Willamette Weekend: 15 Things to Do in Portland This Weekend, April 18-20

Friday, April 18

Kenji Bunch Retrospective

[MODERN CLASSICAL] Violist Kenji Bunch, one of America's finest emerging composers, moved back to his hometown last year. This all-Bunch show features a string quintet that embraces Appalachian fiddling and Texas swing and an amplified sextet inspired by everything from comic-book graphics to heavy metal. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 719-6055. 8 pm. $10-$35. Under 21 permitted with guardian.

The Aces

The Aces, a sketch-comedy duo comprising Shelley McLendon and Michael Fetters, are aptly named: They're damn good at what they do, and they're back with a new show running for three weeks. Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Ave., 306-5217. 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays through May 3. $15.

Oregon Ballet Theatre

Oregon's premier ballet company is losing its premier ballerina. Alison Roper, at age 40 and after 18 seasons, is about to retire, performing for the last time as a principal dancer in OBT's Celebrate program. Her final bows, which she'll take at the April 26 performance, also mark the end of the old guard at OBT under former artistic director Christopher Stowell. Roper almost left with him last year, but new artistic director Kevin Irving convinced her to stay for one more season. In this program, she will perform the company premiere of Nacho Duato's Cor Perdut, a dynamic pas de deux set to music by Maria del Mar Bonet. The company will also premiere Petal, a vivacious and colorful piece by Helen Pickett, and The Lost Dance, a contemporary piece with an edge that Matjash Mrozewski set on OBT in 2012. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 222-5538. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, April 17-26; 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, April 19-20. $25-$142.

Godflesh, Cut Hands, House of Low Culture, La Fin Absolute du Monde

[INDUSTRIAL METAL] Some might say the term "industrial metal" came from Godflesh. The band is a founding father of the minimalist, machine-driven, heavy-as-hell genre, coming from the outskirts of Birmingham, England, where the factories run 24 hours a day and the air is thick with exhaust. Godflesh was originally supposed to come through Portland last fall, but, thanks to the government shutdown, were unable to get visas. All tickets to the other show will be honored this time around. World Lit Only by Fire, the group's first new record since 2001, will be out some time this year, so it would seem likely fans are about to be smashed with some long-awaited new tunes. CAT JONES. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th Ave., 233-7100. 8 pm. $20. All ages.

Soul'd Out Music Festival: KPSU Kruise featuring Magic Mouth, Orquestra Pacifico Tropical

[LITERAL YACHT ROCK] I live the kind of life where I rarely get to party on a giant boat. Sure, I went to a cousin's wedding cruise when I was 15, but I don't know if watching my aunts slam wine spritzers counts as "partying." Either way, Portland State University's radio station is teaming up with the Soul'd Out Music Festival to bring you one of the flashiest boat concerts the Willamette River has yet seen. Imagine popping a bottle of bubbly while listening to Magic Mouth, a glammed-out funk band that channels the spirit of both indie rock and a Baptist choir, and the traditional Colombian cumbia of Orquestra Pacifico Tropical. This might be the closest you'll ever get to living like P-Diddy. Excuse me, Puff Daddy. ASHLEY JOCZ. Portland Spirit, Southwest Front and Salmon streets, 224-3900. 10:30 pm. $10. 21kknd.

Saturday, April 19

Massive Garage sale

[SHOPPING] Forget spring cleaning. What you really need to do this weekend is accumulate some Celine Dion cassette tapes, a few electric-blue ski suits and a used stationary bike. Expo Center, 2060 N Marine Drive, 736-5200. 8 am-5 pm. $5.

Spring Beer and Wine Fest

My, time flies: Twenty years of this mess of a fest at the Convention Center. It doesn't have the tight curation of other fests in town, and the Convention Center is not exactly cozy. But, holy shit, there's a lot of booze, beer and wine. If you honestly have no idea what you like, this is the place for you. Take note, in particular, of the broad range of ciders—13 in all. Not to mention the 40 beers, 20 wines and 10 distilleries. Thank God for MAX trains. Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 235-7575. Noon-10 pm. $8 admission, $1 tasting tokens, $6 tasting cups.

Urban Wine Tour

[WINE] A drunken bus with a sober driver roving around the urban wineries of Portland. Care to figure out what the fuss is about? This is how you do it: on a five-hour tour that will deposit you, like a sack of grapes, right back where you started. Smart people pick up a $20 PDX Urban Wine Passport first (pdxurbanwineries.com) for free tastings. More details and ticket-buying at portlandshortbus.com. EastBurn, 1800 E Burnside St., 236-2876. Noon. $35.

Hurray for the Riff Raff

Alynda Lee Segarra formed Hurray for the Riff Raff with drummer and violinist Yosi Pearlstein and bassist David Maclay in 2007, self-releasing its first two albums of soulful, Woody Guthrie-influenced blues. The group released its fourth album, Small Town Heroes, earlier this year, and while the record maintains the same wandering sound the trio is known for, Segarra’s focus is on her adopted hometown of New Orleans. Much attention has been paid to one song in particular, “The Body Electric,” which, according to Segarra, was written about a young girl she met on her travels who was later murdered. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., with Clear Plastic Masks, on Saturday, April 19. 10 pm. $15. 

Jonas Rake, Bryan Zentz, Invisible Ziggurat, Neglect, JT Collins

[LIVE TECHNO] Quietly, techno and experimental producer Jonas Rake has been making tracks in Portland. “Quiet” is not a word I’d normally associate with techno, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Rake leaves no space unfilled, firmly plucking short, staticky samples to make a techno sound echoing from a haunted workshop—this was the sound of his Autechre-inspired project Dampkrane, which still lives on, without the name. Elsewhere, playing with and ripping apart melodies on “Et Pata Phys,” he is a rough but gifted surgeon. MITCH LILLIE. The Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont St., 503-595-0575. 9 pm. $5. 21kknd.

Sunday, April 20

Easter/4-20

[HOLIDAYS] Celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and/or marijuana.

Halo Varga, Evan Toutz, Uungh, Demetre Baca, Doc Manny, Clay Watkins, DJ Tracy, DJ Tao, Ollie Vaughn

[HOUSE] Globetrotter Halo Varga has been classing up the West Coast house scene for two decades. "Future," released in 2000, is undoubtedly one of this millennium's finest cuts, taking the best of disco—basslines and that shuffle—without compromising any of house's tempo or drive. After founding underground highbrow dance label CityDeep, Halo has been focusing on a new label, Surface, a new tech-house collaboration as H-Foundation and reissuing some of his "Future"-era cuts. Maybe he's not in his producing prime, and maybe that's OK because this is Hollywood Bowl's—what the fuck?—closing party. MITCH LILLIE. Hollywood Bowl, 4030 NE Halsey St., 288-9237. 10 pm. $12 advance, $15 day of show. 21kknd.

The Dillinger Escape Plan, Trash Talk, Retox, Shining

[METALJAZZMATHCORE] It took me a little bit to get into the Dillinger Escape Plan. The mathed-out, seizure-inducing metallic pandemonium that is 1999's Calculating Infinity was too much for my fragile 15-year-old mind to handle. I didn't revisit the album until six years later, when Miss Machine, the first album with Mike Patton-on-steroids singer Greg Puciato, convinced me I should, and I've been a fan ever since. The group's most recent release, 2013's One of Us Is the Killer, is another excellent piece of spazzed-out brutality that's as catchy as it is pulverizing. SAM CUSUMANO. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th Ave., 233-7100. 8 pm. $20 advance, $25 day of show. All ages.

Huun Huur Tu

[TUVA!] Gird your mind for blowing. Huun Huur Tu are masters in the art of Tuvan throat singing, in which different tones are layered atop one another to give the impression of producing multiple pitches at once. These guys are human didgeridoos, basically, creating a sound like an Auto-Tune beehive. If you're not careful, this could turn out like the time you smoked a J before going to see the dude who makes the noises in Police Academy and nearly went into epileptic shock. Alberta Rose Theatre. 8 pm. $25 advance, $28 day of show. Minors admitted with guardian.

Mobb Deep

[HIP HOP] Life in Queens is no kung fu fantasy. A few years after Wu-Tang Clan claimed Staten Island for Shaolin with 36 Chambers, Mobb Deep dropped The Infamous, an East Coast rap milestone of equal proportions and similarly grimy production aesthetic that subbed movie-nerd escapism for really real realism—maybe a tad too real. Nineteen years later, MCs Prodigy and Havoc are still reporting live from the meanest streets in New York, where death rules everything around them. Get blunted, but beware: It might make you think way too hard about the line “stab your brain with your nose bone.” Doug Fir Lounge. 9 pm. $20 advance, $23 day of show. 21kknd.

WWeek 2015