43.20 - Willamette Week March 15, 2017

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WEED-and-COFFEE pairings.

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KLANSMAN

surfaces in Lake Oswego.

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BEST

WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

“YOU CANNOT DRINK LIKE SHANE MACGOWAN.” P. 34 WWEEK.COM

VOL 43/20 3. 15. 2017

NEW BAND

THE 10 LOCAL ACTS PORTLAND MUSIC INSIDERS SAY YOU MUST HEAR. PAGE 11

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Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

ROSIE STRUVE

FINDINGS

PAGE 25

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 43, ISSUE 20.

Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz said she’d boycott City Council meetings because she felt “unsafe” in restrooms meant to accommodate transgender people. 6 Google gave $33,000 to an Oregon Republican now pushing hard for Trumpcare. 7

The solution to Portland NIMBYism may be to pay people to literally put a solution to homelessness in their backyard. 8

ON THE COVER:

There’s now a veteran Ku Klux Klan leader living in Vancouver, Wash., and Nazis are meeting at Lucky Labrador. 9 The new Japandroids record has a seven-minute ballad. 33 A play by the guy who wrote Hamilton is being performed in Portland this weekend. 43 The adult theater on Southeast Division Street stocks Pepsi products and Moon Pies. 49

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

Lithics photographed

by Thomas Teal.

Rukaiyah Adams traveled from Northeast Portland to Wall Street.

Now she’s come home to fix her city.

STAFF Editor & Publisher Mark Zusman EDITORIAL News Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Martin Cizmar Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Rachel Monahan, Corey Pein Copy Chief Rob Fernas Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Nicole Groessel, Maya McOmie, Stage Editor Shannon Gormley Screen Editor Walker MacMurdo Projects Editor Matthew Korfhage Music Editor Matthew Singer

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ADAMS’ PLAN FOR THE CITY

Great article! I’m inspired by Rukaiyah Adams’ achievements, personally and professionally, and especially by her vision for the moribund—and wasteful—Rose Quarter [“Long-Distance Runner,” WW, March 8, 2017].

To develop it in a way that reconnects it to its place in history and the people displaced by it, as well as making it a place for people 24 hours a day—living, working, socializing, playing—would be a higher and better use of that chunk of real estate than how it’s used now.

—Jim Barnas WILLAMETTE WEEK

“I AM HERE! I EXIST!”

I see Adams as an activist with a personal base of economic power.

That makes her all the more likely to effect change.

—“Robin”

CHURCHES PROVIDE SANCTUARY

P. 44

A lawyer from Wall Street is going to look out for the working class of Portland? I don’t know how that works.

—“Bill”

God bless and protect everyone associated with this moral, compassionate and just endeavor— their courage is laudable, as is their willingness to help in the fight against evil.

—Connie Kosuda

WINE INDUSTRY SEEKS SUBSIDY

First of all, the subsidy has to be worth the investment [“Pork and Wine,” WW, March 8, 2017].

Does the amount of money the wine industry brings into our state make this subsidy worth it? And, if not currently, will it eventually?

LONGDISTANCE RUNNER It is one our growing industries; we would help any other industry if the potential was there. It shouldn’t make any difference if the industry is wine or apples or wheat.

—“Socratic/Sardonic” Rukaiyah Adams traveled from Northeast Portland to Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Now she’s come home to fix the city where she began.

By Rachel Monahan

Page 12

WWEEK.COM

VOL 43/19 3.8.2017

“Adams is an activist with a personal base of economic power.”

So Pastor W.J. Mark Knutson rings the huge bell, and the entire neighborhood is invited to join him in breaking U.S. law? [“How to Build an Underground Railroad,” WW, March 8, 2017.]

These are not immigrants; they are illegal aliens who have absolutely no right to be in our country. I’m sick and tired of these criminals.

What a dreadful lesson to be teaching the youth of this church: We get to pick and choose the laws we want to obey.

—Kit Hogan

WHY NO GAYBORHOOD?

“One of the nation’s most LGBTQfriendly cities has no queer enclave.” Really? [“Why Portland Can’t Have a Gayborhood,” WW, March 8, 2017.]

I’ve lived here for a decade and have never been gay-bashed so much in my life. I can’t say that I’m surprised there’s never been a true enclave for the LGBT. I wish people would stop painting Portland to be as liberal and progressive as it claims to be. There’s much more growth and change to be done. —Rae Nichelle-Peres

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification.

Letters must be 250 or fewer words.

Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MA RT Y SMIT H

I want to put a kayak in Johnson Creek in Gresham and float west until it reaches the Willamette in Milwaukie. Is that doable?

—Intrepid Adventurer

Maritime law is one of the oldest branches of the legal profession. As such, not only does it feature entertaining provisions like, “The bosun’s groat bucket shall be well-sealed with pitch ere ye be three leagues from port,” it often gets to supersede other branches of law by virtue of having been there first.

For example, maritime law is the reason that 1,500 people on the Hawthorne Bridge have to wait for one asshole in a sailboat: The right to a navigable waterway trumps the right to use the road.* So, Intrepid, I understand why you might conclude that if you can manage to get into some kind of boat, you should be able to get away with murder.

Indeed, if a navigable waterway crosses private property, the owner not only has to let you navigate it, he has to give you access to the stream’s banks if you need to get out and walk.

But not so fast, Bear Grylls: The list of Oregon waterways that have been declared navigable is 4

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

short, and doesn’t include Johnson Creek. That doesn’t mean you can’t try to make your case, but as Julie Curtis of the Oregon Department of State Lands warns: “Navigability declarations [are] very time-consuming and expensive.”

But maybe you figure that you’ll just wait until the creek is high enough so you won’t have to do any portaging. It’s true that you have the right to paddle on any Oregon waterway, “navigable” or not, if you stay in the water.

Unfortunately, the further your craft rises from the draggy creek bottom, the closer your face gets to low-hanging obstacles like bridges, branches, and strands of barbed wire. Scout the route first—for God’s sake, wear a life jacket—and bear in mind that next year’s Darwin Awards are waiting to hear from folks like you. Good luck. *This was actually the very first Dr. Know question, dealt with here: wweek.com/portland/ article-11044-meet-dr-know.html.

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com

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5

Oregon Legislature Weighs Electoral College Reform

A bill that would add Oregon to a national movement to reform the nation’s presidential elections had its first hearing March 14 in the state Legislature. House Bill 2927 would award Oregon’s Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote under an interstate agreement, which specifies that the bill would only take effect after states with a majority of the Electoral College have passed similar legislation. So far, 10 states and the District of Columbia have passed the bill. The bill is a workaround to the requirement for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to abolish the Electoral College.

The Constitution allows states to award their electoral votes in a manner of their choosing.

Similar legislation has passed the Oregon House three times; Senate President Peter Courtney blocked Senate passage and says he opposes the idea this year too. Hillary Clinton won 2.9 million more votes than Donald Trump in November, but lost the Electoral College.

Portland School Board Sheds Three Incumbents

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READERS’ POLL Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

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As Portland Public Schools welcomes a new superintendent and prepares to ask voters for $790 million on the May 16 ballot, its elected leadership is fleeing.

All three incumbent board members up for re-election in May—Chairman Tom Koehler, two-term veteran Pam Knowles and the board’s resident bomb-thrower, Steve Buel—chose not to defend their seats. But each seat will feature a contested race. In Zone 4 (North Portland), Rita Moore, a longtime district volunteer, faces Jamila Munson, a former charter

school principal; in Zone 5 (central Northeast Portland), economist Scott Bailey faces Virginia La Forte, a parent activist; and in Zone 6, Beaverton teacher Trisha Parks faces the newest entrant, former board member and longtime Nike executive Julia Brim-Edwards, who announced her candidacy March 13. “The many challenges facing Portland Public Schools are not insurmountable,” Brim-Edwards said in a statement. “We need bold but also level-headed, consistent and accountable leadership from the board.”

Fritz Sets Off All-Gender Restroom Turmoil

The city of Portland’s experiment with allowing people of all genders to share two multi-stall restrooms in the city’s largest building hit a snag last week. According to emails obtained by WW, City Commissioner Amanda MIKE GRIPPI

GAGE SKIDMORE

MURMURS

Fritz threatened not to attend City Council meetings, which are being held this month in the Portland Building, because of “unsafe” conditions in the building’s all-user restrooms. By March 8, the city restored a women’s restroom on the second floor in time for the council meeting, but on March 10 restored an all-user restroom—this time on the first floor, by converting a women’s restroom. Fritz later apologized for her criticisms of all-user restrooms and made clear she supports the city’s continuing effort to provide restrooms that are open to all genders.

“I recognize now that the all-user restrooms on the 2nd floor of the Portland Building may have been a better option than single-gender options available throughout the building,” she wrote to colleagues last week.

NEWS L O VAT T O

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

This Week’s Lies DISPATCHES FROM THE TRUMPIVERSE, MARCH 8-15.

1

The Man to See

SPECIAL INTERESTS VIEW U.S. REP. GREG WALDEN AS A BLUE-CHIP INVESTMENT.

BY N I G E L JAQ UI SS

njaquiss@wweek.com

Short of Nurkic Fever, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) is suddenly the hottest topic in Portland.

As chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Walden has taken a central role in replacing Obamacare with Trumpcare. That’s made him a target of scrutiny by Portland progressives, Oregon media outlets and constituents in his own congressional district, a vast swath of rural Oregon surrounding Bend.

But federal filings show that powerful corporate interests have long recognized the value of investing in Walden,

who for the past two cycles served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

His job was to help identify and elect candidates, which put him in a position to build lasting relationships in his caucus. His donors put themselves in positions to capitalize on those ties. Walden hasn’t drawn a serious challenge since his first race in 1998, but in the past two cycles he’s raised $9.98 million across three committees he controls— more than three times the total of his Democratic peer, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, and far more than any other Oregon member of the House.

Here’s who supports Walden—and what interests they have.

TOP 5 CONTRIBUTORS TO THE 2016 WALDEN CAMPAIGN

BY I N D U ST RY

BY DONOR

Telecommunications: $301,000

National Association of Broadcasters: $111,000

Pharma/Health Products: $299,000

Cow Creek Tribe: $100,000

Electric Utilities: $248,000

General Communications Inc.: $82,000

Health Professionals: $237,000

Comcast: $61,000

Broadcasting/Music: $230,000

Alphabet (Google): $33,000

They want: Less regulation, more bandwidth.

They want: Higher drug prices.

They want: Grid expansion.

It wants: No new Indian casinos.

It wants: Cable TV boxes to preserve market share.

They want: Higher Medicare fees.

They want: Low artist royalties.

It wants: Less regulation.

It wants: The same as General Communications.

It wants: Self-driving vehicles.

In November, Donald Trump asked Preet Bharara, star anti-corruption prosecutor and U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to stay on the job. On March 11, Trump fired Bharara after he refused to resign along with 45 other federal prosecutors. (Those numbers did not include Billy Williams, acting U.S. attorney for Oregon.) Bharara was reportedly leading an investigation into whether Fox News lied to shareholders by failing to disclose sexual harassment claims against its former chairman and CEO, Roger Ailes. On the shortlist for Bharara’s replacement: Ailes’ personal attorney, Marc Mukasey.

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On March 12, the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the Republican replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as “Trumpcare.” The CBO found that 24 million people, or nearly 1 in 13 Americans, would lose insurance under the law. During last year’s campaign, Trump said, “We’re going to have insurance for everybody.” A few days before his inauguration, he said, “Nobody is going to be dying on the streets with a President Trump.”

Also on March 12, White House spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway told a New Jersey newspaper that President Obama may have illegally spied on Trump during the 2016 campaign through Trump’s home appliances, such as “microwaves that turn into cameras.” The previous week, Trump claimed without evidence that Obama “had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower” during last year’s campaign.

“This is McCarthyism!” Trump wrote.

On March 13, White House spokesman Sean Spicer tried to erase Trump’s outrageous claims, saying, “The president used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.” Conway also reversed herself. “I’m not Inspector Gadget,” she told CNN. “I don’t believe people are using the microwave to spy on the Trump campaign.”

SOURCE: OPENSECRETS.ORG

CONFIDENT: Although Bend, the largest city in Walden’s district, is turning a little bluer, Republicans still enjoy a voter registration advantage of 8.8 percentage points over Democrats in the district. That’s slightly larger than the 8.6-point advantage Republicans had in 2001.

COMFORTABLE: Congressional funding watchdog Open Secrets pegs Walden’s estimated net worth at $2.917 million.

He ran his family’s radio business before entering Congress. That’s a tidy sum, but less than that of other members of Oregon’s delegation, except Democrats Jeff Merkley ($2.9 million) in the Senate and Peter DeFazio ($1.1 million) in the House.

DEFAZIO

COLLABORATIVE: Walden and DeFazio co-founded the congressional craft brew caucus in 2007. There are now 187 members of the caucus, representing 42 states.

INSPECTOR CONWAY Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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NEWS

AMY CHURCHWELL

our communities,” says Marc Jolin, head of the Joint Office of Homeless Services. “I don’t expect that this will cause any concern for neighbors.”

But at least one neighborhood leader is skeptical.

Robert McCullough, chairman of neighborhood coalition Southeast Uplift, says the only proven solution is housing that comes with social services.

“Little houses and ADUs are fine,” McCullough says, adding that he was speaking for himself and not the neighborhood group. “But we need to find a location where we can bring services to the needy.”

Our House Is Your House MULTNOMAH COUNTY HOPES TO BUILD GRANNY FLATS TO HOUSE HUNDREDS OF HOMELESS FAMILIES IN PORTLAND BACKYARDS.

BY R AC H E L M O N A H A N

r monahan@wweek.com

Multnomah County is preparing to make Portland homeowners a remarkable offer: It will pay to build them a granny flat in their backyard, if they let a homeless family live there for five years.

The county project, called A Place for You, aims to build as many as 300 miniature, roughly 200-square-foot homes on residential properties across the metro area in the next year. County officials hope to build the first four houses, each costing up to $75,000, by June 30.

Under the terms of the project, the county would build the granny flats and homeowners would get to keep them—a substantial property upgrade. In return, a homeowner would commit to a five-year lease of the backyard structure to a homeless family, without pocketing any

Tiny Solutions If tents have become the symbol of Portland’s housing crunch, tiny homes and accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, are turning into the emblem of new efforts to help.

Last week, the Kenton Neighborhood Association approved the opening of a homeless village that will house 14 women in enclosed “sleeping pods” that have no plumbing. The Portland Development 8

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

rent. (The county may start requiring families to pay 30 percent of their earnings into a savings account to prepare them for moving into other housing.)

“The public is calling on us to try something new and something different,” says County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury. “The wait list for all of the [current] affordable housing units is ridiculously long.”

The project marks the first foray into housing construction by the county-run Joint Office of Homeless Services.

That office typically opens shelters and offers rental assistance to keep families from winding up on the streets.

County and city officials have long struggled to find locations for homeless shelters, rest stops and authorized camps. They’ve been repeatedly flummoxed by the vocal objections of local residents.

A Place for You offers an ingenious workaround to that obstacle. By offering to essentially pay homeowners to allow homeless families to live on their property, the county skirts getting the permission of neighborhoods.

It also more closely resembles an affordable housing project, which tends to spark less controversy.

“This will be affordable housing scattered throughout

Commission has also approved a 72-unit affordable housing project for the site.

Then-Mayor Charlie Hales helped secure a $300,000 grant last year for the nonprofit Blanchet House for a project in which formerly homeless men will build 30 tiny homes for fellow homeless people. The group expects to begin building next month, though the city has not identified a location.

Portland State University’s Institute for

“MY HOPE IS WE DO 300 OF THESE IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS.” —Mary Li, Multnomah County

The granny flat—or, as it’s technically known in Portland zoning code, the “accessory dwelling unit”—has been touted as the answer to Portland’s growing pains, a solution for creating a denser, more affordable city where now only 17 percent of land is zoned for apartment buildings and roughly 45 percent is zoned only for single-family dwellings.

A Place for You is not the only effort underway to use small dwellings of various sorts to address the city’s housing crisis (see sidebar below).

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is enthusiastic. “This is an innovative idea to provide non-shelter alternatives to homelessness,” says Wheeler in a statement. “The challenges we face around homelessness are diverse, and so our approach to addressing them must include a diverse set of solutions. The same old approach won’t do.”

But it comes at a time when Portland is facing a 24,000unit shortfall in affordable apartments and homes, and is desperately seeking innovative solutions for people living on the margins.

At least 338 people are staying in family shelters across the county. But that doesn’t fully account for the number of homeless families, including those living on the streets or in domestic violence shelters, or the 60 people provided hotel vouchers each night by the county.

The joint office put up $175,000 for the pilot project.

It’s matched by an equal amount from Meyer Memorial Trust. County commissioners approved the public-private partnership with Meyer earlier this month.

One drawback to the idea: It doesn’t pencil out as very cost-efficient. Project organizers settled on spending $60,000 to $75,000 on each of the first four small homes— double what they originally hoped the units would cost.

That’s a cost per month of up to $1,250 per unit, since each unit will be used as affordable housing for five years.

That’s less than the county pays for shelter beds, which for a family of three cost the county and city roughly $2,000 a month. But it’s also more than double what the city plans to spend per apartment under the housing bond—assuming those buildings last at least 30 years.

It’s still unclear whether the project will try to meet the city zoning code for accessory dwelling units, or whether they’ll technically be classified as something else. Also in the works: an effort to waive property taxes on the granny flats for the five years they are used by homeless families.

“We’re taking risks,” says Mary Li, director of the Multnomah Idea Lab, a county policy center. “My hope is, we prove this concept, and we do 300 of these in the next 12 months.”

Sustainable Solutions is working on a project to make it easier, quicker and cheaper for homeowners to build ADUs. It aims to work with homeowners to build 200 ADUs in 2017-18.

Former PDC director Patrick Quinton has co-founded a company called Dweller that will build ADUs for homeowners, rent them out and manage maintenance. Homeowners would lease a spot in their backyard and

collect a percentage of the rent. Dweller is starting with one ADU in June and hopes to build five to 10 by year’s end.

City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly has launched an app for homeowners to screen whether their property meets basic criteria for an ADU; that is, lies in an area not at risk of flood or landslides.

RACHEL MONAHAN.

MIKE BIVINS

minorities well into the 1990s.

“We’ve been a little busy lately,” Randy Blazak, chairman of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crime, says drily. Blazak likens post-election hate crimes to a “contagion,” driven by “knucklehead” copycats rather than card-carrying Nazis.

“It’s not an organized movement response,” he says. “It’s more opportunists who feel they now have a certain amount of permission to act out on those beliefs.”

That was little comfort to Ilan Moskowitz, an employee at Lucky Labrador Beer Hall on Northwest Quimby Street, where since at least March WIZARD SIGHTING: The man with a shaved 5 someone has been leaving cards that read, head and sunglasses at a March 4 Trump rally in Lake Oswego is Steven Shane “White?” and listed web links for hate site the Howard, a Mississippi Klansman.

Daily Stormer, a new group called PDX Stormers, the website 4chan, and the Trump campaign.

On March 12, Moskowitz says he overheard a conversation at a table of 10 white patrons that led him to confront them about the fliers.

One young man in a Make America Great Again hat said, giggling, “No, you’ve got it all wrong, we’re a black power group,” according to Moskowitz. The group then started chanting “black power” and AN ALLEGED KLAN LEADER SURFACES IN raising their fists. When staff attempted to kick out patrons, at first they refused to leave. On their THE PORTLAND AREA—WHERE NEO-NAZI those way out, one man played bagpipes he had brought ACTIVITY IS ALREADY BUBBLING. and another declared, “I called my Nazi friends,” after dancing around the manager and repeatedly

BY M IKE B I V I N S and CORE Y P EI N 503-243-2122 calling him anti-gay slurs.

Concerned patrons called police. Portland On March 4, approximately 250 people gathered Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson says on a riverbank in Lake Oswego for a rally to show two officers responded to a call regarding “10 people support for President Donald Trump. Among refusing to leave, shoving staff” but do not appear them was a celebrity Klansman and neo-Nazi to have filed an incident report. (Video is available from Mississippi. at wweek.com.)

Steven Shane Howard has been identified by Moskowitz, who is Jewish, didn’t think before the Southern Poverty Law Center as the “imperial confronting a group that outnumbered the bar staff wizard” of the North Mississippi White Knights of 2-to-1 that night. “My whole life, I hear about this the Ku Klux Klan, a hate group based in Tupelo. He shit,” he says. “My grandfather survived two prison gained national notice last year after signing a deal camps. I’ll tell you what was going through my head: to star in an A&E documentary series called Gen- ‘This is how Hitler got started. In a beer hall.’” eration KKK. (It never aired.)

Howard, the alleged Klansman, made his local Last year, Howard traveled to Vancouver, debut at Lake Oswego’s George Rogers Park, near Wash.—a relocation that he and the west bank of the Willamette River. the Anti-Defamation League both At the “March 4 Trump,” Howard described as an effort to expand the “THIS IS was filmed wearing a jacket adorned KKK into the Pacific Northwest. with a large Mississippi state flag (which HOW Howard now tells WW that’s not includes the Confederate battle flag) true: He says he moved to Vancouver while standing near another man who to get away from the Klan. was screaming about “[n-word]s and GOT Howard’s arrival coincides with Jews” disrupting the event.

STARTED. a rise in racist and anti-Semitic hate Southern Poverty Law Center spokesIN A BEER incidents across the Portland area woman Rebecca Sturtevant tells WW this month. Nobody is suggesting that the center’s Klan analyst is “fairly HALL.” he was involved in any of those inci- —Ilan Moskowitz, certain” the man in the video is Howdents, but his public appearance and ard—his neck tattoo, which includes the who kicked some those events are symptoms of the number 14, matches Howard’s.

Nazis out of his bar same problem: an emboldening of Reached by WW via Facebook Meswhite supremacists. senger on March 13, Howard confirmed On the night of March 11, during the Jewish being at the Lake Oswego event “for political ideas.” holiday of Purim, swastikas were spray-painted on But he said he was no longer a member of the Klan. several cars, trees, fences and homes in Southeast “Fuck the kkk,” Howard wrote. “I moved here Portland’s Richmond neighborhood. A neo-Nazi to get away from the klan and that lifestyle.” That group has been recruiting students at Portland contradicts a Facebook post Howard made last State University, and on March 6, the Mittleman May, saying he was traveling to Washington state Jewish Community Center in Southwest Portland to start “the Washington knights of the Ku klux received a bomb threat. And a group of self-pro- klan [sic].” claimed “national socialists”—that is, Nazis—were It also runs counter to a report by the SPLC, eighty-sixed from a Northwest Portland bar March the nation’s leading watchdog of hate groups. It 12, but refused to leave and peppered staff with reported last week that Howard planned to travel to anti-gay slurs. rural Georgia to protest the prison sentences of two None of that activity appears linked to How- white supremacists who were part of a group drivard’s arrival. A number of experts say it’s cor- ing trucks that directed threats at a black 8-yearrelated with Trump’s election. In any case, the old’s birthday party. (He never showed up.) spate of would-be Nazis raises dark memories of Howard declined to speak in person. He also a Portland where racist skinhead gangs and white threatened to sue if WW ran an article about him. supremacist groups terrorized immigrants and “If u run a story,” he wrote, “u will regret it.”

A Face in the Crowd

DOWNTOWN PORTLAND: 1036 W. Burnside St. • 222-34 18 HAWTHORNE DISTRICT: 1420 SE 37th Ave. • 234-1302 BUFFALOEXCHANGE.COM •

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Willamette Week’s BEST NEW BAND Showcase, featuring

BLOSSOM, DONTE THOMAS AND

COCO COLUMBIA, is at Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., on Saturday, March 18.

9 pm. Free. 21+.

ROSIE STRUV E

Whenever you ask 175 of Portland’s most knowledgeable music insiders about their favorite emerging local acts, as we do every year for our Best New Band poll, you never know what you’re going to hear back.

Oh, you probably think you know. “A bunch of sad white guys with guitars, right?” At one point in time, that might have been a fair assumption. But as the city has grown and its culture has changed, in ways both good and bad, the results have become increasingly difficult to predict. And this year’s list is perhaps the most eclectic yet.

It’s a sign of the times, really. Our music scene is going through a transitional moment. Bands that once defined the sound of Portland, like Modest Mouse, the Decemberists and Sleater-Kinney, are entering the “legacy act” portion of their careers, while many other stalwarts are either breaking up, slowing down or moving away. What’s left is a void of thrilling possibility—an opportunity to change how Portland looks and sounds.

You can get a glimpse of that potential future in the following pages.

Our top act turns abrasive noise into post-Trumpocalyptic pop music, while our second is a first-generation Ethiopian-American rapper already halfway to global domination. There’s a Caribbean soul queen who started out playing in her uncle’s steel drum band and a jazz-pop futurist who cosplays as a mermaid and writes songs inspired by Japanese cartoons. There’s a folk singer who isn’t afraid to take on dubstep bros and a rapper who rhymes like Jackson Pollock paints. There’s a queer soul-funk band, a dream-pop band better suited for nightmares, and a band that isn’t sure what it wants to sound like and doesn’t think it should have to choose. And if you think all that’s wild, you should take a look at page 21 and see who’s coming up behind them.

We know this issue is never going to satisfy everyone, nor will it ever cover the full breadth of the music being made in this town. Our only hope is to give you, the non-insider, a place to start. And this year, there are more points to dive off from than ever.

To all the sad white dudes with guitars—better luck next year!

—Matthew Singer, Willamette Week music editor CONT. on page 12 CONT

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

11

LITHI C S

THOMAS TEAL

(82 pts.)

12

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SOUNDS LIKE: Mutant disco made for actual mutants, played by the last humans left in the sewers after the coming Trumpocalypse.

NOTABLE VOTES: Bunk Bar co-owner Matt Brown, Raf Spielman of Woolen Men, Jem Murciano of the Ghost Ease, drummer-about-town Papi Fimbres.

Aubrey Hornor looks like she’s trying to burn down the Know with her mind.

It’s a Tuesday night in early March, and Hornor’s band, Lithics, is the third of a three-act bill at the newly relocated punk dive. She isn’t pissed at their placement or anything; that’s just how she looks when she’s onstage.

While the three other musicians around her lock into taut, angular post-punk grooves, the 32-year-old frontwoman adopts what’s best described as a “death stare,” an icy, unflinching gaze that complements her deadpan delivery and violent, expressionist guitar-playing. She doesn’t appear to be focusing on anything in particular, but it sure seems like she’s glaring directly at you. And if your hair suddenly burst into flames, it wouldn’t be surprising.

When Lithics formed, Hornor wasn’t aware of what she was doing, and didn’t appreciate the suggestion from certain local writers that she was aspiring to go all Carrie on the audience’s ass. But she’s since embraced it, not as a performative affectation, but as a way to center herself.

“The first time people started saying I had a ‘death stare’ was at PDX Pop Now,” Hornor says. “That was such a nerve-wracking show, because we’d never played for a crowd that large before. I remember just staring at the opposite stage and what they were doing over there, when they were setting up. And it helped me a lot.”

Hornor may not be trying to freak anyone out, but make no mistake: The music of Lithics isn’t designed for comfort. And that is precisely what makes them the best band for this particular moment. Judging by the past few Best New Band winners, the prevailing sound of Portland has been drifting in a smoother, more emotional, less aggressive direction. Even Divers, the last “punk” band to top this list, are less interested in confrontation than bleeding-heart catharsis. With Lithics, there’s also plenty of bloodletting going on, but it’s more of the “shuffling barefoot across broken glass” variety. Shrill, dissonant guitars jab at bass-propelled rhythms like aggravated wasps, while Hornor recites her abstract lyrics like she’s casting a spell rather than singing. You can dance to it, sure, but that just makes it harder to turn away from. And the more you listen, the deeper those shards of fractured noise dig into your skin.

Call it “harsh,” or even “irritating.” But in a city whose weird edges are being rapidly sanded down to make room for more luxury apartments, that kind of systemic shock might be exactly what Portland needs right now. “‘Harsh’ is a compliment,” Hornor says. “It is sort of what we’re going for.”

If that makes the members of Lithics seem like a deadly serious bunch, the truth is a lot geekier. Gathered around a table at Holman’s after rehearsal, the band members reveal themselves for what they really are—four music nuts with obscure taste who enjoy each other’s company. Hornor, bassist Bob Desaulniers, drummer Wiley Hickson and guitarist Mason Crumley all moved to Portland within the past decade and met while playing in other bands whose names you’d know only if you’re

truly in the know, or hung out at the Know a lot. They formed Lithics three years ago because, when you’re hanging out all the time and already in, like, a dozen bands, what’s one more?

As friends—and, in the case of Hornor and Desaulniers, a couple—who spent a lot of time together previously talking about records, there wasn’t a lot of discussion needed to figure out what they wanted to sound like. Everyone knew the reference points: the primal discordance of the ’70s’ No Wave scene; the uneasy funk of bands like Bush Tetras and Pylon; the mangled compositional approach of Captain Beefheart. As often happens, Hornor stepped up to sing because no one else would. She also insisted on playing guitar, an instrument she abandoned as a kid in favor of drums but picked back up after moving to Portland from Phoenix.

“I went around the whole ‘learning guitar’ thing,” she says. “I had my first guitar in seventh grade, and I took lessons. I stood in the mirror with it a lot, but I didn’t practice, and I couldn’t make sense of the thing at all. I got drums, and that was it from there. But when I moved here, I got a guitar—it’s still the guitar I have and play with—and I just sort of messed around, and used my sensibility to write and play by ear.”

While the band didn’t talk much about its direction, it didn’t take long for one to take shape. With Hornor relying on instincts more than chops, Desaulniers’ bass emerged as the melodic focus, laying the foundation for Hornor and Crumley to scrape and needle against. Over time, Desaulniers and Hickson developed into a remarkably formidable rhythm section, herking and jerking like a warped R&B combo.

Eventually, the group honed its formula, releasing one full-length while throwing out a whole other album’s worth of songs for not quite fitting the mold.

“We have a pretty clear idea of what the aesthetic is,” Desaulniers says. “When it’s something a little too much one way or another, we can tell.”

And so far, the response has surprised everyone.

Without much of a concerted push, or any sort of online presence beyond a Bandcamp page, booking requests have poured in from across the country and even Europe; the band just bought a van to facilitate more touring. It’s not just fellow obscurantists embracing them, either. At the aforementioned PDX Pop Now gig last summer, Lithics took the stage midafternoon, in front of an audience not necessarily predisposed to digging Beefheart-inspired art punk. Instead of sending people running, the set ended up being a “stand up and take notice” moment for the Portland music scene.

Maybe Hornor’s icy glare succeeded in putting the crowd under a collective trance. Or maybe it was because, in a world that’s gone totally crazy, a band like Lithics starts to make a lot more sense.

“I still think we’re kind of writing pop songs,” Desaulniers says. “I’d rather be a kind of harsh pop band than trying to be some badass punk band and not really succeeding at that.” MATTHEW SINGER. NEXT GIG: April 28 at Reed College’s Renn Fayre.

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( 74 p t s . )

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HENRY CROMETT

A m i n e

SOUNDS LIKE: A tropical block party thrown in a Northeast Portland parking lot, and the whole world is invited.

NOTABLE VOTES: Former WW music editor Casey Jarman, Tender Loving Empire co-founder Jared Mees, DJ Ronin Roc. At this time last year, no one in Portland had ever heard of Adam Aminé Daniel.

No one who votes in the Best New Band poll, at least. In last year’s issue, out of the 200-plus local music insiders who turned in ballots, only one voted for the then-21-year-old rapper, who goes by his middle name. A day after the issue’s publication, Aminé uploaded a new song to Soundcloud, a bouncy, catchy, punch-line-peppered plea for love called “Caroline.” By the end of summer, it wasn’t just Portland insiders who knew his name. The whole country did, too—even though most still struggled to pronounce it.

Since “Caroline” dropped, Aminé has made bigger moves than any hip-hop artist in Portland history. As of this month, the single has sold nearly 656,000 copies and racked up more than 345 million plays across YouTube, Soundcloud and Spotify. In August, Aminé signed a deal with Universal subsidiary Republic Records, making him labelmates with the likes of Drake, Nicki Minaj and the Weeknd.

A few days after the Nov. 8 election, he performed “Caroline” on The Tonight Show and appended a verse in which he took shots at Donald Trump, prompting The New Yorker to praise it as “bold.” In December, he returned home to Portland for a sold-out show at the Roseland Theater, where he shouted out Benson High School in between guest appearances from Leon Bridges and Kehlani.

All of this seems to have come from out of nowhere. But for those who knew Aminé when he was just Adam Daniel, his success isn’t as surprising as it seems.

“I sort of always paid attention to him because he’s just a kid that I knew forever,” says Ibeth Hernandez, owner of Portland hip-hop

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

production agency Chapters Alumni and the lone “insider” to vote for Aminé in last year’s poll. She was introduced to him by her younger sister, his classmate at Benson. Hernandez recognized his diligence early on, a commitment to progression and a true knack for rhyming. “I figured if he can get around the right people, he could really blow.”

From a young age, Aminé understood something many of his peers, and even his predecessors, did not—that you don’t have to blow up locally before exploding globally. According to Rob Stevenson, executive vice president of Republic Records, in their first meeting last year, Aminé told him, “I want my music heard all over the world.”

“It’s becoming the new paradigm,” Stevenson says.

“It used to be you had to speak to your local audience.

Now you literally speak to the world. You put records out that break on the other side of the world and then come back.”

Aminé’s approach is rooted in the power of social media and simple branding. You can see it in the video for “Caroline,” which he self-directed. It introduced a character—a charming young dude with an appetite for bananas, an obsession with Quentin Tarantino movies and a thing for the color yellow. Inevitably, it was that shrewd package that attracted Republic. “The ones that have a creative vision from start to finish and really know what they want, those are the dream artists to work with,” Stevenson says.

But there’s also an element to Aminé’s sound that lends itself to globalization more than any of his Portland contemporaries. As a first-generation Ethiopian-American, his identity as a multicultural artist is at the forefront. His vibrant “Caroline” follow-up is called “Baba,” which translates to “daddy” in Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language; the outro is even rapped in his parents’ native tongue. Maybe it’s that cross-cultural reflex that allowed Aminé to resonate with such a wide audience while stunting his growth in his hometown, where tastes in hip-hop can run a bit traditionalist.

To be fair, though, Aminé hadn’t been around much in Portland the past two years, bouncing between New York and Los Angeles. Few in Portland’s tight-knit music community were closely connected to him before his rise. But in November, Aminé invited neo-soul hopeful Blossom and the Last Artful, Dodgr to sing backup for his national television debut. That gesture brought Aminé back into the heart of the city. It didn’t matter who slept on his potential a year ago—he used this opportunity to represent the town where he grew up.

He’s currently sequestered in the studio working on his major-label debut, which is slated to drop in summer 2017.

Aminé is gunning to become Portland’s first international hiphop artist. It might seem like an impossible dream. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the course of the past year, it’s don’t doubt this kid. MATTHEW SCHONFELD.

At age 27, Keisha Chiddick has already lived many lives.

So many, in fact, that she can break them up into specific eras. There’s the Found Years. The Slap Years. The Grounded Years. The Boy Years.

Right now, she’s in her Sassy Years.

“I’m very reflective,” says the singer known in Portland as Blossom.

“You live a lot of different lives in your one life. I like to think of the turning points in my life that made me who I am.”

For Chiddick, who was born in the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, there have been many of these turning points, all of which have brought her to where she is now, as one of Portland’s best R&B artists.

The first came when she was 5 years old, when she moved to the United States. Her dad had come to Seattle to play in her uncle’s steel drum band when Chiddick was just a baby, and came back, along with his new wife, to bring her, too.

“It was a culture shock,” she says, “and had a lot to do with me learning and growing up. I was the only black kid anywhere. I had a thick accent. I was a foreigner.”

As she grew up, the family moved often, and Chiddick got in trouble—a

THOMAS TEAL

SOUNDS LIKE: Fantasizing about the underground nightclub of your dreams, discovering it actually exists, then staying there all night.

NOTABLE VOTES: DJ Klyph; past Best New Band finalists Tope and the Last Artful, Dodgr; Holocene booker Gina Altamura.

B los so m ( 74 p t s . )

lot. Her dad decided to send her to live with her uncle in Tacoma for the summer. It was there that she learned to play the steel drums. “I was just obsessed with it,” she says, “and I was pretty good.” During the summer, she would play in her uncle’s band, traveling to gigs across Washington.

She stopped when she was a teenager because she didn’t think it was cool anymore. She also had terrible stage fright, refusing to even look at the audience. Singing was completely out of the question.

In her 20s, Blossom moved to L.A. and quickly joined an R&B girl group. Even more quickly, she realized it wasn’t for her.

“I describe those times as the Slap Years,” she says. “I got so many slaps in my face that woke me up and made me realize what I wanted to do, which I needed. I would never take any of those years back, because I moved home and started my career.”

Returning to Portland in 2013, she met producer Neill Von Tally and rapper Ripley Snell at an album-release party. “They were like, ‘Let’s do an open mic,’ and I was drunk and was like, ‘Let’s do it!’” she says.

She went onstage and performed one of her songs, which caught Von Tally’s ear. He went on to produce Blossom’s two EPs: Sass, a jazzy R&B project, which is the best example of how she describes herself, as a rapper “who just sings it”; and last year’s Wavves, a playful-yet-sultry collection that showcases her lyric-writing. Falling somewhere between dreamily romantic neo-soul and brassy hip-hop, Blossom’s music has developed into a distinctly intoxicating stew, marked by velvet vocals, playful lyrics and airy beats reflective of her island upbringing.

Since connecting with Von Tally, Chiddick has continued writing music, going to shows, and working as a property manager on the side— letting things happen organically, she says, and not taking shit from anyone.

That brings us to her current phase.

“I have, like, zero tolerance for stupidity, by men or women, or politics,” she says. “The Sassy Years mean standing up for myself and other people.”

And that’s what she’s beginning to do with her music. In “Black Magic Woman,” a reggae anthem she describes as a “shady political song,” Chaddick sings, “Won’t see it coming but just know the time is near/Black magic woman will come back to take back our rights to remain black.”

“It is for black women, but it’s an innuendo to the fact that all women are magic,” she says. “It’s contorted into black magic because we’re strong.

I’m very OK with being black magic.” SOPHIA JUNE.

NEXT GIG: March 18 at Mississippi Studios for WW’s Best New Band Showcase.

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H E AT H E R H A N S O N

Reptaliens

(51 pts.)

SOUNDS LIKE: Ariel Pink locked Beach House in a basement, fed its members LSD and forced them to make a vaporwave album.

NOTABLE VOTES: And And And’s Bim Ditson, Eleven PDX magazine co-founder Dustin Mills, WW freelancer Cervante Pope.

Reptaliens have a hard time agreeing what to tell people who inquire about the band’s genre. Variations on “dream pop” get tossed around, but keyboardist Cole Browning is quick to dismiss the label because it implies that “nothing happens.” Considering the group’s knack for miragelike pop songs built from rubbery basslines, woozy synths and absurd lyrics, the term “nightmare pop” would be more fitting, if the music didn’t happen to be so goddamn pretty.

What the four band members can agree on, however, is the importance of fog machines.

“It was the first thing we bought with band money,” says Browning’s wife, bassist and vocalist Tammy Browning. “It’s been the best purchase we’ve made— although the reptile masks are a close second.”

To grasp the buzz surrounding Reptaliens, they must be seen live. Before a recent gig at Mississippi Studios, a pair of anonymous band members in the aforementioned reptile masks carried out an incantation ceremony involving a mysterious crystal box.

Between-song banter yielded to samples of conspiracy theories and commercials for bizarre products from the future. And there was lots of fog, of course.

Stage gimmicks aside, the music holds up on its own. Reptaliens’ roots can be traced to “Forced Entry,” the group’s debut single, written when it was just the Brownings’ lo-fi side project. Having successfully tried his hand at the vaporwave game with his project Romcom, Cole, who also did time in Wampire, was already

adept at making the kind of distorted, wobbly slow jams that provide the ambling current that Tammy’s voice rides throughout the track. It’s the dreamiest song about a serial killer murdering a family you’re ever likely to hear.

“There’s a lot of dark and fucked-up lyrics that you wouldn’t necessarily realize because the music all sounds really pretty,” Cole says. “There will be a song about a serial killer or a cult or Satan, but it’s pretty, so you would never think it.”

After tapping their deep well of musician friends—adding drummer Tyler Verigin and guitarist Julian Kowalski to the mix—Reptaliens enlisted the help of Lefse Records’ Matt Halverson to shop for a label. Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks, home to similarly dreamy acts like Beach Fossils

Haley Heynderickx E VA N J A M E S AT W O O D

(46 pts.)

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and DIIV, was the first to bite. The group now has a 7-inch scheduled for release March 16, and songs from its upcoming full-length will be tested on a West Coast tour.

It’s been a quick turnaround for Reptaliens, going from bedroom side project to serious live act with a record deal.

But Cole says the group is no different from anyone else in the clique of bands that orbit the PDX Pop Now scene.

“We’ve all been in so many projects over the years that share a bunch of the same people,” he says. “The scene has always been friends who do tight shit for a year, then dissolve into other projects. So if it wasn’t Reptaliens, we know we’d all be plugging away at something else just as weird.” PETE COTTELL. NEXT GIG: March 16 at the Liquor Store.

SOUNDS LIKE: A folk singer loudly asserting her right to some peace and quiet.

NOTABLE VOTES: OPB music director Jerad Walker, XRAY.FM DJ Ross Beach, Banana Stand co-founder Louie Herr.

Bob Dylan taught Haley Heynderickx not to take any shit, least of all from some assholes from Germany. While on a recent tour, the 23-year-old folk singer was on a bus ride between Austria and Prague, reading Dylan’s memoir, Chronicles, when a group of fellow passengers began fist-pumping and blasting dubstep.

“I was just getting really amped up, because [Dylan] was talking about shitty pop music,” says Heynderickx. “I just turned around and was like, ‘Hey, can you turn down your shitty music?’”

Sitting in a cafe on Southeast Belmont Street, Heynderickx readily admits that kind of confidence doesn’t come naturally to her.

“I feel blessed and cursed with a soft speaking voice,” she says. “Just naturally growing up, I was not easily heard in loud groups of people.”

With her music, it’s tempting to say Heynderickx is beginning to speak up. She belts out poetic lyrics and strums her guitar roughly, giving her sound a rawness that

separates it from the delicate tweeness of neo-folk. But perhaps it’s more accurate to say that music allows her to create a version of herself that wants to be heard.

You can trace the evolution in her yearly submissions to NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest. In this year’s video, Heynderickx sits in a white room with dreary lighting, wearing all black and no makeup. She performs “The Bug Collector,” from her upcoming debut fulllength album. The song is as stark as the setting, but her voice is more naturalistic than on her previous entries, the guitar work a rhythmic lattice woven out of strange tuning. It’s somehow both more intricate and more sparse, showing off songwriting that’s grown more confident and nuanced.

Even though she still describes herself as a “pretty damn shy person,” Heynderickx is nothing if not persistent, as those German bros learned. When they refused to quiet down, Heynderickx decided to drown them out—by belting Patsy Cline. In the end, Heynderickx won the battle. As they got off the bus, the bros shook her hand and gave her one of their speakers.

“I can’t believe I got away with that,” she says. “I just felt so proud.” SHANNON GORMLEY. NEXT GIG: March 18 at the Alberta Street Pub.

C O U R T E S Y T H E L AV E N D E R F L U

The Lavender Flu

(43.5 pts.)

SOUNDS LIKE: A cartoon version of Syd Barrett fronting Royal Trux in the afterlife.

NOTABLE VOTES: Mark and Tim Janchar of Hovercraft Records, Psychomagic’s Steve Fusco, PDX Pop Now artistic director Meagan Ruyle.

The Lavender Flu is sick of being categorized.

“We’re too weird for the garage-punk dudes, but then we’re too rock for the avant-garde guys,” says frontman Chris Gunn. “It gets really frustrating, so we try to fuck with that.”

What began as a casual recording project with an open-door policy eventually became Heavy Air, the band’s

thing out there,” Gunn says.

“But we wanna do this other short, more pop, more concise album first,” adds bassist Scott Simmons. “I love a good 35-minute Kinks record. So we want to do an album like that.”

Considering the ambitious and varied nature of Heavy Air, the Lavender Flu’s plan of attack seems a far cry from what it’s built its foundation on. But as far as the band is concerned, dodging expectations is the most important thing.

“You can have fun doing something that’s already been done for the rest of your life,” Gunn says, “but that’s not what we’re trying to do.” CRIS LANKENAU. NEXT GIG: April 9 at the Know.

COURTESY DONTE THOMAS

Lola Buzzkill

sprawling, unclassifiable debut, featuring 30 songs in which Gunn follows his wayward muse. Heavy Air’s dense expanse covers everything from direct, Velvet Underground-indebted pop to tripped-out, lysergic wormholes. The audio environs are warm and hazy—a similar climate to ’90s psych rockers the Olivia Tremor Control, but with the mercurial eclecticism of Syd Barrett or outsider cult hero Moondog.

But Gunn is already moving on. The Lavender Flu has finished recording one of two records it assumes will shatter any notion of what the band sounds like based on its debut album.

“We’ve written songs now based on the live band, but then we have another one that’s definitely crazier than any-

(29.5 pts.)

COURTESY LOLA BUZZKILL

SOUNDS LIKE: The bands who played your friend’s backyard ragers in college, only 10 times better—and much queerer.

NOTABLE VOTES: Previous Best New Band finalists Reva DeVito, Cat Hoch, and Allison Faris of Grandparents.

Lola Buzzkill is trying to practice—emphasis on “trying.” The musicians are mostly still milling around their rehearsal space in Southeast Portland, drinking PBR and noodling on their instruments.

“I’m gonna go wrangle these motherfuckers,” says frontwoman Justine Vee, snuffing a cigarette outside.

“Like a bunch of children,” adds backup singer Lia Gist with a wry smile.

Even before playing a single note, Lola Buzzkill’s members embody the stereotypes about cool bands and the cool people in them. They constantly take jabs at each other and are always pausing to drink or smoke. Though toned down from the full-blown theatrics of their live shows, they’re all still dressed as one would expect of a flamboyant soul-funk ensemble—hypercolor jackets, shiny pants, lots of jewelry.

And when they do finally let loose and play, it’s with absolute recklessness and joy, particularly where Vee is concerned. Her voice rips and snarls, extracting the life from each syllable like a boa constrictor.

Shockingly, this is her first band. Lola Buzzkill started out with Vee and her brother, Tyler Verigin, just messing around following the breakup of Verigin’s psychedelic doo-wop band, Moon by You. “I was like, ‘You can probably sing this way better than I could, so you’ll sing the lead and I’ll just back you up,’” Verigin says. “And it was fucking awesome.”

These days, Vee has been writing more of the material while Verigin becomes busier with his other band, Reptaliens. She’s already shaping Lola Buzzkill into a confident, distinctly queer femme presence, investing deeper meaning in the band’s collection of fun, soulful songs celebrating love and sex.

“It’s this great fucking privilege that I get to do this,” Vee says.

“There’s nothing better than singing. There’s nothing in the whole fucking world.” ISABEL ZACHARIAS. NEXT GIG: March 15 at the Liquor Store.

Donte Thomas (28 pts.)

SOUNDS LIKE: A battle rapper with popstar swag coming for the heads of everyone who’s doubted him.

NOTABLE VOTES: Cool Nutz, promoter Ibeth Hernandez, Portland Mercury contributor Jenni Moore.

Donte Thomas was in fourth grade when he knew he’d drop out of college.

You can blame Kanye West for that. As a toosmart adolescent living in Chicago, Thomas heard West’s 2004 debut, The College Dropout, and it didn’t so much change his life as set its course.

“I was always more of an advanced kid. I comprehended a lot of things my mom didn’t think I understood,” he says. “Listening to that album and hearing his perspective, talking about going to college and chasing that degree, and how sometimes that’s not always the best option for people, I got that at 9 years old.”

A decade later, Thomas fulfilled his destiny, leaving Lane College in Eugene, where he was studying fashion design, to go full force after his own rap dreams. All things considered, the 22-year-old has done pretty well for himself. He’s already received some radio play, for his 2014 club banger “Oh Yeah.”

And the hardcore heads have started to pay attention as well, recognizing that his skill has begun to catch up with his confidence.

But just because he’s made it look easy doesn’t mean he hasn’t struggled.

Two years ago, Thomas thought he was done with Portland, the city where he’s spent most of his life. Fed up with his inability to break through with local gatekeepers, he decamped to Los Angeles and made Grayscale, his debut album. Among other compelling statements of purpose, on “Come From,” Thomas dissects his relationship with his hometown.

“For a while, you’d be seeing a lot of people showing fake love,” he says, “a lot of drama, between rappers fighting, life-threatening situations and things of that nature.”

Sensing there was still a place for him here, Thomas eventually returned to Portland, where, during the past year, he’s impressed a lot of former doubters, and found a scene more tightly knit than when he left. It’s still not perfect, he says. But he’s determined to make it work.

“We don’t have to be best friends,” he says. “But as long as we show support for each other, it’s gonna get to the point where someone sees that and it ends up being like a sponge for us all, and they end up wanting to take it all in.” MATTHEW SINGER. NEXT GIG: March 18 at Mississippi Studios for WW’s Best New Band Showcase.

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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S T E P H A N PA R T I P I LO

TALK:

5am 7am – 2pm

MUSIC:

2pm – 5am

#wweek

Coco Columbia

y p p a H Hour

(26 pts.)

RADIO IS YOURS

Best new bands Maloy's offers a fabulous selection of antique and estate jewelry and fine custom jewelry, as well as repair and restoration services. We also buy.

18

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

SOUNDS LIKE: Sia after receiving a crash course in progressive jazz from J Dilla.

NOTABLE VOTES: Photographer Jason Quigley, former Habesha Lounge booker Brandon Nikola, previous Best New Band finalist Sama Dams.

At first glance, it might seem the cotton-candy-blue Lolita wig Coco Columbia wears onstage is simply a piece of marketing. But it actually began as a security blanket.

“I had never sung in public in my life,” she says, recalling the first shows fronting her own group two years ago.

“I was super-nervous, and I thought I would find something funny to wear that makes me feel like a different person when I perform.”

Columbia knows about needing change to make things work. A Bend native who grew up studying jazz drumming, she dropped out of jazz programs at the University of Oregon and Portland State University before trying her hand at songwriting.

“After I dropped out, I started teaching myself how to sing and make beats, and messing around on piano,” she says. “I’d never played a show without drumming before.”

Wanting to play venues other than jazz clubs, Columbia set her sights beyond the musical genre she grew up studying. On her latest record, 2016’s When the Birds Begin to Walk, songs like “Weight on Limb” swirl with intricate guitar harmonies and drum loops, balanced by searing, Sia-esque vocals. The rest of the album offers other gems, like a deeply rhythmic cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and “Lionhearted,” an acid-jazz odyssey with lyrics influenced by the Hayao Miyazaki film My Neighbor Totoro.

Audiences often don’t know what to make of Columbia at first. But the range of influences in her songwriting— and her extremely talented band—typically wins them over. In the few years since she first put on the blue wig, Columbia has grown more comfortable in her own skin.

But forcing people out of their comfort zones remains a high priority.

“I like music that has to grow on you,” Columbia says.

“It lasts longer.” PARKER HALL. NEXT GIG: March 18 at Mississippi Studios for WW’s Best New Band Showcase.

CLIFFORD KING

Old Grape God

(25.5 pts.)

SOUNDS LIKE: All the voices in your head rapping simultaneously.

NOTABLE VOTES: Producer Neill Von Tally, promoter Coco Madrid, music video director Noah Porter.

Old Grape God’s gloriously confounding brand of cosmic hiphop doesn’t offer up too many direct statements of purpose, but on 2016’s Trøntønømø Bay, the man also known as Tron Burgundy lets it be known where he’s coming from: “I live between your skull and your soul,” he slurs on the typically trippy “Urth City Hues.”

That line is a pretty apt description of Old Grape God’s music, a blur of stream-of-consciousness wordplay and blissedout textures that should come with a warning for listeners prone to panic and dissociation. It can and will send you on a trip into the part of yourself that lives between the eternal and finite, between inchoate thought and limiting language.

When pressed, Old Grape God will cop to affinities with Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Sun Ra and Gil Scott-Heron. But he does so with the wistful knowledge that whatever universal force animated those icons has dissipated in recent decades.

“There’s not gonna be another Jimi,” he says. “There’s not gonna be another Sun Ra. There’s not gonna be another Miles.

The 2000s are the time of the second-best. We’re losing the pure spirit of it because everything’s turned to data.”

As if attempting to single-handedly coax that spirit back to life, Old Grape God, who recorded his first song on the symbolically loaded day of Dec. 21, 2012—the date of the alleged Mayan apocalypse—already has 11 releases under his belt, with side projects, clothing lines and books waiting in the wings. He is busy, and he plans to stay that way.

“You gotta keep making as much shit as possible,” he says.

“How you put it out is up to you. If anyone wants to be able to talk to themselves better, if you’re an artist in any way, you just gotta keep making shit, because you’re just learning your own language better. It takes a long time to be able to explain yourself to yourself.” CHRIS STAMM. NEXT GIG: March 31 at the Fixin’ To.

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K AT I E S U M M E R

Orquestra Pacifico Tropical

WHO’S GOT NEXT?

dinner and replaced it 11 KULULULU (23 pts.) towithplaytheafter hottest cumbia orchestra in the Pacific Northwest. like: Aliens going 12 Sounds undercover as a garage-rock and not succeeding in 14 STRANGE 13 band fooling anyone.

(22 pts.)

11 LAURA PALMER’S 15 RANGER Sounds like: Watching the 16 sun come up along a deserted 12 DEATH PARADE highway from the roof of a broken-down tour van and not pts.)

13 (23 really caring whether you ever Sounds like: Walking ner-

vously through a graveyard at night, hearing disembodied voices and deciding to stay awhile.

PORTLAND’5 PRESENTS PORTLAND’5 PRESENTS

make it home or not.

VOLCANO (21 pts.)

17 ASounds like: A volcano is

11 MAZE KOROMA pretty accurate, to tell the truth. pts.)

12 (23 Sounds like: Your old NES 18 DOWN GOWN to life in the attic and 13 came (20.5 pts.) started rapping about its aspira-

tions and insecurities.

Sounds like: Everything that ruled about the ’90s, minus any actual nostalgia for the ’90s.

14 GOLD CASIO pts.)

19 FLOATING ROOM 15 (22 Sounds like: Snorting a line of (18 pts.) glitter and going dancing in a 20 Sounds like: Love letters writ16 house of mirrors. ten in fuzz and reverb.

14 ORQUESTRA 15 PACIFICO 16 TROPICAL (22 pts.)

Sounds like: Someone spiked the cruise-ship punch, kidnapped the cover band that was supposed

SUNDAY • APRIL 2 • 7:30PM

19 NEW MOVE pts.)

20 (18 Sounds like: A pop mechanic

fixing up classic American songs and making them hum like new.

For more information & tickets visit portland5.com 800.273.1530 | Portland’5 Box Office | TicketsWest Outlets Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

21

PORTLAND’5 PRESENTS

20

17

THE MYSTERY OF OUR HUMAN STORY Paleoanthropologist

Mark Thiessen

Lee Berger

Robert Clark

READERS’ POLL

FRIDAY • MARCH 24 • 7:30PM Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

NOW OPEN

For more information & tickets visit portland5.com 800.273.1530 | Portland’5 Box Office | TicketsWest Outlets

@WillametteWeek

@WillametteWeek

@wweek

PORTLAND’S PREMIER CANNABIS DISPENSARY 6611 SE POWELL BLVD PORTLAND, OR 97206

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Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

#wweek

Left: “K pop.”

Where are you from? “South Korea.”

Stree t

Right: “I’ve been on a Grateful Dead kick.”

Where are you from? “Upstate New York.”

Left: “Yma Sumac.”

Where are you from?

“Mexicali, Mexico.”

WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LISTENING TO?

Right: “Palm.”

Where are you from? “Austin, Texas.”

OUR FAVORITE LOOKS. PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER GARCIA VALLE

“Show Me the Body.”

Where are you from?

“Portland.”

“Travis Scott.”

Where are you from? “Orlando, Florida.”

“The Last Artful, Dodgr.”

Where are you from? “Austin, Texas.”

“Little Dragon.”

Where are you from? “Portland.”

Simple ApproAch

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open 11-10

everyday

READERS’ POLL

IS BACK!

Nominate your favorites from March 1—31

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wweek.com/BOP2017 Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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17

READERS’ POLL

IS BACK!

Potlander Magazine

Nominate your favorites from March 1—31

Publ

i

Apri shes: l 19, 2017

wweek.com/BOP2017

Free

Ap ri l 20 1 6

Potlander THE

T H E D I S C E R N I N G C A N N A B I S C O N S U M E R ’S G U I D E T O P O R T L A N D

W W 2 015 P O T L A N D E R

THE 75 BEST PORTL AND DISPENSARIES, STRAIN PICKS, ROAD TRIPS, STONEY SANDY BLVD. AND MUCH MORE!

1

Portland’s guide to cannabis is back and greener than ever! As the industry continues to grow, Willamette Week stands by the side of growers, dispensaries and industry leaders to offer the latest updates to our readers.

This years magazine will include a comprehensive dispensary listing, top strain picks and the best gear to light your greenery.

Sold at New Seasons Markets and Powell’s Books!

503.243.2122 • advertising@wweek.com 24

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

PLOTTING THE CARTESIAN COORDINATES OF WEEKEND EVENTS THAT ARE DRUNK AND IRISH OR NOT DRUNK AND NOT IRISH.

BY JASON SUSIM jsusim@wweek. com

DRUNK Kells Irish Beer Festival This is somehow the very first Irish beer fest at Kells Brewpub—with stouts and milk stouts and nitro stouts and reds and perhaps even quite daring ambers. Have a very mild time! Plan to drink early, because before 4 pm you can get seven tastes for $10, but after 4 pm the price doubles. Kells Brewpub, 210 NW 21st Ave., 503-227-4057, kellsportland.com.

11 am-1 am Friday-Saturday, 10 am-6 pm Sunday, March 17-19. $10-$20.

Pillage the Pub Party with pirates and watch the BilgeRats & Pyrettes perform their “plunderous pirate music.” The O’Neill Pub, 6000 NE Glisan St., 503-233-1178, theoneillpub.com.

9 pm Friday, March 17. $10. 21+.

The Way Up: AfroCaribbean Dance Party Looking to go out dancing? Avoid the hordes of Chads and Beckys downtown. Get down to deep, sexy cuts

by DJ Freaky Outty and DJ Solo. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503239-7639, holocene.org.

9 pm Friday, March 17. $10. 21+.

Kiss My Royal Irish Arse 10th Anniversary Sing along to the 10th anniversary of Portlandbased Pogues tribute band Kiss My Royal Irish Arse. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663, dougfirlounge.com. 9 pm Friday, March 17. $15. 21+.

Japandroids Relive your awkward high school days when you could pinch people with little or no consequences at this former high school gym, where this garage-rock duo from Vancouver, B.C., tours in support of its new, James Joyce-themed record, Near to the Wild Heart of Life. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 503-288-3895, revolutionhall.com. 9 pm Friday, March 17. Sold out. All ages.

Dirty Leprechaun Fun Run Get out of the city and into some mud while working off that green beer by running a muddy obstacle course before joining the celebratory boozy bonfire.

Lee Farms, 21975 SW 65th Ave., Tualatin, 503-638-1869, terrapinevents.com. 10 am Saturday, March 18. $55-$75 for participants.

Kells Irish Smoker There’s nothing more authentically Irish than getting piss-drunk and watching two non-professionals beat each other bloody. Note: The fighting is organized, so you don’t have to participate! Kells Irish Pub, 112 SW 2nd Ave., 503-227-4057, kellsportland.com. 7 pm Saturday, March 18. $25. 21+.

St. Paddy’s Day Comedy Massacre An event to celebrate the enduring spirit of the leprechaun franchise with comedy and killing. Fremont Theater, 2393 NE Fremont St., 503-9461962, fremonttheater.com. 8 pm Saturday, March 18. $12.

IRISH

NON-IRISH Stumptown LepraCon Costume Dance Party “Shamrock Shake” across the bridge from downtown and join the festivities dressed in your most ridiculous shamrock shitshow attire. Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., eventbrite.com. 1 pm Saturday, March 18. $10. 21+.

St. Patrick’s Day Friday Night Sesh For some, sobriety means getting baked on cannabis.

For some, a big, leafy, dank cannabis flower is the luckiest clover of all. For them, the way to celebrate the day is a smoke sesh. NW Cannabis Club, 1195 SE Powell Blvd., 503-206-4594, nwcannabismarket.com. 8 pm Friday, March 17. $20 lifetime-membership card required, plus $5 daily entry fee.

SOBER

I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y R O S I E S T R U V E

The Bump

Magical Strings with Irish River Dancers A Celtic duo performs traditional Irish music and storytelling accompanied by Irish River Dancers from the Murray School of Irish Dancing. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 503719-6055, albertarosetheatre. com. 3 pm Sunday, March 19. $12-$28. All ages.

Sellwood-Moreland St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival This 100-year-old parish is holding its annual festival with a 5k race, parades, marching bands, a kids’ carnival, and good old-fashioned Catholic guilt. St. Agatha Catholic School, 7960 SE 15th Ave., 503-234-5500, stagathaschoolpdx.us. 11 am Saturday, March 18. All ages.

All-Ireland Cultural Society’s St. Patrick’s Day Family Festival Take the little ones with you for an authentically Irish experience of wincing at the sound of blaring bagpipes. All of the green and ethnic pride with none of the vice and debauchery! Aquinas Hall, 1333 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (enter from Clackamas Street), 503-286-4812, oregonirishclub.org. 5 pm Friday, March 17. $4-$12.

All ages.

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STARTERS

COURTNEY THEIM

B I T E - S I Z E D P O RT L A N D C U LT U R E N E W S

MARK HERER

THIRD EYE SHUTS: Third Eye Shoppe, one of the city’s oldest head shops, will close at the end of the month. The last day of business will be March 31, says Mark Herer, son of late cannabis legend Jack Herer, who co-founded Third Eye in 1987. “I’ve been here 18 years, and it’s a super-sad day,” says Herer, who says business started a slow decline early last year. He attributes the poor business to construction in the area and competition from dispensaries. Fearing foreclosure, Herer listed the building with a commercial realtor last week. Within two hours, a developer offered $1 million for the building. “It seems wrong,” says Herer. “It’s a cultural icon.” The shop will throw a customer appreciation party March 25.

AT THE CROSSROADS: Two more decades-old Hawthorne Boulevard businesses will soon close their doors.

Record store Crossroads Music and nonprofit instrument store Artichoke Music—both of which have been on Hawthorne since the ’90s—will be forced find new locations after their leases expire at the end of June. Crossroads has a unique business model in Portland—acting as an antiquemall-style venue (and primary income source) for a number of different record sellers. “We’re staying north of Powell and south of Broadway, with Foster as a backup plan,” says partner Eric Swedberg. “We know everything will cost us more unless we go way out.” Artichoke’s Ray Hughes says it’s also looking at new locations. “We’re hoping to hit the ground running,” he says. “It’s a sort of a hand-to mouth organization.”

Blossom Donte Thomas Coco Columbia

SAT. MARCH 18 MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS 8 PM DOORS • 9 PM SHOW FREE 21+ 26

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

GUNNING UP: Hawthorne Boulevard’s Chicken and Guns, WW’s Cart of the Year in 2016, plans to open as many as five locations in the Portland area during the next five years—all likely to be brick-and-mortar. To make that possible, it has teamed with a new company called Title Bout, consisting of Bunk Bar’s Matt Brown, Jessica Williams (formerly of Kurt Huffman’s ChefStable) and bookkeeper Collin Connon. Chicken and Guns is the first project for the newly formed company, but it is already planning to build an empire of fast-casual restaurants and possibly a bar co-owned by Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock. As it expands, Chicken and Guns will continue to source almost all its meat and vegetables from Scratch and Basan farms, owned by partners in the cart. “It’s insane,” founding chef Todd Radcliffe says of the new expansion. “I could never have predicted it would take off the way it did.”

TUGBOAT TAKES ON WATER: Southwest Broadway’s Tugboat Brewing, downtown’s oldest craft brewery, is severely damaged after a March 10 fire at the upstairs Stewart Apartments, and has had to close for repairs.

The brewery suffered massive water damage after the apartment floor collapsed into the brewery below, say employees at Santeria Taqueria and Mary’s Club strip club next door, describing a scene in which the “ceiling fell on [the] floor,” with “books all ruined, carpet squelching water underfoot.” On March 10, Tugboat posted a sternly worded sign: “Closed until further notice: The flea bag hotel above us had an arson fire Friday morning that caused water damage to our pub.”

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15

Kevin Canty Kevin Canty has spent four novels documenting the hard-living, hope-free, hurt-faced lives of forgotte n A m e r i c a — t h e k i n d t h a t end up dying in a mining fire in Silverton, Idaho, in 1972, as in his newest, The Underworld.

It’s a book without sodden bluecollar romanticism, and without pity. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323, powells. com. 7:30 pm. Free.

Irish Whiskey Social Wednesday might seem a wee titch early—but you’ll seem very educated on the subject of Tyrconnell, Connemara and Kilbeggan from the Cooley Distillery in Ireland after an “educational” flight with a long, brogued introduction by Daron Pettit—the Irish whiskey guy from Beam Suntory. It’s being put on by the Portland Whiskey Society, which apparently is a thing. The Station, 2703 NE Alberta St., 503-284-4491, portlandwhiskeysociety. com. 6-9 pm. $15.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16 Carmen For its ballet adaptation of the famous opera about death, sex and power, NW Dance Project sets Carmen in a hair salon. And to be fully contemporary, the ballet dancers will swap their pointe shoes for sneakers.

Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway Ave., 503-828-8285, nwdanceproject. org. 7:30 pm. Through March 18. $38-$62.

Michael Eric Dyson Pre-eminent scholar Michael Eric Dyson’s new book, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, is about white America’s tendency to ignore black grievance.

As police brutality and systemic racism drive the national conversation, this book has become unignorable. Powell’s City of Books 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323, powells.com. 7:30 pm. Free.

FRIDAY, MARCH 17

SATURDAY, MARCH 18

Kells Irish Smoker It’s the day after St. Paddy’s, you’re a bit hungover and a bit drunk again. There’s nothing you’d rather do than watch two people beat the tar out of each other who aren’t even getting paid for it. Welcome to the Kells Irish Smoker, in which a team from Oregon and a team from Ireland smack each other’s gobs in an amateur boxing tournament.

Kells Irish Pub, 112 SW 2nd Ave., 503-227-4057, kellsportland.com. 7 pm. $25.

SUNDAY, MARCH 19

Serial’s Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder Koenig and Snyder took popular culture by storm in 2014 with their podcast, Serial, using the tools of journalism to delve into a murder case that had kept a possibly innocent man in prison for a decade and a half. Tonight, the duo offers a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway Ave.,503-248-4335 arleneschnitzer.org. 8 pm. $29.50-$100. All ages.

M A R I N A C H OY

I Wake Up Dreaming Film noir programmer Elliot Levine is one of the most beloved people in Bay Area film, and this summer, he’s moving to Portland. But this week, Cinema 21 is showcasing a preview of Levine’s curatorial skills with Portland’s first iteration of Levine’s I Wake Up Dreaming film series, showcasing double and triple features of obscure noir almost impossible to find anywhere else. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515. cinema21.com. Through March 23.

Get Busy

Willamette Week’s Best New Band Showcase

More than 170 music insiders can’t be wrong, could they? Either way, find out tonight, as we present three of the emerging acts Portland voted as the best in the city: soul singer Blossom, rapper Donte Thomas and jazz-pop adventurer Coco Columbia. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895, mississippistudios.com. 9 pm. Free. 21+.

WHAT WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT MARCH 15-21

Playhouse Creatures Opening Weekend Set in late 17th-century London, when it became legal for women to be actors, Playhouse Creatures looks at women in the arts through one of the first great pushes for their inclusion. Though it includes stories of success, the overtly feminist play is also about the very real and sometimes crippling difficulties the first women in theater had to face. CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 503-220-2646, cohoproductions.org. 7:30 pm.

Through April 8. $22.50-$28.

MONDAY, MARCH 20

Emily Wells No one blends and bends genres quite like Emily Wells. Live, the producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist is a spellbinding onewoman band, combining classical instruments with looped hip-hop beats. What she offers from album to album is never the same, but it’s always absolutely original. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663, dougfirlounge.com. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.

Isaiah Rashad Rapper Isaiah Rashad might be the mellowest member of Top Dawg Entertainment, the label that broke Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q, but don’t mistake his chill for levity. Under the laid-back grooves of last year’s acclaimed The Sun’s Tirade is a wealth of emotional anxiety, made all the more jarring by Rashad’s calm delivery. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., 503-233-7100, hawthornetheatre. com. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.

Xenia Rubinos Brooklyn's Xenia Rubinos is carving out a meaningful, funky place in the R&B world occupied by few others. With her dynamic, enviable voice—resembling an indie Beyoncé at times, a straight-up jazz singer at others—she critiques American culture with narratives explored all too rarely.

Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639, holocene.org.

8:30 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 Pink Flamingos John Waters’ (in)famous dick-showin’, shit-eatin’, babysellin’, chicken-crushin’ transgressive queer masterpiece returns to the big screen on 35 mm for its 35th anniversary.

Academy Theater, 7818 SE Stark St., 503-252-0500, academytheaterpdx.com. March 17-23.

TinRiver The Olympic Peninsula’s Finnriver makes some of the finest cider in the Pacific Northwest, but it generally pops up only as a surprise here or there. Well, surprise! Tons of it will be tapping at Tin Bucket all at once.

So drink up. Tin Bucket, 3520 N Williams Ave., 503-477-7689, tin-bucket. com. 6-8 pm. 21+.

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FOOD & DRINK

Shandong 20

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

17

By MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Editor: MARTIN CIZMAR. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.

www.shandongportland.com READERS’ POLL

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15

IS BACK!

Kells on 21st, 210 NW 21st Ave., 503-719-7175. $10-$20.

Irish Whiskey Social

Shandong www.shandongportland.com

Wednesday might seem a wee titch early—but on Paddy’s you’ll end up seeming very educated on the subject of Tyrconnell, Connemara and Kilbeggan from the Cooley Distillery in Ireland, after an “educational” flight from Beam Suntory.

It’s put on by the Portland Whiskey Society, which apparently is a thing. The Station, 2703 NE Alberta St., 503-284-4491. 6-9 pm. $15.

Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

Tin River

Kells Irish Beer Fest

This is somehow the very first Irish beer fest at Kells Brewpub—with milk stouts from Grixsen, Plastic Paddy from Cider Riot and at least a dozen other reds, stouts and nitro stouts. Have a very mild time!

2 0 1 7 BR AIN AWARENESS LEC TURE SERIES

The workings of the brain remain mysterious.

Moral choices, the effects of physical touch, vivid dreams — we may not know how or why they happen, but they all can serve a purpose.

All lectures take place at The Newmark Theatre in Portland and begin at 7 p.m.

To learn more, visit www.ohsubrain .com/ww or call 8 0 0 -273-153 0.

Octavio Choi, M.D., Ph.D. Oregon State Hospital; Oregon Health & Science University

David Linden, Ph.D.

1643 SE 3rd Ave., 971-279-2731, stackedsandwichshop.com.

Stacked is a deli sandwich shop loaded with ideas from fine dining, like smoked trout or elk

200 NE 28th Ave., 503-887-9258, gueropdx.com.

Güero is back, serving city-beating tortas on 28th—but now with margaritas and mezcal, in a casually comfortable space. What could possibly be wrong? $.

4. Spitz Mediterranean

2103 N Killingsworth St., 503-954-3601, spitzpdx.com.

L.A.-based Spitz has opened next to Old Gold with killer Turkishstyle doner kebab, booze and an open space with street-art murals. $.

5. Teppanyaki Hut

4233 N Mississippi Ave., 503-383-4705.

Behold, the sushi burrito! Get the Black Widow ($9)—a riceout nori-rito stuffed with crab salad and soft-shell crab. $.

STACKED

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

DRANK APRIL 4

Sleep, Memory and Dreams: Putting it all Together Harvard Medical School

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

2. Stacked

MARCH 27

Robert Stickgold, Ph.D.

30

2713 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-954-1172, warespdx.com.

Smallwares is back, small, as Wares in the Zipper food mall: fried kale, chicken ramen, sichuan noodles and killer brunch congee.

It’s terrific as all hell. $$ .

The Criminal Brain

Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart and Mind

3. Güero

1. Wares

SAM GEHRKE

The Secret Life of the Brain

The Olympic Peninsula’s Finnriver makes some of the finest cider in the Pacific Northwest, and tons of it will tap at Tin Bucket. So drink up.

Tin Bucket, 3520 N Williams Ave., tinbucket.com. 6-8 pm.

tartare open-facers. But the oxtail French dip with melted harvarti and rosemary jus ($13) is pure comfort. $-$$.

Where to eat this week.

MARCH 20

BrettFest

Everyone’s favorite funky beer yeast will be on full display at Bailey’s Taproom, with a whole world of Brett beers and no cover at all. What a beautiful life. Bailey’s Taproom, 213 SW Broadway, baileystaproom.com. Noon-midnight.

TUESDAY, MARCH 21

FRIDAY, MARCH 17 The OHSU Brain Institute’s

SATURDAY, MARCH 18

Something Wicked (BREAKSIDE BREWERY) Ben Edmunds was “tepid” about hazy New England-style IPAs. When the trend hit, the head brewer at Breakside originally had no plans to make one. “While the best examples have a beautiful mouthfeel and wonderful purity of hop aroma, too many versions I’ve had are under-attenuated, under-bittered, overly sweet, flabby, or simply not that hoppy,” he says. He’s right. All the cloudy, hoppy beers at Great Notion are, uh, great, but dozens of others have been disappointments. Well, Breakside got it right with Something Wicked, the hazy IPA it used to launch its large and opulent new Slabtown brewpub. It’s the new best hazy I’ve had from an Oregon brewery not on Alberta Street—supplanting Astoria’s Reach Break after only a week. Something Wicked is as soft as beer gets, with a body that has the yellow fuzziness of an old beach photo and a light citrus flavor from Citra and Mosaic that fades into a squishy melon. It’s the first of what Edmunds says will be a series of regional variants of IPA. “I still don’t think this is an IPA in the traditional ‘West Coast’ sense,” he says. “It’s some other sort of modern-day, dry-hopped American hefeweizen.” Fair enough, Ben. Just keep ’em coming.

Recommended. MARTIN CIZMAR.

thomas teal

REVIEW

Bricks

WE VISITED FIVE PORTLAND CARTS THAT RECENTLY GOT ROOFS OVER THEIR HEADS. Operating a food cart is grueling work. Those low-cost sandwiches are often paid for by an owner working 80 hours a week in a box with no temperature control and no space for help. Come winter, those summer profits feel like a fantasy.

Small wonder that at least five Portland food carts came out of the cold and into brick-and-mortar spots this winter—a move that usually comes with higher overhead, higher prices and the need to acquire a whole new customer base.

We stopped in to see how they weathered the transition.

GÜERO

sam gehrke

200 NE 28th Ave., 503-887-9258, gueropdx.com.

11 am-10 pm Tuesday-Sunday.

The new Kerns restaurant from ridiculously beloved torta cart Güero—decorated with pottery from Jalisco, and with so many plants and flowers the place feels like a sunroom— is pretty much a poster child for how to do this right. Helped along by good relations with Tabla’s Adam Berger, who gave Güero first dibs on the space when his restaurant closed, the cart was able to move only blocks from the Southeast Ash Street pod where it had become popular.

Güero still serves those wonderful, mammoth carnitas and pollo pibil tortas ($9.50 each), which come on telera bread slathered with lime-chili mayo and laden with fresh avocado, lettuce and pink-pickled onions.

GÜeRo

But co-owners Alec Morrison and Megan Sanchez have also thrown in beautiful add-ons like a breakfast desayuna torta in a hoagie-style bolillo bun—with eggs and a friedcheese slice bolstering beef slow-braised to just-so salty perfection—and a simple cocktail menu featuring voluminous $8.50 margaritas and $9 palomas, alongside a tightly curated smattering of tequila and mezcal. The Rosenstadt and Pfriem pints are $5, as they should be.

The $3 esquites are bright and spicy, as is the sik’il pak pumpkin-seed dip ($7) scooped with either tortilla or jicama. Only the hamburguesa ($10) was disappointing— with a bun that fell apart and a fried-cheese chicharrón more distracting than helpful. But the bright space otherwise distills the cart’s sunny essence with very little fat, and with only about a 10 percent price hike to pay for the privilege of eating indoors. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

OPEN TANDOOR

4311 N Williams Ave., 503-719-7347, opentandoor.com.

11 am-9 pm Tuesday-Sunday.

This place started as the Portland Masala food cart downtown. In September, it opened a counter-service

dosa dose: Counterclockwise from upper left, the Hot Chick dosa, idli fry, skewers and Tiffin’s Trilogy at Tiffin asha.

spot on Williams that uses a 500-degree clay tandoor oven for kebabs and breads.

Open Tandoor doesn’t serve oversauced and plentiful Indian lunch-buffet fare—expect a light meal with light spicing.

The tandoori kebabs with local lamb ($17) seem to contain about a half-pound of meat, seasoned with a very subtle spice blend. That platter comes with a dollop of rice pilaf, and for 50 cents you can upgrade from forgettable regular naan to a really tasty garlic version.

I’d opt for the rich and softly spiced butter chicken ($13 with rice) over a saag paneer ($14 with rice) that’s heavy on onions and ginger. MARTIN CIZMAR.

GABAGOOL

7955 N Lombard St., 503-894-9096, gabagoolpdx.com.

11 am-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-10 pm Friday- Saturday.

It’s common for food carts to bump up their prices when they sign a proper lease. In the case of Reddit Portland’s favorite food cart, I think that increase gets dangerously close to ruining the magic.

This counter-service spot in St. Johns upped its prices when it signed a lease—to the tune of 50 percent in the case of the pappardelle, which went from $10 in a paper tub to $15 on a square white ceramic plate. At $10, the thick, stewy and dark-red ragu with crumbles of pork and fennel sauce felt like a bargain. But at $15, the pasta was a touch underdone for al dente, and the light dusting of Grana Padano cheese felt a little too light.

I’ve never been a fan of Gabagool’s flatbread sandwiches, called piadina, and at $10 with a side of giardiniera, the house’s namesake, with capicola, salami, mozzarella and veggies, was disappointing in a town with so many great sandwiches for under $10.

The gnocchi ($16), on the other hand, was wonderful.

Yes, that’s the same price you’d pay for the gnocchi made by six-time Beard nominee Cathy Whims at Nostrana.

But Gabagool’s plate of plump, pillowy potato pasta topped by a sunny-side-up egg was truly delightful, with the fried-to-crisp dumpling dough getting a thin veneer of umami thanks to that egg, along with pancetta, mushrooms and brown butter. MARTIN CIZMAR.

TIFFIN ASHA

1670 NE Killingsworth St., 503-936-7663, tiffinashapdx.com. 5-10 pm Thursday-Monday.

When we named Tiffin Asha one of Portland’s top five food carts in 2014, it was a scrappy, wife-and-wife, South Indian-inspired food cart on North Mississippi Avenue serving up killer vada doughnut holes, terrific cilantro chutney and a brilliant fusion notion—a chickpea-andrice-crusted fried chicken sandwich stuffed inside a papery wrap of lentil-rice dosa.

Unlike every other cart on this list, Tiffin Asha bypassed fast-casual to run a low-lit, full-service restaurant. The Killingsworth spot has been packed since it opened, serving sweet cocktails and $7 bottles of Pfriem in a tight hallway of tables leading to a busted tuk-tuk.

But the new digs upped the prices considerably. That fried chicken dosa, a celiac sufferer’s dreamwich at $9, is now $14.50—similar to Chennai Masala’s prices in Hillsboro—alongside a raft of eccentric dosa options, including white cheddar ($9) and honey-blue cheese ($10).

If you’re not eating light, expect dinner for two to hit $60 with drinks.

Among new items, the rice-coconut appam flatbread ($12) is the most welcome, a delectable layering of textures served with a small cup of delicious coconutginger-tinged vegetable stew. A pomegranate-molasses lamb skewer ($14), on the other hand, was overpowered by its sweet-tart fruit. Tiffin’s Trilogy, the best value at $15, included two idli rice cakes, five of those wonderful sweet-savory vada holes, and a plain dosa with chutney and deep-flavored sambar. But getting the dosa plain revealed a persistent one-note tang from the ferment— a nag at the palate like needling yeast in a saison.

MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

PDX SLIDERS

1605 SE Bybee Blvd., 971-717-5271, pdxsliders.com. 11 am-9 pm Sunday-Wednesday, 11 am-11 pm Thursday-Saturday.

PDX Sliders—the tiny-burger food cart permanently lodged in Yelp’s user-generated list of best restaurants in America—has gone full-sized.

That includes its new Sellwood space, a 1911 house that was the former home of Cha Cha Cha, and the burgers, which have grown from being exclusively onehanders to a two-hand option.

The restaurant, painted bright red and white, offers plenty of hidey-holes if you want to avoid kids who haven’t learned spatial awareness. Go for the burger named after the neighborhood, the Sellwood ($4.50 slider, $9 full), which has beef, bacon, Beecher’s aged cheddar, caramelized onions, butter lettuce and aioli on a brioche bun, and drips with grease in a good way.

If you’re looking for more meat, the delicious Steel ($5.50 slider, $11 full) is a double patty with caramelized onions and an aioli that overpowers even the patty, American cheese and bacon. Don’t skimp on the PDX fries ($3) with truffle salt and fresh parsley, and ask for spiced aioli.

But skip the novelty Hawthorne ($4 slider, $8 full).

Smothered with strawberry preserves, bacon and goat cheese, it’s a mess that leaves your hands as sticky as a kindergartner’s after a PB&J, taxing the spool of brown paper towels that adorns each table. SOPHIA JUNE. Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

MUSIC CAMilo CHRiStEn

PROFILE

ThESE arE ThE droIdS you’rE lookIng for: Japandroids’ david Prowse (left) and Brian king.

Adrenaline Downshift JAPANDROIDS IS PREPARING FOR THE LONG HAUL, WHETHER FANS LIKE IT OR NOT.

BY PE TE COT T E L L

@vanifestdestiny

When your band’s music is the sonic embodiment of a wild night spent burning the candle at both ends, longevity is mostly an afterthought. Prior to the release of Post-Nothing, Japandroids’ 2009 debut full-length, the Canadian guitar-and-drums duo was resigned to releasing the record then burning out in a blaze of glory on the road. Ironically enough, the “go big then go home” approach to the record and tour was just what the band needed to keep its rock-’n’-roll dreams alive.

“For a long time, our vision for the future was a maximum of six months in advance,” says drummer Dave Prowse. “We both wanted to keep making music, but at that point we didn’t know if Japandroids was gonna be the one. But then we got that spark and would play to 60 people in Omaha and 300 in New York, and we thought, ‘Holy shit, this has the potential to be a professional band that makes a living with music.’”

The spark Prowse refers to is the reaction he and guitarist-vocalist Brian King noticed after playing the debut album’s two standouts, “Young Hearts Spark Fire” and “Wet Hair.” Something about the tracks’ amped-up alchemy of fuzzy open chords, rollicking percussion and highly shoutable choruses were revolutionary in their almost boneheaded simplicity.

And just like that, Japandroids were the heartland punk darlings of the blogosphere.

Hell-bent on maintaining momentum, Prowse and King went back into the studio armed with the confidence of professionals and a well-informed notion of what their audience wanted. The result was 2012’s Celebration Rock, an eight-song album that buzzes top to bottom with earnest, fist-pumping anthems. It’s the beer-soaked sound of two best friends “really rolling the dice on pushing [the band] as far as it could go,” Prowse says. The gambit paid off hand-

somely for the duo. Celebration Rock landed in the top 10 of almost every major music blog in the U.S. and Canada, and the two-year tour that followed sold out nightly.

When King and Prowse finally took a breather in 2014, the two wondered whether capturing lightning in a bottle would put them up against a wall when it came time to do it all over again. It became clear that if their future as a band was at stake before Celebration Rock, now the question was their ability to avoid being typecast as a rowdy rock band that did only one thing well.

“Celebration Rock is very high-energy, and it’s great to put on at a house party when you’re six beers in and feeling amped up,” Prowse says. “We liked that frenzy we got from our shows during that tour, but as time went on it felt like we

“for ThIS rEcord wE had To TakE a rISk.” —Dave Prowse became more interested in seeing if we could expand who we are as a band. There was a lot of discussion about how we could reflect a more complete picture of who we are and try to make a more complete-feeling record that has a great diversity of moves and takes you on a journey.”

On this year’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life, the effort to shove Japandroids fans out of their comfort zone is palpable.

The record has its fair share of concessions to the diehards who still shout along to “The House That Heaven Built” in their cars, but it’s hard to hear the strummed acoustic guitars of “North East South West” or the pulsing synth intro of “Arc of Bar”—a seven-minute travelogue about hustlers, whores and booze that functions as the album’s

centerpiece—and pretend it’s just another day at the office for Japandroids. Any other band could slip those things into the mix without alarm, but the duo’s stripped-down nature has given their music very little room to breathe.

“A big part of our identity is that it’s just two of us and everything is live,” Prowse says. “So it’s natural for people to be surprised when they hear we didn’t do that. But it was a very logical thing for us. We’ve been doing this thing for close to 10 years. How do we keep it interesting? If we stop having these restrictive rules about how we present ourselves and create music, it opens a lot of doors for different types of songs to be written, which is very inspiring and exciting to us.”

Considering the expectations to follow up Celebration Rock with another banger, the reception for Near to the Wild Heart of Life has been a mixed bag. It would have been easy enough for Prowse and King to revisit familiar ground and hope for the best, but their decision to open up their sound to new possibilities was a wise one. Now that Prowse and King have finally quit their day jobs and accepted the responsibility of being full-time musicians, it’s hard to blame them for setting their sights on something higher than being hopeless crowd-pleasers who don’t know when to quit.

“For this record we had to take a risk,” Prowse says. “Does everybody who loved Celebration Rock love this record?

Probably not. But most importantly, we feel inspired by this record and that we opened a lot of doors for ourselves. After Celebration Rock, there was a feeling of, ‘Where do we go from here? We do this one thing really well and people love it, but we can’t keep making the same record.’ For the next record, there’s a million options.”

SEE IT: Japandroids play Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., with Craig Finn & the Uptown Controllers, on Friday, March 17. 9 pm. Sold out. All ages.

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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MUSIC = WW Pick. Highly recommended.

Prices listed are sometimes for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply. Event lineups are subject to change after WW’s press deadlines.

Editor: MATTHEW SINGER. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, go to wweek.com/submitevents and follow submission directions. All shows should be submitted two weeks or more in advance of event. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: msinger@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.

[IT’S STILL FUNKY TO ME] When I was a little kid, my mom used to buy me a new cassette of my choosing as a gift every Easter. One year, I had a decision to make: Do I ask for the Spin Doctors or Red Hot Chili Peppers? Ultimately, I went with the band who did the pretty song about L.A.’s civic architecture; it took me a while to learn that it was actually about life as a heroin troll, but c’mon, I was 9. In ways both direct and indirect, the band ended up serving as a gateway to much of the music I’ve loved over the years, from Funkadelic to Fishbone to the Minutemen. For that reason, the Chilis will always hold a special place in my heart, no matter how much society tries to tell me I’m wrong. Some things about them are indefensible, like Anthony Kiedis and his horny Fred Flintstone scat-singing, or the fact that they insist on continuing to exist without John Frusciante. But goddamnit, what kind of person would I be today if I had chosen that other tape? I shudder to think.

MATTHEW SINGER. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St., 503-2358771. 7:30 pm. $49-$99. All ages.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16 Thunderpussy, Jared Mees, Animal Eyes

[ROCK ’N’ ROLL] On its website, Thunderpussy claims it can dry hump you with its music, “like a tranced-out Prince.” The claim is audacious, but it matches the Seattle group’s sound, which truly deserves to be witnessed live and in the flesh. The hypersexual, overtly badass act is the perfect feminine antidote for its seemingly countless male counterparts.

Much like Portland dance-rockers the Slants, Thunderpussy has been fighting mightily to trademark its name. So even if you’re so-so on hard rock ’n’ roll, attend on behalf of free speech. MARK STOCK. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639. 8:30 pm-12:30 am. $10-$12. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

Fucked Up, Chastity

[AMBITIOUS PUNKS] The rules of hardcore are meant to be broken.

When aesthetic boundaries are placed on a style of art or music, it’s inevitable that someone will come along and smash the template to pieces—or in the case of merrymaking Toronto dream-punks Fucked Up, make it sound really damn pretty. By combining the harsh growl of singer Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham and the typical three-chord rumble of classic punk like Negative Approach and Poison Idea with a bed of gorgeous, swooning shoegaze guitars, keys and strings (!), Fucked Up created a new style of music, both intense and introspective in equal measure. Tonight, the band celebrates the 10-year anniversary of its landmark album, Hidden World, by playing it in full. Get here early and make sure you wear clothes you don’t mind getting covered with beer, sweat and tears. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., mississippistudios.com. 9 pm. $15 advance, $18 day of show. 21+.

Red Fang, Danava, Norska

[METAL BENEFIT] Thank goodness

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Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

FRIDAY, MARCH 17

The Coathangers, the Birth Defects, Tender Age

[PRIMAL ROCK] The Coathangers play on pure, fiery instinct. The Atlanta trio has been producing explosive punk pop with a grimy chip on its shoulder for a decade now, and as evidenced by the volatile set it delivered at last summer’s Project Pabst, is showing no signs of slowing down. Last year’s Nosebleed Weekend definitively elevated the band to the same echelon as the Thermals or SleaterKinney. Far too many bands fail to deliver after inquiring, rhetorically, if the crowd is ready to rock. The Coathangers are here to remedy that. MARK STOCK. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.

Mo Troper & the Assumptions, the Exquisites, Alien Boy, Mayhaw Hoons & the Outsiders

[POWER POP] Morgan James Troper is one of the best vocalists to have called Portland home in recent years.

Save Ferris, the Bandulus, Vista Kicks

[SKA-REVIVAL REVIVAL] Before SoCal’s Save Ferris went on hiatus in 2003, the band managed to fly far enough from the sun not to get burnt when fans of the nascent ska revival of the late ’90s moved on. While the group’s comeback EP, Checkered Past, is by no means a step in a different direction, vocalist Monique Powell’s delivery is as powerful as ever, which will do wonders for moving the group out from the

5

INGER KLEKACZ

Red Hot Chili Peppers

for the emergency surgery back in January that saved Yob frontman Mike Scheidt from leaving us alone on this forsaken planet. While most of us may not even know what the hell diverticulitis is, we sure aren’t here for any of its nonsense. This benefit show is our way of trying to make sure Scheidt has everything he needs to prevent another such health scare. It’s not often the metal community has to come together for causes like this, especially at Revolution Hall, but the benefit’s purpose is backed heavily by the veteran PBR rock of Red Fang, shred masters Danava and the sludgy doom of Norska.

Hang in there, Mike. We’ve got you.

CERVANTE POPE. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St. No. 110, 503-2883895. 9 pm-midnight. $20-$25. $20 advance, $25 day of show. 21+.

TOP

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15

shadows of that other female-led Orange County ska-adjunct outfit Gwen Stefani used to kick it with.

PETE COTTELL. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE Cesar E. Chevez Blvd., 503233-7100. 8 pm. $16 advance, $20 day of show. 21+.

KMRIA

FIVE THINGS YOU LEARN FROM 10 YEARS OF PRETENDING TO BE THE POGUES, BY KMRIA An accordion can play lead as well as an electric guitar.

2 An unadvised cocktail recipe: Pour one glass Maker’s Mark bourbon into one Fender Deluxe amp. Also, mandolins work better before they are shattered to bits.

3 The Pogues wrote some of the greatest lyrics not just

in rock history but in the Irish literary canon. Since the Irish never forget songs, this means that ‘The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn” will outlive “Takin’ Care of Business” in the scope of human history.

4 Lyrics that were never right in the first place can never be wrong.

5 You cannot drink like Shane MacGowan no matter how much you think you can or how much the audience encourages you to. This will lead to being carried home, unfortunate events in the parking lot behind the venue, onstage dogpiles, band members gone missing midshow, thinking a stage dive is a good idea, bruises from being hit with a beer tray, and Silly String in your guitar for a decade.

SEE IT: Kiss My Royal Irish Arse plays Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., with the Minus 5, on Friday, March 17. 9 pm. $15. 21+.

C O U R T E SY O F FAC E B O O K

PREVIEW

Eric Church

[POP-COUNTRY MAVERICK] Beginning in the late ’00s, many millennials embraced the doctrine of “poptimism,” essentially deciding to treat mainstream pop music with the same respect as other, more “serious” genres. The blogosphere was quick to follow, since this new paradigm gave it permission to feature mainstream artists and get those all-important page views without losing cool cred. By contrast, in 2017 there’s still no genre as fundamentally uncool as pop country. And in the case of Eric Church, it’s a damn shame. He has the markings of someone who should be able to cross over from CMT to NPR. He’s anti-Nashville, to the point that he bought a German pressing plant to surprise-release his last record to his fan club without his label’s knowledge. He’s relatively woke; see “Kill a Word,” the only song decrying racism and prejudice currently in rotation on 99.5 the Wolf. He’s also an amazing songwriter: “Knives of New Orleans” could be a Ryan Adams outtake, and “Record Year” is the best breakup song in recent memory. Unfortunately, some of Church’s best songs, like “Talladega,” embrace flyover-state iconography like NASCAR, which is anathema to young coastal elites. Again, it’s a damn shame. BLAKE HICKMAN. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St., 503-235-8771. 8 pm Thursday, March 16. $25-$90. All ages.

His slightly whiny shout-croon commands attention with each octave it climbs, making it the most important instrument featured on his songs both solo and with his band, the Assumptions. Troper recently released a collection of recordings as proof: All done between 2010 and 2015, Mo Troper Gold shows Troper’s range for emotive songwriting and the all-around feels expressed through in-your-face instrumentation. The album couldn’t be more appropriately named, since each track is solid gold. CERVANTE POPE. The Know, 3728 SE Sandy Blvd. 8 pm. $8. 21+.

SATURDAY, MARCH 18 Jesca Hoop

[ODDBALL INDIE POP] Jesca Hoop lives one of those lives that always seems dictated more by fate than anything else. It was a chance gig nannying for Tom Waits that made her whole career possible. She passed her first demo to him, and he liked it enough to hand it to influential L.A. radio station KCRW, who nurtured Hoop all the way through her first LP. This kind of mystical alignment makes sense for her, though. Hoop’s songs are pastoral and esoteric in content, but also take symphonic, nonlinear twists and turns. It’s easy to lump Hoop in with “New Weird American” singer-songwriters like Joanna Newsom and Fiona Apple, and some of her stylization does rely heavily on the tropes of that scene. But it’s her flexible parlay from freak pop to indie folk—which she fully embraces on just-released LP Memories Are Now that sets her up for a long run, as the rest of her genre becomes more electronic and shiny. ISABEL ZACHARIAS. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-234-9694. 8 pm. $15. All ages.

Meat Puppets, the Modern Era

[DESERT-GRUNGE GODS] Give thanks to a pair of burnout brothers from Phoenix for adding deepfried country and loping psychedelia to the indie-rock canon. Without the work the Meat Puppets did back when people still called it “college rock,” the window may have never opened for acts like Beck or Modest Mouse. Traces of the groundwork the Kirkwoods have been laying for 30 years now are all over their 2013 record, Rat Farm, but the group has mostly been silent since then, with the exception of a few midlevel festival billings and a brief two-week jaunt here or there. This appearance falls into the latter category, so expect Curt, Cris and company to keep it weird and loose, just as the Lord intended. PETE COTTELL. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663. 9 pm. Free. 21+.

Slothrust, Sons of an Illustrious Father

[POST-GRUNGE] Brooklyn trio Slothrust likes to play up its members’ jazz and blues backgrounds, but let’s be real: This is ’90s-revival shit all the way. Grungy guitars, quiet-loud dynamics, halfasleep vocals—you’ll swear you saw them on Beavis and ButtHead once. In truth, if you’ve heard them anywhere, it’s providing the jangly theme song to FX’s acclaimed romantic-disaster comedy, You’re the Worst. None of this is meant as a slight, mind you.

On newest album, Everyone Else, the band wrings hooks from unlikely places, and singer-guitarist Leah Wellbaum’s lyrics are full of the kind of weirdo imagery that’ll spruce up the inevitable weed naps you’ll take while listening to it. MATTHEW SINGER. High Water Mark Lounge, 6800 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-286-6513. 9 pm. $12. 21+.

CONT. on page 36 Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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MUSIC Willamette Week’s Best New Band Showcase: Blossom, Donte Thomas, Coco Columbia

[EMERGING TALENT] See Get Busy, page 27. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895. 9 pm. Free. 21+.

SEE IT: Kelli Schaefer plays Rontoms, 600 E Burnside St., on Sunday, March 19. 9 pm. Free. 21+.

Isaiah Rashad, Lance Skiiiwalker, Jay IDK

[ONE HAND CLAPPING] Alec Ounsworth has carried the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah banner even after the departure of all other members who helped create the band’s 2005 self-titled classic. It’s easy to imagine a better outcome if his new effort, The Tourist, had been their second record instead of the uneven, disappointing Some Loud Thunder. It’s the most solid effort we’ve seen from Ounsworth’s one-man show, incorporating the best elements of their previous work, with busy and thought-provoking lyrical abstractions tethered to lush, lugubrious chord progressions that are both melancholy and danceable. CRIS LANKENAU. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-2883895. 9 pm. $18 advance, $20 day of show. 21+.

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Kelli Schaefer

[UNEASY CHILL] See Get Busy, page 27. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE Cesar Chavez Blvd., 503-2337100. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.

Adrian Belew Power Trio

[CLASSIC PROG] Only one man can claim to have contributed to Paul Simon’s Graceland, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral, and Discipline

by King Crimson, and that’s Adrian Belew. A master of abstract guitar, Belew has steadily collaborated with major artists for more than four decades, among many other accomplishments. Last year, he scored the short Pixar film Piper, which ran before Finding Dory, and also released a music app called Flux

by Belew, which seems to be aimed at an imaginary audience that wants its iPads to generate random, fractured, Belew-style progressive rock.

Apparently, there is a new album, and now a tour, based on those Flux tunes. This is what happens when baby boomers get near computers.

NATHAN CARSON. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-2349694. 8 pm. $35. All ages.

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

ALBUM REVIEWS

[GOING DARK] No Identity finds Kelli Schaefer in a darker mode than on her 2011 debut, Ghost of the Beast, which itself was a pretty gloomy affair. The title track is a fiery stomp that introduces Schaefer ’s fervency from the first note. “I missed the goddamn center every goddamn try,” she seethes over a moody riff and a driving backbeat that elevates every gesture to an undeniable urgency. “Moonstruck” is another pounding howler that calls to mind Dead Weather’s Alison Mosshart with her feet in fire. It’s in this barnstormer manner that Schaefer truly shines. Her vocal timbre is exceptional, equal parts PJ Harvey and Björk, and she’s tactile enough to shift from rancorous fury to soothing croon within the span of a single track. Nowhere is this on display more than in the choppy, layered textures of album centerpiece “Underground,” whose chorus turns a vibrant collection of complementary vocal shades and arranges them in a dreamy, shimmering haze.

Though the title implies a reluctance to adopt it, No Identity earns Schaefer a reputation as one of Portland’s strongest songwriters. CRIS LANKENAU.

SUNDAY, MARCH 19

[GENRE BENDER] See Get Busy, page 27. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.

Through March 20.

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DATES HERE

[REGGAE] Someone needs to make reggae cool in the states again, and 22-year-old Chronixx might be the one do it. After years of dancehall dominance, the Spanish Town singer is leading a revolution in Jamaican music, back toward Rastafarian spiritualism and a warm, soulful roots sound, but infused with energy and charisma that is distinctly modern.

MATTHEW SINGER. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 503284-8686. 8 pm. $22.50 advance, $28 day of show. All ages.

MONDAY, MARCH 20 Xenia Rubinos, Fritzwa, Rasheed Jamal

[INDIE R&B] Brooklyn’s Xenia Rubinos is carving out a meaningful, funky place in the R&B world occupied by few others. With her dynamic, enviable voice—resembling an indie Beyoncé at times, a straightup jazz singer at others, then switching up to the kind of rap-singing artists like Shamir have popularized— her jazzy soul critiques American

Daydream Machine

THE SHOW MUST NOT GO ON (Picture in My Ear) [PSYCH] Portl a n d p sy c h - r o c k o u t fi t D ay d r e a m M a c h i n e ’s T h e Show Must Not Go On employs the same unearthly reference points as the band’s excellent debut, Twin Idols, but in a much more sedate vein. For one, Jsun Adams employs a deadpan vocal register almost exclusively, as if the recording session caught him with a head cold.

The Show Must Not Go On sits comfortably in a well-worn sonic territory previously carved out by the Dandy Warhols and other druggy-chic acts from the mid-’90s, spending a majority of its length in a stoned, midtempo mode more apt to wind down a raucous night than amp you up for it. “Modern Prophecy” features a weary, just-woke-up Adams groaning seemingly improvised rhymes over a woozy groove of looping bass and synth lines. The title track makes better use of the same designs, with a brighter, Velvet Underground-style riff and a simplistic melody overdubbed in melodica and trumpet, while swathing washes cascade in the background. “Falls Out of View” harks back to the comfortable cush of Jesus and Mary Chain in repose, and ushers in a solid back half that would have been better suited for the A-side. CRIS LANKENAU. SEE IT: Daydream Machine plays Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Souvenir Driver and Melt, on Tuesday, March 21. 9 pm. $5. 21+.

culture and presents narratives that are all too rarely explored.

On “Mexican Chef,” from last year’s Black Terry Cat, she halfsings, half-raps about America’s invisible workforce: “Brown drives your bus/Brown drives your taxi/ Brown brings your lunch on a bike when you’re relaxing.” Her Caribbean background is not only a source of sonic inspiration—she also pulls from beat music, minimalism and funk—but also informs her crucial and inventive songwriting. MAYA MCOMIE. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639.

8:30 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 Chris Shiflett, Brian Whelan

[FOO FIGHTER] The name may not be familiar, but you’ve almost certainly heard Chris Shiflett’s heavy hooks as a guitarist for Foo Fighters. On his own, he’s quite a bit country, having so far released two albums of twangy Americana. Shiflett’s forthcoming record, West Coast Town, reminds of a jumpier Old Crow Medicine Show, full of strings but just as influenced by honky-tonk. It’s a nice change of pace from the predictable pop rock of his main gig. MARK STOCK. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., 503-233-7100. 8:30 pm. $16 advance, $18 day of show. 21+.

Carpenter Brut, Magic Sword

[NEW RETRO] Thanks in part to the Goblin reunion, there has been a resurgent interest in dark, horrorthemed synth music. Add in dance beats and video game imagery, and a new (retro) genre is born. French solo artist Carpenter Brut prefers to maintain anonymity, like Daft Punk and Ghost, but says he set out to combine the musical styles of John Carpenter and Justice. He has succeeded in breaking out of the retro-wave pack, owing much to some brilliant video collaborations, especially Turbo Killer, a short film which stunningly recalls the imagery of Logan’s Run, Phantasm, Evil Dead and Lifeforce. NATHAN CARSON. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 503-248-4700. 9 pm. $22. 21+.

CLASSICAL, JAZZ & WORLD Sound of Late

Trio Subtonic

[GROOVE JAZZ] Trio Subtonic draws influence from a diverse array of modern jazz styles, but the vast majority of the music from Portland’s bass-drums-piano group is cathartically rhythmic.

This is especially apparent on 2016’s Fiction, an album we named one of the city’s top jazz releases of 2016. Whether Sasquatchwalking through a forest of distorted Fender Rhodes tones on songs like “Refraction,” or exploring the cinematic intersection of bowed bass and prepared piano on ballads like “Sand Dollar,” thoughtful backbeats allow even the most sharp-edged musical concepts to flow smoothly. Where much modern jazz feels stuck in the deep-cuts section—and too much groove-oriented jazz comes off as jazz lite—Trio Subtonic’s unique and virtuosic music is the proper indoctrination for newcomers. PARKER HALL. The 1905, 830 N Shaver St., 503-460-3333. 7 pm Saturday, March 18. Free. 21+.

Sreevidhya Chandramouli & Chandramouli Narayanan

[CLASSICAL SOUTH-INDIAN LUTE] Aside from the word “classical” itself, there’s actually very little common ground between the trancelike, drone-based lute music this concert will present and the buttoned-up concert-hall stuff we Westerners are more familiar with. Giving even a cursory listening to the classical music of South India turns the most fundamental building blocks of Western classical music on their heads— scales become loosely harmonics-based modes called raga, and rhythm notations become repetitive grooves called tala—building a system of sounds that transcends American ideas of genre.

This stuff is wholly different, entrancingly beautiful, meditative and mind-bending—just ask the remaining Beatles. And here, it’ll performed by two absolute experts. ISABEL ZACHARIAS. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., theoldchurch.org. 7 pm Saturday, March 18. $25 advance, $30 day of show. All ages.

For more Music listings, visit

COURTESY OF PURPLE PR

[HIP-HARP] Hear the word “harp,” and lots of us think of angels or gooey romantic glissandos.

But there was always more to the instrument than that—just ask Debussy and Alice Coltrane.

Lately, adventurous 21st-century musicians have brought new punch and prominence to oncesappy strings. As both composer and performer, Michigan harpist

Jennifer Ellis has expanded the harp’s horizons, using electronics and even the instrument’s own mechanical bits to augment its acoustic strings. In this concert with the intrepid Portland and Seattle new music ensemble Sound of Late, she’ll play her own music, plus eerie to electrifying to ethereal works by three accomplished contemporary composers: Tina Davidson, Angelica Negron and Kaija Saariaho. BRETT CAMPBELL. Studio 2 @ N.E.W., 810 SE Belmont St. 8 pm Saturday, March 18. $10-$15. All ages.

Say their name, Say their name: Slothrust plays the high Water mark on Saturday, march 18.

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

MUSIC CALENDAR WED. MARch 15 Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St Earthling Alien

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Mark Porkchop Holder & MPH

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St. Jenny Don’t And The Spurs

LaurelThirst Public house 2958 NE Glisan St Katlyn Convery, Karyn Ann

LaurelThirst Public house 2958 NE Glisan St Sean O’Neill Band

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Sound + Vision with Blossom and Amenta Abioto

Moda center

1 N Center Ct St, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave. Heatwave Jazz and Show Band Fundraiser

The Analog cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

King Banana

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Ramblin’ Rose, Monterey Purple

The Know

3728 SE Sandy Blvd.

The Hague, Trapper, Lubec, Helens

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, Lola Buzzkill with Coco Columbia and Glasys

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St Little Star, Toner, Big Smiley, Somber

White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St Hannah Judson, Dan Colbert

ThU. MARch 16 Aladdin Theater

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Walter Trout, Tommy Odetto

Alberta Street Pub

holocene

LaurelThirst Public house

2958 NE Glisan St Lewi Longmire & the Left Coast Roasters; Rachel Mann & Jake Ray with the Cowdogs

350 West Burnside Josh Abbott Band

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St. The Sam Chase & The Untraditional

Duff’s Garage

2530 NE 82nd Ave Buck Johnson; John Clifton

Fremont Theater

2393 NE Fremont Street Jet Black Pearl

hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

Jake Miller

The O’Neil Public house 6000 NE Glisan St. Stringed Migration

Village Baptist church

Moda center

Wonder Ballroom

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Fucked Up, Chastity 1 N Center Ct St, Eric Church

128 NE Russell St. Chronixx & Zincfence Redemption, Max Glazer

Muddy Rudder Public house 8105 Se 7th Ave. Sleepy Eyed Johns

MON. MARch 20

Revolution hall

Ash Street Saloon

Roseland Theater

Dante’s

The Firkin Tavern

Doug Fir Lounge

225 SW Ash St Dwight Church, Dwight Dickinson, Eddie Kancer

1300 SE Stark St #110 Red Fang, Danava, Norska

350 West Burnside Karaoke From Hell

8 NW 6th Ave Tchami

830 E Burnside St. Emily Wells, Sheers

1937 SE 11th Ave Coloring Electric Like, EchoPurr, Institute for Creative Dying

holocene

1001 SE Morrison St. Xenia Rubinos, Fritzwa, Rasheed Jamal

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Philly’s Phunkestra

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, Wooden Indian Burial Ground, Reptaliens, BlackWater Holy(Light)

The O’Neil Public house

6000 NE Glisan St. Benefit for ACLU: Josie Wails & Jazzhams, BlueFlags & BlackGrass

The Secret Society

116 NE Russell St Thursday Swing!

Featuring Trashcan Joe, Pink Lady & John Bennet Jazz Band

Twilight cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell Karaoke From Hell

Mississippi Pizza

SMOOTH SAILING: Toward the end of his set at Mississippi Studios on March 10, Jackson Boone unwittingly summed up his band’s album release show. “Thanks for listening,” he said, marginally distracted by the tuning of his guitar. “I don’t have anything fancy to say.” It was a tame, modest remark that punctuated a tame and modest performance. Boone’s six-member band—which features WW contributor Parker Hall on drums—played like nobody was watching, putting on a sharp but not overly methodical set that could have just as easily taken place in a garage somewhere. Slide guitar featured prominently, imparting a dreamy, dizzying, sea-legs sort of material from Boone’s newest work, Organic Light Factory. The band’s sound was thick and enveloping enough to make you forget to look at your phone for a few minutes. The psychedelic waltz of “Strawberry Vibes,” from 2015’s Natural Changes, spilled into the self-proclaimed “really vibey” ways of “Mystic Winds.” The band even offered a one-timer in “Daughter,” a sporadic, artsy sketch of a song Boone promised to play live only that night. Before long, the band had rolled on to “Blue Sunrise,” a song with a typically oceanic intro before bruising its way into blues-rock territory. The many breaks and transitions called for an act in good form, and Boone was in the mood. It was a good omen for a group on the eve of a two-week tour spreading the gospel of its powerful new record. MARK STOCK.

Village Ballroom

700 NE Dekum St, Hot Jazz Dance, The Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra

White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St Danny Barnes, Kory Quinn

FRI. MARch 17

225 SW Ash St Rum Rebellion, The Wages of Sin, Bridge City Sinners, Rum Rebellion Acoustic

Dante’s

1422 SW 11th Ave Danilo Brito, Choro da Alegria

330 SW Murray Blvd, Beaverton, OR 97005 Beaverton Symphony presents Saint-Saens Organ Symphony #3

Ash Street Saloon

1028 SE Water Ave. Ice Princess, Lord Master, Pinkzilla

The Old church

Mississippi Studios

Aladdin Theater

Bunk Bar

[MARCH 15-21]

LAST WEEK LIVE

1001 SE Morrison St. Thunderpussy, Jared Mees, Animal Eyes

1036 NE Alberta St Olivia Awbrey, The Doubleclicks, Mom Jeans Improv, Katie Piatt 225 SW Ash St Matthew Lindley Band, Beth Willis Rock Duo, The Goods, The Amy Bleu Duo

For more listings, check out wweek.com.

THOMAS TEAL

= WW Pick. highly recommended.

Editor: Matthew Singer. TO HAVE YOUR EVENT LISTED, send show information at least two weeks in advance on the web at wweek.com/ submitevents. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings.

Email: music@wweek.com.

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Donavon Frankenreiter

Ash Street Saloon

crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St Cracker, Evan Ray (Lola’s Room)

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Almost Is Nothing

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St. KMRIA

Duff’s Garage

2530 NE 82nd Ave The Strangetones; Rick Emery

Fremont Theater

2393 NE Fremont Street Pat Hull and Garett Brennan

hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

Save Ferris, the Bandulus, Vista Kicks

3552 N Mississippi Ave Mr. Ben

Muddy Rudder Public house 8105 Se 7th Ave. Lloyd Jones

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Sonic Forum

TUE. MARch 21 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. Nikki Lane

hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

Chris Shiflett, Brian Whelan

Mississippi Studios

LaurelThirst Public house

2958 NE Glisan St Portland Country Underground, W.C. Beck, Meridian; Michael Hurley & the Croakers

Mission Theater

1624 NW Glisan St. Shafty

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Coathangers, the Birth Defects, Tender Age

Revolution hall

1300 SE Stark St #110 Japandroids

Skyline Tavern

8031 NW Skyline Blvd Raven & Rose

Spare Room

4830 NE 42nd Ave pdx or 97218 The Yellers, Tumbledown

The Analog cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Veio, Fallen Theory, Set in Stone

The Firkin Tavern

1937 SE 11th Ave The Vardaman Ensemble, The Variants, The Toads

The Know

3728 SE Sandy Blvd.

Mo Troper & the Assumptions, the Exquisites, Alien Boy, Mayhaw Hoons & the Outsiders

The Secret Society 116 NE Russell St

The Way Downs, Pig Honey, Tony Ozier; The Cherry Blossom Hot 4; The Sportin’ Lifers

Twilight cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell St Patty’s Day Punk Party!

White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St Mexican Gunfight; Folksinger

SAT. MARch 18

Duff’s Garage

The Goodfoot

Ash Street Saloon

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Souvenir Driver, Daydream Machine

high Water Mark Lounge

The Know

Doug Fir Lounge

Raven and Rose

The Lovecraft Bar

hawthorne Theatre

2530 NE 82nd Ave Pin & Horn-its

6800 NE MLK Ave Slothrust, Sons of an Illustrious Father

Kenton club

2025 N Kilpatrick St Manx, Dad Works Hard & The Carotids

LaurelThirst Public house

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Jesca Hoop

2958 NE Glisan St Jawbone Flats (all ages); Redray Frazier; Rose City Kings

Ash Street Saloon

Mississippi Pizza

Aladdin Theater

225 SW Ash St Noise Brigade, Carousel Kings, Abandoned By Bears, Bad Case of Big Mouth, Reach for Rescue

Black Water Bar

835 NE Broadway Murderbait, FLESHH, Atomic Candles

Bunk Bar

1028 SE Water Ave. Bryson Cone, Light Thieves, the Tamed West

Dante’s

3552 N Mississippi Ave Sarah Clarke; Saloon Ensemble, Libertine Belles

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Willamette Week’s Best New Band Showcase

Studio 2 @ N.E.W. 810 SE Belmont St., Sound of Late

3728 SE Sandy Blvd.

VHS, Public Eye 421 SE Grand Ave The Rose Phantom

The Old church

225 SW Ash St Truckfighters, Greenleaf 830 E Burnside St. Emily Wells, Sama Dams 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.

Isaiah Rashad

1422 SW 11th Ave Veena Concert in the Karaikudi Tradition

by Sreevidhya and Narayanan Chandramouli

high Water Mark Lounge

The Secret Society

1001 SE Morrison St. Black Atlass

116 NE Russell St Melao De Cuba Salsa Orchestra; Boy & Bean

Twilight cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell JonnyCat Benefit: Old City Decliners, Adam and the Molecules

Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell St. ALO

6800 NE MLK Ave Wheelchair Sports Camp

holocene

LaurelThirst Public house

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

POLYPHIA with Jason Richardson, Covet

Alberta Rose Theater

The Firkin Tavern

Arlene Schnitzer concert hall

Doug Fir Lounge

1937 SE 11th Ave Holy Tentacles, Bashface, Semaphore

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Adrian Belew Power Trio 3000 NE Alberta St Magical Strings

1037 SW Broadway Oregon Symphony presents Castles and Wizards

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Garcia Birthday Band

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Boyz II Gentlemen

The Know

3728 SE Sandy Blvd.

Hang the Old Year, Bothers

The Old church

3552 N Mississippi Ave Seda; Gary Furlow & the Loafers

600 E Burnside St Kelli Schaefer

The Analog cafe

The Analog cafe

Mississippi Pizza

Aladdin Theater

830 N Shaver St. Trio Subtonic

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave. Carpenter Brut, Magic Sword

The Liquor Store

Mississippi Studios

SUN. MARch 19

1331 SW Broadway, Na Rósaí

2958 NE Glisan St Freak Mountain Ramblers; Lewi Longmire (all ages)

3939 N Mississippi Ave. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Vita and the Woolf

The 1905

350 West Burnside Farnell Newton’s The Othership Connection Birthday Bash with JoyTribe 830 E Burnside St. Meat Puppets, the Modern Era

2845 SE Stark St Garcia Birthday Band

Rontoms

The Know

3728 SE Sandy Blvd.

No Parents (L.A.), Waister, Melt

3341 SE Belmont St, Homies, FingerFingerr, Jollapin Jasper 1422 SW 11th Ave “Little Ears” Concerts for Children: Hansel and Gretel

The Ranger Station 4260 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Bluegrass Tuesday

Twilight cafe and Bar

1420 SE Powell Chimney, Step Dads, The Dawn Bombs, Duper

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St The Love Movement

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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MUSIC C O U R T E S Y O F S A LT F E E N D

NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Saltfeend

Years DJing: Around 1996, I slowly started piecing together a proper DJ setup, and have been DJing regularly around Portland for 18 years or so. My first “break” was a residency at the now-defunct 1201 Club.

Genre: Dub, downbeats, bass, hip-hop, loungecore, boom-bap.

Where you can catch me regularly: I am a resident at Signal, showcase of local and international dub-reggae artists and DJs, every third Saturday at Valentines. In March, I’m starting a new residency at Gravitate, every third Thursday at the Spare Room.

Craziest gig: I played the Red Dress party some years ago. I was set up “in-between” dance floor areas, so they were going for a purgatory vibe. I was dressed as a priest, on a platform looking down on hundreds of sloppy men and women in red dresses.

Many blessings were given that night.

My go-to records: KutMasta Kurt and Kool Keith, “Let Me Talk to You (DJ DSL Remix)”; Digi G’Alessio, “Critical Mass”; Aphrodelics, “Rollin’ on Chrome (Wild Motherfucker Dub)”; DJ Vadim, “If Life Was a Thing”; Deft, “Emeralds.”

Don’t ever ask me to play…: What is currently spinning on the turntable. And no, you can’t freestyle over this tune.

NEXT GIG: Saltfeend spins at Gravitate at Spare Room, 4830 NE 42nd Ave., on Thursday, March 16. 9 pm.

Whiskey Bar

SAT. MARCH 18 MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS 8 PM DOORS 9 PM SHOW

FRI. MARCH 17 WED. MARCH 15 Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave. Chazz Madrigal (soul, r&b)

Ground Kontrol

Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave Ladies Night (rap, r&b,)

Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave. Battles & Lamar (boogie)

45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave Sikdope

Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave The Cave (rap, r&b, club)

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St 80s Video Dance Attack

Killingsworth Dynasty

FREE 21+

511 NW Couch St. TRONix: Proqxis (electronic)

The Lovecraft Bar

Moloko

Blossom

421 SE Grand Ave Event Horizon w/ DJ Straylight (darkwave, industrial, synth)

3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Nik Nice & Brother Charlie (Brazilian)

Tube

4830 NE 42nd Ave Gravitate (beats, funk)

1001 SE Morrison St. The Way Up: Afro/ Caribbean Dance Party

Swift Lounge

Jade Club

Donte Thomas Coco Columbia 40

31 NW 1st Ave Chimpo (hiphop)

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

18 NW 3rd Ave. Easy Egg

THU. MARCH 16 45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave Caspa

832 N Killingsworth St Post Punk Discotheque

Spare Room

1932 NE Broadway St Leftside Lean (funk, soul)

The Lovecraft Bar 421 SE Grand Ave Shadowplay (goth, industrial)

Ground Kontrol

511 NW Couch St. DJ Rockit: The Excellence of Traxicution

Holocene

315 SE 3rd Ave B*Nice #4: Nishkosheh + Break Mode

Killingsworth Dynasty 832 N Killingsworth St Strange Babes

Where to drink this week.

1.

NightCap

SAM GEHRKE

BAR REVIEW

2035 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., 503-477-4252.

Brunch spot by day, Trinket turns into a lovely dessert-andliquor spot by night— with Mumbai margaritas and salted honey pie.

2.

Breakside Brewery

1570 NW 22nd Ave., 503-444-7597, breakside.com.

Breakside is open in Slabtown. It’s a tripledecker pub, with a rooftop bar planned for summer, and has an opening lineup that includes a killer plum gose and—gasp—a hazy IPA.

3.

Bardot

626 SW Park Ave., 503-914-5799, bardotpdx.com.

At Bardot in downtown, you can do a $15 blind flight in which you try to guess the age and origin of the wine to get the pours for free.

You’ll totally lose, but the wine’s good.

4.

No Bones Beach Club

3928 N Mississippi Ave., nobonespdx.com.

The world’s second vegan tiki bar turns out to be delightful. Skip the mai tai for the piña colada, and get the Buffalo-sauced cauliflower “wings” that best most of this city’s sad set of Buffalo bones.

5.

Bible Club

6716 SE 16th Ave., 971-279-2198, bibleclubpdx.com.

One year in, Bible Club has become a beautifully comfortable home to bespoke cocktails and century-old bar tools—but the real story is the patio, opening soon after a rehab.

Moloko

3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Sappho & Friends (disco)

PUNK’S NOT DEAD: Historically, punk clubs aren’t born. They just sort of happen. CBGB was a country bar before the Ramones made it famous, and our own Satyricon mostly hosted poetry readings until the city’s miscreant fringe adopted it as their own. So when The Know (3728 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-473-8729, theknowpdx.com)—Portland’s premier hovel of infernal racket for the past decade—announced its intention to relocate after getting priced out of Alberta Street last fall, the prospect seemed dubious. What were they gonna do, pre-spill gallons of PBR on the floor and tag up the restrooms?

How could it ever feel the same? Only a week after reopening, though, the new Know (the Knew?) already seems like it’s seen some shit. Part of that is due to the building itself. In a previous life, the venue was home to indie-rock club Blackbird, so there’s probably plenty of beer soaked into the floorboards already. Smartly, owner Ryan Stowe didn’t bother patching the holes in the ceiling. Nor did he give in to the temptation to upgrade the furnishings.

Aside from the red velvet curtains, a holdover from previous occupant Tony Starlight’s, the signature decor remains: the N.W.A. portrait, the pinball machines, the battered booths, that weird papier-mâché bird thing. Other than a few fresh murals—including one paying homage to Blowfly, Fred and Toody Cole, and Homer Simpson as Mr. Sparkle—the only dramatic difference is the placement of the stage, which is now on a second level steps away from the bar. A sign above the expanded kitchen reads, “Live Music Nightly Since 2005,” and if you’d never been to the Know before, you’d assume it was always in the same place. Well, the restroom needs more graffiti. But “EAT SHIT, KYLE” is a good start. MATTHEW SINGER. Crystal Ballroom

The Goodfoot

1332 W Burnside St Come As You Are: 90’s Dance Flashback

The Liquor Store

1001 SE Morrison St. Infinite Vision: Wave Theory

The Lovecraft Bar

315 SE 3rd Ave Club Culo and Ecstasy present: False Witness

2845 SE Stark St Soul Stew (funk, soul, disco) 3341 SE Belmont St, Spend The Night w/ Silent Servant & Patricia Wolf

Holocene

Jade Club

421 SE Grand Ave Darkness Descends (classic goth, dark alternative)

Killingsworth Dynasty

Whiskey Bar

Lombard Pub

31 NW 1st Ave Bleep Bloop, Proko, Milano

832 N Killingsworth St Max Capacity 3416 N Lombard St. Resist (dark dance)

Moloko

SAT. MAR. 18 45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave Mark Farina

Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave The Ruckus (rap, r&b, club)

Bossanova Ballroom 722 E Burnside St. Bearracuda Portland

3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Montel Spinozza

Nyx

215 W Burnside St. All White Party w/ DJ Solo + DJ Nayiramv

Saucebox

214 N Broadway St Lemove + Visart Gang

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave. Glow Job 9: JunGlow Love

The Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St, BnC & InSight Present: Digital Ethos

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Sabbath (darkside of rock)

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St Signal 24 (dub, bass)

Whiskey Bar

31 NW 1st Ave MiHKAL

SUN. MARCH 19 Black Book

Quarterworld

20 NW 3rd Ave Flux (rap, r&b, club)

Sandy Hut

13 NW 6th Ave. Church of Hive (goth)

4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd DJ Rockit 1430 NE Sandy Blvd.

DJ Sean from Pork Magazine

Star Theater

The Lovecraft Bar

Super Adventure Kawaii Party (Jpop, Kpop, cosplay)

MON. MARCH 20 Ground Kontrol

511 NW Couch St. Reggie-nomix w/ DJ Rockit (flair chops)

The Analog Cafe

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

“A Night For Dancers” Mambo/Salsa Social

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Black Mass (goth, new wave)

TUE. MAR. 21 Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave. Noches Latinas (salsa, merengue)

Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St. Party Damage w/ DJ Dom DeLuise

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Mood Ring (electronic, dance)

421 SE Grand Ave

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

41

PERFORMANCE R U SS E L L J. YO U N G

REVIEW

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

Most prices listed are for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply, so it’s best to call ahead.

Editor: SHANNON GORMLEY (sgormley@wweek.com).

TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit information at least two weeks in advance to: sgormley@wweek.com.

THEATER OPENINGS & PREVIEWS Lydia

The living room drama Lydia is a fitting play for Milagro to stage: no matter the political climate, Milagro’s plays tends to be message-heavy.

Plus, they’re a bilingual theater (all of their plays are partially in Spanish and partially in English). Lydia is set in the home of a Mexican-American family living in El Paso, Texas, near the Mexican border in the early 1970s. In that politically charged and socially complicated backdrop, the play focuses on the lives of the family: a daughter reduced to an almost vegetative state after a car accident, a disengaged father who doesn’t do anything except watch TV, an undocumented immigrant housekeeper, and a cousin recently returned from the Vietnam War to become a border patrol agent. SHANNON GORMLEY. Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., milagro. org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, March 16-April 8. $18$27.

Playhouse Creatures

Playhouse Creatures is set in 17thcentury London when it became legal for women to be actors, but when doing so carried the same social stigma as prostitution, and male audience members could pay to spy on actress changing backstage.

Through an unconventional, slightly fragmented narrative, the play tells the stories of some of London’s first actresses, including the remarkable Nell Gwynn, who eventually became the esteemed mistress of Charles II. But the stories told are not simply about triumph over sexist bullshit, they’re also about the very real and sometimes crippling difficulties the first women in theater had to face. Containing unabashedly feminist themes, the play evaluates what it’s like to be a woman in the arts through one of the first great pushes for their inclusion. SHANNON GORMLEY. CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., cohoproductions.org.

7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, March 17-April 8. $20-$28.

ALSO PLAYING Brontë

Although a public library wasn’t Bag & Baggage’s first choice for a venue—there’s a pending sale on their longtime home, the Venetian Theatre—it’s hard to imagine Brontë anywhere else. A poignant tale of ambition, isolation and ferocious creativity, Brontë beckons us into the lives of Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë during the creation of their legendary novels like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. But the best reason to see the play is to witness director Michelle Milne’s ingenious navigation of the library. By allowing the audience to follow the actors from room to room as the action weaves through doorways, between bookshelves and even up a staircase, she has created a production that is less a staged drama and more an intricate piece of origami that beckons you into its folds. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Hillsboro Brookwood Library, 2850 NE Brookwood Parkway, 503-345-9590, bagnbaggage.org. 7:30 pm FridaySunday, through March 26. $25-$30.

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God of Carnage

When Alan and Annette Raleigh (Don Alder, Sarah Lucht) visit the home of Michael and Veronica Novak (David Sikking, Marilyn Stacey) to discuss a fight between their 11-yearold sons, it doesn’t take long for strained, awkward conversation (exemplified by Lucht’s brilliant facial expressions) to completely devolve into savagery—insults are hurled, hamsters are murdered, coffee tables are vomited upon. With each descent in civility, the characters become more dimensional, deserving of both sympathy and loathing in turn. Adapted from the original French play, God of Carnage depicts us at our worst and, perhaps, most honest. PENELOPE BASS. Lakewood Theatre Company, 368 S State St., Lake Oswego, lakewood-center.org.

7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, through April 9. Additional shows 7 pm Sunday, April 2, 2 pm Sunday, March 12 and 26, April 2 and 9, and 7:30 pm Wednesday, April 5. $30-$32.

Golda’s Balcony

One-person shows are athletic feats, but the first words Wendy Westerwelle as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir says is “I’m old, I’m tired, I’m sick.” But that’s the only hint of frailty that Westerwelle, who is 69 and recently underwent hip surgery, gives in the entire play. Moments later, she’s on the phone with fellow world powers, yelling orders about generals and fighter planes. Golda’s Balcony depicts Meir as her country plunges into the Yom Kippur War in 1973, a year before her resignation and five years before she died of lymphatic cancer. At this pivotal point, she reflects back on her life: growing up in Wisconsin after her family immigrated from Soviet Russia, her decision to sail to Palestine in her early 20s, and the atrocities she witnessed against Jews across the globe. It’s a life full of tough choices that often required Meir to chose the greater good over her family and occasionally the lives of individuals. Though the play doesn’t hide that Meir’s decisions required tremendous sacrifice, they’re portrayed almost unambiguously as sacrifices that had to be made. SHANNON GORMLEY. The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 NE Sandy Blvd., trianglepro.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, through April 1. $15-$35.

On the Edge

Considering Defunkt is one of Portland’s most progressive theaters, it’s a little surprising that one of the next plays they’re producing is from 1916. But their double bill of one-act plays serves as a history lesson in radical social politics in theater. Trifles, Susan Glaspell’s early 20th century play, is a murder mystery with an anti-patriarchy twist that was radical for its time.

Radical too was Amiri Baraka’s 1964 play, Dutchman, about a manipulative white woman who meets a black man named Clay on a the New York subway. SHANNON GORMLEY. Defunkt Theatre, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd., defunktheatre.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, through March 18. $15-$20.

The Skin Coat

Speculative Drama’s wordless adaptation of the German equivalent of Cinderella is like a vibey music video: the actors convey the narrative through slow, dramatic ges-

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

EXPERIMENTAL PHASE: Agatha Day Olson.

Buckets of Blood EVEN WITH ALL THE FAKE BLOOD, FEATHERS AND TEETH IS KIND OF DEEP.

BY N ATHA N CA R SON

Considering the mass amounts of fake blood used in the production, Feathers and Teeth is the kind of play that risks seeming outrageously campy.

The first time we meet Arthur (Darius Pierce), the protagonist’s dad, he’s up to his elbows in blood after a roadkill incident. He rushes into the kitchen with the remains of whatever he just hit squirming inside a roasting pot. Before a decision can be made about how to put the beast to rest, Arthur’s 13-yearold daughter, Chris (played by real-life 13-year-old, Agatha Day Olson), waltzes into the kitchen and stabs the thing repeatedly with a butcher knife.

Karo syrup aside, the most outrageous horror of Feathers and Teeth is left off-screen (or at least inside the pot). But luckily, the camp is delivered with depth, cleverness and levity.

Take Olson’s Chris, for instance, who could easily have been played as morbid and overserious.

Instead, she is the brat we identify with, the ringleader of the other children in the play and a complex character whom we can’t help but root for.

When the play begins, Chris has just lost her mother, Ellie. As coping mechanisms, she struts around the house in silver boots, rocks out to Zeppelin and Floyd, and wears her dead mother’s dresses and jewelry. Adding to the complexity of her situation, her father has made his wife’s cancer nurse, Carol (Sara Hennessy), his live-in lover. The triangulations of this fractured family unit weave a web of intrigue that seals the fate of father, daughter and, well, whatever Carol may turn out to be.

At first glance, Carol is the happy homemaker.

Her portrayal of the poor girl stuck in a 1950s Midwest mindset helps us empathize as she grapples with the mores of 1978, and a rebellious, “hormon-

al” teenager. She has set her romantic sites on widower Arthur and his big, beautiful home—a set that takes such a beating that an entire team of assistants are needed to mop up the blood by play’s end.

The creature in Carol’s family pot has a taste for meat and blood, which eventually draws the interest of the 11-year-old German neighbor boy, Hugo (played by Dámaso J. Rodriguez, who is the director’s son and shares his name). His accent and exclamations are a great source of humor, and moreover, Hugo, in his militaristic Scout uniform and helmet, underscores the fascistic subtext of Carol’s old-fashioned household daydream.

But the creature is more than just a stand-in for a gremlin or the beast from the crate in Creepshow, it is a manifestation of the dread and grief suffered by everyone involved in Ellie’s death.

Though we never see exactly what’s in the pot, it is described as having “feathers and teeth.” Its inhuman emanations are artfully conjured by Nelda Reyes’ over-the-top vocal performance.

What Hugo calls the Teufel (German for “devil”) manages to be an unseen force, a foil, and a character itself. The pot is buried twice, once by Arthur, once by Carol, yet it is always Chris who digs it back up to exacerbate their mourning.

It would be too simplistic, even condescending, to describe the play as “delightfully morbid.” Far from trite, Feathers and Teeth tackles the drama of death and the horror of gore without ever wiping the smile, or the blood, off its face.

SEE IT: Feathers and Teeth plays at Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., artistsrep.org. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Sunday and 2 pm Sunday, through April 2. Additional shows noon Wednesday, March 22, 7:30 pm Tuesday, March 28, 2:30 pm. No 7:30 pm show Sunday, April 2. $25-$50.

Milagro Presents

NORTHWEST PREMIERE Photo: Russell J. Young

REVIEW JAMES HILL

tures paired with instrumental Icelandic music. With practically no set and very little props, The Skin Coat has a welcoming, lo-fi aesthetic. It’s impressive just how clearly the actors—with the help of some inventive staging—are able to convey plot details and emotions without the use of any words. But it doesn’t seem wholly unlimited by its concept—there’s only so much character depth that can develop when words are replaced by theatrical movement, so the experience is somewhat one-dimensional.

The play’s thematic potential feels like it falls short, but that also gives The Skin Coat a sense of freedom: its experimentation doesn’t need to reach a conclusion. SHANNON GORMLEY. The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven, Southeast 2nd Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard, thesteepandthornywaytoheaven.com.

8 pm Thursday-Saturday and 5 pm Sunday, through March 12. $12-$20.

Written by Octavio Solis Directed by Kinan Valdez

March 16 – April 8, 2017

Showtimes and tickets at milagro.org Lydia is sponsored in part by:

Carmen

Duality: Dance Ballet of India

Producer and choreographer Jayanthi Raman’s latest piece is the story of a young woman’s move to Portland from South India and the struggles she faces as a modern U.S. immigrant. Raman will feature other dancers from all over the world— Delhi, Chennai and the U.S. The dance styles featured will be just as diverse: traditional Indian Bharatha Natyam, martial arts-adjacent Chhau, and even modern American ballet from local dancers. Duality will grapple with identity and intersectionality, exploring how each dance tradition interacts with and contributes to the other. Plus, it will feature an all-original score, composed by mandolin maestro U. Jadesh and sung by Bollywood legend Hariharan. ISABEL ZACHARIAS. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway.

4 pm Sunday, March 19. $25-$50.

COMEDY My Brother, My Brother and Me

In the podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me, the three McElroy brothers give terrible advice. It’s the perfect setup for their brand of awkward alt-comedy, which is almost entirely based around their ineptitude. Now in its seventh year, the podcast has spun into a web series of the same name that expands their misguided advice into of absurd scenarios, like hosting a tarantula-rebranding parade and attempting to connect with millennials with the help of a menacing clown box that can only be appeased by cell phones.

SHANNON GORMLEY. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., revolutionhall.com. 7 pm Saturday, March 18.

Sold out. All ages.

For more Performance listings, visit

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DANCE Choreographer Ihsan Rustem didn’t want to create a ballet with a narrative for NW Dance Project’s current season, but when pushed by artistic director Sarah Slipper, he decided on the opera Carmen. The scenes the company has previewed imply that it was a worthwhile push: the contemporary ballet is enriched by the intricacies required for character-driven choreography, and Rustem’s carefully developed work is elaborate, but thoroughly modern: It features sneakers instead of pointe shoes and pelvic thrusts mixed in with twirls. SHANNON GORMLEY. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway Ave., nwdanceproject.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, March 16-18. $34-$58.

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POLITICAL EVOLUTION: In the Heights.

Same Story, Different Era Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical Hamilton has been in the news a lot during the past year.

First, for its critical and commercial success. Then because at the end of a performance last November, its cast asked Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who was in the audience, to work for all Americans, prompting President Trump to call for a boycott of the play. It continued to sell out.

But before Hamilton, Miranda had another Broadway hit, in 2008, with In the Heights. Currently onstage at Portland Community College, it’s a slice of life in a tight-knit immigrant community in the NYC neighborhood of Washington Heights.

Based on a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes (whose work, coincidentally, is the subject of Profile Theatre’s current season), the plot revolves around the ominous return of Nina Rosario (Jade Tate), who has just been suspended after her first year on scholarship at Stanford. There is no clear protagonist, but she and Dominican bodega owner Usnavi (Curtis Gonzalez) command the show, and people from the surrounding community tend to be glued to their storylines.

The set is a vivacious New York street—bodega and all— shipped straight from the Broadway stage. Obtaining this artifact is an extraordinary feat for a local college musical, and it serves as a fitting backdrop for the show’s ’90s-era hip-hop.

Though its aesthetic is top notch, PCC’s rendering is occasionally clumsy: It begins with a dance routine in the dark, leading one to question the whereabouts of the lighting crew.

However, there is also scattered talent. Mason Crongeyer is new to theater entirely, but he exhibits charismatic confidence as Nina’s love interest, Benny, who is employed by the linousine service owned by Nina’s parents. Zachary Johnson, who plays Kevin Rosario, Nina’s father, enjoys a solemn solo near the end.

Despite the occasional fumbles in PCC’s production, the play transmits an earnest message about valuing humanity.

Written pre-Trump and pre-Hamilton, the apparent politics are somewhat out of the show’s control. Still, it’s a task it handles with grace. JACK RUSHALL.

In the Heights embraces its new political context.

SEE IT: In the Heights plays at PCC Performing Arts Center, 12000 SW 49th Ave., pcc.edu. 7 pm Friday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, through March 19. Additional shows 7 pm Wednesday, March 15 and 11 am Thursday, March 16. $10-$15.

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PORTLAND’5 PRESENTS

EIGHTH BLACKBIRD w/ BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY

Americana singer-songwriter, known for his ghostly melodies, joins “the birds” for an evening of his original songs and Murder Ballads by Bryce Dessner (The National).

WEDNESDAY • MAY 3 • 7:30PM

For more information & tickets visit portland5.com 800.273.1530 | Portland’5 Box Office | TicketsWest Outlets Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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VISUAL ARTS SUNDAY, MARCH 19TH AT 3PM Brooklyns Slothrust is a rock band of musicians from the jazz/blues tradition who sound nothing like jazz musicians playing rock. Beneath the know-how their aesthetic is punk-as-fuck. You get the zap without the Zappa, not a lot of Yes but a load of Oh Hell Yeah! Slothrust’s musicianship sneaks up on you, because the first thing that grabs you is how catchy these songs are. It all comes down to the fact that they play fearlessly and full of tenacity. Rock ‘n Roll.

GRANT BRETT SUNDAY, MARCH 19TH AT 5PM

Grant Brett has a unique style of music. His genre would be described as electro pop, and he writes in a very poetic way. Although his beats are upbeat he writes dark lyrics.

Brett prides himself on being 100 percent honest in his lyrics, and he wants people to connect with him on that level.

CHRIS SHIFLETT

TUESDAY, MARCH 21ST AT 5PM Alt-country songwriter. Rock & roll guitarist. Pop-punk pioneer. Chris Shiflett has played multiple roles during his 20+ year career, fronting his own band one minute and serving as the Foo Fighters’ longtime guitarist the next. He turns a new corner with West Coast Town, an autobiographical solo album that finds Shiflett pulling triple-duty as singer, songwriter and bandleader.

NIKKI LANE

w/ Robert Ellis & Jonathan Tyler TUESDAY, MARCH 21ST AT 6PM Has just released her highly-anticipated third album, Highway Queen. The 10-song set sees the young Nashville Rebel emerge as one of Outlaw Country And rock’s most gifted songwriters. Like a true wanderer, her sound crisscrosses musical genres with ease, while the lonesome romantic in her remains. Joining Nikki for her Music Millennium performance will be Robert Ellis and Jonathan Tyler.

M U S I C M I L L ENNIUM RECOMME NDS

MICHAEL SCHENKER

Fest: Live Tokyo International Forum Hall A to be released on March 24th

$17.99 CD/DVD Set Also available on CD, Blu-Ray, DVD and Vinyl formats!

Sale price valid through 4/22/17

35 years have passed since the legendary MSG concert Live At The Budokan. Like a miracle Michael Schenker returns to Japan with his past original singers from the ‘80’s to celebrate the Michael Schenker Fest with Gary Barden, Graham Bonnet and Robin McAuley at the amazing Tokyo International Forum. 5000 fans witnessed an anthology moment of quintessential hard rock music of the highest caliber. Now you can witness it too!

By JENNIFER RABIN. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit show information—including opening and closing dates, gallery address and phone number—at least two weeks in advance to: Visual Arts, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: jrabin@wweek.com.

Art Passport PDX

Have you ever been intimidated by the idea of going to the galleries?

Afraid of asking the “wrong” questions? Bummed that you don’t have enough money to buy anything? If so, this free arts program is designed for you. Pick up a passport book (details on the website), visit eight galleries, collect eight stamps, ask as many questions as you can think of, and get a chance to win a $1,600 credit to spend at the galleries. All that is required is your curiosity and enthusiasm to learn about art.

To sign up, go to artpassportpdx. com. Launch party 6-8 pm March 16. Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 503-225-0210.

coats should be, have white heads on black bodies. Others have caricatured black faces on what we perceive, culturally, as white bodies.

There is so much imagery and symbolism to unpack that I don’t want to give it all away here. But suffice it to say that the artist makes a strong and considered statement about colonialism, racism, and our country’s history. Froelick Gallery, 714 NW Davis St., 503-222-1142.

Through April 1.

Russo Lee is one of them. A disarmingly realistic human figure by artist Tip Toland—that seems like it couldn’t possibly be rendered from clay— waits for you in the front gallery, along with the work of other wellrespected NW ceramic artists. It is worth a trip to the non-ceramics back gallery, though, to see Samantha Wall’s large-scale ghost-like drawing that was last shown at the Portland Art Museum. Across the room, don’t miss Jo Hamilton’s larger-than-lifesize crocheted male nude, complete with tattoos. These three artists, in particular, are pushing the boundaries of their mediums. Russo Lee Gallery, 805 NW 21st Ave., 503-226-2754.

Through April 1.

COURTESY OF FROELICK GALLERY

SLOTHRUST

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

We the People

Wieden+Kennedy is harnessing the power of a social movement and doing a lot of good in the process.

The ad agency has invited members of the public to bring in their protest signs and protest art to be displayed in its front gallery. For every sign donated, $10 will be given to the ACLU and Planned Parenthood.

As of First Thursday, the gallery was filled floor-to-ceiling with messages like “Jews Against Islamophobia,” “Nazi Politics Fuck Off,” “We Will Rise + Unify,” “The Future is Female,” and “Pussy is God.” The overall effect is a collective scream for change and a promise that we will not lie down. Wieden+Kennedy, 224 NW 13th Ave., 503-937-7000.

Through March 31.

Angel City West

Photographer Mark Steinmetz gives us a series of his early blackand-white photographs—never before printed—that capture the Los Angeles of the early ’80s. The images provide a nostalgic record of a place that continues to exist but at a time that is long gone. In this series, Steinmetz captures the culture of L.A.—with photos of leotard-clad rollerskaters in Venice and young kids gathered around a boombox—but he also captures the forgotten, derelict landscapes of empty parking lots, abandoned plots of fenced-off land, and palm trees bearing witness to nothing.

Taken together, we get the true spirit of the city, both abiding and defiant. Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, 134 NW 8th Ave., 503-287-3886.

Through April 1.

Extinction Anxiety

Conceptual sculptor Heidi Schwegler is interested in human ruin and the lifeless objects that tell the story of our discarded human existence.

In the gallery you will find crushed TV-dinner containers and a suspended slaughterhouse meat hook.

But it is Schwegler’s use of materials that function as commentary: The TV-dinner containers are cast in glass, and the hook, waiting for a carcass, is cast in ceramic. The artist gets us to look at the life of mundane objects—for which we show absolutely little to no regard— and how they may go on to represent us long after we’re gone. Upfor Gallery, 929 NW Flanders St., 503-227-5111. Through April 1.

#wweek

y p p Ha Hour 44

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

Bloodsport: Bluebloods and Mudbloods in the Era of Magical Thinking

Ronna Neuenschwander’s sculptural series—featuring what looks, at first glance, like found ceramic figurines that you would discover in your grandmother’s curio cabinet—is a powerful example of conceptual ceramics. Some of Neuenschwander’s sculpted female figures, with their voluminous prerevolutionary skirts made from broken commemorative plates and spent ammunition where the petti-

Bloodsport: Bluebloods and Mudbloods in the Era of Magical Thinking

Testimony

Artist Tara Sellios starts out by creating intricate watercolor compositions of fragility and decomposition.

She then translates the tableaux into sculptures, using real-life skulls, animal cadavers, and reconstituted bugs to make 3-D Bacchanalias of death, with chicken feet overflowing from wine glasses. Finally, she photographs the 3-D pieces using a large-format camera. The resulting large-scale photographic still lifes fool the eye by drawing the viewer in with images of beauty and abundance while delivering the realities of death. Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 503-225-0210. Through April 2.

Northwest Perspectives in Clay

The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) is holding its annual convention this month in Portland, so many galleries are tipping their hat to the organization by showing ceramic work;

The Narrow View

In her series of paintings, The Narrow View, artist Zemula Fleming wrestles with the conservative Christian dogma in which she was raised, re-imagining images of Mary as a “strong, creative, nurturing Mother of us all, sustaining Earth.” Fleming adds intricate beadwork to many of her paintings, using a material most often associated with women’s crafts, to reinforce the nature of the feminine. In addition, Fleming has created a series of humorous small-scale, wall-hung sculptures incorporating the ubiquitous Mary figurines that are found everywhere from car dashboards to pants pockets. Her personal and, at times, subversive look into religious imagery and icons offers something for us all to consider. Wolff Gallery, 618 NW Glisan St., Suite R1, 971-413-1340. Through April 29.

For more Visual Arts listings, visit

BOOKS = WW Pick. Highly recommended.

BY ZACH MIDDLETON. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit lecture or reading information at least two weeks in advance to: WORDS, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: words@ wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16 The Comma Reading Series

This installment of the Comma reading series features two Northwest writers.

Amy MacLennan is the author of the chapbooks Weathering and The Fragile Day, as well as the full-length collection The Body, a Tree. Megan Kruse is a writing professor at Eastern Oregon University and the author of the novel Call Me Home. Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, 284-1726.

7 pm.

Zoey Leigh Peterson

SUNDAY, MARCH 19 Other People: Takes and Mistakes

David Shields made his name writing novels, and then drew controversy when he wrote a book, Reality Hunger, that called for the, uh, abandonment of novels. His newest, Other People: Takes and Mistakes, discusses the impossibility of reducing an impossible amount of human information into a simple nonfiction narrative. If he hasn’t lost faith in the workability of conversation, he’ll be discussing the book with OPB’s Beth Hyams. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm.

MONDAY, MARCH 20 Smallpressapalooza

Smallpressapalooza will feature readings by Diana Kirk, Hannah Pass, Keith Rosson, Sarah Galvin and Chrys Tobey, among others. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323.

6 pm.

20

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TUESDAY, MARCH 21 Patricia Kullberg

Patricia Kullberg, longtime director of the Multnomah County Health Department, worked closely with people at the fringes, and those experiences inform her newest book, On the Ragged Edge of Medicine: Doctoring Among the Dispossessed.

Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, 503-284-1726. 7 pm.

For more Books listings, visit

As part of Small Press Month,

READERS’ POLL IS BACK! Nominate your favorites NOW through March 31

REVIEW

In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka answered the question, “What would it be like if I woke up a beetle?” In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley answered the question, “Can humans create a monster with a soul?” Zoey Leigh Peterson’s new novel, Next Year, For Sure, answers the question, “So what’s it like to be polyamorous?”

Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 800-878-7323.

7:30 pm.

Food + Drink

Media + Personalities

Michael Eric Dyson

Pre-eminent scholar Michael Eric Dyson’s book, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, broaches the topic of white America’s tendency to ignore black grievance, as things like police brutality and systemic racism come more into the national conversation. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323.

7:30 pm.

FRIDAY, MARCH 17 Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder

Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder started the podcast Serial in 2014 to explore a murder case that kept a man in prison for a decade and a half, even though he may have been wrongfully convicted. The duo offer a behind-thescenes look at the making of Serial.

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335. 8 pm. $29.50-$100.

Matvei Yankelevich

Octopus Books presents esteemed translator, writer and poet Matvei Yankelevich, who will read from his newest book, the fragmented novel Boris by the Sea. Yankelevich is a founding editor of Brooklyn-based poetry publisher Ugly Duckling Presse.

Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, 523 SE Morrison St., 503-236-2665. 7-9 pm.

Melissa Febos

Melissa Febos dealt with her life as a dominatrix in her excellent memoir Whip Smart. In Abandon Me, she deals with relationships. From a birth father she never knew, to an adopted father whose affection could only ever be intermittent due to his work as a sea captain, to her long-distance lesbian relationship, Febos looks for moments of connection, even when they’re only at the end of a whip. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm.

SATURDAY, MARCH 18 Susan/1001

Cult online literary zine Susan/ The Journal and the Independent Publishing Resource Center’s 1001: A Literary Journal come together for a reading combining contributors from both publications, including slam poet king Anis Mojgani. Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, 523 SE Morrison St., 503-236-2665. 7-10 pm.

Outdoor

Kevin Canty, THE UNDERWORLD Most victims aren’t losers. They’re just playing the wrong game.

On the opening page of Kevin Canty’s novel The Underworld (W.W. Norton, 256 pages, $24.95), a cat toys mercilessly with a rabbit too slow to get away, and protagonist David “can feel the cat’s contempt for the rabbit… The rabbit isn’t beautiful. The rabbit doesn’t know speed, grace, the blood-heat and blood-logic.” All you can do for the screaming rabbit when the cat is done is cut its throat.

In The Underworld, everyone in David’s home mining shantytown of Silverton, Idaho, is also playing the wrong game. The used-up, permanently hung-over, gnarled men of Smelterville are all too aware that when David goes out to Missoula with the “faggots and hippies,” he’s leaving the hole they’ll all die in for something better. And so when his brother Ray—a half-lovable, bullying idiot of a silver miner—passes from this life into the next in a wash of carbon monoxide, nobody in that town much gives a shit about David’s feelings about it.

Loosely based on a 1972 Idaho mine fire that killed 91 workers, Canty’s book is a symphony of mute grief, “crushing sorrow like drowning in concrete,” death in a place where death is a bargain you already made when you were born. Over eight books and 20 years, Canty has increasingly documented the disappointed people of the West without stupid sentimentalism or pity— Raymond Carver people, down-the-liquor-bottle people, people who feel abandoned enough by the rest of the country to vote for Trump on the off chance he’ll bring down what they hate.

Alongside college-kid David, who seems to have few goals beyond who will sleep with him, Canty paints a wide cast of widows and survivors with equal sympathy: A trapped miner eats a dead man’s lunch while laughing at the idea he might die there of salmonella, and a widow is stuck comforting someone else who just figured out how to cry. But by the end, the book also takes on a bit of a sketched-in, impressionistic quality.

Each character’s only redemption is quiet, sad sex with someone else who’s broken—like characters in that Leonard Cohen song who only ever wanted shelter. And in that song, the only feeling the player can have for such people is contempt.

MATTHEW KORFHAGE. GO: Kevin Canty reads at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., on Wednesday, March 15. 7:30 pm. Free.

Cannabis

Arts + Culture

Nightlife

Entertainment

Local Business

Wellness

#BOP2017 wweek.com/BOP2017 Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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TECHFESTnw A gLOBAL TECH CONFERENCE ON THE UPPER LEFT COAST

Choose your own adventure!

should I go to techfestnw? depeNds, what You got?

Yes!

OF COURSE YOU SHOULD! Buy a ticket @ techfestnw.com Let’s change that!

Go listen to investor Anarghya Vardhana.

Do you like the T V show Shark Tank?

meh.

Like robots?

robots scare me!

Yeah, i do!

Fair!

Daniel Wilson will teach you how to survive (the inevitable) robot uprising.

Yeah you do!

Jerry Kaplan will be talking Artificial Intelligence.

Do you like video games?

Is someone trying to steal your identity?

Nope.

Yes! NothiNg to steal

... Maybe you’ll invest in a house?

Vacasa CEO Eric Breon can help you rent it out as a vacation property.

Ca-ching! $$$

Yes, but oNlY wheN i’m stoNed.

Yes!

You should probably listen to Nicole Perroth and Senator Ron Wyden talk cybersecurity

Yes!

Interested in learning about the tech behind your smoke? hell Yeah!

Portland Indie Game (PIG) Squad will demo games. Fun!

No, i’m busY hustliNg.

march 23-24 portlaNd art museum techfestNw.com

COOL! Come for PitchfestNW where 70+ companies pitch for cash, prizes and glory!

Right on! Want to take that hustle to the next level?

i gotta hit the job level before the Next level...

Want to make the world a better place?

Yes!

Yes!

You’re in luck, we’ve got: Workshops, Portland Exploration Meetups, and Parties!

Why not check out the Career Center at Ruby Receptionists?

techfestnw.com/schedule

...but Not right Now. parties?!

Nah

You’re going to love Rukaiyah Adams talking about tech philanthrophy.

It’s cool.

We’ll have robots and VR you can play with.

We thought so... You’ll want to check out weed wizard Jeremy Plumb.

That’s OK, you can still party with us!

Digital Trends is hosting a party!

Tech toys, food, and beer.

(To help you “network”)

you should go to techfestnw! (BUY TICKETS TODAY!)

2017 techfestnw speakers Shahab SaLemy

director for innovation at Nike

DaviD Ortiz

eriC breOn-vaCaSa

eren aKSuembLematiC grOuP

“the future of virtual reality”

tim weber-hP

founder of emortal sports, former lead developer for madden Nfl

“building an employee-focused business in a gig economy world.”

“3d printing as you’ve never imagined”.

Jerry KaPL an

DanieL wiLSOn

Dr. JOnathan hurSt agiLit y rObOtiCS

“will robots be our slaves, masters... or partners?”

PartnerS

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niCOLe PerrOth

“cyberweapons and deterrence: the escalating cyber arms race”

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

“how to craft vr stories specifically for vr”

“designing robots to walk and run”

mat thew PfaffenbaCh

Jeremy PLumb

“my connected truck is cooler then your autonomous truck”.

the wizard of weed

rOn w yDen

anarghya varDhana

“Nowhere to hide? liberty and security in 2017”

“how to pitch a vc”

ruKaiyah aDamS

chief investment officer at meyer memorial trust

E M C E E S

a Jay maLhOtra

broker at cbre

Paige henDrix buCKner

founder of startup client joy

C O U R T E S Y O F E L L I O T L AV I N E

MOVIES GET YO UR R E PS IN

Boyz n the Hood (1991)

John Singleton’s groundbreaking debut drew the blueprint for the “growing up in the ’hood” films of the ’90s, and it retains its brutal poignancy 25 years later. Watch 2015’s Dope as testament to its enduring influence. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Saturday, March 18.

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Long before Tim Burton became a parody of himself and a Hot Topic franchisee’s wet dream, he directed this autobiographical dark fantasy about suburban teen angst starring a then-dreamy Johnny Depp. Laurelhurst. March 17-23.

NOIR OR NEVER: Gun Crazy.

The Little Mermaid (1976)

I don’t know which is weirder: this Czech New Wave adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s disturbing fairy tale about mutilation and sacrifice, or the fact that one of Portland’s most esoteric film collectives regularly screens these movies at one of Portland’s hippest sports bars/nightclubs.

Church of Film at Century Bar, 930 SE Sandy Blvd. 9:30 pm Monday, March 20.

Near Dark (1987)

Celebrate the career of recently deceased goofball hero Bill Paxton with this early vampire drifter action flick by Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty, Point Break) on 35 mm. P.S. The movie is pretty hard to track down, so now’s a good time to rewatch if you haven’t seen it in a while.

Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Saturday, March 18.

Pink Flamingos (1982)

John Waters’ (in)famous dickshowin’, shit-eatin’, baby-sellin’, chicken-crushin’ transgressive queer masterpiece returns to the big screen on 35 mm for its 35th anniversary. Academy Theater. March 17-23.

ALSO PLAYING: 5th Avenue Cinema: Pickup on South Street (1953), March 17-19.

Clinton Street Theater: Birds, Orphans and Fools (1969, Church of Film), 8 pm Wednesday, March 15; Inni (2011), 7 pm Monday, March 20. Hollywood Theatre: The Search for Weng Weng (2013), 7:30 pm Monday, March 20; Ed Wood’s Jail Bait (1954), 7:30 pm Tuesday, March 21. Kiggins Theatre: The Quiet Man (1952), 7:30 pm Friday, March 17. Laurelhurst: Big Trouble in Little China (1986), March 15-16. Mission Theater: Austin Powers (1997), March 16 and 18-19; Gangs of New York (2002), 3 pm Saturday, March 18; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967), March 19 and 21. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium: The Learning Tree (1969), 7 pm, Thursday, March 16; Chantal Akerman par Chantal Akerman (1997), 7 pm Friday, March 17; Dekalog Parts 5 and 6 (1988), March 18-19; Bicycle Thieves (1948), 4:30 pm Sunday, March 19.

Then and Noir

ELLIOT LAVINE BRINGS CLASSIC FILM NOIR TO THE AGE OF TRUMP WITH I WAKE UP DREAMING.

BY WALK ER M AC M URDO

This Friday, Lavine kicks off a weeklong program of classic noir and deep cuts, most of Corruption and darkness have spread through which will be presented on studio-preserved 35 every institution built to safeguard our free- mm prints. Since 1990, Lavine has run I Wake doms. A shadowy cabal of powerful oligarchs Up Dreaming in various iterations at the Roxie has seized power, every attempt to foil their and Castro theaters in San Francisco. Over nefarious machinations thwarted by an indom- 25 years, he built a name for himself as one of itable tide of money and influence. Disillusion- the city’s eminent film programmers, becoming renowned for his creative pairings that ment and cynicism are at an all-time high.

And those are just the movies. breathed new life into films decades “Noir speaks to our current politiold. When Lavine announced last year that he would be moving to cal situation more than ever,” says Portland in 2017, San Francisco’s Elliot Lavine, the man behind film community mourned.

Cinema 21’s new film noir series “With Lavine, the films are I Wake Up Dreaming, devoted to the pessimistic midcentury always good, but his combinations of them are often revelatocrime thrillers defined by steelry, like penetrating a dreamscape hearted detectives, femmes or seeing some alternative history fatales and distorted camera angles. of the 20th century’s second half,” “There’s always the temptation to LAVINE associate this style with whatever is going wrote Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco on in the world, but I don’t think there’s ever been Chronicle after the announcement.

Though 16 films are playing during the course a time in recent history when people have been living in an environment of such pervasive, fear- of the week—at least two a day—Lavine says that ful trepidation. These films are going to resonate if you can only make one screening, it should be with people in a way that they might not have Saturday’s pairing of Robert Aldrich’s 1955 claseven two or three years ago.” sic private-eye thriller Kiss Me Deadly and John wmacmurdo@wweek.com

FOR NOIROPHYTES AN INTRODUCTION TO FILM NOIR IN THREE MOVIES. Elliot Lavine recommends these classic, widely available films to get you primed for I Wake Up Dreaming. Find them on Netflix and Amazon Prime or at Movie Madness, and get lost in the shadows.

Frankenheimer’s prescient 1962 political thriller The Manchurian Candidate, a pessimistic tale of a soldier brainwashed by a foreign power into a plot to overthrow the U.S. government.

“The Manchurian Candidate-Kiss Me Deadly pairing offers a really interesting cold war view of the world,” says Lavine. “Kiss Me Deadly deals very specifically with cold war espionage as it relates to nuclear secrets being passed around to people not necessarily qualified to deal with them. It’s a very frightening film, which ends in the most pessimistic imaginable way.

“People might not even think of The Manchurian Candidate as film noir, but it is a super-dark film that utilizes a lot of the tropes found in traditional noir films,” Lavine continues. “Plus, there’s the added interest of our current political climate, which will provide a fascinating backdrop to people watching this film. For those lucky enough to spend the whole day at Cinema 21, they’re gonna have their worldview madly shuffled.”

Another key screening is the Wednesday, March 22, pairing of German master Fritz Lang’s late-career The Big Heat with B-movie legend Joseph H. Lewis’ The Big Combo—two crime thrillers about cops on personal crusades to take down systemic corruption.

“Putting The Big Combo together with The Big Heat was an irresistible choice,” says Lavine, “simply because they are both big-city noirs dealing with interior corruption. I think the audience will transpose the meaning; instead of a police department, they’ll see a presidential administration.”

Usually, one leaves a noir screening by stumbling out of the theater into the bright, comforting light of reality. This time, it’s going to be hard to tell which side of the theater doors is darker.

SEE IT: I Wake Up Dreaming begins at Cinema 21 at 4 pm Friday, March 17. See cinema21.com for the full schedule.

Chinatown (1974)

Out of the Past (1947)

Touch of Evil (1958)

Noted Manson victim and molester Roman Polanski’s neo-noir classic serves as the perfect crossover introduction to traditional noir. “It’s so dark, probably the most pessimistic film of the ’70s,” says Lavine. “It fused that fevered atmosphere of noir’s classic period with the national sense of foreboding and mistrust, not all that different from 2017.

Starring Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, Lavine calls Jacques Tourneur’s winding story of a private eye’s attempt to escape to California to start a new life “one of the most beautifully atmospheric romantic noir films of the postwar period.”

Orson Welles directs and co-stars as a brutal, washed-up police captain in this late-period noir now considered one of the best by the man behind Citizen Kane. Lavine calls it “a colossal film that will probably give the first-time viewer more than a casual appreciation of noir.”

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

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MOVIES Editor: WALKER MACMURDO. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, send screening information at least two weeks in advance to Screen, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: wmacmurdo@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.

ANOTHER BELIEVER

: This movie sucks, don’t watch it. : This movie is entertaining but flawed. : This movie is good. We recommend you watch it. : This movie is excellent, one of the best of the year.

OPENING THIS WEEK AWOL

ADULTS ONLY: Outside the Oregon Theater.

Naughty Neverland

The first thing you learn is not to sit down.

“You don’t seem timid,” says the taller guy in thin wireframe glasses, one of the men— almost all men—milling around this place like it’s their living room. “But I thought I’d warn you, if you sit down, guys will start flocking around you.”

No, I’m not timid; my feeling on entering the Oregon Theater on Southeast Division Street isn’t embarrassment but incredulity. We went because, though the Oregon has been in business as an adult theater since the ’70s (it was built as a vaudeville house in 1925), no one we knew had ever ventured inside. The bowl of free condoms in the entryway should’ve tipped me off, but some prudish part of me believed those were for later, when couples go home. They’re not.

The auditorium is concrete and cavernous, the insulation visibly crumbling from the high ceiling.

The guy in the striped polo shirt showing us around is probably in his early 30s, making him the youngest person here by a decade. He points out the theater’s fixtures clinically, detailing his plans to “fix the whole thing up”—exterior paint, restrooms, glory holes.

But I stop listening as it dawns on me what’s happening: how low the film’s volume is, how the uhhhnnns coming from the screen are virtually inaudible compared to the Uh! Uhh! UUHHHs coming from the people in the room, reclining on a hodgepodge of floral-patterned couches that serve as the only seating in the place. It smells of piss and sweat and the unmistakable scent of multiple patrons’ cum.

The “couples section” is where the fucking happens. It’s at the center, where men bounce around like molecules, desperate for something to do with their hard-ons. There, a fishnet-stockinged woman is positioned with legs up, splayed out on a couch, another woman’s tongue plunged between her thighs. There are five guys jacking off in a circle around them, and I realize the porn is just white noise for the sex in the room. This is a meeting place for swingers, exhibitionists, voyeurs and curious hangers-on to get off and get each other off.

As soon as we walk in, my “strictly friends” friend and I are assumed to be among this group and sized up as such by the 20 or so patrons. As we pass by the tables up front where women sometimes strip or fuck for the audience, a man calls out from the couples section: “You guys coming in? You should come in and have fun!” Everywhere we walk, we’re followed by shockingly short paces. Though the regulars we’ve spoken with have all been sincere, it’s hard not to feel threatened when you’re new to a space like this.

It occurs to me that this is what men hitting on women at bars would look like if all the pleasantries were forgone, leaving each person’s sexual agenda laid bare with X-Acto knife clarity. That’s just as refreshing as it is terrifying. A woman near us moans, her partner’s hand down her pants.

There isn’t much for us to do besides leave.

Back in the lobby, one of the men who works here has chosen a Bigelow Sweet Dreams tea from the Oregon Theater’s menu of refreshments: Pepsi products in Dart Solo cups, miniature Moon Pies, tiny tubes of flavored lube. He’s on the company’s Twitter account documenting the last thing we saw in that dark room: “Two girls, one double dildo,” he writes.

He looks up and sees us heading out, offering a smile as accommodating as if this were some old-timey diner.

“You should’ve been here at 8,” he says. “It was a madhouse in there.”

ISABEL ZACHARIAS. The doors of inner Portland’s last adult movie theater open on a kinky alternate universe.

GO: Oregon Theater, 3530 SE Division St., 503-232-7469. Noon-late daily. $9, $6 for couples. Visit @Oregon_Theater on Twitter.

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Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

Part of the Hollywood’s ongoing Queer Commons series, this indie drama follows Joey (Lola Kirke), a high school grad in Pennsylvania coal country who falls in love with a lonely housewife (Breeda Wool).

NR. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 15.

Beauty and the Beast

Disney is on a lucrative trip of reanimating its greatest hits: Cinderella in 2015, The Jungle Book last year and The Lion King forthcoming. There’s hardly an artistic reason for them, but the top-dollar reimaginings have so far been reliably tasteful and sometimes enrapturing. The same holds true for Beauty and the Beast. The musical numbers and sheer spectacle of the 1991 neo-classic are the greatest assets of the new version. In addition to resembling the animated Belle, Emma Watson brings some Hermione-esque resolve to the heroine. And Luke Evans is having the time of his life as Gaston. The additions to the mostly faithful script are a mixed bag. The worst are a backstory about dead mothers and Josh Gad (as Gaston’s sidekick, Le Fou) adding too many spell-breaking one-liners in modern parlance. The cleverer revisions simply extend the logic of the original. The transformed prince’s erudite mind is appealing to Belle, and Gad’s sycophantic character is actually in love with Gaston. As an experience, it’s transportive, but your ultimate opinion of the remake will depend on whether more fashionable animation seems a good enough reason for it to exist. Tale as old as capitalism. PG. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Living Room Theaters, Lloyd, Moreland, Roseway, St. Johns Twin, Tigard, Vancouver.

Experimental Narratives

Matt McCormick curates works by Portland experimental filmmakers Elijah Hasan, Hannah Piper Burns and Chris Freeman, award-winning auteurs who play with narrative and concepts of time and place to comment on society, technology and identity. Boathouse Microcinema. 8 pm Wednesday, March 15.

sheer sake of spectacle. Following the original’s blueprint, Kong: Skull Island sends a boatload of explorers—the hubristic ringleader (John Goodman), overmatched old soldier (Samuel L. Jackson), hunky iconoclast (Tom Hiddleston) and inexplicable nymphet photographer (Brie Larson)—past the perma-storm covering that’s hidden the titular archipelago for millennia. The similarities end there. Shifting to Southeast Asia just after the fall of Saigon, Skull Island replaces Age of Discovery heroics with wartime ambience.

Once a simian paw bats down Jackson’s helicopter squadron, the survivors’ trek through uncharted jungle imagines an Apocalypse Now with threats actually plucked from Revelation. Long-abandoned WWII paratrooper John C. Reilly none too subtly explains the parallels to military alliances by pumping up mammalian pride and recasting the titular ape as an island god-king and lord defender against the truly fearsome horde of demonic raptors crawling up from unknown depths. In advance of Kong’s fated clash with Godzilla years hence, Skull Island assures audiences the monster of our monsters must be our friend. PG-13. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Pub and Theater, Tigard, Vancouver.

Land of Mine

It’s 1945, and Denmark has turned its former Nazi occupiers, many of them teenagers, into POW crews forced to clear thousands of land mines from the Danish coastline.

Adolescents trying to defuse explosives certainly wracks the audience’s nerves, as director Martin Pieter Zandvliet unfolds a powerful fable of punishment and mercy between the minesweepers and their Danish commander (Roland Møller). Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at last month’s Oscars, this World War II epilogue doesn’t break new ground, but its beaches are stunning. So are the bloody lessons it leaves on them. R. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Living Room Theaters.

tries to commune with her deceased twin while intermittently perusing Paris boutiques as a celebrity model’s assistant. But director Olivier Assayas doesn’t find it preposterous. His second collaboration with Stewart (after Clouds of Sils Maria) never winks. With quiet conviction, it fuses at least two genre movies— a haunting thriller by way of the muted tone of a character study.

Stewart’s the one who really holds these contradictions together. She’s perfectly mysterious in her dispassionate, slouching way. Answers are elusive, but savor the near-constant tension and surprisingly naked cinematography and the film’s spirit will make contact with you. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Cinema 21.

The Sense of an Ending

This adaptation of Julian Barnes’ acclaimed novel is nearly the Jim Broadbent opus the world didn’t know it wanted. The owl-faced character actor fidgets and frowns brilliantly as retired, lonesome protagonist Tony Webster. One day, Tony receives notice that a former girlfriend’s mother, now deceased, has bequeathed him the diary of a different old friend. A puzzle of English boarding school flashbacks ensues to explain the convoluted premise. Broadbent portrays a mounting obsession with the past in a deceptively innocent way, as though he’s picked up a new hobby that happens to include stalking people. Featuring a talented crop of English vets—Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Emily Mortimer and Matthew Goode—the adaptation comes across as extremely novelistic and not quite film-ready. You can instinctively feel the omission of Tony’s first-person narration (despite occasional voice-overs) and his recollection of the old days told in his own words. Maybe Barnes’ material would be better treated in two 90-minute parts on the BBC. It needs the space to let the audience buy into a version of Tony’s history before revealing his unreliability. This film tries to dramatically pull the rug out without giving us a floor to stand on. PG-13. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Fox Tower, Bridgeport.

Shut Up Anthony

Anthony (Robert A. D’Esposito) is a neurotic creative who can’t stop talking. His anxious chatterbox tendencies cost him his job, his girlfriend (Katie Michels), and his psychological well-being. In an effort to reclaim his mental health, Anthony retreats to his family’s timeshare where he runs into Tim (Jon

Personal Shopper

The setup sounds preposterous. A medium (Kristen Stewart)

Kedi

Beyond the ultimate cat-lover movie, this documentary on the street cats of Istanbul follows felines on their daily adventures, their routines revealing the personality of the people and the neighborhoods that collectively tend to them. Director Ceyda Torun keeps the camera low to the ground, chasing her subjects through crowded marketplaces and busy streets to convey the momentum of their lives. The artful shots of Istanbul and moving observations from the locals elevate this cat-lady porn into an intimate portrait of a multicultural metropolis and its take on our relationship with animals. NR. LAUREN TERRY. Cinema 21, Kiggins.

Kong: Skull Island

With respect to genre, where should an 800-ton gorilla sit? Most outsized creature features blend horror and disaster, but the first monster movie tapped into postcolonial tensions for a sui generis ethnographic travelog, while retreads washed of racial signifiers ended up as accidental meta-commentary on the folly of grandiosity for

C O U R T E S Y O F WA LT D I S N E Y P I C T U R E S

FEATURE

Beauty and the Beast

C O U R T E S Y O F WA R N E R B R O S . E N T E R TA I N M E N T

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READERS’ POLL

IS BACK!

Nominate your favorites from March 1—31 wweek.com/BOP2017

KONG: SKULL ISLAND Titterington), an equally antsy alcoholic who’s hoping to escape from his own domestic problems and responsibilities. Together, Anthony and Tim argue about love, religion, and buried personal traumas until the quarrelsome duo is finally ready to rejoin society. Portland filmmaker and Oregon native Kyle Eaton makes his feature debut with this dialoguedriven comedy. In some scenes, the humor stems from drunken frustrations, shroom-fueled antics, and short character performances by standups and improvisers local to the Portland scene. But most of the laughs come from Anthony’s Seinfeldian observations and the way both he and Timothy interact with the world. Almost every scene is filled with the same uncomfortable comedy you’d expect from an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

And while the characters aren’t always likable, their awkward misadventures are bound to get a chuckle.

NR. CURTIS COOK. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Thursday, March 16.

Strike a Pose

A new doc follows the lives of seven dancers who joined Madonna on her controversial 1990 Blond Ambition Tour. NR. Clinton Street Theater.

Women Working for the Wild

The Portland EcoFilm Festival presents a program of shorts about women working in conservation, including Maiden of the Mountain, about activist Kate McCarthy, whose work played a key role in protecting Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Sunday, March 19.

STILL SHOWING 20th Century Women

There are moments when Mike Mills’ semi-autobiographical family drama is wittily revolutionary, especially when Abbie (Greta Gerwig) teaches her teenage son the basics of feminism and later galvanizes a dinner party by coaching the guests to say “menstruation” in unison. 20th Century Women has a frankness that is welcome and rare in American cinema. R. Fox Tower.

A United Kingdom

The politically forbidden 1947 marriage of Botswanan prince Sir Seretse Khama to English typist Ruth Williams is a little-known anecdote of racial progress worthy of illuminating. The love is there; what’s missing is the care. PG-13.

Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas, Eastport, Living Room Theaters, Vancouver.

Arrival

Arrival inspires because of sorrowful linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams), who enters a spaceship hovering above Montana shrouded in grief but still has compassion for both aliens and humanity. PG-13. Academy, Avalon, Fox Tower, Joy, Jubitz, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Valley, Vancouver.

Before I Fall

FOR OVER 45 YEARS

Get Out

Yes, this movie is as good as everyone says it is, enough so that it makes you ask why other horror movies aren’t better. R. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.

The Great Wall

A mean girl learns to play nice in this slick, soulless riff on Groundhog Day that isn’t half as heartfelt as it pretends to be.

PG-13. Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.

This movie may have been engineered by Hollywood’s top scientists to make as much money as possible by bridging the gap between the Chinese and U.S. film markets, but it’s still a pretty fun, albeit messy, ride. Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Oak Grove, Vancouver.

Doctor Strange

Hidden Figures

Thanks to director Scott Derrickson’s confidently superficial storytelling, this film’s imagery has a dizzying power. PG-13. Vancouver.

A Dog’s Purpose

Filmgoers were barking mad when they thought the producers of A Dog’s Purpose had abused a canine on set. But this tale of doggy death and rebirth exploits every inch of furry adorability to blot out critical faculties and fan the sparks of true emotion. Who’s a good movie?!

PG-13. Bridgeport, Clackamas.

The Eagle Huntress

Set in the wilderness of Mongolia, this astounding documentary follows a 13-year-old Kazakh girl who hunts with the help of a golden eagle. PG-13.

Laurelhurst.

Fences

Denzel Washington swings for the fences with his adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a struggling African-American blue-collar family in 1950s Pittsburgh, hitting a home run and, uh, stealing third base? PG-13. Living Room Theaters, Vancouver.

Fifty Shades Darker

With unguarded humor and sometimes even something verging on wit, Darker discusses consent, sexual boundaries, trauma and relationship autonomy with a frankness that honestly makes it, despite soap-opera drama and predictability, a pretty good movie. R. Clackamas, Pioneer Place.

Fist Fight

Something like a three-episode It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in which Charlie gets a black teacher fired but is still the hero of the movie. R. Division, Eastport.

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Why does Kevin Costner get the biggest racism-busting line in a movie about underappreciated black women who contributed to NASA’s Apollo 11 trip to the Moon?

PG. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Fox Tower, Living Room Theaters, Lloyd, Moreland, Tigard, Vancouver.

I Am Not Your Negro

Raoul Peck develops an unfinished James Baldwin manuscript to eloquently tell the story of American racism. NR. Bridgeport, Cinema 21, Hollywood.

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore

I’m not sure if this surprise Grand Jury winner at this year’s Sundance festival is supposed to be a black comedy or not, but it kind of plays out like what would happen if Napoleon Dynamite moved to Portland and got really into vest metal. NR. Netflix.

Jackie

Aided by Mica Levi’s ghostly string score, Pablo Larraín’s peppering in of archival news footage from the time, and Portman’s most spectacular performance yet, this film is less an isolated Jackie Kennedy biopic than a dark and conceptual statement on how the American people classifies, experiences and remembers historic tragedies. R. Academy, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst.

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John Wick: Chapter 2

This may be the smartest, most beautifully shot film ever made that’s basically a montage of people getting shot in the head. R. City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.

CONT. on page 50

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MOVIES 17

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READERS’ POLL La La Land

IS BACK! Nominate your favorites from March 1—31

Food + Drink

Media + Personalities

STRIKE A POSE

Outdoor

*Sad_trombone.mp3*.

PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Living Room Theaters, Tigard, Vancouver.

The Lego Batman Movie

Nightlife

Local Business

Passengers

Logan

The first non-Japanese animation from Studio Ghibli is a simple fable on paper, but this heart-rending depiction of a man stranded on a desert island and the giant turtle that torments him is a tour de force in visual storytelling. PG. Cinema 21.

Turns out having Hugh Jackman and cute child Dafne Keen perform Mortal Kombat fatalities on robot-armed mercenaries is a cool idea for a movie. R. Bagdad, Beaverton Wunderland, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin, Tigard, Vancouver.

How do you start over when your transgressions refuse to stay buried? According to director Kenneth Lonergan, you don’t, and that denial is one of too many reasons Manchester by the Sea, while admirably tough-minded, is also a drag. R. Fox Tower.

Moana

If you were curious whether Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could carry a tune, Moana is a ringing affirmative. PG. Academy, Avalon, Jubitz, Kennedy School, Valley, Vancouver.

Monster Trucks

Monster Trucks is really good for a children’s movie about a kid named Tripp (Lucas Till) who has a monster living in his truck. PG. Vancouver.

Arts + Culture

Entertainment

Wellness

Moonlight

*Dancehall_airhorn.mp3* R. Bridgeport, Cinema 21, City Center, Lloyd.

My Life as a Zucchini

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They go underappreciated and mostly unseen by mainstream audiences during the year, but this week the Oscar-nominated animated and live-action shorts make it to select Portland-area screens. Academy, Laurelhurst.

Fast, funny and pleasingly drunk on the joys of mockery, The Lego Batman Movie is as fun as the 2014 original but stars Will Arnett as a petulant, preening goofball who rocks out on an electric guitar and showers orphans with cool toys from a merch gun. PG. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin, Tigard, Vancouver.

Manchester by the Sea

Cannabis

Oscar Nominated Shorts

An unsparing glimpse of the life of a brutalized boy nicknamed “Zucchini” (Gaspard Schlatter), who is put in foster care after a horrifying accident kills his drunken mother. My Life as a Zucchini blossoms into an intensely moving tale of recovery about kids who realize the secret to their survival lies in holding onto the frayed but beautiful friendships they share. PG-13. Fox Tower, Kiggins.

When a malfunction in Chris Pratt’s hibernation pod leaves him awake and alone decades early on a 120-year space voyage, he decides to wake up Jennifer Lawrence for companionship, telling her that her pod malfunctioned as well.

This is very creepy when you think about it. PG-13. Academy, Avalon, Laurelhurst, Vancouver.

The Red Turtle

Rock Dog

This movie is about a dog who rocks. PG. City Center, Clackamas, Division, Oak Grove, Tigard.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

The best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back, this gritty spinoff brings a depth of humanity to the galaxy that the series hadn’t ever seen. PG-13.

Fox Tower.

Sing

If you’ve been yearning for Seth MacFarlane to play a mouse who sings like Sinatra, this is your movie. PG. Clackamas, Empirical, Valley, Vancouver.

Split

James McAvoy stars as a guy with multiple-personality disorder who kidnaps a group of young girls, who must try to coax one of the good personalities to set them free. Is this problematic?

PG-13. Clackamas, Vancouver.

Table 19

Do you have a hankering to see a movie that thinks a boy bragging about the size of his penis is the funniest thing since Charlie Chaplin’s mustache? Table 19 will be your City Lights. PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Eastport, Fox Tower, Vancouver.

XXX: Return of Xander Cage

Do we need another Fast and Furious franchise? The new Vin Diesel flick answers that question by flipping double birds while hitting a stoppie into a villain. R. Vancouver.

For more Movies listings, visit

JAKE SOUTHARD

end roll

ANNOUNCING CULTIVATION CLASSIC 2017

Call for growers!

(EXTENDED DEADLINE TO MARCH 31)

Now accepting entries of cannabis produced in Oregon free of synthetic pesticides.

Green Beans COFFEE-AND-WEED PAIRINGS.

BY JO R DA N M I C H E L M A N

Weed and coffee are besties for a reason. Fortunately we live in arguably the greatest city in the world to consume them both, with a plethora of excellent roasters and friendly recreational weed shops in every neighborhood. Countless flavor pairings are suggested by strains and styles, but my favorite coffee-and-weed pairing is one that speaks to where I’m at on any given day. Done right, this style of consumption has its own cadence—like smoking weed and drinking coffee in time with my circadian rhythm.

Take, for example…

It’s 9 am on a Saturday and I’m cooking eggs.

Crab eggs with garlic and peppers, in fact. It’s nice out, and light is streaming through the windows.

I’m in a perfect stoner pocket of happiness, with a pleasant task to float through in the golden morning hours. One to three bong rips of a nice, indica-dominant hybrid produces a smiley sunshine high without knocking me out of my gourd. Green Cross Farms’ soil-grown Blue Magoo should do the trick—I recently copped a $40 eighth of the stuff from the Kings of Canna.

It’s delicious, and pairs well with Roseline Coffee’s Honduras Las Flores, a washed coffee that tastes like the boysenberry syrup at IHOP.

It’s 3 pm on a Thursday and I still have a bunch of work to do.

My brain is starting to get kind of gummy—fed up, perhaps, with the amount of synaptic firing I’ve put it through in the past 72 hours. All I really want to do is chill, but if I don’t send these last dozen emails, I won’t be able to chill.

I need weed that will make this last set of tasks enjoyable and distract me from the drudgery without making me stupid or slow.

The answer is Jack Herer, a sativa-dominant strain named for the late proprietor of the Third Eye Shoppe (see page 26) that is typically below 20 percent THC, and sometimes as low as 15 percent. This bud produces a lucid, focused high with a mellow wallop. Focused, not fucked, I smoke half of a half-gram pre-roll of Serra’s house brand, Pruf Cultivar, and then go to Heart Coffee Roasters on East Burnside Street. I recommend pairing that focused high with a shot of

Medical and Rec producers welcome!

Stereo espresso and a pot of decaffeinated carrot tea from Song Tea. Drink the espresso quickly, get to work, then let the carrot tea help you land the plane.

MORE INFO | APPLY | GROWER GUIDELINES:

wweek.com/cultivationclassic

It’s 6 pm on a Friday and the night is on my mind.

I’m a firm believer in drinking a cup of coffee at this time of evening—or even better, a shot of espresso. Most espresso bars around town are closed by now, but the Stumptown shop on Southeast Belmont Street stays open until 7 pm, and with the DJ beats and crowd noise coming from Circa 33 next door.

Hair Bender espresso, please. But what’s the weed pairing? I love the Quill, the gorgeous OMFGCO-designed disposable vape pen that costs about $40. I picked up a Quill pen full of Jack the Ripper C02 extract— the strain is super wakey-wakey. I don’t know if I would smoke it as flower, but in a Quill microdose format (each puff is just 2 milligrams), it’s perfect.

Benefiting: 350PDX and Ethical Cannabis Alliance • Questions: events@wweek.com

It’s 10pm on a Sunday and I’m reading a book—the analog kind with pages of paper that you turn.

No more digital stuff tonight; Monday morning will mean plenty of that. I light some incense and settle in for what I hope will be about 50 pages of reading with my cat.

The weed is Yummy—literally, that is its strain name—that I picked up from MindRite, one of the friendliest little shops in town. Yummy is an indica-dominant, high-CBD strain that’s all about tranquility and relaxation. But it’s not necessarily going to put you to sleep. The perfect coffee to pair with this, and with my late-evening book moment, is Olympia Coffee Roasting Company’s Asterisk decaf, brewed as mindfully as a pour-over.

I love decaffeinated coffee, but not all decaf is created equal. This is, after many years of tasting and searching, my absolute favorite decaf on the market right now, made from cooperative-grown Ethiopian Sidama coffee, decaffeinated in British Columbia by the experts at Swiss Water Process.

The coffee’s plum and spice notes hang great with that Yummy bud, which I’m smoking in a joint, of course, because I like to pretend it’s the 20th century, when smoking and reading were once required activities of the literary set.

Potlander newsletter Sign up to receive the latest cannabis news, events and more at wweek.com/follow-us

Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge, the world’s most popular coffee publication, based in Portland.

Willamette Week MARCH 15, 2017 wweek.com

51

W W S TA F F

BY N a t e Wa g g o n e r

Band on the Gun

BY DR. MITCHELL MILLAR

Thanks for reading Willamette Week’s Best New Band issue. As a postscript to this special issue, I’d like to offer some historical context behind this prestigious award. The first thing you should know is that the Best New Band award is much older than you might realize. I did a deep plunge into the annals of history, and in doing so discovered some startling evidence that the earliest recorded instance of a “new band” being recognized as “the best” in “Portland” was in 1916, when six local youths known as the Ready Greenhorns were bestowed with the momentous honor.

The Ready Greenhorns don’t have much in common with your modern-day Randy Bachmans or Fred Turners. In fact, they weren’t musicians at all. They were a group of Oregon teens so fired up over Germany’s shameful treachery against the Lusitania that they quit their jobs in a timber mill to come together to train so that they might have the privilege of traveling halfway across the world to fight the Kaiser’s army in the trenches of Europe.

The Ready Greenhorns conducted bayonet practice and mustard gas drills in public spaces all throughout Portland, day after day, with such unrestrained fervor that crowds of onlookers would often gather to watch and cheer them. They were so impressive and so disciplined in their maneuvers that spectators would occasionally wonder aloud if they were the best new militia Portland had seen in some years. A local trophy smith, perhaps wishing for some free advertising or to buoy local morale, presented his fanciest tin cup to the Greenhorns, though apparently he did not have enough space on the engraving plate to inscribe “Best New Militia” and opted instead for “Best New Band.”

Between 1916 and 2004, WW conferred the Best New Band award to Portland’s most promising up-and-coming militias. In 2004, the paper controversially decided to revise eligibility requirements to allow musical acts to compete against militias for the award.

To win Best New Band, musical acts and militias must submit an application packet stamped by a Portland-born notary public, along with a 5,000-word creative essay graded on a rubric of spelling and grammar, originality and persuasiveness. Bands with the best application packets are invited to the second round, which includes submitting a list of personal and professional references, signing a waiver consenting to be followed by a private detective, and hand-delivering any and all equipment and/or musical instruments to the WW offices, where the editorial staff conducts an exhaustive final inspection process.

The logic behind the final inspection is twofold. First, to ensure that no bands have unfairly modified any of their equipment. Secondly, when 2012 Best New Band winner Radiation City accused another band of illegally wiretapping its musical instruments, questions naturally arose about the legitimacy of the award. That was a dark day, friends. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scandalized by anything on the Portland music scene since the classical harpsichord shop down the street from me started selling pianos.

Cat and Girl 52

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key?

20 Chess side 22 Bluish duck 23 Places for MDs and RNs 24 “Get Shorty” sequel 26 Hall of Famer Carew 28 “___ Boot” (1981 war film) 29 “You too?” a la Caesar 30 Villainous 33 “Why am ___?

What does it all mean?”

35 Screw-shaped

pasta 37 MTV cartoon with the show-withina-show “Sick, Sad World” 38 Metallica hit, in the wrong key?

42 Looks at lewdly 43 Relate a story about 44 Go no further 45 Cookie with a Peeps-flavored 2017 variety 46 Brats 50 “The StarSpangled Banner” lyricist

Down 1 Early Tarzan actor Buster 2 “To be or not to be” soliloquist 3 Way shorter than 2-Down, say 4 The King of Pop, in tabloids 5 Aesthetic pursuit 6 “Doin’ the Pigeon” singer 7 Toyotathon, e.g.

8 Olympic speed skater ___ Anton Ohno 9 “Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)” singer Cantrell 10 Office PC hookup 11 Outer skin layer 12 Homes for some lizards 13 Like an epic voyage 19 “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” singer

Belinda 21 College catalog listings 25 “Dallas Buyers Club” actor Jared 27 “I ___ such thing!”

31 Melbourne is its capital 32 Comic book line artist 34 Got cranky 36 Jimmy who works with Lois Lane 38 Mixed-breed dog that sounds like a bird 39 Upper limit for a jungle gym, maybe 40 Lingerie item similar to a romper 41 Antiseptic gel source 47 Character in “The Wind in the Willows” 48 Victory celebration 49 Exactly correct 52 Ice Cube’s real first name 54 Small iPods 57 “Closing Bell” network 58 ACL’s location 61 Free ad, briefly 62 Fasten fabric 63 Verb suffix?

last week’s answers

©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JONZ823.

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Week of March 16

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

The more unselfish and compassionate you are in the coming weeks, the more likely it is you will get exactly what you need. Here are four ways that can be true: 1.

If you’re kind to people, they will want to be kind to you in return. 2. Taking good care of others will bolster their ability to take good care of you. 3. If you’re less obsessed with I-me-mine, you will magically dissolve psychic blocks that have prevented certain folks from giving you all they are inclined to give you. 4. Attending to others’ healing will teach you valuable lessons in how to heal yourself -- and how to get the healing you yearn for from others.

I expect you will get more than your usual share of both sweetness and tartness in the coming days. Sometimes one or the other will be the predominant mode, but on occasion they will converge to deliver a complex brew of WOW!-meets-WTF! Imagine chunks of sour apples in your vanilla fudge ripple ice cream. Given this state of affairs, there’s no good reason for you to be blandly kind or boringly polite. Use a saucy attitude to convey your thoughtfulness. Be as provocative as you are tender. Don’t just be nice -- be impishly and subversively nice.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

“I want to gather your darkness in my hands, to cup it like water and drink.” So says Jane Hirshfield in her poem “To Drink.” I bet she was addressing a Scorpio.

Does any other sign of the zodiac possess a sweet darkness that’s as delicious and gratifying as yours? Yes, it’s true that you also harbor an unappetizing pocket of darkness, just like everyone else. But that sweet kind -- the ambrosial, enigmatic, exhilarating stuff -- is not only safe to imbibe, but can also be downright healing.

In the coming days, I hope you’ll share it generously with worthy recipients.

I hope you will consider buying yourself some early birthday presents. The celebration is weeks away, but you need some prodding, instigative energy now. It’s crucial that you bring a dose of the starting-fresh spirit into the ripening projects you’re working on. Your mood might get overly cautious and serious unless you infuse it with the spunk of an excited beginner. Of course only you know what gifts would provide you with the best impetus, but here are suggestions to stimulate your imagination: a young cactus; a jack-in-the-box; a rock with the word “sprout” written on it; a decorated marble egg; a fox mask; a Photoshopped image of you flying through the air like a superhero.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

Many Geminis verbalize profusely and acrobatically.

They enjoy turning their thoughts into speech, and love to keep social situations lively with the power of their agile tongues. Aquarians and Sagittarians may rival your tribe for the title of The Zodiac’s Best Bullshitters, but I think you’re in the top spot. Having heaped that praise on you, however, I must note that your words don’t always have as much influence as they have entertainment value. You sometimes impress people more than you impact them. But here’s the good news: In the coming weeks, that could change. I suspect your fluency will carry a lot of clout. Your communication skills could sway the course of local history.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

Your world is more spacious than it has been in a long time. Congrats! I love the way you have been pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and into the wilder frontier. For your next trick, here’s my suggestion: Anticipate the parts of you that may be inclined to close down again when you don’t feel as brave and free as you do now. Then gently clamp open those very parts. If you calm your fears before they break out, maybe they won’t break out at all.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

I like rowdy, extravagant longing as much as anyone. I enjoy being possessed by a heedless greed for too much of everything that feels rapturous: delectable food, mysterious sex, engrossing information, liberating intoxication, and surprising conversations that keep me guessing and improvising for hours. But I am also a devotee of simple, sweet longing . . . pure, watchful, patient longing . . . open-hearted longing that brims with innocence and curiosity and is driven as much by the urge to bless as to be blessed. That’s the kind I recommend you explore and experiment with in the coming days.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

You know that forbidden fruit you’ve had your eyes on?

Maybe it isn’t so forbidden any more. It could even be evolving toward a state where it will be both freely available and downright healthy for you to pluck. But there’s also a possibility that it’s simply a little less risky than it was before. And it may never become a fully viable option. So here’s my advice: Don’t grab and bite into that forbidden fruit yet. Keep monitoring the situation. Be especially attentive to the following questions: Do you crave the forbidden fruit because it would help you flee a dilemma you haven’t mustered the courage to escape from? Or because it would truly be good for you to partake of the forbidden fruit?

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Saturn has been in your sign steadily since September 2015, and will continue to be there until December 2017. Some traditional astrologers might say you are in a phase of downsizing and self-restraint. They’d encourage you to be extra strict and serious and dutiful.

To them, the ringed planet is an exacting task-master.

There are some grains of truth in this perspective, but I like to emphasize a different tack. I say that if you cooperate with the rigors of Saturn, you’ll be inspired to become more focused and decisive and disciplined as you shed any flighty or reckless tendencies you might have. Yes, Saturn can be adversarial if you ignore its commands to be faithful to your best dreams. But if you respond gamely, it will be your staunch ally.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Born in the African nation of Burkina Faso, Malidoma Somé is a teacher who writes books and offers workshops to Westerners interested in the spiritual traditions of his tribe. In his native Dagaare language, his first name means “he who befriends the stranger/enemy.” I propose that we make you an honorary “Malidoma” for the next three weeks. It will be a favorable time to forge connections, broker truces, and initiate collaborations with influences you have previous considered foreign or alien.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

EVERY relationship has problems. No exceptions. In the beginning, all may be calm and bright, but eventually cracks will appear. Here’s the corollary to that rule: EVERY partner is imperfect. Regardless of how cool, kind, attractive, or smart they may seem in the early stages, they will eventually unveil their unique flaws and troubles. Does this mean that all togetherness is doomed? That it’s forever impossible to create satisfying unions? The answer is HELL, NO! -- especially if you keep the following principles in mind: Choose a partner whose problems are: 1. interesting; 2. tolerable; 3. useful in prodding you to grow; 4. all of the above.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

Would you like some free healing that’s in alignment with cosmic rhythms? Try this experiment. Imagine that you’re planning to write your autobiography. Create an outline that has six chapters. Each of the first three chapters will be about a past experience that helped make you who you are. In each of the last three chapters, you will describe a desirable event that you want to create in the future. I also encourage you to come up with a boisterous title for your tale. Don’t settle for My Life So Far or The Story of My Journey. Make it idiosyncratic and colorful, perhaps even outlandish, like Piscean author Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

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