Good in the Hood Multicultural Music, Arts & Food Festival
The annual Good in the Hood festival, the largest multicultural festival in the Pacific Northwest, has been going strong for 26 years! The family-friendly event will have a kidsâ space to play, and a parade starting at Dawson Park thatâll kick-off Saturdayâs celebration by ending at King School Park. The rest of the weekendâs packed with live jazz, blues, soul and hip-hop, including DJ Pryce Miyagi and headliner Howard Hewitt. Thereâs also a multicultural marketplace with a plethora of food, arts and craft vendors. Bring the whole fam or roll up with some friends. Itâs finna be lit. JENNI MOORE
Fri-Sun noon, King School Park, free, all ages
IPRC's 20th Birthday
Has it really been 20 years since Chloe Eudaly (not yet a city council member) founded this non-profit self-publishing space? The number of local artists and writers (including yours truly) that have happily toiledâcollating, stapling, and squeegeeing their self published piecesâwithin the IPRCâs supportive walls are too many to measure. For their birthday bash, the IPRC keeps it DIY with a group mural project and a time capsule of stuff. Hooray for 20 years and 20 years more! Pizza, tacos and a sheet cake are involved (you know how to do it right, gurl). SUZETTE SMITH
6:30 pm, Independent Publishing Resource Center, $8
John Value
John Valueâs restive playing on Little Starâs wonderful 2016 debut, Being Close, betrayed a drummer uncommonly attuned to the emotional dips and swells of a three-minute pop song. He sounded busy back there, like he was trying to find paths to feeling that his bandmates hadnât discovered yet. Itâs not surprising, then, that Value is a skilled songwriter in his own right. The multi-instrumentalistâs new album, The Altar, is a crystalline collection of somber pop that is gloriously out of step with the sounds and poses of 2018. Big Starâs âThirteenâ hovers above the record as a guiding light, and like fellow Chilton-Bell acolyte Elliott Smith, Value can stretch a single syllable into something holy and wrenching. The Altar isnât all gray dolor, thoughâthe best song on the album is âThe Long Sleep,â a galloping thrill reminiscent of Dire Straits at their peak. And if âDire Straits at their peakâ doesnât strike you as a ringing endorsement, you might need to give Dire Straits another listen. CHRIS STAMM
9 pm, (The World Famous) Kenton Club, $5
The Great Big Fais Do-Do
Another year, another Great Big Fais Do Do, which is Cajun for partying your ass off (That might not be the most accurate of translations, but you get the idea). Spread over three days at multiple locations (including the Spare Room, the Secret Society, Velo Cult, Beeswing, and the Moon and Sixpence), some of Portland's best old-timey, foot-stompin', tub-thumpinest groups show off their stuff.
Various Locations, visit the Fais Do-Do event page for a full list of performances and venues, $5-35
The Decemberists, M. Ward
Colin Meloy and his beloved indie rock institution return to the Edgefield lawn for a pair of hometown shows supporting their latest full-length, I'll Be Your Girl. Fellow Portlander M. Ward opens the show with his own blend of folk, blues, and Americana.
Fri-Sat 6:30 pm, Edgefield, $45
Portland International Beerfest
Three days of swimming in over 200 rare and exotic beers and ciders, games (you can't drink this much beer and not play some darts, right?) pub grub from a wide variety of vendors, the Grande Beer Garden where full pints can be purchased for $3, free re-entry all weekend, and much more. Visit portland-beerfest.com for an updated list of vendors and breweries.
Fri-Sun 4 pm, North Park Blocks, $25-35
Shopping, French Vanilla
UK post-punk revivalists Shopping have this weird way of accommodating any vibe that comes their way. The trioâs songs are multi-use marvels that will dance with you if you feel like dancing, pace with you if you feel like panicking, or console you if you feel like crying. Crucial progenitors like the Slits and the Au Pairs provide the DNA, so nostalgia is welcome here as well, but when I hear Shopping do their thing, I canât help but feel planted in a present that is giving me permission to simply be. Like buildings designed to shift, roll, and sway to withstand the violence of an earthquake, Shoppingâs songs are reactive compounds that use vulnerability to absorb and understand and respond to a world that is confusing and scary. To listen is to be invited into that realm of rawness and strength. What you do there is up to you. CHRIS STAMM
9:30 pm, Bunk Bar, $12
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Los Kung Fu Monkeys
Vocalist Dicky Barrett, saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton, and dancing guy Ben Carr lead the Boston ska punk institution to the Hawthorne Theatre for the Portland stop on a North American tour supporting their 2018 full-length, While We're At It.
8 pm, Hawthorne Theatre, $25-30, all ages
Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion
Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion is a shiny, silly, sweet-hearted curiosity whose reputation has only increased with time. An '80s teen comedy dressed up in garish '90s fashions and starring people way too old for the genre they're in (which is absolutely part of the joke), I find myself thinking of it as part of an unofficial trilogy including Can't Hardly Wait and 10 Things I Hate About You; much like Scream revitalized the slasher by simultaneously honoring and subverting formula, 1997's Romy and Michelle sparked a Hughes-ian teen comedy renaissance by defibrillating the heart of a jaded-to-near-death genre through carefully considered characterization. Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino start the film as semi-shrill caricatures, but by the time they climb into Alan Cumming's chopper for their happily-ever-after ending, they are two fully fleshed out, lovable, hilarious people. BOBBY ROBERTS
8 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $7-9
Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!
