This word for this weekend is big. And we're not just referencing the massive food festival happening on the waterfront, or the giant cannabis festival happening in the state capital, or the huge beer-based block party going on at the coast. We're also referencing the kind of laughs that will shred your sides like a julienne salad, laughs from a returning comedy hero, from a pair of podcast champions, and from some of the city's best (similarly named) improvisers. There's a birthday for ice cream, a barbecue for record stores, and A Tribe Called Quest is briefly resurrected, if only on a movie screen. It's a big weekend. Hit the menu below and load your plate accordingly.
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Friday, Aug 12
Ian Karmel, Sean Jordan
Look. If you’ve lived in Portland for any length of time (or have read his column in the back of this very paper), you already know that hometown-boy-made-good Ian Karmel is one funny mothereffer. What you may not know is that he’s also very thoughtful, incredibly SMART, and—even though he lives in LA now—loves Portland more than life itself. So don’t miss this rare, all-new set from Ian and his opener Sean Jordan (also one funny mothereffer). WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
Revolution Hall, 9:30pm, $22-25
Sing Out your Support for the IPRC
One of Portland’s cultural institutions is in trouble. The Independent Publishing Resource Center is being New Portlanded out of their beautiful SE Division home with a 300 percent rent increase. Help them keep their dream of zines, comics, artwork, and classes alive with this Baby Ketten karaoke fundraiser for a new home. Great karaoke songs! Cheap drinks at the Eagles Lodge! Raffles! Long live the IPRC! COURTNEY FERGUSON
Eagles Lodge, 6:30pm, $7-25
Drake Night
A dance party dedicated solely to the majesty and mystery that is Aubrey Graham.
Hawthorne Theatre, 9pm, $10
Rose City Rollers vs. Denver's Mile High Club
Portland’s all-star roller derby team is number one in the entire world. THE WORLD! On Friday, watch them prove their mettle when the Rose City Rollers take on Denver’s Mile High Club, who are no slouches themselves. Plus, Saturday sees a fun exhibition game, where Portland’s B-team plays a ragtag group of alums looking to show that they still got the stuff. This is all a great buildup for the 2016 world championships, which Portland hosts in November! COURTNEY FERGUSON
The Hangar at Oaks Park, 8pm, $14-20, all ages
Lidia Yuknavitch
Lidia Yuknavitch takes risks! She is anything but boring. In her novel The Small Backs of Children, the central character is a Yuknavitch mask—a writer traumatized by giving birth to a stillborn child, and mother to a young son. Yuknavitch jumps from prose to play to poem and works in absolutes and blanket statements like large swaths of color on a canvas, and there are some very grim things in this novel, but if you ask me to follow her plume into a raw, experimental work, I gladly will. SUZETTE SMITH
Powell's City of Books, 7:30pm
EYRST One Year Celebration: Martell Webster, Jake One, The Last Artful Dodgr, Blossom, Maze Koroma, Ripley Snell, Calvin Valentine, ePP
Eyrst (pronounced "air-st") is the local record label founded by Portland hip hop producer Neill Von Tally and former Portland Trailblazer Martell Webster. Tonight the label celebrates its first year of operation with a party that doubles as a label showcase and a release show for Webster's new EP.
The Evergreen, 8pm, $8-12
Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
Director Michael Rapaport was originally going to title this film Beats, Rhymes, and Fights, but the story told in this documentary is way more than the cheap Behind the Music-style cash-in that title suggested. Rapaport takes a mix of talking heads and head-nodding beats, and scatters it between scenes of the group awkwardly and charmingly (dashikis! floppy hats! overalls!) rising to hip-hop legend status, creating one of best meditations on the struggles of brotherhood I’ve seen in a while. Rest in peace, Phife Dawg.
Fifth Avenue Cinema, 7pm, 9:30pm, $3-4
Howard Kremer
With August nearly half over, you couldn’t have picked a better time for stand-up comedian, goofball rapper, and “Have a Summah!” ambassador Howard Kremer to come to town. A summer-school professor in the truest sense, Kremer’s inspirational master class in fun in the sun will have you primed for the weekend—as soon you catch your breath from all the laughter. CHIPP TERWILLIGER
Bunk Bar, 9pm, $12-15
White Lung, Greys
Canada’s White Lung recently released Paradise, an album that heavily mines ’90s- through ’00s-era influences like emo, nu-metal, and cherry-flavored synth-pop. There’s even a little grunge in vocalist Mish Way’s Courtney Love-style delivery that, alongside up-tempo, psychobilly backbeats on tunes like “Kiss Me When I Bleed,” also brings to mind vocalist Brody Dalle of LA band the Distillers. “Demented” chugs along to a piston-like, industrial foundation covered with high-production gloss and the Hot Topic-style metal guitar work of Kenneth William, establishing a tension between White Lung’s interest in aggressive, dark music and careerist, arena-rock leanings. Throughout Paradise, White Lung seems to aim for Hole, but unfortunately, sometimes hits Paramore instead. WILLIAM KENNEDY
Mississippi Studios, 9pm, $12-14
J Names, Leon Anderson
It has a very unsophisticated conceit: J Names Improv
is just the city’s veteran improvisers who happen to have names that start with J. That shouldn’t work, right? And yet when John Breen, Jed Arkley, Janet Scanlon, Jay Flewelling, Jenn Hunter, Jess Lee, Jake Michels, and Justin Himes ask for a suggestion from the audience, comedy wizardry follows. MEGAN BURBANK
Siren Theater, 10pm, $8-10
Wooden Indian Burial Ground, Ice Queens, Old Unconscious
The wonderfully garage-y Portland favorites Wooden Indian Burial Ground are a model of consistency. As a flag-bearer for the kind of reverbed, multi-pedaled psych proffered by bands like Thee Oh Sees or Ty Segall, WIBG have upped the ante on their new album, How’s Your Favorite Dreamer? Originally released in February, the LP traverses spastic psycho-rock on tunes like “Spazz Pony” and “Sad Mutations”—two of the record’s early breakout tracks. Frontman Justin Fowler’s manic guitar leads the charge, squirting bizarre squeals in walls of effects. The rhythm section is renowned, too, and bassist Samuel Farrell and drummer Daniel Galucki provide a rock-solid foundation for Fowler’s unrestrained six-string dalliances. The record will be officially unveiled tonight, so bring cash and buy the god-darned thing! As if all that isn’t reason enough, there’s also a post-show dance party with DJ Babymakers. RYAN J. PRADO
The Spare Room, 9pm
Nuclear Moms, Backbiter, Sweeping Exits
The Columbus-hailing skate punk trio bring their frantic and energized blend of hardcore to the Black Water Bar stage.
Black Water Bar, 8pm, $7
Chico Freeman Plus+tet
Like many jazz artists in their late 60s, Chico Freeman has mellowed some with age. His earliest work had an experimental edge, as on the title track for his 1976 debut, Morning Prayer, which rumbled, droned, and clattered to life over the course of 12 minutes, Freeman’s flute lines dancing among the percussion’s clamor. Even into the ’80s, there was an angularity to his post-bop tunes that added a welcome prickly quality to the otherwise swinging songs. Spoken into Existence, the latest album by this 67-year-old woodwind player, is far more direct, with an emphasis on lightly funky rhythms and melodies that drape like a shiny cloth. Still, an icon is an icon and Freeman certainly fits that category; his Portland appearance will be one of the highlights of an already amazing jazz calendar. ROBERT HAM
Jimmy Mak's, 7:30pm, 9:30pm, $20-25
Salt & Straw Alberta Birthday Bash
Celebrating five years on Alberta Street with free birthday cake slices, to go along with their special birthday cake flavored ice cream, available at the Alberta location only, with proceeds from sales going to the Community Cycling Center. Also includes live music and free pedicab rides up and down Alberta from 6pm-10pm.
Salt & Straw, 7pm, free, all ages
Saturday, Aug 13
The Bite of Oregon
The Bite is Oregon's biggest celebration of all things delicious, transforming the waterfront into a massive celebration of food, drink, and song, as well as a proving ground for the state's best chefs and mixologists. Regardless which chef takes home what title, the real winner is your mouth.
Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 11am, $5, 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
Helium Comedy Club, 7:30pm, 10pm, $15-23
Hell or High Water
Leave it to a Scot to deliver the next great American western. It’s possible director David Mackenzie (Starred Up) had the distance and perspective to depict Hell or High Water’s depressed West Texas towns and dust-dry plains with unvarnished truth. Maybe he recognized, from across the pond, a universal struggle in the specific plight of brothers Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) as they try to hang on to their father’s ranch. Perhaps he sensed the timeliness of a story that depicts white American men running out of time, money, and land. More likely, Mackenzie had Taylor Sheridan’s (Sicario) superb script to navigate a path around the obvious men-with-guns clichés that make up Hell or High Water’s western-noir milieu. Whatever the case may be, it’s resulted in an intelligent and incisive movie that's painful and lovely to watch. NED LANNAMANN
Fox Tower 10, see Movie Times for full list of showtimes,
$8.35-11.35
The Regatta Block Party at Fort George
Who says you have to stick around Portland to make the most of your weekend, huh? Astoria's biggest brewery locks down the block for an entire weekend to do their part for Oregon's oldest city as it throws Oregon's longest-running annual celebration, with live music, a cornhole tournament, a screening of the comedy classic Strange Brew, and above all else, a non-stop buffet of barbecue and beer from the region's best tastemakers.
Fort George Brewery + Public House, 11am, free, all ages
Honey Bucket, The Woolen Men, Wave Action
A tour kick-off show with catchy local garage-pop trio named after a porta potty company who are also set to release their excellent new full-length, Magical World. Read our review of Magical World.
The Know, 8pm, $6
Jump Jack Sound Machine
Put on your deodorant and get your bum to Mississippi Studios—tonight is Jump Jack Sound Machine, Portland’s newest dance party founded by Natasha Kmeto and Chanticleer Tru of Chanti Darling. It’s powered entirely by sweat and revolves around the orbit of disco balls, so be prepared to surrender yourself to the groove. CIARA DOLAN
Mississippi Studios, 10pm, $5
Music Millennium Customer Appreciation Barbecue
Swing by Music Millennium for their 24th Annual Customer Appreciation Barbecue, featuring a food and drink, a prize wheel, and live music from Matty & Katie, There is no Mountain, LiquidLight, J.T. Wise Band, Danny Newcomb & the Sugar Makers, Green Tambourines, and Coco Columbia.
Music Millennium, 11am, free, all ages
Post Moves, Generifus, Stevhen Peters
Generifus is subdued rock ’n’ roll, music meant for driving on a cool winter’s day with the windows rolled all the way up. For over a decade Olympia songwriter Spencer Sult has quietly released music under the moniker on Bandcamp through his own label Sultan Serves Records, showcasing his ironically tireless devotion to “slacker-rock.” Looking at the genre’s godfather Stephen Malkmus, who has worked on 15 full-length records since 1989 between Pavement, Silver Jews, and the Jicks, it’s clear that this isn’t necessarily the most fitting descriptor. Last September, Sult released his sixth full-length, Extra Bad, an album that doesn’t try too hard to captivate. But that’s where its beauty lies, in the softer observational approach to storytelling/songwriting—an approach that, if you’re not paying attention, might seem like slacking. CAMERON CROWELL
Turn! Turn! Turn!, 8pm
Courtney Marie Andrews, Barna Howard, Birger Olsen
The newest signee to Portland’s Mama Bird Records is Courtney Marie Andrews, an Arizona-born Pacific Northwest musician. Tonight, Andrews celebrates the release of her fifth full-length, Honest Life—10 tracks of resonantly soulful, road-weary country-folk. Although her tunes are rooted in the Americana nostalgia of open roads and limitless horizon lines, songs like “Irene” illustrate Andrews’ ability to forge new territory with the darkly charming hook, “You are a magnet, Irene/Sometimes good people draw troublesome things.”“How Quickly Your Heart Mends” delivers more of her deft, sometimes witty songwriting: “The jukebox is playin’ a sad country song/For all the ugly Americans/Now I feel like one of them/Dancin’ alone and broken by the freedom.” CIARA DOLAN
Doug Fir, 9pm, $10-12
Culture Club
Spend the evening with Boy George, Roy Hay, Mikey Craig, and Jon Moss, the original line-up of the influential English new wave band Culture Club, as they perform tunes from their vast catalog of hits.
Edgefield, 6:30pm, $59.50-115.50, all ages
Alberta Street Fair
Featuring three music stages, two beer gardens, and one wine garden, amongst food and wares from over 300 vendors, all set up between NE 11th and NE 30th on Alberta.
NE 11th & Alberta, 11am, free
Rio Grands, Two Moons
Sunny, warm, breezy pop songs that evoke piña coladas and white tuxedos. NED LANNAMANN.
Bunk Bar, 9:30pm, $7
Gleam Garden, Divers, Arctic Flowers, The Lonely
Divers returns to Portland from their tour in Japan and they brought the anthemic punk of Gleam Garden back with them.
Panic Room, 9pm
Sunday, Aug 14
Pete's Dragon
Anyone looking to compare this Pete’s Dragon with the 1977 original would do well not to—in part because the 1977 version is garbage, and in part because this remake is an entirely different creature. Set in the shadowed forests of the Pacific Northwest, Pete’s Dragon: 2016 Edition finds feral child Pete (Oakes Fegley) hanging out in the woods with his pal Elliot, a giant green dog who can fly. At its best points, that’s all the movie is: a dirt-smeared kid and his excellent dragon running around with a wild earnestness that recalls Spike Jonze’s underrated take on Where the Wild Things Are.
Various theaters, see Movie Times for showtimes and locations
Chugger, Rambush, Jesus Miranda, Friends in Love
In some ways, Randy—the debut effort from Portland’s Chugger—has been a long time coming. It’s the first official LP from a project associated with Edward Beaudin, one of the best songwriters in Portland and former frontman of defunct punk bands Zoogirl and the Bustling Townships. Chugger is a collaboration between Beaudin and guitarist Jordan LeVeque, whose throaty croon and keen melodic sensibilities are the perfect counterpoise to his partner’s wiry riffs and caustic urgency. But Randy’s most impressive moments still belong to Beaudin—particularly the meta, mega-hit “Baby on the Radio” and nu-grunge detour “Yuppie Scum”—a song that simultaneously attacks opportunistic, culture-siphoning migrants and satirizes the entitled, regionalist attitudes promoted by surly Portland natives. (“I’ve lived here for far too long/I’m practically an Indian!”) MORGAN TROPER
Black Water Bar, 8pm, all ages
Oregon Cannabis Growers' Fair
Do you grow? Do you want to grow? Do you like perusing the growths of others? Are you a big fan of cannabis, is what I'm asking. If so, making the trip down Salem way for this showcase of the state's greatest green thumbs is probably a good bet, with over 60 grows on display, as well as an awards show.
Oregon State Fairgrounds, 10am, $20-60
Minden, Reptaliens
A release party for Minden's latest album, sure to be stuffed front-to-back with their whiskey-soaked, disco-influenced dance rock jams.
Rontoms, 8pm, free
Umi Organic Noodle Luge
It's one thing to enjoy a nice bowl of ramen. But have you ever caught your ramen with chopsticks, fresh off a bamboo flume, as they luge into existence? Have you harvested the soul of your soup by hand? Umi Organic provides you ramen-lovers the opportunity to do just that by bringing the popular Japanese pastime Nagashi Somen to Portland. Once you've caught your noodles, take them to Umi's salad bar to add sauce and veggies from market vendors.
King Portland Farmers Market, 10:15am, all ages
Ryosuke Kiyasu, Daniel Menche, Doug Theriault, Uneasy Chairs, Fiasco
Noise musicians often possess the uncanny ability to capture beauty in the sonically strange. It’s a gift of improvisation, and truly understanding the process that goes into transforming ruckus into recordable music is its own art. Tokyo’s Ryosuke Kiyasu has mastered this art using a lone snare drum to make brash and heavy experimental jazz. Portland’s own Daniel Menche has well over 50 albums, all filled with intrigue. Doug Theriault’s latest, Drift Boat, is like a marriage of Menche and Kiyasu’s sounds in just three tracks, while Uneasy Chairs and Fiasco have a mathy bent in their creation of clamor. Curious minds should check it out—this show is basically a crash course in the many facets of noise. CERVANTE POPE
Turn! Turn! Turn!, 7:30pm, $5-15
JamBallah NW
A weekend-long bellydance festival, featuring performances of multiple dance styles, a relaxation station, classes, a vendor faire, and more.
Artists Repertory Theatre, 3pm