Willamette Weekend: 18 Things to Do and see in Portland, January 23-25

Friday, Jan. 23

Famine Fest II 

[METAL FEST] For the second year in a row, Chris Nukala has assembled a sickening lineup of gore, grind, thrash and death metal acts from around the country. This weekend's infestation takes place at Tonic Lounge, lasting all day and into the night. Of local interest is Friday's headliner, the recently reformed death-metal troupe Engorged, exhumed from retirement for its first show since 2009. Saturday's bill is topped off by LA's Terrorizer, a grindcore band that formed in 1987. This version of Terrorizer is led by original frontman Oscar Garcia and will perform the classic World Demise album. And if you're still festering for more, there's an after-show on Sunday featuring Dead Conspiracy at an undisclosed location. You'll have to ask around about that one. NATHAN CARSON. Tonic Lounge. 4 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show Friday; $17 advance, $20 day of show Saturday. 21kknd. Through Jan. 24.

Eccentric Soul: A Numero Group Dance Night featuring Dante Carfagna, DJ Bobby D, DJ Cooky Parker, DJ Maxx Bass  

[DEEP FUNK] Sometimes referred to as the “Funk Archaeologist,” Dante Carfagna has scoured the world’s vinyl bins for rare, esoteric R&B records, which he’s compiled into 19 volumes of revival label Numero Group’s awesome Eccentric Soul series. Tonight, he shares from his personal collection, and as XLR8R once wrote of him, "he really does play stuff that won't be heard anywhere else." Holocene. 9 pm. $5. 21kknd.

ID[ea]

[THEATER] Back in August, participants in Third Rail's mentorship program were given 36 hours to make a piece of theater. What emerged is a play about how we create, transform and strip apart our identities in the digital age. The subject matter might sound familiar, but count on Third Rail for strong performances and irreverent style. Echo Theater, 1515 SE 37th Ave., 231-1232. 8 pm Fridays, 8 and 10 pm Saturdays, Jan. 23-31. $10.

Chamber Blast: Third Angle New Music

[CLASSICAL] There's a zillion string quartets and scores of piano trios, but for some reason, few classical composers followed Johannes Brahms' lead in writing for the oddball combo of piano, violin and horn. Maybe because his gorgeous 1865 trio, written in memory of his mom, was a hard act to follow, it took a more than a century for another great composer to write another immortal one: Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti's wild 1982 masterpiece, written in homage to Brahms. Portland's veteran Third Angle New Music ensemble decided it was time for a 21st-century horn trio to fill out a program with the other two, so it commissioned young Thai composer Narong Prangcharoen to write one. If it turns out to be as good as his dazzling "Phenomenon," which electrified the audience at one of the Oregon Symphony's rare recent excursions into contemporary music, it may join the pantheon with the other two—and maybe make it more likely that all three will be performed more. BRETT CAMPBELL. Zoomtopia, 810 SE Belmont St., zoomtopia.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Friday, Jan. 22-23. $10 for students, $20 for seniors, $25 general admission. All ages.

Minority Retort

[COMEDY] A standup show produced by Jeremy Eli and Jason Lamb that gives the spotlight to comedians of color. Tonight's lineup includes Nathan Brannon, Katie Nguyen, Crystal Davis, Anthony Lopez and David Mascorro. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 9:30 pm every fourth Friday. $7.

Boyfriend Mountain

[POEMS] Poets Tyler Brewington and Kelly Schirmann co-authored the full-length book of poetry Boyfriend Mountain essentially by splitting the book in half and writing individually. Brewington shares a collection of moments that become a sort of disjunctive wisdom, while Schirmann follows the tragedy and beauty of her own experiences. As a whole, Boyfriend Mountain becomes an exploration of the pervious nature of our relationships. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 6 pm. $5-$10 donation. 21kknd.

Saturday, Jan. 24

Coffee Beer Invitational
[CAFFEINATED BEER] Coffee, beer and Bud Clark's bar—all together. It's like beer's answer to vodka Red Bull, but awesome. Make a beeline for the Weizendoppelbock with cocoa nibs and a cherry from Pints. Goose Hollow Inn, 1927 SW Jefferson St., 228-7010, goosehollowinn.com. Noon. $15 entry and eight tasters. 

Henry Kaiser, Dana Valatka, Fred Challenor

[GUITAR GENIUS] Few musicians have worked with colleagues as diverse as Herbie Hancock, Diamanda Galás, Phil Lesh, Terry Riley, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Nels Cline and Richard Thompson, but those and the many other musical visionaries San Francisco guitarist Henry Kaiser has collaborated with in more than 250 albums attests to his creative range. With a palette that broad, it's hard to predict exactly what Kaiser's solo and trio sets (with bassist Fred Challenor and Au percussionist Dana Valatka) will sound like in this Creative Music Guild concert, but they're sure to involve free improv, looping and effect pedals, and to be as fascinating as they are wide-ranging. BRETT CAMPBELL. Performance Works NW, 4625 SE 67th Ave., 777-1907. 8 pm Saturday, Jan. 24. $12-$20 sliding scale. All ages.

Brooke Fraser, Dark Waves

[HOUSE OF LORDE] Insofar as a recent teen phenom has rather broadened the ambitions of fresh-faced Antipodean chanteuses, it's hard to argue against Brooke Fraser going electronica as a marketing gambit. But while attempting to wring "Royals" treatment from her new direction, did she have to title the first single "Kings and Queens"?  If the digitized backdrops mark a decided change from the New Zealander's suburban-pastoral strummed melancholia, recently-released fourth album Brutal Romantic isn't so slavishly beholden to her platinum compatriot, and with singer-songwriterly musings reflecting the darkened distortion, the resulting collection sounds all the more original. JAY HORTON. Doug Fir Lounge. 9 pm. $20 advance, $22 day of show. 21kknd.

Love in this Club: Woolfy, Nathan Detroit, Ben Tactic, JPrez 

[TIMELESS IBIZA] Without getting too academic about the differences between nu-disco and the Balearic beat revival, the two chilled-out yet upbeat forms have one thing in common: plenty of people would rather have seen both left dead in the '80s. Simon James, aka Woolfy, is not one of those people, having released a slew of records on Balearic beat and leftfield stand-bys DFA and Permanent Vacation, including the seminal collaboration The Return of Starlight in 2007. With 2014's City Lights, James has shown his posi-jams are strong enough to brave the trendy musical tides. The lustrous EP could be from 2007 or 1987. MITCH LILLIE. Holocene. 9 pm. $5. 21kknd.

Back Fence PDX: Russian Roulette

[STORIES] Returning November champ Shannon Balcom will once again spin the wheel-o'-storytelling prompts alongside Portland writers, comedians, musicians and other about-towners, including Wm. Steven Humphrey, Brian S. Ellis, Bri Pruett, Brian Koch and more. Each storyteller will have five minutes to tell a true story based on their prompt for the Back Fence PDX version of Russian roulette. Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave., 286-9449. 8 pm. $15 advance, $18 door. 21kknd.

RL Grime, Lunice, Tommy Kruise

[TRAP LORD] A giant black helicopter flying into a gaping hole in the ocean probably holds many colorful metaphors for most RL Grime fans. But we’re going to avoid those interpretations of the music video for “Core” in favor of the one which suggests that, with hyper-advanced technology akin to the choppers’ crystalline black stealth armor and neon blades, Henry Steinway, a.k.a. RL Grime, has invaded and captured Trap City, with EDM Land falling shortly thereafter. There was no drawn-out siege: The 23-year-old L.A. producer went from an outsider producer in 2011 to remixing Benny Benassi and producing Pitbull the next year. Now sitting pretty atop many festival bookers’ unreleased 2015 lineups, the world watches where RL Grime will take EDM after his late 2014 debut full-length, Void. That album was archetypical for mainstream EDM, sacrificing unity for scatterbrained versatility, trading integrity—and yes, there is such a thing in trap music—for accessibility. In the "Core" video, the helicopter eventually gets obliterated by a red laser emerging from the hole. Here’s hoping Steinway’s piloting skills improve. MITCH LILLIE. Wonder Ballroom. 9 pm. Sold out. 18kknd.

Estelí Gomez 

[NEW OREGON MUSIC] Even before she won a Grammy award last year for her performance with Boston's electrifying vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, young soprano Esteli Gomez had won a national reputation as one of the rare indie-classical singers who could build a career around performing music by contemporary composers. As part of her latest weeklong residency at the University of Oregon's biennial Music Today Festival, Gomez will work with emerging UO composers. In this concert, she offers Portlanders the opportunity to hear the latest 21st century music created by the next generation of Oregon composers including Ramsey Sadaka, John Goforth, Justin Ralls, Alexander Bean, Dan S. Daly, David Sackmann and Matthew B. Zavortink. BRETT CAMPBELL. Zoomtopia. 8 pm. $8 students and seniors, $10 general admission. All ages.

Sunday, Jan. 25

The Vaselines, Loch Lomond

[INNUENDO ROCK] Has there ever been another band like the Vaselines? Not in the literal sense—there are hundreds of jangly, twee-pop sweater-rock bands out there—but in the sheer perfection that is their combination of earworm melodies and wink-wink eroticism. The group, led by former lovers Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, hasn’t really changed much since its inception (and subsequent 16-year absence) in 1986. Last year’s excellent V For Vaselines could easily stand in for 1989’s Dum-Dum or 2010 comeback Sex With an X. If anything, new songs like “High Tide Low Tide” or “One Lost Year” are even more irresistible than anything else in the band’s deep, inspired sing-along catalogue. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. Doug Fir Lounge. 9 pm. $18 advance, $20 day of show. 21kknd. 

Enter the Night
[THEATER] Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, known for staging some of the more adventurous work in town, presents a play by the prolific but rarely produced Cuban-born playwright Maria Irene Fornes. Here, three friends navigate big issues—gender, sexuality, love, death—in formally spare ways. Shaking the Tree, 823 SE Grant St., petensemble.org. 7:30 pm. $15-$40.

Constructs

[VISUAL ART] Constructs is curator Rachel Adams' inspired solution to the quandary of how to fill Disjecta's massive exhibition space. This clean, elegant show is a kind of "etude on the wall," a series of strategies for filling the space without actually plopping anything down in the middle of it. Three artists pull the trick off with élan. Nathan Green's earth-toned mural recalls the abstract patterns of the late minimalist Sol LeWitt, and Pablo Rasgado's strips of vertical wall coverings are excavated from buildings he's seen around the world. Most impressively of all, Laura Vandenburg's cut-paper sculptures have obsessive detail that complement their gigantic scale. The show's coup de grâce is Adams' ballsy decision to leave a large section of the north wall empty. The negative space lends an off-kilter dynamism that perfectly sets off the three artists' works. Through March 1. Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave., 286-9449.

CoLevity

[DANCE] CoLevity—formerly known as Eclectic and run out of the Cami Curtis Performing Arts Center—debuts That's How We Roll as part of the Fertile Ground Festival. An hourlong bout of musical theater that includes tap, jazz, contemporary and hip-hop influences, the show is centered around the eccentric Guttenburg family, an eclectic mix of fictional characters who all happily get along—at least some of the time. Featuring dances choreographed by Polaris alum Stephen Diaz as well as current Polaris dancer Blake Seidel, the show is a blend of Big Love and Portlandia, according to Curtis. Acts include a hip-hop number set to Weird Al's "White and Nerdy," as well as a tap dance aptly set to Wild Cub's "Thunder Clatter." Polaris Contemporary Dance Center, 1501 SW Taylor St., 380-5472. 5 pm Saturdays-Sundays, Jan. 24-Feb. 1 and 1 pm Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1. $15.

The Ensemble, Musica Maestrale, Canonici

[VENETIAN VESPERS] As the Portland Art Museum's Golden Age of Venice exhibit recently showed, the Italian city's position at the crossroads of trade and culture produced an artistic explosion. That also applied to music, when at the beginning of the 17th century what we now call Baroque music was born. The all-star Portland vocal group called the Ensemble joins the local early-music ensemble Musica Maestrale and Tacoma's early-music vocal consort Canonici to perform music that might have been used in a vespers service from that artistically fertile time and place. BRETT CAMPBELL. St. Stephen's Church, 1112 SE 41st Ave. 4 pm Sunday, Jan. 25. $10 for students, $10 for seniors, $20 general admission. All ages.

WWeek 2015