Shows of the Week: Les Filles de Illighadad Is Coming to Mississippi Studios

What to see and what to hear.

Les Filles de Illighadad (Les Filles de Illighadad)

FRIDAY, JULY 2:

The dark Americana visions of Roselit Bone might initially evoke Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins and other black-clad poets of sin and redemption. But the wasteland that frontwoman Charlotte McCaslin wails about isn’t the Wild West, but a modern world scarcely less tamed. 2019′s Crisis Actor is a stark vision of American bloodlust and class struggle, delivered by a killer eight-piece band as interested in country music as regional Mexican music, Morricone soundtracks, and any punk band that’s ever donned a cowboy hat. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663, dougfirlounge.com. 9 pm. $15. 21+.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6:

Imagine alternative rock had nothing to do with punk whatsoever and you’ll have a good idea of Failure’s music. Though they’re ostensibly a post-grunge band, their philosophy is more in line with the laser-show prog behemoths punk ostensibly rebelled against (it’s no wonder their cult classic Fantastic Planet was named for a stoner-friendly French sci-fi flick). Unsurprisingly, they’ve long been associated with Tool, but while that band’s music can resemble an indecipherable equation, Failure’s songs are as fun and freewheeling as a Flash Gordon serial. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th Ave., 503-233-7100, hawthornetheatre.com. 8 pm. $25. 21+.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6:

Fatou Seidi Ghali of Niger’s Les Filles de Illighadad is one of the few female guitarists in the Saharan desert blues tradition (and one of the most innovative). Her band, active since 2016, combines the electric guitar theatrics associated with the genre—inspired as much by Hendrix and Van Halen as African traditions—with hypnotic village chants. Les Filles’ monster live album At Pioneer Works came out on Portland’s Sahel Sounds last year, and if the scorching energy of its songs moves you even a little, imagine how they’ll sound at Mississippi Studios. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895, mississippistudios.com. 9 pm. $18. 21+.

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