Daniel Norgren
Touring outside of Europe for the first time this Fall, Daniel Norgren & band prepare for stateside introduction. Although his name may be unfamiliar in North America, Daniel Norgren has built a notable career over the past 10 years in his home country and across much of Europe. The combination of a deep catalog and a live show that cuts to the core have been the fuel for a steadily-growing audience where fans are currently lucky to catch him at a venue smaller than 1,000 capacity. A multi-instrumentalist whose live performance includes guitar, piano, harmonica, and accordion. Included also as part of this live band is longtime music companion Anders Grahn on bass and drummer Erik Berntsson. Norgren's sound is distinctly homegrown and authentic, and his songs are incredibly powerful with a knack for catchy melodies and vocal harmonies. This is a rare, first opportunity to see Europe's best kept secret and undoubtedly most captivating live performer - don't miss it.
William Tyler
American musician and guitarist, who plays Folk, Indie folk and Pop rock (born December 25, 1979, Nashville, TN).
Tyler was a member of Lambchop and Silver Jews before he became a solo artist. He has also played with Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Charlie Louvin, and Candi Staton.
His father is Dan Tyler (3) and his mother is Adele Tyler.
A cat will scratch it’s way into our September stories.
Storytellers! Cultural Competency Consultant/Educator, Recovering Academic, Intersectional Shero, Mistaken for a Roll of Toilet Paper in 4th-grade Marshmallow Halloween Costume, No, You Can’t Call Her a Nickname BEALLEKA, Winner Portland’s Funniest Person 2017/Winner Stand Up Best of WW 2017, Member of Lez Standup, Voted Most Opinionated in High School CAITLIN WEIERHAUSER, FBI Agent Andy Genelli in the New Discovery Series Manhunt: Unabomber, Co-Writer of the Web-Series ‘I F’ed Up Royal’ BEN WEBER, Sketch Comedy King, Actor, Past Performer for Live Wire! Radio ANDREW HARRIS and Author of Death Confetti, Duct-Taped Fifty Hall and Oates Tapes to a Teacher’s Door, Sells Thigh-Boots to Online Fetishists JENNIFER ROBIN
Hosted by B. Frayn Masters with Announcer Jason Rouse
Music by Bobby D from XRAY
A portion of our ticket proceeds for this show will support Animal Aid, a Portland non-profit serving animals and the people they love since 1969.
Klyph once again curates a night of hip-hop music for the TBA festival featuring artists representing Portland, Oregon. A night celebrating hip-hop and social consciousness with performances by Champagne Duane, Wynne & special guest DJs.
Shannon and the Clams
The American West. America’s America. It was here in three very different worlds that Shannon and the Clams were spawned. From the dark redwood forests of Oregon emerged Cody Blanchard: singer and guitarist. The dusty walnut orchards and vineyards of northern California gave us Shannon Shaw: singer and bassist. Out of the lonely dunes of California’s central coast shambled Nate Mayhem: drummer and keys. These three talented visual artists were drawn separately to Oakland, California and it was there that the Clams began playing house parties and grimy clubs.
The band was forged in the anachronistic remote communities of the west, in some strange mixture of computer show and country fair; their music is some odd alloy of The Last Picture Show and The Decline of Western Civilization. The pioneer spirit of western life is all over this band: pushing into the unknown, blazing their own trail, creating their own destiny, with the accompanying canyon-esque loneliness and untamed joy only truly known by those with the courage to pull up stakes and head off into the big empty sunset.
Gone by the Dawn, the newest Shannon and the Clams album, is their best work to date. The music is complex, the lyrical content is emotionally raw and honest, and the production is the strangest it’s ever been. The album was written as one member was recovering from a serious breakup and another was deep in one. The lyrics reflect it, and the entire album is dripping with sadness, pain, and introspection. Shannon and Cody have not written generic songs about love or the lack of it. Instead they have written about their very own specific heartbreak, mistreatment, and mental trials. The emotion is palpable. On Gone by the Dawn the Clams have DARED TO BE REAL. They’ve exposed their true emotions, which is what’s most moving about the album. People are scared to be so real. Society does not encourage it. Folks remain guarded to protect themselves from being mocked, punished, and becoming outcast . The Clams have opted to forgo the potential tongue-clucking finger-waggers, and have instead had the artistic courage and audacity to splay their pain and struggles out for all to hear. We are lucky to hear them get so damn real.
For Gone by the Dawn, the Oakland trio hooked up with studio wizard and renaissance man Sonny Smith to record the album at Tiny Telephone Recording in San Francisco. Best known as the driving force behind San Francisco’s beloved Sonny and the Sunsets, Smith uses his refreshing production techniques to create an engaging sonic landscape without compromising the Clams’ signature Lou Christie-meets-The Circle Jerks sound. The Clams have evolved: their skills are sharper, their chops are tighter and weirder and they’ve added new instruments to to the mix. A whole new dimension of the Clams has emerged.
In the West everything is big. The mountains are towering, the rivers broad, the deserts vast, the canyons deep, and the emotions huge. The Clams have painted themselves into a massive landscape of sound and desolation. Gone by the Dawn is monumental; immense, magnificent, and unforgettable. Shannon and the Clams have pioneered their way into a lonesome land where the past still lives in the long shadows of a hot afternoon, where whispering spirits follow high along canyon walls, and if you sink your fingers into the dusty hard-packed earth you pull out hands smeared with blood.
– Dan Shaw
The Shivas:
Shivas are a rock and roll band from Portland, Oregon formed in 2006. In the 10 years since forming they have brought their raucous dance party to almost all 50 states, and over 25 countries worldwide, meanwhile releasing five full-length albums and three EPs on labels such as K Records and Burger Records. With the release of their latest - TURN ME ON (out May 12, 2017 on Burger Records/Annibale Records) they set out on spring/summer tours across North America and Europe, spending a few weeks at home in their time off to finish working on their 6th LP, set to come out in 2018. Keep an eye out for an upcoming Shivas show in your town.
For more info and the venues go to: http://pdxmakerweek.com/2017/
Portland Makers exist as a vibrantly diverse fusion of
organizations, people, places, and events that converges
during PDX Maker Week to inform, inspire, and ignite.
COAST MODERN
Seattle-native Luke Atlas and LA-local Coleman Trapp met while working as Los Angeles-based songwriters, fellow rats in the race to land songs with mainstream pop artists. After more than two years of peddling some great, some terrible, and some very weird creations at the gates of the mainstream, they received little more than fleeting glances. Watching so many of their creations die on the operating table left the two burnt out and questioning their path.
With just a backpack and a tape recorder, Coleman escaped his over-saturated hometown for the mountainous serenity of Denver, CO. What was meant to be a quick, head-clearing vacation soon turned into months as Coleman blended into the community, taking a job at a family restaurant, and enjoying the simple pleasures of a "normal" life.
"I realized I didn't desire the trappings of music industry success that drove me for years," recalls Coleman. "I actually started thinking I might never go back." Without the pressure of writing-on-demand, he began messing around on a borrowed acoustic guitar and recording tossed-off ditties on an old cassette recorder. The pure, child-like enjoyment of writing only for himself led Coleman to a realization: maybe he'd overlooked a path that was right in front of him the whole time.
Soon, warbly tape recordings began appearing in Luke's inbox. "At first I didn't think much of them because they were so different, but they kept randomly getting stuck in my head" says Luke, who further encouraged Coleman's experiments. On a whim, Luke created a production around one of the acoustic demos and sent it back. Coleman was thrilled. "It felt like this could be something," says Luke. "I told him to get his ass back to LA." br>
Returning with renewed vigor and a rusted-out car hood after a Mile-High winter, Coleman quickly called a meeting with Luke. With their new musical experiments buzzing in their heads, the pair discussed creating a personal project based purely on the whims of their creative spark, wherever that led them. "After we stopped shooting at an invisible moving target and had no agenda, that's when the sound came," explains Luke. And Coleman, who had not so much as even sung "Happy Birthday" until a few years prior, began finding the confidence to take frontman status, lending his vocals to the tracks that began to take form through a playful, stream-of-consciousness process.
One of the first songs they plucked from the ether together was "Hollow Life." An anthem for restless souls everywhere, the lyrics drip with the same frustration the duo once felt for their city, while Coleman yearns for a simpler life away from it all. "Racing towards a dream on the horizon / Gimme something better than this Hollow Life," he sings over plinking marimba mashed up with angular fuzzy bass and booming 808 kick drums. br>
"The song is about finding distance from what is hindering you, whether it be physical or mental distance," explains Coleman. "But we're no gurus. We're just trying to let people know that we're here figuring this shit out too."
On the other end of the duo's musical spectrum is the bouncy tribute to nascent romance, "Dive" and the psychedelic, "Comb My Hair." Digging deeper, there is the group's wistful meditation on the passage of time, "Wild Things," and, "Frost," crackling with imperfection from Coleman's original Denver basement tapes. Clearly Coast Modern are capable of covering a large swath of musical territory, yet a strong, self-aware voice and a sense of groove tie them all together.
With their destiny now grasped firmly in their own hands, the duo are reveling in the freedom of their newfound artist status. At the will of their muses instead of the tidal flow of the pop world, the group can create the genuine, self-assured music that had been locked inside. Coast Modern is what happens when you let go of what you always thought you wanted and embrace the unexpected; when you stop chasing and start taking the lead.
Assembling a dynamic combination of never-before-seen home video footage, candid interviews and raucous performances; director Sarah Price explores the rise and fall of the seminal grunge punk band L7 . Chronicling the early days of the band's formation in 1985, to the height of their fame in the 90's; the film takes a roller coaster ride through L7’s triumphs and failures, and provides insight into the band's eventual dissolution in 2001.
The Portland Mercury and XRAY.FM Present an end of summer celebration with Wild Ones on 9/1, Blitzen Trapper on 9/2 and Orquestra Pacifico Tropical on 9/3!
It makes sense that in order to hear local jazz musicians pushing the envelope, you have to venture to the edge of the city's envelope, as the Portland Metro Arts Center hosts artists such as Essiet Okon Essiet Quartet, David Friesen Quartet, Blue Cranes, Ezra Weiss Sextet, Trio Subtonic, and more for two days of improvisational adventure.
It makes sense that in order to hear local jazz musicians pushing the envelope, you have to venture to the edge of the city's envelope, as the Portland Metro Arts Center hosts artists such as Essiet Okon Essiet Quartet, David Friesen Quartet, Blue Cranes, Ezra Weiss Sextet, Trio Subtonic, and more for two days of improvisational adventure.
Vortex Music Magazine & XRAY.FM Present
The 3rd annual
Portland PsychFest
Schedule:
12:25 Dead Meadow
11:05 The Warlocks
10:05 The Prids
9:00 Matt Hollywood & the Bad Feelings
8:15 Daydream Machine
7:30 Pastilla
6:45 Cellar Doors
6:00 Souvenir Driver
5:15 Super 78
4:30 Firefriend
3:45 Plastic Nudes
3:00 Burning Palms
2:15 Kingdom of the Holy Sun
1:30 La Cerca
12:45 Pets
12:00 Nodding Tree Remedies
11:30am DOORS (DJ Major Sean)
Shed the skin of your chameleonic ear drums and Fear Not the Death of Liberty, Wanderlust and Love. All is well if you're tuned to the frequency that comes from within and rises up in the brain blood. Music is a drug. The power of Rock n Roll is real it destroys men and womans minds and compels all ages and walks to take their clothes off, as in the sunny meadow. As below, so above. You know what you came for -- Sexual Release in the face of a Volcanic God! Lighten up, Dance, move, be as one. We're all Brothers and Sisters sprung from the same bacteria at the beginning of the explosion and after the flood. Space rocks formed into moons, bars, caves, beaches, rings around planets both hotter and colder than earth mud. The sound you hear is the Evolution of your Senses through the secret passageways into Other Universes. Faster and faster, hotter and denser, tighter and brighter, until finally -- twitching and multiplying -- the crowd forms, the bands disappear into the music of the bareheaded stars.
Writen by: Michael W. Roberts
This years lineup includes.
Dead Meadow (Official)
The Warlocks
Matt Hollywood and the Bad Feelings
Pastilla
Souvenir Driver
Daydream Machine
The Prids
Super 78
La Cerca
KINGDOM OF THE HOLY SUN
Firefriend
Cellar Doors
Burning Palms
Plastic Nudes
Pets (the band)
Nodding Tree Remedies
DJ's
Sean Cavanaugh
DJ Hippie Joe
DJ Andy Maximum
John Mason IV
Rachel Good
Jason Edmonds (Magic Castles)
Bacline provided by Benson Amps
& Kirsch Drums
Vendors
http://blackwillowjewelry.com/
Brighton Place- https://www.etsy.com/shop/BrightonPlace/items
Kirsten Elise- https://www.etsy.com/shop/kirstenelisepdx
Crystal Seed Tarot - https://www.facebook.com/crystalseedtarot/
Curious Trappings - Vintage Clothes
http://www.instagram.com/katietastic.art
Top Down Rooftop Cinema is an annual outdoor film series. Classic, campy, and always entertaining, films screen every Thursday night in August amid Portland’s ideal summer weather.
Thursday August 17 -- ARMY OF DARKNESS 1992
Happy-go-lucky S-Mart employee Ash is ripped from his 1990s existence and transported back to medieval times, where he must struggle against warring factions of men and an army of the dead that threatens all existence. The third film in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy puts the pedal to the metal with an endless array of sight gags, one-liners, and demon busting action sequences. Can Ash retrieve the ancient tome known as the Necronomicon and banish the evil forces it summons from the face of the earth? Or do we even care about plot with a film as wickedly fun and frenetic as Army of Darkness? “Sam Raimi’s “Army of Darkness” is a goofy, hyperventilated send-up of horror films and medieval warfare, so action-packed it sometimes seems less like a movie than like a cardiovascular workout for its stars.” – Roger Ebert
Join us atop the Hotel deLuxe’s parking structure at SW 15th and Yamhill for our 13th annual program of cinema under the stars. Doors open at 7 pm with food and beverages available for purchase from Aladdin’s Café, Brass Tacks Sandwiches, and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Music begins at 8 pm and films begin around dusk. Entry for advance ticket holders is guaranteed until 8:30 pm. Advance tickets ensure that you will not have to wait in the ticket purchase line but do not guarantee entry after 8:30 pm. A limited number of chairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so feel free to bring a chair, pillow, or blanket, along with a light sweater or jacket. Advance ticket holders who arrive after 8:30 pm but are not admitted to the screening (in the case of a sell-out) may exchange their tickets for another Top Down screening. There are no refunds or exchanges for arrivals after the film begins (c. 9 pm) or for entirely missed screenings. Please, no pets or outside food or drink.
Each film will be preceded by a short film by a Northwest filmmaker.
Advance tickets are available at nwfilm.org: $10 general; $9 student/senior/PAM member; $7 Silver Screen Club Friend. Tickets at the door are $12 general; $11 student/senior/PAM member; $9 Silver Screen Club Friend.
XRAY FM is throwing a big, free "bazaar style" party with some of your favorite XRAY radio show's broadcasted LIVE from the White Owl patio, also featuring performances by musical acts like Cool Nuts, Surfer Rosie, Motrik, Anjali and the Kid, AND THAT'S NOT ALL. Over 40 vendors and pop up shops selling art, vintage, books, records, jewelry, free samples, and so much more out on the patio and adjacent street. Join us at the White Owl on August 12th from 2pm on for a summer event to remember.
FB RSVP HERE!
Enjoy our street fair and patio full of pop-up shops, jewelry, vintage, food/drink samples and more. Shop for zines, books and records inside the bar. Street fair is all ages, inside the bar and patio is 21+.
VENDORS/POP UP SHOPS: 2pm-8pm
MUSIC + PARTY: 2pm-1am
2-3pm DJs Jené and Shira of Everyday Mixtrapes (Live Broadcast)
3-5pm DJ Honest John of Savage Beat (Live Broadcast)
5:15-6pm Surfer Rosie
6-7pm Serious Moonlight and Palm Dat of Intuitive Navigation (Live Broadcast)
7:15-8pm Cool Nutz & DJ Fatboy
8:00-9:30 Anjali and the Incredible Kid (of XRAY's Chor Bazaar)
9:30-10:20 Motrik
10:20-1am Heavy Metal Sewing Circle Afterparty with DJs Nate Carson and Triple M
This party is made possible by our friends at Stumptown Coffee Roasters,New Deal Distillery, Hifi Farms, and Secret Aardvark Trading Company. Poster by Tony Cohen. Thank you!
**** Interested in becoming a vendor? Email events@xray.fm *****
White Owl Social Club, Pickathon and XRAY FM Present:
KHUN NARIN'S ELECTRIC PHIN BAND & 1939 ENSEMBLE (a journey into Thai psychedlia) on August 10th, part of White Owl Social Club's outdoor summer concert series.
Doors @ 8 // Music @ 9 // $12 ADV // $15 DOS
KHUN NARIN'S ELECTRIC PHIN BAND:
"It all started over a year ago with the caption “MINDBLOWING PSYCHE- DELIA FROM THAILAND”—the Youtube video that accompanied this head- line on the Dangerous Minds Blog was exactly that. Here was a group of Thai musicians being filmed parading through a remote village hundreds of miles away from Bangkok playing some of the heaviest Psych known to mankind out of a crazy homemade soundsystem. Who were these men and how on earth was this not some unearthed archived footage from the ‘60s or ‘70s?! The Youtube clip quickly made its rounds amongst music enthusiasts leaving many in the Western hemisphere to question who this group of contemporary Thai villagers (loosely named Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band) was.
Six months after that first encounter with Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band, a Los Angeles music producer named Josh Marcy used Facebook and some un- likely interpreters at his local Thai restaurant to get in contact with the band and inquire whether they’d be interested in having him travel to their town to record their music for a global audience. At first the band was naturally suspicious, but through subsequent interactions the group’s leader and namesake Khun Narin (also known simply as “Rin”) warmed to the idea of having Marcy come visit. And so began the journey of uncovering who these mysterious men from an obscure blog post actually were.
Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band’s membership is always in rotation and spans several generations, from high school kids to men well into their 60s. A standard engagement has the band setting up at the hosting household during the morn- ing rituals, playing several low-key sets from the comfort of plastic lawn chairs occasionally working in a cover version of a foreign classic (The Cranberries ‘Zombie’ is a recent favorite) while the beer and whiskey flow freely. After a mid-day banquet, they start up the generator and lead a parade through the com- munity to the local temple, picking up more and more partiers along the way.
The music they play is called phin prayuk. The first word refers to the lead instrument, a 3-stringed lute known as the phin. Beer, the phin player, uses a string of Boss effects pedals, including a phaser, distortion and digital delay to get his sound. He also builds his own instruments, installing Fender pickups into hand-carved hardwood bodies, with elaborate mythical serpents adorning the headstock. The band takes pride in their custom PA system, as well as an imposing tower of 8 loudspeaker horns atop a huge bass cabinet. To capture the essence of the group and their sound, Marcy recorded th em in their natural environment by doing a proper field recording, literally in a field outside the city of Lom Sak, in the valley of mountains that form a rough border between Thai- land’s North and Northeast. The result was 40 minutes of hypnotizing psyche- delia filled with heavy drum breaks that sounds like something RZA would sample for a Quentin Tarantino film." - Innovative Leasure
https://khunnarin.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-R3xKy_wmo
1939 ENSEMBLE:
"1939 Ensemble’s experimental sound is drawn from the contrasts of textures and noise. Originally a duo of drummers, Jose Medeles and David Coniglio played drum kit and vibes interchangeably, and the essential snap of the drums and and crackling noise through effects pedals made an unsettling and strangely beautiful bed for the vibes’ warm, bell-like sound. The brief songs might unwrap a melody only to erupt into ecstatic or forboding waves before receding as abruptly as they started.
Now a quartet with Josh Thomas and Knate Carter, the group’s expanded sonic palate includes trumpet and electric guitar. They still take turns playing the vibes. We met up with the group at Revival Drum Shop in S.E. Portland, to hear them play from their upcoming release New Cinema, in a showroom full of vintage drum kits and percussion." - David Christensen, OPB
https://1939ensemble.bandcamp.com/
Top Down Rooftop Cinema is an annual outdoor film series. Classic, campy, and always entertaining, films screen every Thursday night in August amid Portland’s ideal summer weather.
Thursday August 10th -- 1971's SHAFT
In 1971, famed photographer Gordon Parks followed up his quiet, semi-autobiographical film The Learning Tree with what is arguably the commercial and critical peak of blaxploitation genre filmmaking. Powered by Isaac Hayes’s Grammy Award-winning soundtrack, Shaft catapulted star Richard Roundtree into the zeitgeist as John Shaft, a New York City private dick who finds himself precariously positioned between rival Italian and Black gangsters while investigating a missing persons case. The film’s unexpected success spawned two sequels with Parks remaining on board for 1972’s Shaft’s Big Score! “Shaft’s brilliance is in the way its title figure’s confidence became contagious—both in the urban theaters where it was a hit and the dozens of blaxploitation films that would follow.”—Josh Larsen, Larsen on Film.
Join us atop the Hotel deLuxe’s parking structure at SW 15th and Yamhill for our 13th annual program of cinema under the stars. Doors open at 7 pm with food and beverages available for purchase from Aladdin’s Café, Brass Tacks Sandwiches, and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Music begins at 8 pm and films begin around dusk. Entry for advance ticket holders is guaranteed until 8:30 pm. Advance tickets ensure that you will not have to wait in the ticket purchase line but do not guarantee entry after 8:30 pm. A limited number of chairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so feel free to bring a chair, pillow, or blanket, along with a light sweater or jacket. Advance ticket holders who arrive after 8:30 pm but are not admitted to the screening (in the case of a sell-out) may exchange their tickets for another Top Down screening. There are no refunds or exchanges for arrivals after the film begins (c. 9 pm) or for entirely missed screenings. Please, no pets or outside food or drink.
Each film will be preceded by a short film by a Northwest filmmaker.
Advance tickets are available at nwfilm.org: $10 general; $9 student/senior/PAM member; $7 Silver Screen Club Friend. Tickets at the door are $12 general; $11 student/senior/PAM member; $9 Silver Screen Club Friend.
Here is a quick rundown of what to expect at Pickathon 2016.
We first suggest pulling up a copy of the Pickathon 2016 Map, as this will help you familiarize with what the Pendarvis Farm layout looks like. This will also give you an idea of what amenities we have to offer at the festival including showers, wellness & medical locations, food carts, beverage gardens, free drinking water spigots, dish return & washing stations, ADA camping, camp host and camp host gear drop off locations, port-o-potties, ATM, artist & festival merchandise, and locations of available camping options.
Whether you drive, shuttle or bike to Pickathon the first step is always the same; you will temporarily park in our front gate lot (which is across the street from the festival site) and present your physical or print at home ticket to one of our lovely front gate volunteers. Once scanned they will provide you with a weekend or day wristband (or wristbands depending on how many you purchased). They will also provide you with a parking “cling” (if you purchased parking) which magically sticks to the inside of your front windshield.
With wristbands and a parking sticker in hand you will be directed to our parking lot where you will either park for the day or the weekend.
When you arrive on site and intend on tent camping in the woods, you will first want to check in with our Camp Host to get info on prospective campsite locations as well as your spot in the gear shuttle line.
Once you have an idea of the general area where you want to camp, we suggest having one person scout and the other manage the gear drop off & pick up (if coming solo, well, you’re on your own for that one…).
The terrain is generally sloped and often it takes a bit of exploration to find the perfect site, especially as it gets later into the weekend. Generally speaking, those with smaller tents have an easier time finding adequate nooks, so maybe if you are a larger group or family, think about tent size and options that could help you best fit.
It is no secret that not all campsites at Pickathon are created equal, but we do work very hard to make sure that everyone with a weekend ticket can find a decent place to pitch their tent. Being neighborly and mindful of your footprint goes a very long way. Arriving on Thursday is always going to provide the most ideal camping locations.
Once you’re settled Pickathon is your oyster! Music and activities start Thursday evening and continue on through Sunday night. We have some hand picked craft vendors and a veritable cornucopia of the finest food and adult beverage vendors in Oregon. Choose your own adventure!
8/3 Weed w/ Young Hunter...FREE
8/10 Pickathon Presents: Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band w/ 1939 Ensemble...$12 ADV.
8/16 Tracy Bryant (Corners . LA) w/ Lavender Flu...FREE
8/17 Wyatt Blair w/ Nick Normal...FREE
8/24 Secret Drum Band (Record Release) w/ Notel...FREE
8/31 Adult Books w/ Woolen Men...FREE
21+
"The Stumptown Improv Festival’s first three years have been bonkers (or, as Jed likes to say, “bonkerz”). We’ve sold out shows and forced audience members to sign up for obscenely long waiting lists. We’ve attracted some of the most well-regarded improv groups performing today from LA, NYC, San Francisco, Vancouver, BC, Minneapolis, and, of course, Portland. Performers who are vets on the festival scene have raved that “this is one of the best festivals we’ve ever been a part of”. We’ve offered huge gift bags to our comedians and gave people leather coasters embossed with our logo. We are OUT OF CONTROL." -Stumptown Improv Festival
Top Down Rooftop Cinema is an annual outdoor film series. Classic, campy, and always entertaining, films screen every Thursday night in August amid Portland’s ideal summer weather.
Thursday August 3rd -- 1937's The Awful TruthProduced in the same year that McCarey directed Make Way for Tomorrow, The Awful Truth is the opposite of that tearjerker, throwing Cary Grant and Irene Dunne into a delightful, screwball scenario as a husband and wife headed towards splitsville, despite the fact that neither one of them really wants out of their marriage. While The Awful Truth scored McCarey his first of two Best Director Oscars, he maintained that the other film he made in 1937 was the more deserving work. Regardless, The Awful Truth remains one of the most popular, enduring, and clever romantic comedies of the silver screen era. “What elevates McCarey’s masterpiece—what makes it arguably the greatest of its genre—is its unobtrusive depth of feeling. Never sappy, the movie is at once light on its feet and grounded at heart.”—Elbert Ventura, Popmatters.
Join us atop the Hotel deLuxe’s parking structure at SW 15th and Yamhill for our 13th annual program of cinema under the stars. Doors open at 7 pm with food and beverages available for purchase. Music by XRAY.fm DJ's begins at 8 pm and films begin around dusk. Entry for advance ticket holders is guaranteed until 8:30 pm. Advance tickets ensure that you will not have to wait in the ticket purchase line but do not guarantee entry after 8:30 pm. A limited number of chairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so feel free to bring a chair, pillow, or blanket, along with a light sweater or jacket. Advance ticket holders who arrive after 8:30 pm but are not admitted to the screening (in the case of a sell-out) may exchange their tickets for another Top Down screening. There are no refunds or exchanges for arrivals after the film begins (c. 9 pm) or for entirely missed screenings. Please, no pets or outside food or drink.
Each film will be preceded by a short film by a Northwest filmmaker.
Advance tickets are available at nwfilm.org: $10 general; $9 student/senior/PAM member; $7 Silver Screen Club Friend. Tickets at the door are $12 general; $11 student/senior/PAM member; $9 Silver Screen Club Friend.