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FRIDAY, AUGUST 11
The Beloved Festival
After 10 years of organizing his "sacred music festival" in Oregon's coastal woods, founder Elliot Rasenick is aware of how it looks from the outside. Unless you're already about that earth-mama life, it's easy to look at the advertising for Beloved and dismiss it as a glorified yoga retreat. But if you look beyond the intuitive painting workshops and lectures on "the energetics of the feminine cycle," Rasenick believes the festival is just as appealing to hardcore music fans as amateur yogis. Read our Q&A with Rasenick here. Tidewater Falls, 12154 E Alsea Hwy, Tidewater, Oregon, riday-Monday, Aug. 11-14. See belovedfestival.com for tickets and complete schedule.
Vancouver Brewfest
Vancouver is the Portland area's second-best beer city after Portland—and Trusty, Loowit and Trap Door merit visits all by themselves. Oregon's Pfriem and Base Camp are also crashing the party for the fun of it. Esther Short Park, 301 N 8th St., Vancouver, Wash., vancouverbrewfest.com. 4-11 pm Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday. $17-$32 for up to 20 tastes.
Langdon Cook
Mushroom hunting is a lucrative business for Oregonians. Just ask Cook, whose book The Mushroom Hunters chronicled the industry's most avid collectors. His new book Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon, From River to Table focuses on—what else?—the salmon. The fish is an incredibly popular meal, which might explain why its wild population is dwindling while domesticated schools continue to grow. Cook takes an in-depth look at the reasons behind the shift, and how humanity can counter it. Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
Fire Walk with Me
According to co-creater Mark Frost, the Twin Peaks prequel film is the key to understanding the series' recent revival. Much like Fire Walk with Me itself, that's probably just a fanlore-baiting rabbit hole. Even so, the movie is a dark trippy nightmare, sometimes in a good way. Plus, it screens with one of David Lynch's shorts, Premonitions Following an Evil Deed. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., nwfilmcenter.org. 7 pm Friday, August 11. 8:30 pm Saturday, August 12. $9.
Chastity Belt, Never Young, Strange Ranger
Had it been released two decades ago, it's likely that Chastity Belt's careful juxtaposition of dream-pop songcraft and earnest lyrical barbs that drives the soft femme punk of this year's I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone would have secured the Seattle-based quartet a spot on the roster of Kill Rock Stars. The hazy beauty of the album feels both timeless and effortless, belying the intricacy of their arrangements and the razor sharp impact vocalist Julia Shapiro maintains on the album's many understated slacker anthems like "Complain" and "Used to Spend." Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 503-248-4700. 9 pm. $12. All ages.
DJ Quik and Scarface
While both are thought of as legends, particularly in their respective regions of origin, if anything links these two gangsta-rap vets, it's that they're still egregiously underrated. Backed tonight by a live band, they'll be drawing from a collective history that spans three decades. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 503-225-0047, crystalballroompdx.com. 9 pm. $30-$50. 21+.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12
2017 IFPA World Footbag Championships
Yes, Hacky Sack has a sport that isn't just you and your high school friends standing in a circle listening to Phish. The Net Finals may blow your mind—a mix of volleyball and regular Hacky Sack. And if you're lucky, you'll bump into the man who invented the footbag, Mr. Hacky Sack himself. Oregon Convention Center, Hall E, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 800-791-2250, footbag.org/worlds2017. August 6-12. See website for full schedule.
Portland Radler Festival
The radler is the finest German invention since Rammstein, and now the sunny-day fruit juice-and-beer drink gets its own festival. Expect orange creamsicle gose radler, apricot-blackberry radler and mango beer with mango juice. Not sunny enough for you? There's also a Jamaican jazz band. Stormbreaker Brewing, 832 N Beech St., 971-703-4516, stormbreakerbrewing.com. Noon-8 pm. $15-20 for 8 tasters.
Illmaculate & Goldini Bagwell, Smoke M2D6, Little Warrior
It's not a stretch to say Portland hip-hop would look a lot different today without the contributions of Illmaculate. Beyond his status as one of the country's best battle rappers, the veteran MC's response to the "Blue Monk incident" of 2014 shook Portland enough to spark a citywide discussion about the attitudes toward rap culture in the City of Roses. A couple years removed, hip-hop is now a vital and visible part of Portland's music scene, and Illmac can get back to doing what he does best—making hard-hitting, socially astute records. Tonight, he and Sandpeople alum Goldini Bagwell celebrate the release of their new collaborative album, Ethereal. The Know, 3728 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-473-8729. 8 pm. $10. 21+.
Something Wicked This Way Rocks!
You may not have asked for a hair-metal parody of Macbeth, but it's here, and it's an improbable delight. Set during a particularly bloody band tour, Something Wicked This Way Rocks! chronicles the misadventures of a deluded rocker goofily named Thane Macbeth (Norman Grey), who is urged by his scheming wife Lady M (Heidi Davis) to murder superstar Duncan King (Doug Galbraith)—which in turn rouses the suspicions of Banquo (Owen Hofmann-Smith). Gore, murder and supernatural doings follow, but what makes Something Wicked such a kick is the way it mashes the grim betrayals of Shakespeare's narrative against a gloriously kitschy world where the only thing more rad than Banquo's luscious blonde wig is Banquo's skintight purple pants. The Headwaters Theatre, 55 NE Farragut St., witd.org. 8 pm Friday-Saturday, 6 pm Sunday, through August 13. $15 in advance, $20 at the door.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 13
Girls Gone Mild
An 11 am comedy show seems an ambitious way to start your Sunday, but Siren's Sunday brunch show has a lineup of Portland comedians that's probably worth it. Along with a continental breakfast and a bar that's serving mimosas, there'll be standup from a fitting batch of comedians: the deeply blunt Caitlin Weierhauser, Lez Stand Up's energetic host Kirsten Kuppenbender, plus the delightfully insouciant Laura Anne Whitley. Siren Theater, 315 NW Davis, sirentheater.com. 11 am Sunday, August 13. $12-$13.
Sister Nancy
You've heard Sister Nancy, even if you don't know it. The Jamaican dancehall queen's 1982 single, "Bam Bam," might be the most sampled reggae record ever, having been incorporated by Kanye, Lauryn Hill and, most recently, Jay-Z. To hear the original in person on one of Portland's best patios is a true summer miracle. White Owl Social Club, 1305 SE 8th Ave., 503-236-9672, whiteowlsocialclub.com. 3 pm. $20 advance, $25 day of show. 21+.
Paella Sunday
Broadway restaurant Chesa might be gone, but every second Sunday you can still get that paella on the smoky Josper oven for brunch. But this time, it'll always be cooked by head chef Jose Chesa. $50 nets you up to four servings of paella, a salad and a glass of sangria, with the famous gin and house-made tonic available for dedicated lushes. Chesa, 2218 NE Broadway, chesapdx.com.