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Friday, June 7
Freak Mountain
Ramblers, Bingo and Friends,
Lewi Longmire, Fernando, Little
Sue, Dan Haley, Tree Frogs
[FOLK] Performing as
a founding member of the beloved
Freak Mountain Ramblers, with
various friends or under his own
name, rock-'n'-roll true believer Jim
Boyer has employed his happy-golucky
and sometimes soul-baring
style to charm and move Portland
audiences for decades. Now, following
a shoulder injury requiring
emergency surgery and a resulting
infection requiring intensive
in-home care, Boyer is in need of
some help from those longtime fans.
One of a handful of benefits convened
for the singer, tonight's show
features Boyer's fellow Freaks and a
bevy of other long-serving Portland
roots rockers. JEFF ROSENBERG.
LaurelThirst, 2958 NE Glisan St.,
232-1504. 9 pm. $10-$20 sliding
scale. 21+.
Luz Elena, Star Anna,
Sara Jackson-Holman
[PIANO POP] The quirky piano-rock
thing has been done to death, so
pianist-songwriter Sara Jackson-
Holman is content to take things
in more of a pop direction by way
of hip-hop, while tossing in a dash
of sass and surprise along the way.
It's not every day someone dares to
give you a hip-hop-flavored track
that derives its base from "Für
Elise." That takes some serious balls.
Jackson-Holman's soulful singing
is reminiscent of a less-smoky ZZ
Ward, and that ain't a bad thing.
BRIAN PALMER. The Analog, 720 SE
Hawthorne Blvd., 432-8079. 7 pm.
Call venue for ticket information.
All ages.
Saturday, June 8
The Portland Fruit Beer Festival
[BEER] Judging by the six samples poured at a media preview last
Friday, there will be some great one-off beers poured at this festival. If you go, don't miss Burnside's rum-barrel-aged creation
with blueberries, golden figs, mission figs and dates.
Burnside Brewing, 701 E Burnside St.,
portlandfruitbeerfest.com, on Saturday (11 am-9 pm) and
Sunday (11 am-6 pm), June 8-9. $20. 21+.
Never-Nude Bike Ride (Pedalpalooza)
[BIKING JORTS] Not everyone likes riding
bikes naked. Some people never
like being naked at all. And others
are just big fans of recently revived
sitcom Arrested Development. For
them, there's the Never-Nude bike
ride, a more modest alternative to
all perv-friendly, clothing-optional
Pedalpalooza rides. Literally dozens
of never-nudes will gather in their
jean cutoffs for a 2½-hour ride.
Coe Circle, 3900 NE Glisan St.,
shift2bikes.org. 12:45–3:15 pm. Free.
Dolly Parton Hoot Night
[MUSIC] With her rootsy origins,
pop savvy and brilliant songwriting,
the Mayor of Dollywood is a
fitting role model for women's arts
organization Siren Nation, which
puts together this annual tribute—featuring
a diverse array of
Portland performers—as a fundraiser
for its yearly music and film
festival. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000
NE Alberta St., 719-6055. 9 pm. $10
advance, $12 day of show. Under 21
permitted with legal guardian.
Seventh Species
New Music Concert
[NEW CLASSICAL] Long before Cascadia Composers
were presenting showcases of homegrown
contemporary classical music,
CC member and Portland composer
Gary Noland was doing something
similar with his Seventh Species composers
collective. The series continues
with a trio of Florida-based
guest artists—pianist Jihye Chang,
clarinetist Deborah Bish and violist
Pamela Ryan—plus local musicians.
They'll play works (including premieres)
by eight local composers,
including the venerable Tomas
Svoboda, Jeff Winslow and former
Turtle Island String Quartet member
Katrina Wreede, as well as Noland's
own tribute to the late novelist David
Foster Wallace. Michelle's Piano
Company, 600 SE Stark St., 295-1180.
4 pm Saturday, June 8. Donation.
Ceremony, Survival Knife
[EVOLVED HARDCORE] You can
take the hardcore out of the band,
but you can't take the band out of
the hardcore. Ceremony started out in the mid-2000s playing spazzy,
aggro punk with little to discern it
from the other spazzy, aggro-punk
bands found in its Bay Area hometown
and, well, everywhere else in
America. Then, with little warning,
on last year's Zoo , the group began
folding heavy dollops of moody,
British-style post-punk into its
angry milieu. Normally, the shortsighted
hardcore community would
turn its back on such an evolution,
but Ceremony has kept one steeltoed
boot planted in that scene by
keeping its live shows every bit as
spazzy and aggro as they were originally. Only now, they're much more
interesting.
Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St.,
231-9663. 5 pm. $10. All ages.
Cappadonna
[HIP HOP] Cappadonna is at the very bottom of the Wu-Tang hierarchy, and not even
the collective's most ardent acolytes will argue with that fact.
Heck, it's never been clear whether he's even an official member
of the crew or a hanger-on brought in to record a verse when
someone else calls in sick. But he's still
hungry, figuratively and, possibly, literally. Aside from the somewhat
affordable ticket price, he deserves your attention for once.
Alhambra Theatre, 4811 SE Hawthorne
Blvd., on Saturday, June 8. 8 pm. $15 advance, $20 day of show.
21+.
Sunday, June 9
Milk Carton Boat Race
[BOATS] Despite what the name
might bring to mind, this isn't a race
of single milk cartons—participants
build their own human-size floats
with nothing but milk cartons and
jugs. A time-honored Rose Festival
tradition, participants compete for
trophies in design and racing categories. Westmoreland Park Casting
Pond, Southeast McLoughlin and
Bybee boulevards, rosefestival.org.
11 am. Free.
Beaux Arts Club
[THEATER] Beaux Arts Club opens with a strange
sort of duet. Actress Anne Sorce,
clad in a mod minidress and a fluffy
brown wig, shimmies and swivels
around an unnamed man who's been
gagged and handcuffed. At one point,
she removes a shoe and whacks
him with it. Sorce's bumbling awkwardness—there's
something seductive
about the way she moves, but it
couldn't be called sexy—doesn't disguise
the more sinister undercurrents
lurking beneath. As she lashes
the man behind a web of bungee
cords and white fabric, Sorce offers
coy glances to the audience. Finally
tossing a tablecloth over his head, she
turns back to us. "Well, that oughta
do it!" she squeals. And like that,
we're complicit in the dark absurdity
of this Imago Theatre production,
written and directed by Carol Triffle.
Beaux Arts Club raises questions
about art, taste, criticism and voyeurism
in a way that topples expectations,
drawing the audience into a
twisted, delightful fever dream of a
play. "I went to every First Thursday
this year," says a character. "Turns
out everything is art." The premise is
simple enough: Three thirtysomething
female friends gather yearly to show
off their art, read poetry and drink
red wine. But Triffle's designs are
unconventional, and the play swings
between hilariously overwrought
dialogue and hallucinatory songand-dance
breaks. The capable cast
answers Triffle's demands with exaggerated
physicality and unreserved
embrace of their preposterous roles,
which elevates the action to something
more than camp. Sorce steals
scenes throughout. She jackknifes
from feline slinkiness to feral recklessness,
gesturing like Vanna White at
one point and growling like a dog at
another. It's a wildly unusual portrait
of a downtrodden and lonely artist,
but the electric Sorce makes it work.
By play's end, the mysterious man
isn't the only one trapped in her web.
Imago Theatre,
17 SE 8th Ave., 231-3959. 8 pm
Fridays-Saturdays and 2 pm Sunday,
June 6-9. Free, $10-$20 suggested.
Northwest Dance Project
An original work by Portland choreographer
Minh Tran is the only world
premiere in this year's installment
of the Northwest Dance Project's
Summer Splendors , a show that is
usually nothing but new work. No
matter, though; Tran is a provocative
choreographer influenced by
his Vietnamese roots and training
in modern dance, and the reprised
works are good choices from past
Summer Splendors shows. Among
those is Sarah Slipper's dramatic
duet MemoryHouse, which juxtaposes
relationships and flour throwing. Also returning to stage is Loni
Landon's disjointed trio Covered ,
as well as Carla Mann's elegant
Illumine , in which dancers gracefully
maneuver around a ballroom scene.
Northwest Dance Project Studio &
Performance Center, 833 N Shaver
St., 421-7434. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-
Saturdays and 4 pm Sundays
through June 16. $30-$40.
Night is Simply a Shadow
[BOOKS] Showcasing the work of late
Oregon poet Greta Wrolstad, Tavern
Books will host a book release for
the posthumous publication of
Wrolstad's second collection of
poetry, Night is Simply a Shadow.
Local poets will read a selection
of her work, and the editors of the
project will discuss the process of
assembling a posthumous collection
of work. Division Leap, 6635 N
Baltimore St., Suite 132, 206-7291.
7:30 pm. Free.
The Futro Kit 2.0
The official
album-release party is June 9 at Holocene, featuring performances
from the entire group, as well as from many "Futro friends." The
new comp includes Boyce's latest invention, Audiothing, allowing
for all sorts of chopping and screwing, along with videos and other
"visual arts/secrets." Consider it a futuristic family photo album
from Futro's nonstop vacation.
Holocene, 1001 SE
Morrison St., 239-7639, with Dual Mode, Sexbots, Futro Fam, HAR-1
and Rap Class, on Sunday, June 9. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Method Man & Redman
Method Man is, arguably, Wu-Tang's No. 1 seed, a rugged rhymer so charismatic and
telegenic your mother recognizes him and thinks he's charming.
Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., with Serge Severe and DJ Wels, on Sunday, June 9.
8 pm. $32 advance, $35 day of show. All ages.
Uncle Tupelo Tribute
Night: Coffee Creek Collective,
Hook and Anchor, Mbilly, Lewi
Longmire, Nate Wallace
[MUSIC] Before Wilco and Son
Volt, there was Uncle Tupelo, a
short-lived band out of Illinois that
left a lasting imprint on the world
of alt-country before ever achieving
mainstream success. The band,
featuring songwriters Jeff Tweedy
and Jay Farrar, combined elements
of down-home traditional
country and blistering, distorted
punk before disbanding in the mid-
'90s due to the frontmen's soured
relationship. For whatever reason,
our local star-studded Americana
players have decided to celebrate
the band's binge-drinking, downtrodden
tales of despair and working-class
hardship. Hopefully, the
bands will leave Tupelo's historical
turmoil at the door. BRANDON
WIDDER. Mississippi Studios, 3939
N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm.
$5. 21+.
WWeek 2015