MUSIC

Sara Evans
Thursday at 7:30 pm, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
The country star brings us her best ballads—and big, sweet voice—for a one-night show backed by the Oregon Symphony.

City and Colour
Thursday at 8 pm, Roseland
Dallas Green writes plaintive, vocal-forward pop, but with fifth album If I Should Go Before You, the Canadian soloist breaks from this foundation acoustically (in that it’s not) and in creative input (enlisting bandmates like the Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence and Hacienda’s Dante Schwebel).

Glen Hansard
Friday at 8 pm, Crystal Ballroom
The Irish singer and Academy Award-winning songwriter tours with Didn't He Ramble, his first-ever solo album.

Sturgill Simpson
Saturday at 8:30 pm, Crystal Ballroom
Singer of “bonafide mountain hillbilly soul,” Sturgill’s big, bold country is striking a chord with the staff of Rolling Stone and at the Americana Awards. He tours with new album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.

BOOKS & TALKS

Jenny Lawson
Saturday at 4 pm, Powell's City of Books
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, the popular book from the clinically depressed writer/comedian, fueled a national dialogue on mental health. Furiously Happy is her follow-up memoir.

Rainn Wilson
Sunday at 7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books
The actor behind The Office’s Dwight Schrute was once “bone-numbingly nerdy”—no kidding! He tells all in The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy.

COMEDY

Eugene Mirman
Friday at 8 pm, Newmark Theatre
In honor of new comedy album I’m Sorry (You’re Welcome), the Bob’s Burgers voice actor and stand-up comedian teaches Russian, assists in your meditation, and cries.

Colin Mochrie
Sunday at 7:30 pm, Revolution Hall
The Whose Line Is It Anyway? star donates his talent—and enlists friends like Chase Padgett—for a night of improv that benefits the nonprofit Curious Comedy Theater.

FILM

Northwest Filmmaker's Festival
Thursday–Sunday at various times, Whitsell Auditorium
In its 42nd year, this showcase now draws upward of 400 annual entries from Alaska to the Klamath Basin. Past judges have included Todd Haynes, Gus Van Sant, and The Simpsons’ Matt Groening.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Secret Knowledge Conference
Saturday from 10:30 am to 6 pm, Jupiter Hotel
You're talented—but it's not enough. For a city filled with creative hopefuls, the Secret Knowledge Conference promises a goldmine of much-needed training how-tos, from pricing your paintings to licensing your music. 

THEATER

CLOSING Cuba Libre
Thursday–Sunday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 2 pm, Winningstad Theatre
Artists Rep’s “Broadway-scale” world-premiere musical counts as its house band none other than blistering, Grammy-nominated Latin act Tiempo Libre. For more on the crack team behind the 21-person show, see our anatomy of a production with Pan-American aspirations from our October print issue. (We've also got a review here.)

Offending the Audience
Friday–Sunday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 2:30 pm, Action/Adventure Theatre
“You don’t have to feel offended. You were warned in advance,” says writer Peter Handke of his interactive, comedic work of anti­-theatre, adapted by PDX performance group Liminal and this time monitored by surveillance cameras. “Heckling, off-leash pets, flash photography and crying babies are welcome.”

VISUAL ARTS

CLOSING Marginal Evidence
Thursday–Saturday from noon to 6 pm, White Box Gallery
Sight isn’t the only way to experience dance; take the sound of feet on floors, the brush of air on skin. Choreographer Katherine Longstreth aims to draw out these sensorial subcurrents with a multimedia art installation she calls “part forensic investigation, part archeology dig.”