Willamette Weekend

7 things to do in Portland, March 23-25

Friday, Mach 23

Black Milk, J. Piner, ADd , DJ Zimmie
Black Milk
J. Pinder
The Crown Room, 205 NW 4th Ave. 9 pm. Free. 21+.

Fire Island
Defunkt Theatre ends its season with Charles Mee’s collage play about relationships and sunny beaches. Expect original music and video and gleeful strangeness. The Back Door Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 481-2960. 8 pm Thursdays-Sundays. Closes April 28. $15-$20. 

Last Days Here
“Anything bad for his heart, Bobby Liebling will do it,” says Sean “Pellet” Pelletier of his friend and idol, the singer of ’70s proto-metal never-weres Pentagram. Indeed, as this documentary captures in unflinching detail,  Liebling’s appetite for self-destruction is broader than his appetite for actual sustenance, as he seems to consume nothing but bacon pizzas and copious amounts of drugs. But Last Days Here isn’t another romanticized ode to a junkie cult hero. Such aggrandizement is difficult, anyway, when your subject lives in his parents’ basement at age 54, has grotesque open wounds covering his arms, and harbors simultaneous delusions of getting inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and being devoured by parasites. MATTHEW SINGER. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St. 7 and 9 pm Friday-Thursday, March 23-29.


Saturday, March 24.

Malt Ball
Why has it taken so long for something like the Malt Ball to come along? A combination of a daylong music festival and beerfest featuring 16 brewers and a dozen dope local bands? Seems logical to me: Portland can finally share its love of bitching about long lines for beer tastes and toilet queues while listening to sloshy sets by the likes of the Builders and the Butchers, Weinland, Denver and others. In other words, it sounds like the most wonderful collision of two regional traditions since titty bars and karaoke. AP KRYZA. Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St. 2 pm. $20 advance, $25 day of show. 21+.

Maria Choban
Under the nom-de-keyboard MC Hammered Klavier, the dynamic pianist leads a March Music Moderne chamber-music concert featuring sterling tenor Ken Beare and her fellow Moussai Ensemble members Janet Bebb and Ann van Bever on flute and oboe. In addition, there will be early music singer John Vergin as narrator in Philip Glass’ 1988 interpretation of Ginsberg’s “Wichita Vortex Sutra,” Portland jazzer-composer Art Resnick’s moody Toccanata, a two-piano arrangement of Portland composing legend Tomas Svoboda’s turbulent 1999 Storm Session and other intriguing music by today’s composers. BRETT CAMPBELL. Community Music Center, 3350 SE Francis St., 823-3177. 8 pm. Free.


Sunday, March 25

Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Nothing moves quickly in the world of Jiro Ono. Considered by many to be the best sushi chef in the world, Jiro has been practicing his art for 75 years. At age 85, he still works every day, tirelessly and meticulously, in his tiny 10-seat restaurant in a Tokyo subway station. His apprentices work 10 years before they’re allowed to cook an egg. They spend 40 minutes every day massaging octopus tentacles. His eldest son, aged 50, works obediently under his father’s exacting command until the day he may inherit the business. Jiro’s customers book months in advance and pay upward of $350 for his set 20-piece sushi meals; each item—a morsel of rice, a sliver of fish—constructed tenderly with a few swift hand movements and a brush of soy sauce. Like the sushi master himself, the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi moves a bit ponderously and occasionally repetitively. But as Jiro would be the first to tell you, patience and perseverance will pay off in the end. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd. Living Room Theaters, 341 SW 10th Ave. Multiple showtimes.

Loch Lomond, Dinosaur Feathers, Lemolo 
Loch Lomond
Mississippi Studios

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