Willamette Weekend: 15 Things to Do in Portland May 16-18

EASY COMPANY

Friday, May 16

Afro-Vegan Dinner
[FOOD] Bryant Terry will talk about social justice and his Afro-Vegan cookbook blending African, Caribbean and Southern flavors for the vegan crowd, while chef Bradley from Po'shines cooks up tastings from the cookbook. Possible offerings include a roselle-rooiboos drink, dandelion salad with pecan dressing, sweet potato and lima bean tagine and skillet cornbread with pecan dukkah. Celebration Tabernacle, 8131 N Denver Ave., 489-7804. 7-9 pm. $10.

19 Almost Twenty

[DANCE] Decades be damned—Conduit, the Portland community studio space, isn't waiting until its 20th birthday to hold a benefit performance. Contemporary dancers close with the nonprofit, including Mary Oslund, Gregg Bielemeier, Tere Mathern and Dora Gaskill, contribute abstract work for the show, a mix of meditation and moxie. Alexander Dones and his group Radical Child, which he calls the "Occupy Wall Street of performance art," dive into metaphysical existentialism. Carla Mann shows two films, one featuring Jae Diego and the other featuring Northwest Dance Project's Ching Ching Wong. The show starts at Director Park and moves to the Conduit Studio. Director Park, 815 SW Park Ave. 7 pm Friday-Saturday, May 16-17. $20-$100.

Jessie Marquez

[CUBAN JAZZ POP] When Jessie Marquez, now based in Portland, first visited her father's childhood home in Cuba in 1996, hearing the familiar filin—the Cuban musical style based on American jazz and Brazilian bossa nova—drew her to singing the music herself. She eventually performed around the island of its origin and topped the jazz charts in Latin America, Europe and the U.S. Her vocal style—paradoxically warm and cool at once—reaches back to classic bossa but adds a Caribbean lilt. She's abetted by Portland jazz vets pianist Clay Giberson, bassist Al Criado, percussionists Charlie Doggett and Rafael Trujillo and saxophonist John Nastos. BRETT CAMPBELL. Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th Ave., 295-6542. 8 pm Friday, March 16. $12.

Loop

[FUZZ GUITAR] Though it hasn't released an album in over 20 years, Loop's legacy is strong enough to ingratiate the U.K. band's catalog to a generation of fuzzed-out guitar enthusiasts. Its opening salvo, 1987's Heaven's End, remains a high-water mark of the era's experimental rock. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $15 advance, $17 day of show. 21kknd.

Survival Knife, Hungry Ghost

[POST-PUNK] Justin Trosper has been relatively quiet since the dissolution of Olympia post-post-hardcore Unwound in 2002. Unwound was one of the best—and definitely the most underrated—Northwest bands of the '90s, cranking out dissonant, noisy jams heavy on effects pedals but much weirder and uglier than most of the grunge and alt rock of the times. Survival Knife, his new band with Unwound's original drummer, Brandt Sandeno, plays things much more straight to the vest. The band's debut album, Loose Power, is aptly named—it's a wild and tuneful collection of rock songs, led by Trosper's distinctive moan and the rush of four musicians playing together in the same room. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 894-9708. 10 pm. $8 advance, $10 day of show. . 21kknd.

Saturday, May 17

Best New Band Showcase: Ural Thomas, Summer Cannibals and Tiburones 

[MUSIC] A septuagenarian soul genius, a band of young garage rockers and a Latin-folk supergroup walk into a club and play a free show. That's the setup for WW's annual showcase of the year's best new artists. Dare we say this is the strongest lineup in years? We'd say yes, but then, we're obviously biased. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. Free. 21kknd.

Fast Break

[MOVIES] With the Blazers against the ropes, relive the bygone days with Fast Break, a documentary about the 1976-77 championship season that stars Bill Walton's chin strap. Clinton Street Theater. 1:30 pm Saturday, May 17.

Mt. Hood Meadows Beer & Music Fest

[SKIS] Ski season's ending at the Meadows, and Double Mountain Brewery will help you drown your sorrows with a selection of new and rare beers. To top it off? Downright legendary Austin punk-bluegrass band Bad Livers is playing, for reasons we don't rightly know. Mt. Hood Meadows, Mount Hood, 337-2222, skihood.com. 9 am-5 pm. $59 for equipment rental, lift ticket and a $20 Double Mountain gift certificate.

Breakside Brewery 4th Anniversary Block Party

[BEERS] After churning out a solid century of beers in 2013, Breakside's got a lot to celebrate for their fourth anniversary, and they're doin' it with the whole neighborhood at their original brewspot in Dekum. They'll be serving up four different anniversary beers for their fourth, including a guava IRA and and imperial wit with kaffir lime, plus barrel-aged Aztec pepper beer, plus Aquavit- and gin-barrel-aged saisons. Guest taps from Commons, Gigantic Brewing and Widmer, food carts, bands in the beer garden, etc. Proceeds to Friends of Trees, Woodlawn Elementary School and Central City Concern. Breakside Brewery, 820 NE Dekum St, 719-6475, breakside.com. $12 admission to beer garden includes five 6-oz. pours. Kids allowed to the party, beer garden 21kknd. 

Maifest

[GERMANS] Don't wait until Oktoberfest to celebrate Germany's inimitable contributions to world culture: bratwurst, beer and dancing in circles around a pole. Prost! Oaks Park, 7805 SE Oaks Park Way, zeitgeistnorthwest.org. 11 am-7 pm. Free.

Darjeeling Dance Collective

[DANCE] Eight women of varying belly-dance experience got together a year ago under the direction of belly dancer Ruby Beh, with the goal of pushing themselves in the craft. Many were familiar with usual tribal and American cabaret styles, but they worked on pieces influenced by jazz, 1950s Egypt, classical Persian dance and more. They call the resulting show No Limits: A Transformative Year of Belly Dance, which includes a rule-breaking mix of traditional and modern choreography, as well as character pieces. They even—gasp!—use finger cymbals in a modern piece. BodyVox Dance Center, 1201 NW 17th Ave., 229-0627. 8 pm Saturday, May 17. $20-$25.

Lil Jon (DJ set), Sidestep

[KING OF CRUNK] Lil Jon is a rapper the way Sid Vicious was a bass player: The qualities he brings to his chosen art form transcend common definitions of “good” and “bad.” Nothing about the way his career has unfolded could be described as “subtle,” but it has been an exercise in a particularly loud kind of minimalism: No one this side of Fox News has gotten more mileage out of monosyllabic shouting. He’s basically a human air horn, so it makes sense that, with the crunk-juice well running a bit dry as of late, he’s returned to his DJ roots. What to expect from a Lil Jon DJ set? Probably not much that you wouldn’t find at a regular Lil Jon show: chest-caving beats, college dudes incessantly yelling Chappelle’s Show references at him, and a whole lot of ludicrous energy. Also, bet on hearing the year’s greatest jock jam, “Turn Down for What,” Jon’s collaboration with French electro-bro DJ Snake, about four dozen times. MATTHEW SINGER. Lil Jon plays Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033, 8 pm Saturday, May 17. 8 pm. $26.50. All ages. The official after-party is at Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 11 pm. $18. 21kknd. 


Sunday, May 18

Joshua Bell plays Sibelius

[CLASSICAL] When he's not posing as a busker in Washington, D.C., metro stations, Bell is playing sold-out shows around the world on his $4 million Stradivarius violin. He'll use it here to play Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D Minor, which was ill-received in its day because no soloist could match its technical requirements. Safe to say, Bell is up to the task. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 248-4335. 7:30 pm. $45kknd. All ages.

The Ghost Ease, Focus Troup, Half Shadow, Bed

[HEAVY DREAMSCAPES] Heavy and slow with strong vocals, the Ghost Ease are a refreshing change of pace among Portland’s female-fronted bands, who by and large play peppy garage rock. Frontwoman Jem Marie’s swirling voice intertwines with a thudding rhythm section and aggressive guitar. On “Supermoon (In Scorpio),” ticking cymbals build up before surrendering to a flurry of crashes and rolling snares, then leaving us in silence until Marie’s voice signals the ticking to bring us back. It’s a hypnotic effect, ebbing between relaxation and aggression. With a year removed since Ghost Ease’s first full-length, expect to hear at least one new song tonight, with more soon to come. LYLA ROWEN. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 8:30 pm. $7. 21kknd.

Association May: 'The Connective'
[FOOD] The May installment of the Association chef speaker series features Jason Barwikowski (Woodsman Tavern), who will cook up a batch of foods from Stargazer Farm, while Kelley Roy of Portland ADX speaks about the economic and social importance of human interaction, which we presume will also occur at the dinner. Synergy! Speaking of synergy: cocktails from Evan Zimmerman, desserts from Kristen D. Murray (Maurice, Paley's Place) and wines from Teutonic. Hoo! Tickets at brownpapertickets.com/event/681030Union/Pine, 525 SE Pine St., 818-292-1169. 7-11 pm. $65 plus gratuity.

WWeek 2015

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