Willamette Weekend: 14 Things To Do and See in Portland June 9-11

Watch creepy movies, check out a new jazz club or see comedians perform stoned.

(Thomas Teal)

Friday, June 9

Fruit Beer Festival

FruitBeerFest

Fans of fruit have a lot to look forward to on the taps at this year’s Fruit Beer Fest, with 21 infused creations that include a tart strawberry and basil ale from Ruse, a special key lime pie beer from 10 Barrel and a blend of Upright’s black lime-infused Saison Vert that spent time in both gin and vermouth barrels—yowza. Burnside Brewing Company, 701 E Burnside St., fruitbeerfest.com. 4-9 pm. $20-$25 for 12-14 tastes. Through June 11.

Portland Horror Film Fest

(courtesy of Portland Horror Film Festival)
(courtesy of Portland Horror Film Festival)

Adapting to these sunny times can be challenging. For those of you feeling too emotionally dark to don an aloha shirt yet, you can head to the Hollywood Theater for the Portland Horror Film Fest this Thursday-Saturday for some creepy independent movies in a cool, dark place. Read what strains you should smoke for the festival hereHollywood Theater, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd. 7 pm. $20 per night, or $55 for Thursday-Saturday. portlandhorrorfilmfestival.com.

Summer Splendors

In 2015, NW Dance Project commissioned four choreographers to create works set to Chopin’s Preludes. Like Chopin’s music, the results were slow and delicate, palatably but undeniably beautiful. The company is reviving the Chopin Project as an opener for the premiere of a piece by artistic director Sarah Slipper. The currently unnamed piece will portray one couple’s relationship through time: One duet will depict the couple when they’re young, another when they’ve grown older. Their last show, a modern ballet adaptation of Carmen, was able to depict relationship dynamics with a great deal of intensity and complexity, so hopefully their follow-up will too. Lincoln Hall, 1620 SW Park Ave., nwdanceproject.org. 7:30 pm. $34-$58.

Daniel Lanois & Rocco DeLuna

Depending on your age, Quebecois guitar wizard Daniel Lanois is familiar either for his work alongside Explosions in the Sky on the Friday Night Lights soundtrack or his engineering work alongside Brian Eno on U2’s The Joshua Tree. It’s a beautiful thing when the work of his fingers and his mind collide, and last year’s Goodbye to Language is an undeniable document of Lanois’ imaginative approach to richly layered six-string bliss. Joining him is the album’s co-conspirator, blues guitarist Rocco DeLuca, whose flourishes of slide guitar and ethereal swells will receive live doctoring at the hands of Lanois for a spacey experience that’s destined to be one of a kind. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 503-222-2031. 8 pm. $30 advance, $35 day of show. All ages.

Sweeping Exits, Little Star, Alien Boy and Babe Waves

(Thomas Teal)
(Thomas Teal)

Sweeping Exits’ Glitter & Blood narrates the epic tale of a vampire named Desmond who traverses through the tumult of love and coming of age, all while maintaining the extensive demands of being undead. But anyone still on the fence needs to know that the Rocky Horror-meets-Hedwig template of shamelessly catchy rock poses on the gothic glam-rock opusare copious here and impeccably done, despite the campy subject matter. Read our full review of the album hereBlack Water Bar, 835 NE Broadway, 503-281-0439. 8 pm. $5. All ages.

King Black Acid, Cedar Teeth and Daydream Machine

IMAGE: Courtesy of Facebook.
IMAGE: Courtesy of Facebook.

Though heavy-handed at times, King Black Acid’s Super Beautiful Magic is a strong case for the Big Rock Album surviving as a vital piece of longform art. Read our full review here. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., mississippistudios.com. 9 pm. $12. 21+.

Michael Ian Black

Michael_Ian_Black_-_2011_Color

Comedy doesn’t always age well. But despite starting his career on the cult-classic ’90s sketch show The State, Michael Ian Black’s material has held up reasonably well. Sure, he now talks about parenthood and politics, but his persona remains that of a self-absorbed man-child, which contributes just as much to his humor as the punchlines themselves. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., dougfirlounge.com. 9 pm. $25. 21+.

Saturday, June 10

Kelly Sue DeConnick with Lidia Yuknavitch & Chelsea Cain
Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet: Extraordinary Machine told the story of women being shot into the inky ether of space for the insolence of disobeying the patriarchy. The tale struck one hell of a chord with audiences and now DeConnick is back with Bitch Planet Volume 2: President Bitch! DeConnick will be joined in conversation by Oregon Book Award winner Lidia Yuknavitch and One Kick author Chelsea Cain. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 10 am.

The Grand Floral Parade

It’s a Portland tradition dating back more than a 100 years and a giant production, with horses and floats and marching bands galore! This year, the grand marshals are Bobby Gross, Lloyd Neal and Larry Steele of the 1977 Trail Blazers team. Starts at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 300 N Winning Way, rosefestival.org. 10 am. $15-$30 reserved seats, otherwise free.

The Big Lebowski Ride

Pedalpalooza-BigLebowski

Since they torched the Dude’s car, this Pedalpalooza ride is guaranteed to have a lot of ins, a lot of outs and a lot of what-have-yous. Starts and ends at Colonel Summers, with re-creations of scenes from the Coens’ slacker classic in between. Be sure not to get your bathrobe tangled in your spokes. Colonel Summers Park, SE 20th and Belmont. Shift2bikes.org. 6:30 pm. Free. All ages.

Farnell Newton

(courtesy of Bandcamp)
(courtesy of Bandcamp)

After delays caused by a fire in the top floor apartments, new jazz club Jack London Revue has finally opened in the basement of downtown pool hall Rialto. While its calendar so far features several touring acts, it also makes plenty of room for local talent, including Jimmy Mak’s refugees like Mel Brown and ace trumpeter Farnell Newton, who tonight celebrates the release of his new album, Back to Earth. Jack London Revue, 529 SW 5th Ave. 9 pm. $10. 21+.

Xasthur, Johanna Warren, Erin Jane LaRoue, Canadensis

Let’s face it: Black metal isn’t for everyone. Even at its best, doom-and-gloom set to massive walls of sound can get lost in itself, forgetting to come up for air in the pop-hook-dominated musical world most of us live in. This problem was never lost on Scott Conner, better known in some circles by stage name Malefic, who retired his black metal project Xasthur in 2010 and set off on a new musical path. Having already started shifting Xasthur toward more ambient, less guitar-driven sounds, Conner resurrected the name in 2015 with music that almost escapes description, but could be called “metal-adjacent neo-folk,” if you had to call it something. The acoustic iteration of Xasthur is by far the best variation yet, offering weighty, dark, committed chord changes to metal fans and thoughtful, audible lyricism to acoustic-folk fans. High Water Mark Lounge, 6800 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-286-6513. 9 pm $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

Sunday, June 11

(courtesy of Freebandz.com)
Future (courtesy of Freebandz.com)

Future
Kendrick Lamar ain’t walking through that door, but at least Atlanta’s reigning marble-mouthed trap king is coming within an hour’s drive of town. With Young Thug and A$AP Ferg in tow, this is easily the biggest hip-hop show of the season. Sunlight Supply Amphitheater, 17200 NE Delfel Road, Ridgefield, Wash., 360-816-7000, sunlightsupplyamphitheater.com. 7 pm. $24-$336. All ages. Read our round up of Future’s best deep cuts here.

The Dope Show

Cannabis and comedy have always gone hand in hand. But the real kicker of this standup showcase, hosted by bud enthusiast Tyler Smith, will be the sets that take place after a brief toke-sesh intermission, at which point a coterie of comics who’ve never been stoned before will try to manage their high and get laughs at the same time. Whether you’ll be laughing with them or at them is a mystery, but it’ll be funny either way. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888-643-8669, portland.heliumcomedy.com. 7 pm. $15-$23. 21+.

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