of live music and animal rights activism that raises funds for local animal welfare non-profits. This time out, the funds from Cat-Chella will benefit House of Dreams. the brainchild of a group of local musicians, volunteers, and animal lovers. Its mission is to support local animal welfare non-profits by increasing their visibility, raising awareness about their work, and fundraising on their behalf through live musical performance. (Sat Aug 17, 8 pm, Black Water Bar, $8, all ages)
Blesst Chest, GGGIANTSSS, Love Hiss
Blesst Chest makes bizarro, acid-washed, fuzzed-out, groovy tunes that sound like Ratatat's cool prog-rock parent, lacking the sophisticated production of today's young 'uns but wailing hard like it's 1977. (Sat Aug 17, 8 pm, Firkin Tavern, free) CIARA DOLAN
Tribe Mars, Strange Hotels
When the seven-piece band Tribe Mars gets all its members on a stage, the result is a musical collage of jazz, funk, and rock. The group has three vocalists, a guitarist, keyboards, saxophone, and so much more. And their live shows feel like jam sessions, loose and fun. Robert Grubaugh and Brett Van Patten started Tribe Mars when they moved to Portland in 2013. Theyâve since expanded their ranks since to include other locals, like Vaughn Kimmons and Andre Burgos, who also make music under the name Brown Calculus. Theyâll play Rontoms with Strange Hotels, another jazz-oriented duo with a pop mentality. (Sun Aug 18, 8 pm, Rontoms, free) ISABEL LYNDON
Brooklyn Bumps Pro Skateboard Contest
Pro skateboarding, free pizza, free beer, and a skateboard carnival? That's one hell of a show, and CCS and Adidas are putting it on, with over 20 of the country's top skaters competing against one another. (Sun Aug 18, 2 pm, CCS, free, all ages)
Red Light Challenge
This pleasant pair of curly-headed sibling achievers bring their sunny style of pop-rock to Portland as part of the Summer at the Square concert series. (Tues Aug 20, noon, Pioneer Courthouse Square, free, all ages)
Pacific Latitudes, Mo Troper & The Mo Troper Band, Kassi Valazza
Rising local indie-rock quartet Pacific Latitudes head up a hometown show at Mississippi Studios in support of their forthcoming full-length debut, Ghosts in the Land of Promise, with fellow Portland-based singer/songwriters Mo Troper and Kassi Valazza lending their support. (Tues Aug 20, 8 pm, Mississippi Studios, $7-10)
Portland Legends of Wrestling
For professional wrestling fans who know down deep the best part of the whole circus isn't even the 'rasslin partâit's the promos. "Professor Ed" Hosea hosts an evening of Portland comedy talent assuming outlandish personalities and cutting only the finest promos live on stage. (Wed Aug 21, 9 pm, Kickstand Comedy Space, $5)
Unpeeled
It's been awhile since Banana Stand grabbed the spotlight and shone it on some of Portland's most deserving artists, but tonight Holocene is the place to catch some unpeeled local genius, including performances from Robin Bacior, Anis Mojgani, bryson the alien of Sumalienz, Alex Dang, and Minda Lacy from Bitches in the Beehive. (Wed Aug 21, 8:30 pm, Holocene, $8)
The Heavy Pets
The Fort Lauderdale-hailing jam band known for dousing their rock 'n' roll in buckets of funk, jazz, and reggae returns to the Goodfoot stage. (Wed Aug 21, 10 pm, Goodfoot, $10)
Dolphin Midwives, somesurprises, Abronia
Portland-based musician Sage Fisher (AKA Dolphin Midwives) creates enchanting experimental music using layered harp and vocal arrangements. Tonight she heads up a hometown show at Holocene along with support from Seattle's somesurprises and Portland psych outfit Abronia. (Thurs Aug 22, 8:30 pm, Holocene, $8-10)
The Mars Rovers w/ Up
Enjoy a strong slug of classic rock from the Mars Rovers, because you'll need the fortification before the free screening of Up that follows afterwards. Bring tissues. LOTS of tissues. (Thurs Aug 22, 6:30 pm, Elizabeth Caruthers Park, free, all ages)
There's even more to do in our Cheap, Free, & Fun calendar, and don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!
