Top Portland Event Picks, September 3 - September 9

SWANS

THURSDAY SEPT. 4

BUTT KAPINSKI
[THEATER] Fresh from a lauded run on the fringe-fest circuit, Deanna Fleysher presents a solo show about a jaded private investigator trying to make a film noir. CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 220-2646. 7:30 pm. $15-$20.
BEY DAY
[IDOL WORSHIP] One day, Beyoncé’s birthday will be declared a national holiday. For now, we’ll have to settle for unofficial celebrations such as this, featuring Bey-themed DJ sets, video projections and dance performances, plus a costume contest. Extra points for anyone who shows up in a wetsuit. Surfbort! Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 9 pm. $5. 21+.

FRIDAY SEPT. 5 

BEAR IN HEAVEN
[MUSIC] For about a decade now, Brooklyn’s Bear in Heaven has been skipping along to its own twisted, radiating style of rock. Newest album Time Is Over One Day Old is the trio’s most accessible yet, but it maintains a captivating darkness suggestive of an underworld dance party. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.

SATURDAY SEPT. 6 

SWANS
[MUSIC] Rumor has it that Swans used to play so loud it would cause audiences to vomit. That’s an urban myth, but the band’s music has always been an uneasy listen. However, the records the band has made since reviving a few years ago manage a punishing heaviness that, if you stick it out, opens up into a kind of religious ecstasy. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033. 9 pm. $20 general admission, $30 reserved balcony seating. 21+.

SUNDAY SEPT. 7

CELEBRATION OF STEELHEAD
[FISH] Conservation groups celebrate the healthy summer steelhead run with live reggae from the Rising Buffalo Tribe, in a landlocked park. The fest is intended to help share the sport of fly-fishing with “inner-city youth” and war veterans. It is all wonderfully strange. Peninsula Park, 700 N Rosa Parks Way, soulriverrunsdeep.com. 1-8 pm. Free.

MONDAY SEPT. 8

OREGON HISTORY 101
[HISTORY] Did you go to elementary school in Oregon? Of course you didn’t, you transplant. Luckily you’ve got this new nine-month series, which aims to walk through some basics of the state’s history. It kicks off with the lecture “Two Hundred Years of Changes to Native Peoples of Western Oregon.” That’ll be easy to tackle in two hours. McMenamins Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave., 249-3983. 7 pm. Free. 

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