What good is a week if you confine all the fun you can have to roughly 20-plus hours at the very end of it (minus any downtime spent sleeping and/or recuperating from any incapacitating hangovers)? Why not spread it around a little? This week makes it pretty easy to do, what with the radio drama revolutionaries from Night Vale swinging into town, free funk for you and your fam in the park, the curious combination of live puppetry and audacious pop music, an evening of storytelling as sporting event, and a chance to heckle Schwarzenegger from the safety of your theater seat. There's a lot of things to do this week—hit the menu below and get to it.
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Monday Jul 18
Hecklevision: Last Action Hero
1993's Last Action Hero came from a top-notch action director (John McTiernan), a top-notch action screenwriter (Shane Black), and a top-notch action hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger). It was meant to be a top-notch, meta riff on the very kind of big-budget blockbuster that it was itself aiming to be. And yet. Both too clever and too stupid for its own good, it did not succeed. Tonight, its corpse is offered to the cold, angry gods of Hecklevision, and it shall be splayed upon the altar of the silver screen, joined by the audience's cruelest text-messaged remarks. Godspeed, Last Action Hero. BOBBY ROBERTS
Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, 7:30pm, $9
Farnell Newton & the Othership Connection
The vibrant and funky Newton and his band the Othership Connection are bringing a much-deserved light to Portland's jazz, soul, and gospel community. JENI WREN STOTTRUP Part of Holladay Park's free summer concert series.
Holladay Park, NE 11th & Holladay, 6:30pm, free, all ages
Victor Hazan, Cathy Whims
Marcella Hazan, the "Godmother of Italian cooking," passed away in 2013. Her legacy lives on through her husband and collaborator, Victor Hazan, who has translated her vignettes on how to buy and what to do with the fresh produce used in Italian cooking in their new book, Ingredienti: Marcella’s Guide to the Market. Tonight, Hazan is joined in conversation by Nostrana chef and owner Cathy Whims.
Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 7:30pm
An Evening of One Acts
A collaboration with CoHo Productions, featuring staged readings of two one act plays by Adrienne Kennedy, including Electra and June and Jean In Concert (Concert of Their Lives). Part of Profile's 2016 Tanya Barfield season.
Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison, 7:30pm, free w/ rsvp
Tuesday Jul 19
Nerd Night Out: The Doubleclicks, Danielle Ate the Sandwich, Barbara Holm, Lucia Fasano
Hey, nerds! Put down that book, because tonight belongs to us—at least at the Doug Fir, where geek-folk sister musicians the Doubleclicks headline Nerd Night Out, along with jokey tunes from Danielle Ate the Sandwich, and delightful stand-up from Barbara Holm and Lucia Fasano. The Settlers of Catan can wait! MEGAN BURBANK
Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 8pm, $10-12
Chris Pureka, Catherine Feeny, John Craigie, Katie Sawicki, Anna Tivel
An evening of heart-on-sleeve folk tunes from singer-songwriter Chris Pureka, touring in support of her latest album, Back in the Ring.
Alberta Street Pub, 1036 NE Alberta, 7:30pm, $10
Twenty One Pilots, Mutemath
You know that song that you've been hearing for what seems like forever, the one that comes on whenever you forget your phone and have to listen to the radio (ugh!) in your car? That sing-songy thing about turning back time to the good 'ol days? The guys who made that song are coming to the Moda Center! It's part of a tour called the Emotional Roadshow! They're bringing Mutemath with them! Which is pretty cool, because that basically guarantees you're going to hear some interesting and involving alternative rock before everyone gets "Stressed Out" for the millionth fucking time.
Moda Center, 1 Center Court, 7pm, $35-45, all ages
The Moth StorySLAM
A spinoff of the nationwide storytelling success, in which potential soul-barers put their names in a hat, and once called, have five minutes to tell their tale. "Pressure" is the theme for tonight's story session.
Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, 8pm, $10
Wednesday Jul 20
Laura Palmer's Death Parade, Brumes, Reptaliens
For July’s installment of Ear Candy—our free, monthly concert series at Mississippi Studios showcasing up-and-coming local acts—we’ve got a stacked lineup of hypnotically dreamy pop. There’s the lo-fi melodies of Reptaliens, the dusky, experimental ballads of Brumes, and headliner Laura Palmer’s Death Parade’s haunting psychedelic folk. CIARA DOLAN
Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 9pm, free
Pop + Puppetry 3
As the brilliant Jim Henson taught us time and time again, puppets and music go together like felt and googly eyes. The folks at puppet production company Beady Little Eyes and a fine cadre of local bands—Lola Buzzkill, Thanks, and Rio Grands—take this lesson to the stage with the third annual Pop + Puppetry night of creatures and innovative pop music. COURTNEY FERGUSON
Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, 8pm, $8-10
Think & Drink: Isabel Wilkerson
An evening with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.
Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta, 7pm, $35-75
The Jayhawks, Fernando
Gary Louris and his Minneapolis roots-rock band return to Portland, where they recorded their 2016 album, Paging Mr. Proust, along with producers Peter Buck and Tucker Martine.
Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark #110, 8pm, $35
Hey Lover, The High curbs, Ladywolf, On Drugs
Despite its aquatic title, Hey Lover's new record, Sinking Ships sounds like the band rigged their garage with jet packs and shot it into the stratosphere. CIARA DOLAN
The Know, 2026 NE Alberta, 8pm
Thursday Jul 21
Rocky Butte Sunset Ride and Dance Party
It’s a bike ride, it’s a picnic, and it’s an amazingly fun dance party. Grab your bike and meet up with likeminded folks. You’ll pedal as a group with music blasting to the park at the top of Rocky Butte, where you’ll catch views of an amazing Portland sunset from a great vantage point. And you’ll eat—bring a potluck dish—and dance the night away. DOUG BROWN
Irving Park, NE 11th & Klickitat, 7pm, free, all ages
Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles make gale-force onslaughts of synth. The Toronto electronic noise group pump out spooky, hard-edged dance tracks that speak to the vastness of space and time and all the infinite dimensions in between. It’s electro-pop from beyond, ready to transport listeners away. Wear your darkest threads and get ready to sway in the jagged soundscapes. COURTNEY FERGUSON
Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell, 8:30pm, $20-25, all ages
Welcome to Night Vale: Ghost Stories
Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor return to Portland for another live rendition of their smash hit podcast, Welcome to Night Vale. Tonight's performance features a brand new show, Ghost Stories.
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 8pm, $27.50-32.50
Top Down: Rooftop Cinema—Raising Arizona
Pull up a chair atop the Hotel DeLuxe parking structure. Enjoy some live music and some nosh for a little bit. Stretch your legs if you can, and you and a friend can replicate one of the signature shots from this Coen Bros. classic as it plays on the big screen, the one that closes out probably the single best pre-titles sequence in all of cinema history, telling the story of how straight-laced cop Holly Hunter fell in love with floppy-haired freakshow convict Nicolas Cage on their way to a kidnapping, some gunplay, reckless motorcycling, and blatant misuse of pantyhose.
Hotel DeLuxe, 729 SW 15th, 7pm, $7-12
Pinegrove, Sports, Half Waif
At just eight songs and with no particularly boisterous peaks or bleak valleys, Pinegrove's 2016 album, Cardinal, is emotionally accessible and effortlessly appealing. It sets frontman Evan Stephens Hall's restless vocals and anxieties about life and loneliness against the warmth of an unassuming guitar-rock band and, most distinctively, healthy doses of twang—a rollicking banjo here, the swoop of pedal steel guitar there. BEN SALMON
The Analog Cafe and Little Theater, 720 SE Hawthorne, 6pm, $10-12, all ages