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Friday, Feb. 21
Blackout Beer Fest
[BEER] Black-as-night beers, from host brewery Lompoc's merlot-aged Baltic porter to Breakside's salted-caramel stout. Just don't black out yourself. Sidebar, 3901 N Williams Ave., 288-3996, lompocbrewing.com. 4-11 pm. $15 tasting package. 21kknd.
Soft Shadows, Blackstone Rangers, Jetman Jet Team
[LUCID-DREAMING POP] Soft Shadows refuses to use reverb as a crutch. Funny, given that the Portland band's debut is titled Reverb Is for Lovers. In the band's previous incarnation, under the name Sundaze, singer-guitarist June Kang says he used effects and volume to mask deficiencies in the songwriting. Now, he's more confident letting the music exist without all the distracting accoutrements. As well he should: If the earlier material was "dream pop" in the lightheaded, disorienting sense of the term, Reverb is of the more lucid variety, weightless without being formless, and utilizing just the right amount of distortion to give the songs dynamic punch. MATTHEW SINGER. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 473-8729. 8 pm. Call venue for ticket information. 21kknd.
Alphaville
[MOVIES] It's not just the fusion of noir and sci-fi that makes Alphaville one of Godard's enduring masterpieces. Its themes pop up everywhere, from the idea that machines could rule the world (as in Terminator and The Matrix) to the (borrowed) notion that free thought is a crime against society. Its surrealist imagery is startling, its morals loose and sickening, and its hero as flawed as they come. Its melding of classic Hollywood archetypes and a terrifying future was ahead of its time when it was released. Five decades later, filmmakers are still trying to catch up. Cinema 21. 616 NW 21st Ave. 9 pm.
Saturday, Feb. 22
Flatlands
[VISUAL ARTS] It has been 175 years since French painter Paul Delaroche declared, "From today, painting is dead." Delaroche himself is long dead, but painting lives on, and in Nisus' nine-artist show, Flatlands, it proves itself enduringly inventive. Emily Counts' watercolor, Painting 3, is a standout: two menacing figures hunched on either side of the composition, rendered in a delicate medley of mauve, gray, bright purple and blanched-out orange. Calvin Ross Carl's slyly lowbrow Fleet Week Boys, with its color-blocked rhombuses, is like Ellsworth Kelly as a kindergartener. Daniela Molnar's floral studies juxtapose finely detailed realistic passages with flat tatters of color, while Roy Tomlinson's jaunty lines recall the jerky rhythms of modern dance. Through March 2. Nisus Gallery, 8371 N Interstate Ave., Suite 1, 806-1427.
Travel Home, a Story
[THEATER] Drawing from interviews with homeless Portlanders, traveling troupe the Honest Liars stages an original work about the elusive concept of home. The piece incorporates physical theater and dance to tell the stories of a wide cast of characters, including a would-be beat poet, a runaway and a woman convinced she's a pirate. The Headwaters, 44 NE Farragut St., No. 9, honestliars.org. 7:30 pm. $10.
Flash Ah-AHHH!
[ROCK OPERA] A rollicking schlock-operetta, StageWorks Ink's Flash Ah-AHHH! pays faithful tribute to 1980 camp classic Flash Gordon—and takes it a step further by shoehorning a dozen Queen classics into the show alongside the titular smash song. While the troupe's Varsity Cheerleader Werewolves LIVE From Outer Space and The Adventures of Dex Dixon: Paranormal Dick veered toward extended improv skit or burlesque pastiche, this latest spoof embraces B-movie grandeur through music-hall ebullience and tent-revival triumphalism. Between the daft iconography, the "he'll save every one of us" tropes, and the hint of the devotional in every Freddie Mercury impression, the effect is something like a Godspell panto dreamt up in a church basement by an assemblage of boozy dramatists and the neighborhood kids they've press-ganged into service as a live band. Among the cast, Tasha Danner is an incandescent Dale Arden, Jake Sauvageau imagines Dr. Zarkov through an Iron & Wine prism, Jonathan Hall sneers droll menace as Ming the Merciless, and StageWorks mainstay Steve Coker treats Vultan's Falstaffian swagger with a nimble touch. Well aware the lunatic source material needs no elaboration, the performers invest themselves in rousing renditions that manage to underplay the original's hamminess while spotlighting quieter amusements, such as flight attendants incorporating safety demonstrations into their choreography, loungey nods to "Under Pressure" and Ming's serpentine lick of a weaponized Ring Pop. Gordon has risen indeed. JAY HORTON. Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., 841-6734. 7 pm Thursdays-Saturdays through March 1. $10-$15.
Public Service Broadcasting, Kiev
[MUSIC] As much a performance piece as a band, Londonâs Public Service Broadcasting fuses music, media and old footage straight outta your Communications 101 class. The duoâs newest album, Inform-Educate-Entertain, is a sensory feast of historical sound bites set to gazing, futuristic pop rock. Beware of subliminal messages, as these two are known to sneak in clips from old propaganda campaigns. Whatever it is PSB is telling us to do, itâs hypnotic and persuasive. Other artists sample, but PSB virtually plays beside FDR for entire fireside chats. MARK STOCK. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21kknd.
Oregon Ballet Theatre
[DANCE] Part of the deal to keep OBT's Alison Roper from retiring last year was the promise of a tall male partner. Artistic director Kevin Irving delivered, bringing back Artur Sultanov, who retired in 2012. The 6-foot-4 Sultanov will join Roper, who's just shy of 5-foot-9, for Nicolo Fonte's exuberant Bolero. Also on the bill are James Kudelka's minimalist Almost Mozart, Christopher Wheeldon's mystical Liturgy and a premiere by former artistic director Christopher Stowell set to Dmitri Shostakovich. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 222-5538. 7:30 pm. $25-$150.
Hillsdale Brewfest
[BEER] Twenty McMenamins brewers compete against each other for ale supremacy, with public tasting and voting. The winner goes to the Oregon Brewers Festival. McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery & Public House, 1505 SW Sunset Blvd., 246-3938. 11 am. $9 for 10 4-ounce tasters. 21kknd.
Portland Jazz Festival: Buster Williamsâ âSomething More,â Cécile McLorin Salvant
[JAZZ PAST AND FUTURE] With a few notable exceptions, jazz bassists tend to fade into the background, which explains why 71-year-old musician's musician Buster Williams—who made one of the great jazz albums of the '80s, Something More—receives less attention than his 24-year-old opening act. Not that Cécile McLorin Salvant, a brilliant young singer trained in Baroque music, doesn't merit her "second coming of Billie Holiday" buzz. Together, the venerable master and rising star make an irresistible double bill. BRETT CAMPBELL. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 248-4335. 7 pm Saturday, Feb. 22. $28-$58.
Sunday, Feb. 23
The Wes Anderson Collection
[BOOKS/FILM] With each of Wes Anderson's films becoming progressively Wes Anderson-y, the filmmaker has practically trademarked his own brand of idiosyncratic quirk. Award-winning critic Matt Zoller Seitz has gathered previously unpublished photos, artwork and Anderson ephemera with a book-length interview with the filmmaker. Seitz will share insights from, and sign copies of, The Wes Anderson Collection. Anderson will not be present. Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
Soft Shadows, Blackstone Rangers, Jetman Jet Team
[LUCID-DREAMING POP] Soft Shadows refuses to use reverb as a crutch. Funny, given that the Portland band's debut is titled Reverb Is for Lovers. In the band's previous incarnation, under the name Sundaze, singer-guitarist June Kang says he used effects and volume to mask deficiencies in the songwriting. Now, he's more confident letting the music exist without all the distracting accoutrements. As well he should: If the earlier material was "dream pop" in the lightheaded, disorienting sense of the term, Reverb is of the more lucid variety, weightless without being formless, and utilizing just the right amount of distortion to give the songs dynamic punch. MATTHEW SINGER. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 473-8729. 8 pm. Call venue for ticket information. 21kknd.
Funny Over Everything: James Adomian
[COMEDY] The monthly standup showcase, hosted by funny dudes Shane Torres and Sean Jordan, hosts comedian James Adomian, who's got killer improv chops and a spot-on George W. Bush impersonation. Portlander Christian Ricketts and Seattleite Mitch Burrow provide opening sets. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 8 pm Sunday, Feb. 23. $10.
WWeek 2015