Willamette Weekend: 12 Things to Do in Portland, Jan. 31-Feb. 2

Friday, Jan. 31

Brian Posehn 

Standup from the comedian, known for his fart jokes, fatherhood stories and heavy-metal fan base. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888-643-8669. 8 pm Thursday; 7:30 and 10 pm Friday-Saturday, Jan. 30-Feb. 1. $18-$30.

Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre

[dance] Heidi Duckler returns from L.A. to premiere another site-specific dance piece, this time in a gutted shell of a building in the Central Eastside. Ragnarok is based on a Norse tale of destruction and rebirth. The building, which burned down in 2006, has no ceiling, and the windows and doors have been removed. Prepare to get cold and wet. Southeast 2nd Avenue and Clay Street, heididuckler.org. 8 pm. $10-$25.

Portland Seafood and Wine Festival 

This is a big concrete mess that looks a lot like a Tupperware event, except for the 50 Oregon wineries on hand and the glut of oysters and crab and shrimp cocktails and jerky. Astoria, BridgePort and Deschutes breweries have smartly tagged along as a beer option, on the assumption somebody got dragged in who wants to pair the fruits of the sea with a Mirror Pond. Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 235-7575. 2-10 pm Friday, noon-10 pm Saturday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1. $10-$12, kids under 5 free.

St. Lucia, Sir Sly, Sex Life DJs

[2014 BREAKOUTS] Jean-Philip Grobler's tropical dance-pop project, St. Lucia, had one of 2013's best records in When the Night. Too bad it played second fiddle to more sugary releases. Grobler's pop musicianship, combined with a full band's worth of synths, horns and echoey drums, equals one of the most full-sounding live sets on the touring circuit today. Don't sleep on indie-rockers Sir Sly, either, whose beautifully composed, radio-ready tracks sound much bigger than a six-piece. GEOFF NUDELMAN. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th Ave., 233-7100. 7 pm. $15 advance, $18 day of show. All ages.

The Devil Makes Three, the Brothers Comatose

[DAMNED DOSEY DOE] No band channels rootsy, punk-flavored fervor quite like Santa Cruz's Devil Makes Three. The trio may find kindred spirits in the likes of Trampled by Turtles and similar old-timey acts, but none touts the band's raw percussive stampings and down-home thirst for lotus-eating the way singer-guitarist Pete Bernhard does. The band's first proper LP in four years, I'm a Stranger Here, quakes with personal demons and sinful unrest, sitting amid the best midtempo, acoustic damnation around. BRANDON WIDDER.  McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. 9 pm. $22.50 advance, $25 day of show.

Zappa Plays Zappa

[SONS OF INVENTION] Fame without fortune is hardly a blessing, Moon Unit once wrote. And she at least garnered a novelty hit through the sins of her father. Frank Zappa succumbed to cancer all too aware that their tossed-off New Wave collaboration would remain his best-known work, even if it’s no longer exactly well-known, and a sui generis cultural footprint as the hirsute iconoclast survives largely through a fanatical fan base perversely empowered by their hero’s waning legacy. We don’t think of the 1982 LP that spawned “Valley Girl” as one of his dozen or so albums to crack the Top 40-ish. We also don’t really understand the No. 27 chart position awarded such a dizzying thicket of prog fusion as Roxy & Elsewhere, which will be played tonight in its entirety by the Zappa Plays Zappa troupe of master sidemen. Project founder and first-born son Dweezil has doubtlessly exploited the lineage for less admirable ends than this testament to supra-challenging eccentricities, but touring his dad’s least-approachable music for the well-heeled faithful (or charging $75 for a brief afternoon guitar master class) won’t do the family name any favors. JAY HORTON. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033. 9 pm. $25-$65. All ages.

Saturday, Feb. 1

Chinese New Year Cultural Fair 

[CULTCHA] For a calmer and more aesthetically pleasing time on Chinese New Year, you should probably head down to the Lan Su Garden in Chinatown. It's pretty there during the day, and there will be dances and festivities and such. But if you want an exhaustive and exhausting mess, you'll be at the ding-dang Convention Center, at this big pig pile sponsored by the Portland Chinese Times newspaper, which promises various Chinese foodstuffs, folk dances, instrumental music and kung fu demonstrations, plus Lion Dance performances at 11 am, noon, 1 pm and 4 pm. Oregon Convention Center , 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 235-7575. 11 am. $8.

Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis 

[BOOKS] Revisiting their magical fantasyland with a hip Portland vibe, Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis have released the third installment in their Wildwood series, Wildwood Imperium. Sure, it may be intended for kids, but with a malevolent spirit reawakened, a band of runaway orphans and the possible reanimation of a mechanical-boy prince, you'll be forgiven for keeping your kids up late on school nights to read just one more chapter. Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 228-4651.
2 pm. Free.

Run Run Shaw marathon

[MOVIES] Run Run Shaw recently died at age 106, leaving behind more than 300 films from the golden era of Hong Kong cinema. Tonight, catch King Kong knockoff Mighty Peking Man, plus two mystery films featuring lots of wizard fights and kung fu. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 7:30 pm. $10.

Lust & Marriage

[THEATER] Eleanor O'Brien, known for her thought-provoking and entertaining examinations of love and sex, presents a solo show about marriage, monogamy and polyamory. Catalyst Art & Culture Space, 4810 NE Garfield Ave., 888-367-1117. 8 pm Thursdays, Jan. 30 and Feb. 6; 10 pm Friday-Saturday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1; 8 pm Friday-Saturday, Feb. 7-8. $10.

Thara Memory's Black History Month Extravaganza

From gigging with the likes of James Brown, Dizzy Gillespie and the Commodores to long tenures in Mel Brown’s and Leroy Vinnegar’s bands, trumpeter-composer Thara Memory has earned a deserved reputation as one of Portland’s finest musicians. He has gained greater renown as one of Oregon’s most admired music educators. Recently, his fame grew even wider when his star pupil, bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding, shot to international fame, and the two shared a 2013 Grammy Award for their work on her album Radio City Society. This week, Memory combines his roles as musician and educator in two Black History Month Extravaganzas, featuring some of Portland’s top jazz and R&B musicians, performing “music not normally played in Portland, from the African-American diaspora,” he says, including songs by the ’60s proto-soul band Dyke and the Blazers, Aretha Franklin, classic Stax Records artists and others.  Jimmy Mak’s, 221 NW 10th Ave., on Saturday, Feb. 1. 7:30 and 10 pm. $18 general admission, $20 reserved seating. Under 21 permitted with legal guardian until 9:30 pm.

Sunday, Feb. 2 

Super Bowl XLVIII

[SPORTS] Whoa. Dude. Did you realize the two teams playing in the biggest football game of the year are from states that legalized pot? Y'know what this means, right? Not only does weed cure cancer and make you see the future in a bowl of queso dip, it also makes you a better athlete. 3:20 pm on Fox 12.

White Denim, Clear Plastic Masks 

[BALLISTIC BLUES] What began in Brooklyn as a messy hard-rock quartet has settled in Nashville and found its stride. Clear Plastic Masks demands a live audience, offering raucous, punk-inspired riffs in blues-rock parameters. CPM's latest self-titled EP captures a high-energy act that's at once destructive and possessed by the Southern musical spirit. Fortunately for the crowd, CPM's heavy blows come in heated fits, giving band and listener alike a chance to breathe. Austin experimental rockers White Denim cap a surging night of fiery rock. MARK STOCK. Doug Fir Lounge. 9 pm. $13-$15. 21+.

WWeek 2015