Books & Talks

John Larison

7:30 p.m. Fri, Powell's City of Books, FREE
The Oregon author reads from his third novel, Whiskey When We’re Dry. The book—which has already been optioned for film and TV by the producers of Planet of the Apes—is a Western set in the late 1800s that follows a teenage sharpshooter who disguises herself as a boy to track down her outlaw brother.

Comedy

Risk!

8 p.m. Thu, Revolution Hall, $20
Are storytelling podcasts like The Moth too uptight for your tastes? Kevin Allison’s risqué traveling podcast-turned-live-show might be more your speed. The show returns to Portland, with local talent recounting stories they probably wouldn’t tell in more polite company.

The Undisputable Geniuses of Comedy

8 p.m. Sat, Revolution Hall, $17–21
What’s the state of Portland’s comedy scene? Consider this show your primer, as Nariko Ott hosts a jam-packed evening of stand-up, featuring sets from the likes of Alex Falcone, Mohanad Elshieky, Katie Nguyen, and Amanda Arnold, plus a dash of sketch comedy.

Music

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

7 p.m. Fri, Oregon Zoo, $39.50–99.50
Send out summer with Isbell's evocative, ever-impressive folk-rock-country sound. Aimee Mann opens.

The War on Drugs

8 p.m. Fri, Keller Auditorium, $29.50–45
Year after year, the Philadelphia band continues to produce guitar-fueled, ambitiously layered rock, on full showcase on 2017′s Grammy-winning A Deeper Understanding.

Lenore

9 p.m. Sat, Alberta Street Pub, $10
Rebecca Marie Miller and Joy Pearson of ethereal folk outfit Lenore make sweet, fierce harmonies—simultaneously tender and gut-wrenching. We chatted with the two last summer.

Theater & Performance

OPENING Radiant Vermin

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, CoHo Theater, $25–32
Scott Yarbrough—Third Rail’s founding artistic director, who stepped down at the end of last season—helms Philip Ridley’s macabre comedy about the housing crisis, materialism, and morality. How far would you go for the perfect home?

OPENING Skeleton Crew

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sun, 2 p.m. Sat–Sun, Artists Repertory Theatre, $30–60
Artists Rep opens its season with Dominique Morisseau’s Obie-winning play about the collapse of Detroit’s auto industry. Set in 2008 at one of the city’s last auto plants, the LA Times described it as “a powerful drama about workers, the value of their work and what happens to society when that work is taken away.”

TBA 2018

Various times and locations, prices vary
Portland’s annual contemporary art and performance festival returns, curated jointly for the first time by PICA’s crack team of artistic directors: Roya Amirsoleymani, Erin Boberg Doughton, and Kristan Kennedy. Expect political pop tunes, a sidewalk-based dance piece, and “terrorist drag.” For more, check out our festival picks.

Visual Art

OPENING Samantha Wall

11 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Thu–Fri, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sat, Russo-Lee Gallery, FREE
In Phantom Limbs, Portland artist Samantha Wall—who was born in South Korea and came to the US as a child—explores “family identity, cultural history, and loss” via drawings that meld portraiture and Korean “ritual narratives.”

OPENING Matt Eich

Noon–5 p.m. Thu–Sun, Blue Sky Gallery, FREE
The black-and-white photos in I Love You, I’m Leaving chronicle a challenging period for Matt Eich, including his parents’ separation, his move to a new city, and changes in his siblings’ lives. For Eich, the series reflects “the rhythm of my peripatetic life.”

OPENING LeBrie Rich

11 a.m.–6 p.m. Thu–Sun, Wolff Gallery, FREE
In Felt Grocery, Portlander LeBrie Rich examines food as both political statement and cultural connector with a series of 20 felted food sculptures of products she grew up eating. Hostess Donettes, Ritz crackers, Jif peanut butter: she painstakingly renders each in fuzzy, tactile form as one-off, nostalgia-evoking representations of mass-produced products the artist says she sees as both sinister and representative of familial closeness.