Willamette Weekend: 18 Things to Do and See in Portland, June 13-15

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Friday, June 13

Pride Weekend

[PARADES AND SUCH] All weekend. But especially Saturday, if you love a parade. Go here for some deets. Or go here for the official website, with some deets. Note that this is the festival's 20th birthday, which means that next year, the festival itself can legally get drunk.

World Cup Beer Garden

[SOCCER, CALCIO, FUTBOL] In case you've been completely asleep at the switch, with your earmuffs and blinders on, the World Cup starts today. And there will be a whole ding-dang World Cup Beer Garden popping up in the parking lot of the now-closed Gypsy bar, which might be the best thing to happen in that parking lot for like 10 years. See our World Cup cover package (page 15) for more details. World Cup Beer Garden, 625 NW 21st Ave., 202-744-1496, facebook.com/worldcupbeergarden. 8:30 am-9 pm daily. Or go here for 21 other spots to also view the World Cup.

Rye Beer Fest

[BEER] To celebrate the great rye beer revival (they could have added rye whiskey here, seriously), Taplister will take over EastBurn with a solid 22 rye beers, including a black rye kolsch from Stone Brewing, rye saisons from Agrarian Ales and Humble Brewing, a brett rye grisette from Breakside, a dry rye pale from Oakshire, and a German-style rye from (of course) Occidental. Partial proceeds will be donated to the Children's Cancer Association. EastBurn, 1800 E Burnside St., 236-2876. 4 pm-2 am.

Art and Beer: The Drunken Cobbler

[ART AND BEER] This is sort of a chicken-and-egg thing. The Portland Art Museum invited five local breweries to come by and brew a beer inspired by art, in this case the 18th-century piece The Drunken Cobbler by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Except this painting was obviously also inspired by beer. It’s a vicious cycle, you see—enough to get you feeling drunk. It is, in all cases, a prime opportunity to drink beer at the art museum, including an apricot brett ale from Breakside, a French Biere de Garde from Widmer (see below) and an “unbalanced” blue-collar grisette from Laurelwood. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 226-0973. 6 pm. $10 museum members. $12 nonmembers.

Brainstorm, Social Studies, Hands In

[EXPERIMENTAL POP] Favoring what they call “African highlife and soulful AM radio nostalgia,” Brainstorm, with its West African-style guitar lines and thundering rhythms, drew attention for its similarity to Vampire Weekend when the Portland group released its second full-length album, Heat Waves, in 2012. Its two-track EP She Moves, released last year, finds the group following a similar formula, then taking it up another notch. Maybe it’s the addition of bassist and vocalist Tamara Barnes, who adds a bright airiness to the three-part harmonies, or perhaps it’s the way the atmospheric guitar and subtle synths mix so easily together with the groovy, grounding basslines. Either way, despite its aforementioned familiarity, Brainstorm manages to hold attention all on its own. KAITIE TODD. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $8 advance, $10 day of show. 21+.

Renaissance Coalition, Grape God, Soopah Eype, Load B

[PSYCHEDELIC RAP] Citing Basquiat, Dalí, Kubrick and Pink Floyd as influences, Portland's Renaissance Coalition sees itself as residing halfway between the street-corner cipher and the art gallery. With beats sourced from psychedelic rock records and the wigged-out lyricism to match, the crew knows it doesn't fit in with the city's prevailing hip-hop culture, but it's making some of the most interesting music right now of any group in Portland—period. Same goes for the rest of the acts on this bill. MATTHEW SINGER. Hawthorne Theater Lounge, 1507 SE 39th Ave., 233-7100. 8 pm. $3. 21+.


Saturday, June 14

Internet Cat Video Fest

[CAT VIDS] Cat people will leave the comfort of their ammonia-scented dwellings for this two-day fest, where they’ll stop forcing people to watch cat videos on their phones and start watching them on the big screen. DJ Whiskers provides pre-show entertainment, which hopefully includes a mash-up of “The Magical Mr. Mistoffelees” and the Meow Mix jingle. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 7 and 9:30 pm. $10.

Taste of Parkrose

[FOOD] Parkrose is an interesting proposition—a strip of bars and car-detail shops, and then suddenly food heaven for a few savory blocks. Well, the East Portland neighborhood is bringing that food out to the streets, from Romanian-German sausages to German baked goods to Chinese, Thai, Greek and Mexican fare. Tastes are free. Plus, Latin horns from El Raffa de Alaska & the Deadliest Catch. Northeast Sandy Boulevard and 106th Avenue. 10 am-6 pm.

Third Angle New Music

[PORCH MUSIC] The veteran contemporary chamber ensemble Third Angle continues to find inventive ways to bring new music out of the traditional concert hall settings, and you can't find a prettier place than the historic and verdant Irvington neighborhood. Last summer's sunny, ambling musical tour with porch-side performances made such an enjoyably intimate combination of music and alfresco ambiance that the group is repeating it as a fundraiser, with a new program, featuring music by this year's Pulitzer Prize for Music winner, Alaska's John Luther Adams, rising young Portland composer Justin Ralls, New York composer Jacob Cooper and others, performed at five homes by flutist Sarah Tiedeman, clarinetist Lou DeMartino, artistic director and violinist Ron Blessinger and percussionist Brian Gardiner. BRETT CAMPBELL. 4 pm Saturday, June 14. Irvington neighborhood, beginning at 3215 NE 16th Ave. $35.

Arctic Flowers

[DARK PUNK] Punks have never been as immune to pandemics as they’d like to think. So it’s not surprising that the past few years of black-metal shoegazing and other such trends have seen the reanimated corpuses of goth and death rock bleeding into the punk scene. Arctic Flowers, a beacon in this new gloom since 2009, has so far avoided succumbing to the gray sameness of its cohorts with a wily aesthetic as indebted to classic anarcho-punk agitations as it is to 45 Grave-robbing. Although the Portland quartet’s dour new LP is short on the sort of chant-along stretches that made 2011’s Reveries such a cherishable anomaly, Weaver is by no means a rote pledge of allegiance to de rigueur dark lords. Singer Alex Caroccio summons familiar but discomfiting goth visions, her clean, wintry croon bringing “sullen chests” and “strange loops locked” and “hollow skin” to brittle life. While the band is willing to give her a bed of retro flange to fall back on, the funereal vibe is constantly teased and subverted by a riotous devotion to punk’s rousing past. It reveals a subtly unnerving truth more vital and lasting than anything on Reveries: The black rest that eventually claims us all may not be as peaceful as previously believed. CHRIS STAMM. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., with Criminal Code and Bellicose Minds. 8:30 pm. 21+.

Pimento & Pullman

[THEATER] Imago's Jerry Mouawad brings together two unique one-acts: Thornton Wilder's Pullman Car Hiawatha, about an overnight train trip in which time is suspended and planets and weather become characters, and Mouawad's own Pimento, featuring three clowns who keep finding themselves in salacious scenarios. Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 231-3959. 8 pm. $10-$20.

Extravaganza

[VOGUE BALL] Drag queens nod to the old school as they stomp the runway for a $250 prize. Judges include Heklina, from that infamous Shack in San Francisco, as well as Portland's Poison Waters and Madame Anita DuMoore. Categories include Vogue-cabulary, Butch Queen Up in Drag, Fifth Element Realness and Rich Bitch. Rotture, 315 SE 3rd Ave., 234-5683. 9 pm. $10 advance, $15 at the door. 21+.

Jolie Holland, Jess Williamson

[ALT-COUNTRY] Once a principal member of the Be Good Tanyas, Jolie Holland has carved out a nice, bluesy folk groove for herself as a solo artist. The Texas songsmith just released Wine Dark Sea, a twangy, sometimes haunting record that might squeeze into the category of experimental country. Holland's ashen vocals resemble that of a soul singer twice her age, the perfect company for lap steel and slide guitars. It's an old-school approach to Americana that gives Holland an analog sound even live. Austin's master of folky sparseness, Jess Williamson, opens. MARK STOCK. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $15. 21+.

Gayme of Thrones

[SCAVENGER HUNTY] Bands of wildling queers ravage downtown in this third annual photo scavenger hunt. Capture tasks on your mobile phone—a round of shots, a guy in his underwear, a (spoiler alert) crazy woman falling through the Moon Door—in return for honor and crafty trophies. A portion of the proceeds from drinks goes to Equity Foundation. The Royale, 317 NW Broadway, 432-8944. 1 pm. 21+. 


Sunday, June 15

Dickslap

[PERFORMANCE] In addition to the performance by cherry-candy-yum-yum chola Adore Delano (which will probably begin around midnight), locals drag queen Miss "The Avatar" Inanna will grace the stage. Hosted by Shitney Houston and Carla Rossi. Party. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 9 pm Sunday, June 15 . $12. 21+

Big Trouble in Little China screening and comic signing

[GEEKDOM] As if the 1986 classic Big Trouble in Little China weren't awesome enough, comic writer Eric Powell and artist Brian Churilla collaborated with  director John Carpenter to continue the sci-fi/Western/kung-fu tale in their new comic Big Trouble in Little China #1Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 7 pm. $4 comic, $10 limited print.

Northwest Dance Project

[DANCE] Portland's standout contemporary chamber company puts on its annual Summer Splendors show. The company resurrects two pieces from 2012, Tracey Durbin's Atash and Gregory Dolbashian's This is Embracing, and premieres two new works. Yin Yue, who started her own New York company in 2010 and won Northwest Dance Project's Pretty Creatives competition last year, debuts her high-energy You Are In My Waltz. Carla Mann, a Portland choreographic staple, premieres her fifth work for the company. Northwest Dance Project Studio & Performance Center, 833 N Shaver St., 421-7434. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Saturday, June 11-14; 4 pm Sunday, June 15. $32.

Chad Vangaalen

[MUSIC] Shrink Dust, the new album from the atmospheric singer-songwriter, plays like an anthology of eerie tales, with ghostly vocals, lyrics about death, fear and mythology, and a stylistic palette that traverses several genres. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $12. 21+.

Dude York

[MUSIC] Dude York has grown out of the dorm and into the studio. The band’s newest album, Dehumanize, was produced by Neighbors frontman José Díaz and took two years to finish—odd, given the group’s catalog of punchy tracks, which rarely exceed three minutes. Songs like â€œIris” and “Hesitate” are denim-clad pop numbers, clean with a slight edge. Others, like “Heartland,” offer hints of soul—blistering and ’90s-rock-infused, but not without some crooning and musical sweet-talking. Mainly, though, Dude York just wants to have fun and sing songs about serial killers, girls and swimming after taking molly. Rontoms, 600 E Burnside St., with the Lower 48 and Fur Coats, on Sunday, June 15. 8 pm. Free. 21+.

WWeek 2015

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