Friday, Aug. 1

Mt. Hood Jazz Festival

[JAZZ] This yearâs slimmed-down edition of the long-running Mt. Hood Jazz Festival kicks off with Friday nightâs free round robin featuring four local combos, each at a different restaurant on Main Avenue in downtown Gresham. Saturdayâs schedule begins around noon with a local all-star lineup featuring Javier Nero, John Nastos and other Portland jazz stalwarts, and continues with sets by Bobby Torres Ensemble and Billy Haynes before headliner Pete Christlieb and his wife, trombonist and former Motown session player Linda Small, join a trio of Portland jazzers. Best known for his classic single-take solo on Steely Danâs âDeacon Blues,â straight-ahead saxman Christlieb has been a mainstay of the L.A. studio scene for a half-century, including a long stint in Johnny Carsonâs Tonight Show band, variety shows, TV series and collaborations with legends from Louie Bellson to Chet Baker to Freddie Hubbard. BRETT CAMPBELL. 6 pm FridayNoon Saturday. $15-$20. Go to for details.

The Great Horror Campout

[SCARES] The Great Horror Campout is basically an outdoor, immersive, haunted-house experience you canât escape until the sun comes up. Activities include a scavenger hunt, âvoodoo ritualsâ and absolutely no sleep. So itâs kind of like regular summer camp, except with more people in rubber masks hiding behind trees. On private property in Beavercreek. 18+.


[FESTIVAL] It's not just for hula-hooping hippies anymore! This is the least "rootsy" lineup the festival has put out yet, leaning heavily on of-the-moment indie acts like Mac DeMarco and the War on Drugs, but that only makes the experience even more unique. Where else can you see a band called Diarrhea Planet headline a barn? Pendarvis Farm, 16581 SE Hagen Road, Happy Valley. See for schedule and ticket information. All ages. Through Aug. 3.

Burials, Exhausted Prayer, Aerial Ruin

[SCORCHED EARTH] However complicated metal can be, Portland's Burials further confuse it all, combining the outer-reaches of '70s prog and varied strains of that darker, more sinister music. There's a clear Scandinavian influence, evidenced during "The Tide," a three-part suite and also the title of an album the band issued last year. As grand a statement as the disc was, Burials' 2009 self-titled album offers a more dynamic picture of the band, as songs like "Wizard Lock" open with a gambit befitting a more bucolic album—that is, until the double bass drum kicks in, intimating the impending blackness coming just a few moments later. DAVE CANTOR. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 473-8729. 8:45 pm. $5. 21+.

Oregon Burlesque Festival

[PERFORMANCE] How has Oregon not had a burlesque festival until now? More than 50 peelers throw their clothes on the floor for the inaugural Oregon Burlesque Festival, produced by local burlesque veterans Tana the Tattooed Lady, Holly Dai and Ellie Darling. World traveller (and boxing fan) Lydia DeCarllo comes down from Vancouver, British Columbia, to headline the event Friday and Saturday. Burlesque legend September Rose makes an appearance, and balancer and foot archer Brittany Walsh shoots some arrows with her toes. Save your dollars for tipping and your breath for whistling. Thursday is at Funhouse Lounge (2432 SE 11th Ave., 841-6734), while Saturday and Sunday are at Dante's (350 W Burnside St., 226-6630). Multiple venues, details here. 9:30 pm Thursday, July 31 and 8 pm Friday-Saturday, Aug. 1-2. $10 Thursday, $15 Saturday-Sunday. $100-$120 tables. 21+.


[AUTOTUNE-SMITH] Don't hate the player, hate the game. In this case, the game is AutoTune, and the player is T-Pain. In the mid-aughts, the Florida-born "rappa ternt sanga" seized upon the technology previously used to trick listeners into believing Britney Spears could actually hold a note and devised an entire persona out of it. Becoming a robotic, post-millennial Nate Dogg, the dude assisted on roughly 80 bajillion hit singles toward the end of the decade, while also churning out several club (and strip-club) staples under his own name, many of which still get played today. The downside, of course, was that every other commercial rapper and R&B singer in the world glommed onto what he was doing, despite not having one-tenth of his goofy charisma, making him the symbol of a trend that proved immensely grating once it became inescapable. But the best thing about being T-Pain is never having to apologize: Even after Jay-Z declared AutoTune dead in 2009, he just kept on keeping on, up to and including his latest single, "Drankin' Patna." Long may he run. MATTHEW SINGER. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 224-2038. 8 pm. $25 general admission, $75 VIP.

Saturday, Aug. 2

OBON Fest 2014

[JAPANESE] The notion of Obon is this: Each year, your ancestors' spirits come back to this world to pay a little house call. In Japanese culture, this is apparently encouraged rather than being terrifying as hell. The Oregon Buddhist Temple will host a celebration with yakiniku, yakitori, manju and chirashi sushi, plus a beer garden and an obon dance. Children are welcome. Oregon Buddhist Temple, 3720 SE 34th Ave. 3-9 pm.

Rick Mitchell

[JAZZ] When was the last time someone invited you out to hear some really great jazz? Exactly. But despite the genre slipping from the radar of mainstream pop culture, former Portlander and longtime music writer Rick Mitchell argues that jazz continues to thrive with innovative artists. His new book, Jazz In the New Millennium: Live and Well, profiles nearly 60 musicians from Roy Haynes to Esperanza Spalding. Music Millennium, 3158 E Burnside St., 231-8926. 3 pm. Free.

Rogue Ales Bones and Brew

[BEER] This is the 20th year of the Bones and Brew fest. Think how many generations of pig that amounts to. Rogue Ales Public House, 1339 NW Flanders St., 222-5910. Noon-9 pm Saturday, Noon-5 pm Sunday. $5 day pass.

Yonatan Gat, The We Shared Milk, Don't, Selector Dub Narcotic

[CULTURED GUITAR] Yonatan Gat is a melting pot of sound, blending Middle Eastern traditionalism with Afro-Cuban pace and his own American inventiveness. The composer and onetime Monotonix guitarist has teamed up with Portuguese percussionist Igor Domingues for his latest musical incarnation. In a single song, listeners are transported from cobblestone medieval villages to Latin nightclubs to smoky midwestern jazz clubs. It's the kind of half-drunk concept that usually sounds better in theory than in action, but Gat has pulled it off. The proof is in the dynamic pudding—in this case, the New York musician's latest EP, Iberian Passage. MARK STOCK. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $10. 21 .


[SOUTH IN YOUR MOUTH] When first listening to a record by Louisiana rapper Kevin Gates, it's pretty easy to pinpoint what makes him one of the most exciting young talents in hip-hop: the voice. His booming, Southern-accented baritone alternates between a growl and a bark, depending on his mood. On his most recent mixtape, By Any Means, Gates is mainly going for aggression. The record is packed with heavy trap anthems and chest-puffing bravado. On "Keep Fucking With Me," he goes into extreme detail about what would happen if you got on his bad side, and it legitimately sounds like you don't want to be there. But it's in the moments when things slow down a bit that Gates really shows off his talents, such as on the introspective "Movie," where he uses his gravelly drawl to harmonize with the beat and croak out some heart-piercing notes. It's a reminder that, despite his menacing presence on the mic, this music thing is coming straight from his heart. I was reminded of that personally when I met him last year. After talking for a bit, Gates—a large, heavily tattooed figure—didn't just shake my hand, he hugged me. That's when I realized he's more than just a voice. REED JACKSON. Peter's Room, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033. 8 pm Saturday, Aug. 2. $16. All ages.

Sunday, August 3

The Flaming Lips, Radiation City

[YOSHIMI BATTLES THE TIMBERS ARMY] Nothing screams, "Are you ready for some futbol?!" like sparkly capes, animal costumes, fake blood and confetti cannons. OK, so maybe alt-rock acid casualties the Flaming Lips are sort of a left-field choice to headline Major League Soccer's free All-Star Week concert, considering Kansas City had Macklemore last year. Then again, the experience of a Timbers game isn't all that far from that of a live Lips show, what with all the chain saws and Mexican wrestling masks and smoke bombs. And besides, the band does have an intimate relationship with Portland: Wayne Coyne saw a lot of our private parts up close when he came here to shoot the NSFW "Watching the Planets" video at Mount Tabor back in 2009. Though the group's fearless leader has gone off the deep end in recent years—even for him—and despite the darkness of its last two records, the Flaming Lips remain one of the great spectacles on the touring circuit today. You really can't beat that zero-dollar price tag, either. We suggest tailgating by finding a parking lot near Waterfront Park and blaring Zaireeka as loudly as possible. MATTHEW SINGER. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Southwest Naito Parkway and Harrison Street. 5 pm. $0 cheap!

Xiu Xiu, Circuit Des Yeux, Marisa Anderson

[AVANT-GUARDIANS] Jamie Stewart's ever-shifting, ever-confrontational experimental art project returns, making up for dates canceled earlier this year due to the singer's throat ailment. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21 .

Jordan Dykstra 

[MUSIC] Jordan Dykstra came to Portland after collegeâafter dropping out of college, to be precise. He left Azusa Pacific University, a private Christian campus in suburban L.A., where he was studying music theory, in 2007, to take a summer internship at Marriage Records, the local indie label that released early albums from Tune-Yards, Yacht and Dirty Projectors. âI learned more in that two months than I did in three years in class,â says the 29-year-old violist, who went on to become vice president of the label. Now, Dykstra is returning to Southern California and to school, studying composition and performance at CalArts. Heâs leaving behind a new album, Audition, a set of ambient string music inspired by the landscape surrounding the property in Bethany, Ore., where it was recorded. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., with Davis Lee Hooker, Jason Traeger, Patrik Csak, Caspar Sonnet and DJ Honey O, on Sunday, Aug. 3. 8:30 pm. $6. 21+.

The Three Sisters

[THEATER] Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, responsible for some of the most adventurous work in town, presents a new translation of Chekhov's play about three upper-class sisters despairing at life in late 19th-century Moscow. Translator and director Stepan Simek has staged the drama as an intimate birthday party for sister Irina, with audience members—just 45 each night—serving almost as guests. Reed College Performing Arts Building, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., 555-1212. 7:30 pm. $15-$50. Through Aug. 17.