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FRIDAY, APRIL 1
Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy
[SEE ART] Iconic portraits by Edward Curtis, an ethnologist who documented Native tribes a hundred years ago, are on display alongside the work of contemporary native artists Zig Jackson, Wendy Red Star and Will Wilson. Jackson uses humor and metacommentary in his black-and-white series. Red Star employs color, scale and interaction with museum visitors to highlight the traditions of Crow women, a matrilineal people whose lives were not captured by Curtis' sepia portraits of male chiefs. Wilson's breathtaking tintypes are digitally scanned and printed so that the original images can be offered to his subjects with whom he collaborated on the portraits, something Curtis never did. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 226-2811. $20. Through May 8.
Heathers: The Musical
[CORN NUTS] Triangle Productions' candy-colored musical version of the 1988 cult classic is slightly lighter, but with the same body count. Picture fewer F bombs, and when mean girls get knocked off, they hang around as specters to enjoy the show. Hilarious song and dance numbers make excellent use of the movie's best lines—you'll be singing along to "My Dead Gay Son" in no time. On-brand bonuses include a pre-show signature cocktail called the Heathers-Up, snack-size bags of Heather C's favorite snack—corn nuts—and scrunchies on sale to benefit a local crisis hotline. Bright-Faced Malia Tippets shines as the outsider Veronica, particularly in the duet "Seventeen" with the darkly-funny and brooding J.D. (Ethan Crysal). Extra show at 7 pm Sunday, April 3. MERYL WILLIAMS. Triangle Theater, 1725 NE Sandy Blvd., 239-5919. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, through April 2. $15-$35.
Love in This Club's 1080p Showcase, with Bobby Draino and Auscultation
[HAZY SYNTH] If you want to understand Canadian cassette label 1080p, start with Bobby Draino. Solo endeavors by the former drummer of post-grunge band Weed are a hazy gaze into Vancouver, B.C.'s esteemed house and techno scenes, whose common threads are 6 am underground parties, clouded synth pads and a holy devotion to kush. His debut album, a split with D. Tiffany as Xophie Xweetland called Chrome Split, crystallized this unique moment for Cascadian dance music via an abstract, acid-tinged sound all their own. And the cover, depicting a bosomed bong lounging on a plastic beach, is simply one of the best album covers of all time. Read the full article. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 9 pm. $5 advance, $7 after 11 pm day of show. 21+.
Potions, 555, Antecessor, Magisterial
[MAGIC TOUCH] Chicago's DIY dance outfit Potions trades in an off-the-cuff style of breezy electronic music, with woozy synths floating in and around convoluted 707 drum patterns. The artist's latest funky brew, Pushing the Cuboid, released on the lysergic L.A. label 100% Silk, builds off Potion's catalog of VHS retro-wave in deconstructing dance tropes. Tonight's MIDI party starts with Italo house band Magisterial's triumphant return to the stage, and also features the hardware-hesh worship of Antecessor dialing in the wayback machine for headbanging analog heads. WYATT SCHAFFNER. Xhurch, 4550 NE 20th Ave. 7 pm. Donations suggested. All ages.
Prince Rama, Dinner
[FEVER-DREAM POP] Like African Head Charge fronted by the Bangles, or Hall & Oates begging for Brian Eno's help, or Kate Bush Groundhog Day-ing her way through the mid-'80s and getting angrier with each iteration, Prince Rama is a hard band to add up. It's best to talk about the Brooklyn group in retro time periods, in neon colors and especially in infectious energy. Touring behind Xtreme Now, their eighth album in eight years, sisters Taraka and Nimai Larson have coined a new dance genre—"extreme sports"—which goes a long way toward describing the kind of manic, bombastic live show to expect. Or, y'know, not. DOM SINACOLA. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Thomas Frank
[AUTHOR TALK] In 2004's What's the Matter With Kansas?, Baffler co-founder and current Harper's columnist Thomas Frank discussed how the Democratic Party's shift from social equality to "social issues" like gay marriage and abortion morphed his home state from the heart of the populist Progressive movement to a reliable Republican stronghold. In his newest book, Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?, he continues along this line of thinking, arguing that the party only represents upper-socioeconomic classes. Read the WW Hotseat. Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
SATURDAY, APRIL 2
Betroffenheit
[DANCE] Addiction and trauma look like a faded Chicago on loop in the newest dance from Kidd Pivot, Canada's best contemporary company. Artistic director Crystal Pite paired with Vancouver's Electric Company Theater for the company's first theater-dance hybrid. As Betroffenheit opens, a gaunt man appears alone on a stage resembling Abu Ghraib. Then, Pite's five company dancers—wearing faded sateen bras, pinstripe trousers and bowler hats—tap dance maniacally around the drab central figure. Lights strobe, dancers buckle at the joints, and speakers blast voices from places they don't belong—doorways, light fixtures and dancers' bodies. It's like cabaret torture, equally entertaining and horrifying. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway. 8 pm Thursday-Saturday, March 31-April 2. $25-$34.
Belgian Beer Day
[DRINK BEER] For the last time before moving to a former yogurt shop on Northwest 23rd' the Abbey Bar will celebrate Belgian Beer Day with a live feed from Antwerp and other Belgian-style beer bars, with special beer flights and beer shwag on hand. The Abbey Bar, 716 NW 21st Ave., theabbeybar.com. Noon-midnight.
Hophouse Ciderfest
[DRINK CIDER] The 15th Avenue Hophouse will hold a yard party for cider in its parking lot, featuring a whole mess of cideries, including Reverend Nat's, Cider Riot!, Incline, Neigel Vintner Cider, Wandering Aengus, Apple Outlaw, Finnriver, and Wildcraft. 15th Avenue Hophouse, 1517 NE Brazee St., oregonhophouse.com. 2-7 pm, April 2-3. $30-$40.
Mishka Shubaly and Kristine Levine
[COMIC AUTHOR] Mishka Shubaly cleaned up, but his comedy didn't. Once a tattooed addict who accidentally stabbed himself and used an alias to get treated at the ER, he's now a sober, plant-powered marathon runner with six Amazon Kindle bestsellers. But his jokes are still dirty. Shubaly joins Kristine Levine at Bossanova Ballroom on Saturday to promote his new memoir and first physical book, I Swear I'll Make It Up to You. Before coming to Portland, Shubaly talked to WW about teaching at Yale, being a deadbeat son and one night in NEW Mexico with Levine. Read the full Q&A. Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St., 9 pm Saturday, April 2. $15. 21+.
Thief
[MOVIE NIGHT] Long before the crime masterpiece Heat and the pastel-hued coke freakouts of Miami Vice, Michael Mann hit the scene with Thief, a smaller-scale, ultra-stylized caper flick featuring James Caan at his best. And Jim Belushi, for some reason. Laurelhurst Theater. April 1-7.
[CULT FILM ON STAGE] We've seen a rash of live stage versions of cult movies lately. There is Point Break Live, the local Hot Gun take on Top Gun, the touring Evil Dead Live and a local adaptation of Manos: The Hands of Fate, which is largely considered the worst movie of all time. But this is different: a reverent tribute to a funny film, rather than a parody. Local actor Steve Coker and his Stageworks Inc. company are transforming the movie into a minimalist musical packed with a robust live score. Clinton Street Theater, stageworksink.com. Thursday-Saturday, March 31-April 9.
SUNDAY, APRIL 3
Freddie Gibbs, ILLFIGHTYOU, Chaz French
[GANGSTER RAP] With lame Twitter beefs and Future-clones dominating the conversation, Freddie Gibbs stays in his own lane as rap's unsung hero. Despite having the exact same delivery as Tupac, as well as lyrical prowess, Gibbs has almost a decade of mixtapes under his belt, maintaining a social consciousness alongside coke-rap braggadocio. Piñata, his 2014 collaboration with beat alchemist Madlib, is a masterpiece which showcases Gibbs' dexterous flow amid cinematic sample hooks, with a steady narrative of maintaining the block—not to mention his sanity—from the powers that be. His latest, Shadow of a Doubt, trades throwback for trap, as he makes a darkly introspective build toward the mainstream. WYATT SCHAFFNER. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd., 233-7100. 8 pm. $18. 21+.
City of Gold
[MOVIE-MUNCHIE NIGHT] Jonathan Gold is one of food journalism's only legitimate heroes, and certainly the only one with a Pulitzer on his metaphorical belt buckle. With his Counter Intelligence column for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times beginning in the '80s, Gold helped change the way traditional working-class and ethnic fare like tacos and pho are viewed by food critics—as cuisines every bit as layered, vital and full of history as the stuff at high-dollar French spots. This new documentary by Laura Gabbert accompanies the legendary journalist as he tours the eateries and neighborhoods of L.A. Gold told WW, "I love the way it makes Los Angeles look. It's a part of Los Angeles that doesn't make it onto film so often. In a way, it's probably as much about the ecstasy of being in your car as the sun sets as it is about going to restaurants." Read the full Q&A with Gold. NR. Cinema 21.
Ellie Goulding
[ELECTRO-POP] Differentiating between pop superstars can be tough. Just remember: Nicki Minaj raps, Ariana Grande wears bunny ears, Rihanna surpasses everyone in talent, and Taylor Swift is, well, Taylor Swift. Ellie Goulding, meanwhile, joined the lineup as the EDM pop queen in 2010. She's also British, and therefore the only one to use the word "shag" in her lyrics, with an accent that comes through as strongly as Lily Allen's at times. Goulding's newest album, Delirium, includes the impossibly catchy "On My Mind." But each of her insanely popular three albums has a song like that, just like we knew they would. SOPHIA JUNE. Theater of the Clouds at Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St., 235-8771. 7 pm. $59.50. All ages.
Rick Bass
[SHORT STORIES] The author of 24 books of fiction and nonfiction and the winner of Pushcart Prizes and O. Henry Awards, Rick Bass is one of the titans of the short story. A geologist by training, the Montanan's work has a strong grounding in nature and the environment. His latest collection, For a Little While, includes new and old stories that follow calves with diarrhea, hellacious ice storms and dog trainers voyaging into the wilderness. Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
We Are Proud to Present…
[COMI-DRAMA] The new show at Artists Rep is a theatrical mic drop. The audience sat in silence for three minutes (I timed it) when the show ended on opening night, except for the sound of a few people trying to swallow their sobs. It's a hilarious, belly-laughing show about German soldiers committing genocide in Namibia. Read the full review. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 241-1278. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Sunday and 2 pm Sunday, through April 3. $48.
Willamette Week