April 4th - Dance - LCD Soundsystem Ball - SU
Nothing else you could do that night is better than this.
April 4th - Concert - Evol - Yale Union
…Unless you want to get your ears pulverized by an air horn. That’s right, a goddamned air horn. Evol self-describes itself with these keywords: “rave, mereology, elasticity, time dilation, chronesthesia, goo, hoover-stretching, slime.” In reality, if such a thing exists to Evol, the band hails from Spain and consists of Roc Jiménez de Cisneros, Stephen Sharp, and others. For this performance, they will be performing a “broken interpretation of Hannah Darboven’s “Opus 17a” (1984).” This’ll be weird, folks. Dirty up your earholes here and then dance yourself clean at the LCD Soundsystem Ball.
April 6th and 7th - Concert - Neutral Milk Hotel w/Elf Power - Crystal Ballroom
Okay, I already know that 80% of you Reed students will be at this concert, so there’s no need for me to talk about how awesome this will be (and how annoying the crowd will be). Plus, it’s hella sold out. If you are going on Sunday, I’ll probably sloppily hug you as we both tearfully yelp the lyrics to every single song off of Aeroplane Over the Sea. See you there.
April 11th - Concert - OFF! w/Cerebral Ballzy - Hawthorne Theatre
After the emotional oversaturation that will be the Neutral Milk Hotel concert, it may be a good idea to cleanse your palate with some merciless moshing. OFF! is living proof that hardcore will never die, and neither will you. Keith Morris, lead singer and former member of Black Flag, has certainly been around the block a couple times, and then, deeming that not good enough, he destroyed the block by headbutting it repeatedly; he looks like it, too. Beat up some people, beat up yourself, it’ll be good for you.
April 11th - Movie - The Raid 2: Berandal - Cinema 21
Actually, Raid 2 and Off! would make a great sonic and visual double-header, as they both distill violence into its bloodiest, most delightfully visceral form. The first Raid was 90 minutes of flesh hitting flesh, gunfights, and unfortunate stabbings (with about 10 minutes of plot resolution, but who cares). The second Raid looks to be just like that, but even more. Strap yourselves in, everyone, for the two and a half hours of violence, just the way we want it: mindless and excessive.
April 11th - Movie - The Unknown Known - Living Room Theatre
On the other end of the intellectual spectrum from The Raid 2 is this, Errol Morris’s sort-of sequel to his excellent, excellent documentary “The Fog of War.” In this one, Morris shifts attention from MacNamara to Donald Rumsfeld, an All-American villain with a bit more modern context. Early reviews seem to indicate that it doesn’t quite reach the level of “Fog of War”, but it’s still very worth it regardless.
April 11th - Movie - Joe - Living Room Theatre
NICHOLAS CAGE IN A MOVIE THAT DOESN’T LOOK AWFUL (even if it kind of looks like a ripoff of last year’s ‘Mud’) PRAISE BE UNTO CAGE
April 16th - Concert - Thou w/ Cloud Rat - Slabtown
April 18th - Godflesh w/ Nails, House of Low Culture - Hawthorne Theatre
The last two events I wanted to highlight this month are two metal acts coming through Portland at about the same time, both should be really excellent shows. The first is Thou, a band that is almost impossible to keep up with. Hailing from New Orleans, they are relentlessly dedicated to a DIY approach to metal, and their new album ‘Heathen’ is pretty much just sludge metal done right. Catch them now, or later, they’ll be back, probably with a handful of new albums to boot. Godflesh, on the other hand, are a legendary band that that has been anxiously awaited since they cancelled their west coast tour last year. But now they are back, playing a very, very select number of dates in the US, so this may be our only chance to hear anything off ‘Streetcleaner’ for a while, if ever.