It's pretty amazing just how much good stuff you can pack into the shortest month of the year, and this weekend is a perfect example: One of Portland's best sketch comedy teams is back, one of the country's best podcasts is here, one Brother from Another Planet lands at the Hollywood, one of the Northwest's most exciting bands returns to the stage, one of the city's most beloved pastimes (finally) gets its own festival... and oh yeah, MONSTER JAMÂŽ! It's one busy-as-hell weekend ahead; hit the links below and load your plate accordingly.


Jump to: Friday | Saturday | Sunday

Friday, Feb 23

Typhoon, Wild Ones, Amenta Abioto
After a five-year hibernation, Typhoon finally released their fourth record Offerings last month, and now the 11-piece indie rock band is rolling back into Portland for a hometown show at the Crystal Ballroom. Across 14 tracks, frontman Kyle Morton illustrates the struggle of a character who’s losing his memory. Though this existential dread lingers in every dark corner, the band still manages to coax out those catchy, orchestral melodies that helped their last album, 2013’s White Lighter, hit No. 2 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. Despite Typhoon’s past mainstream success, Offerings is deliberately experimental; the record opens with Morton’s warning, “Listen: Of all the things you’re about to lose, this will be the most painful,” and it’s often unclear where one song ends and the other begins, adding to the sense that Offering is meant to be ingested as one whole body of work. Sometimes the album’s dip into dystopia can feel a bit forced, but it’s a welcome return from one of the city’s most successful bands. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Crystal Ballroom, $25-30, all ages

The Aces: Hot Fruit
It’s always a treat to see the Aces, the infinitely inventive, disarmingly handsome, buoyantly goofy sketch duo of Shelley McLendon and Michael Fetters. Amid chaos and uncertainty, we can always count on them to make us laugh by pretending to be gorillas. Or sloths! Or rich bird enthusiasts speaking in soothing tones while their male model houseboy serves snacks! Whatever the Aces are up to—in their latest outing, Hot Fruit, that’s “fire, intrigue, and of course, produce”—it’s worth seeing. MEGAN BURBANK
8 pm, Siren Theater, $12-15

Girlpool, The Hotelier, Special Explosion
Singer/songwriters Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad bring their shapeshifting folk-punk project back to Portland for an all-ages show at the Wonder Ballroom. Worcester, Massachusetts-hailing outfit the Hotelier open the show with their beloved blend of emo-tinged indie rock and post-hardcore.
9 pm, Wonder Ballroom, $15-18, all ages

Burger-A-Go-Go: Night 1
For more than a decade, Southern California’s Burger Records has been releasing cassette tapes for greasy, grungy, bubblegummy bands the world over. Burger-A-Go-Go is the label’s annual concert featuring lineups with exclusively female-fronted groups (in the past, that’s included Best Coast, the Julie Ruin, and Kate Nash). For the first time ever, they’re taking the show on the road, and this weekend the festival-on-wheels stops in Portland for two nights at Dante’s. The Atlanta punks of the Coathangers headline Friday, with support from self-described “occult glam” band Death Valley Girls, old-school rockers the Flytraps, and Feels, whose excellent 2017 debut was produced by Ty Segall. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Dante's, $20-35

WHY?, Florist
Born out of the northern Appalachian region of New York known as the Catskill Mountains is the sleepy lo-fi folk of Florist. The recording project of Emily Sprague is fresh off the sophomore release of If Blue Could Be Happiness, a collection of many delicately crafted parts that only when woven together are full and unbreakable. Sprague uses gentle finger-picked guitar chords, sparse snare and cymbal drumming, and dreamy piano and synth melodies that draw up a groggy half dream world felt when just waking up alone a little later than you intended despite not having anything you needed to do in particular. Whereas their 2016 debut The Birds Outside Sang told a linear story of the isolation and recovery Sprague went through after being hit-and-run while riding their bike, If Blue Could Be Happiness is a rumination on the sort of subtle childhood memories that sneak up and suddenly flash back on a slow day spent alone. It’s melancholy—the fears of growing up, death, and depression feel at a distance, as Sprague’s cool voice takes center, and ponders feeling unsure of what things they forgot. Despite the uncertainty, this is music to truly get lost in because often Sprague’s worlds are full of idyllic imagery, rolling hills and stark vistas, a world so vast it’s impossible to fully take in. CAMERON CROWELL
9 pm, Revolution Hall, $17-20, all ages

The Dollop
When the world is in turmoil, it can be soothing to look back at equally wackadoodle moments in history, if only to be reminded that this horror show isn’t new. But actual history texts can feel like dry homework. The Dollop podcast never does. Each week, charming hosts Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds explore strange, discomfiting moments from our deeply flawed history. It’s just what we need. MEGAN BURBANK
7 pm & 9:30 pm, Aladdin Theater, $27.50-50, all ages

Whitney Rose, Chuck Westmoreland
To get a sense of what kind of artist you’re dealing with when it comes to Whitney Rose, just take a look at the cover of her most recent album, Rule 62. Against a purple backdrop, the Canadian singer/songwriter sits in a wooden chair, wearing white-fringed pants and a white tank top, her legs akimbo in manspread fashion. She stares straight at the camera, a look of pure defiance on her face. Once that chill running down your spine subsides, dive into the music found pressed into each copy. Recorded with the assistance of the Mavericks leader Raul Malo, the album is a swaggering, lucid collection of blues-flecked country that hits all the main stops on the thoroughfare: breakup ballads, stomping anthems of independence, and love songs that will have your toes curling with joy. ROBERT HAM
9:30 pm, Bunk Bar, $12-14

The Mads from Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 stars Frank Conniff and Trace Beaulieu bring their live movie-riffing tour back to the Alberta Rose Theatre for two nights of shows and Q&A sessions.
Feb 23-24, 8 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre, $25-35

The Blasters, Roselit Bone
The Blasters call their brand of electrified throwback roots rock "American music," but the truth is that they were always too weird to represent the country as a whole. They are punks, first off, but they were too obsessed with blues and rockabilly to catch on with the LA crowd who idolized their label-mates the Germs and Fear. They are insider musicians; members of the band have played with X, the Flesh Eaters, and the Gun Club, and most of them can be seen in the weirdo cult classic flick Border Radio. In spite of this, the Blasters stand out in the fray of the early '80s Los Angeles underground. Their first two records played off a lexicon of proto-rock 'n' roll with punk speed, professional chops, and mountains of charisma, and they still invigorate to this day. MAC POGUE
9 pm, Doug Fir, $19-20

Mac Sabbath, Galactic Empire
Portland's a place where burgers are worshipped and Black Sabbath is everyone's savior. While a Quarter Pounder may not stand up to the city's artisanal burgers, Mac Sabbath satiates our hunger for satirical metal holiness. Mixing only the finest parts of McDonald's fast food foolery with the brazen influence of the heavy metal legends, Mac Sabbath transforms classic anthems into comedy. "Iron Man" becomes "Frying Pan," "Never Say Die" becomes "Never Say Diet," and who could resist taking a big bite out of "Sweet Beef" ("Sweet Leaf")? Watch Ronald Osbourne belt out with Slayer MacCheeze, Grimalice, and Catburgler in all of their sardonic glory. CERVANTE POPE
7 pm, The Analog Cafe & Little Theatre, $20

Mic Capes, Rasheed Jamal, Glenn Waco, Gifted Gab
It’s become pretty clear Mic Capes' is going places, so you may as well enjoy him live while he’s cheap. For the lucky souls who do show up, you’re gonna hear these “Razor Tongue” bars loud and clear. JENNI MOORE
8 pm, The Fixin' To, $8


Saturday, Feb 24

MONSTER JAMÂŽ
Yes, Americans' insane obsession with driving kills tens of thousands a year and turns the environment into a lifeless wasteland—but also? MONSTER JAM®! Featuring “high octane spontaneous entertainment and intense competition,” MONSTER JAM® boasts 12,000-pound, 1,500-horsepower big-ass trucks racing, doing sweet jumps, and cutting giant goddamn cookies!! MONSTER JAM®! There'll also be supercharged ATVs and Speedsters, and–—buckle the fuck up!—Krysten Anderson, the first-ever female driver of Grave Digger, and Bernard Lyght, who'll be driving Alien Invasion (he previously played Spider-Man in Marvel Universe Live!). Are some big trucks going to do awesome shit? YES! Will Bernard Lyght be wearing his Spider-Man costume when he drives Alien Invasion? Only one way to find out! MONSTER JAM®! ERIK HENRIKSEN
Feb 24-25, Sat 1 pm & 7 pm; SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY 1 pm; Moda Center, $25-95, all ages

Ill Camille, Fritzwa
Though you might not yet be familiar with Ill Camille, you might recognize her voice as the icy-cool river running through the second half of Kendrick Lamar’s 12-minute opus “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” (from his 2012 major label debut, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City). She dropped her own debut LP The Pre-Write in 2011, followed by Illustrated in 2012. But then the Los Angeles MC went silent for years; in an interview with Bandcamp, she explains that during that hiatus, she lost her father, her grandmother, and her uncle. In 2017 Ill Camille reemerged with the stunning, triumphant Heirloom. Throughout its 16 tracks, she raps about bottomless pain, systemic obstacles, her dreams, and her own warrior-like strength over gauzy backdrops that pay homage to her jazz, R&B, and old-school hip-hop influences. Ill Camille’s Portland tour stop is a can’t-miss, especially considering that Portland-by-way-of-NYC soul singer Fritzwa is the opening act. CIARA DOLAN
8 pm, Tonic Lounge, $10

Portland Black Film Festival
For years, the Hollywood Theatre's Portland Black Film Festival has brought some fantastic films to town—films from African American filmmakers, films that focus on Black lives and experiences, and films that are worth a look from everybody. The 2018 edition, curated by local comics writer, filmmaker, and educator David Walker, is no different, filling February with a wide-ranging selection of movies... and on Saturday, February 24, the great Joe Morton, the festival's guest of honor. Perhaps best known from his role on Scandal and for causing the robot apocalypse in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (THANKS, JOE), Morton will be in attendance for a 35mm screening of his 1984 comedy classic Brother From Another Planet, in which “The Brother” (Morton) lands on Earth and gets an apartment in Harlem. ERIK HENRIKSEN
7 pm, Hollywood Theatre

Burger-A-Go-Go: Night 2
Cambodian-inspired rock band Dengue Fever tops Saturday’s bill, which also includes the dream-pop of Winter, sister act Summer Twins, and Portland’s own Patsy’s Rats. With nary a dude band in sight, Burger-A-Go-Go is a rare unicorn of a festival that moves girls to the front. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Dante's, $20-35

Bitch School, Monumental
Loud, cranked-up punk rock is the name of Bitch School's game, and they're gonna leave a mark. NED LANNAMANN
9 pm, The Fixin' To

Steve Byrne
The creator and star of the dearly departed Sullivan & Son might not be doing sitcoms anymore, but he's still staying sharp with his stand-up.
7:30 pm & 10 pm, Helium Comedy Club, $17-34

Blowpony
Portland's monthly queer-centric dance extravaganza returns to the Bossanova Ballroom for its February installment, with a special headlining performance by Los Angeles drag queen Meatball, music from DJs Airick X, Just Dave, Aurora, and special guest Mateo Segade, and enough go-go dancing to keep the club rocking all night long.
9 pm, Bossanova Ballroom, $10

Goodfoot 17-Year Anniversary Show
Seattle trio McTuff’s organ-centric jazz, funk, soul, and psychedelia sets the scene for the Goodfoot's 17th anniversary blowout celebration.
10 pm, Goodfoot, $10

Despise You, Escort, Macho Boys, Acracy, Displaced
Thanks to the influence of speedfreak goofs like Spazz, Charles Bronson, and In/Humanity, the powerviolence heyday of the mid-’90s was always at least a little bit silly. Even Man Is the Bastard’s bass-heavy grand guignol was kind of funny. Despise You, meanwhile, was a brutal rebuke to anything resembling levity. The Inglewood band’s first life was bright and brief: a few splits with groups like Suppression and Stapled Shut and they were done. They never even played a show. The records, unbelievably intense documents of despair and loathing, were more than enough. Perhaps sensing that we all needed a proper soundtrack for our 21st century hellscape, Despise You reunited in 2007 and finally brought their bleak brand of super-fast hardcore to the stage. On their side of last year’s split with Coke Bust, the powerviolence pioneers sound as despondent and pissed as ever. Which is, in a weird way, comforting. CHRIS STAMM
8 pm, The Know

Miles Electric Band
Drummer Vince Wilburn, Jr, nephew of Miles Davis, brings an all-star band to the Revolution Hall stage to pay tribute to Davis' electric period and celebrate the mark that the legendary jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer left on 20th century music.
7:30 pm, Revolution Hall, $25-55, all ages

Idiocracy
In 2006, 20th Century Fox looked at Mike Judge’s follow-up to Office Space and decided whatever Idiocracy was, it wasn’t good enough for theatrical distribution. They abandoned it in a couple theaters for a week, stuck it on DVD, and called it good. But the film not only found an audience on home video, that audience spent the next decade proselytizing on its behalf. Idiocracy was no longer a sloppy-yet-satisfying satire of our culture’s inability to handle progress—it was a prophetic vision of how access to all the information in the world doesn’t matter if the people accessing it don’t give a fuck about reading. Except now, on the other side of the shit-smeared, Trumpian looking glass, Idiocracy seems quaint more than anything. A lot of the jokes still land, yeah. But the belly-laughs are a little more sour and sad than you might remember. BOBBY ROBERTS
10 pm, Academy Theater


Sunday, Feb 25

Grails, Daniel Higgs, Abronia
With a moody catalog that has touched on post-rock, folk, metal, prog, electronics, and beyond, Portland-based instrumental band Grails have never stayed in one place. That’s true of the band members, too, who have scattered around the globe, but for tonight’s two shows (including a super-late Sunday night set—sorry, worker drones), founding members Emil Amos and Alex Hall have enlisted Zombi’s AE Paterra and local folk-psych mainstay Ilyas Ahmed to reinvent Grails once again. NED LANNAMANN
9 pm & 11:45 pm, Mississippi Studios, $13-15

Tune-Yards, Sudan Archives
The self-titled debut EP from Sudan Archives is one of the most interesting releases of last year; inspired by Sudanese fiddlers, Brittney Denise Parks sings and loops her violin over intricate, often hand-clapped rhythms, and the result is a lush, technicolor marriage of experimental folk and R&B (the best example is the standout “Oatmeal”). If you’re going to see headliner Tune-Yards, get there early—based on the weight and creativity of this first EP, it’s safe to say Sudan Archives is going to be a big name in the years to come.
8:30 pm, Wonder Ballroom, $27.50-29, all ages

Sibelius' Fifth Symphony
After witnessing 16 swans in the Finnish countryside, composer Jean Sibelius wrote, "God, what beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a silver ribbon." Lucky for us, Sibelius was equally gifted at writing musical notes, and went on to create a symphonic masterpiece that captures the ineffable sublimity of flight interjected with the surprising humor of honking swans. His Fifth's final, staggered chords, each separated by silence, still manage to blow minds a century later. BRIAN HORAY
2 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $25-120, all ages

Bully, Melkbelly
Don’t let the name fool you—Bully might be rough around the edges, but they play sticky-sweet grunge-punk with emotionally honest lyrics. After dropping their critically acclaimed debut Feels Like in 2015, last year the Nashville band released Losing via Sub Pop Records. It’s another hard-driving record of rough-and-tumble rock guided by Alicia Bognanno’s powerhouse vocals. Two albums in, it’s clear that Bully can masterfully combine punk fuzz and catchy pop hooks, and the result is infectiously energetic. DELANEY MOTTER
9 pm, Aladdin Theater, $18-20

Jennifer Chambers
The author of Remarkable Oregon Women: Revolutionaries and Visionaries returns with Abigail Scott Duniway and Susan B. Anthony in Oregon, chronicling the inspirational efforts of Duniway and Anthony and the powerful relationship they shared.
7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books, free

Jared Mees, New Move
Tender Loving Empire co-founder and indie rock singer/songwriter Jared Mees teams up with pop shapeshifters New Move for the latest installment of Sunday Sessions, which doubles as a tour homecoming show for the beloved local acts.
8 pm, Rontoms, free

Cleopatra
In the early 1960s, 20th Century Fox tried to jumpstart the blockbuster era about 10 years too early with Cleopatra, a 248-minute-long (!) historical action/adventure epic starring a whole bunch of ostentatious white people (including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Roddy McDowall, and Hume Cronyn) fucking and fighting in some of the most ridiculous costumes ever sewn, on some of the most lavish sets ever created. Cleopatra was basically the Waterworld of its time, down to the part where it’s beautiful to look at and somewhat entertaining despite its wholly unjustified runtime. BOBBY ROBERTS
2 pm, Hollywood Theatre

Portland Brunch Festival
The first annual Portland Brunch Festival invites you to come out and sample an array of brunch food and drinks from local restaurants and food trucks, with proceeds from ticket sales and sponsors benefiting The Jerome Kersey Foundation. Admission includes three drink tokens which can be exchanged for mimosas, bloody marys, wine, and beer. Additional food and beverages can purchased directly from vendors. To view a complete list of participating restaurants and their menus click here.
10 am, Leftbank Annex, $30

Night Heron, Wet Dream, S.E.C.R.E.T.S., Martha Stax, DJ Cat & Cone
XRAY.fm presents a release party for Gold Brix Tape 01, the first in a series of mix tapes from Gold Brick Records, featuring unreleased tunes from up-and-coming indie pops acts Night Heron, Wet Dream, S.E.C.R.E.T.S., and Martha Stax, all of whom will also be performing live as part of tonight's proceedings.
9 pm, Doug Fir, $8-10

Sketch Machine
Curious Comedy turns their stage over to the sure-handed silliness of veteran director Jason Rouse (Wonderland, Sweat, The 3rd Floor) for this monthly showcase of Portland's up-and-coming sketch talent.
8 pm, Curious Comedy Theater, $5

Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!