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The Roselight

Light on what matters for Portland

Portland Mercury•

Mercury Music Picks: Dim Wit's Farewell Show and Portland's New Elliott Smith

Nolan Parker by Nolan Parker Underestimate Capricorn and Aquarius season at your own peril, friends. While there are fewer touring acts coming through town this time of year, it’s an excellent time to catch up on your locals. But what am I saying? We’ve got Uniiqu3, Steve Gunn, and Rehash gracing Portland with their presence this week! Plus a bunch of local talent to boot. Heads up: Mercury Music Picks is on break next week, but will return the week of January 26 to continuing delivering the crème de cassis of Portland concerts. P.S. FUCK ICE :) For fans of Dry Socket, early Korn, Spazz Is one of your new years resolutions to consume (or be consumed by) more local hardcore? Are your friends calling you a poser behind your back? Those tattered Warped Tour tees just not cutting it anymore? Then this is the gig for you. Yes, all the bands on this bill shred harder than a Tillamook cheese grater, but have you locked in with Gekiretsu yet? They’re a bunch of fuckin’ metal nerds, originally forming the band in Spokane, recently moving down to PDX to stomp on fascist necks. And trust, they’ve had their practice in the 509. (High Limit Room, 8 pm, more info here, all ages) For fans of King Lollipop, The Lemon Twigs, Gym Tonic Good news and bad news for this one folks. The bad news: This show is being billed as Dim Wit’s farewell show. My heart broke when I saw this because Dim Wit has been consistently one of the most deeply interesting entities in Portland music for years. The good news: “Farewell” in this context means Jeff Tuyay, AKA Dim Wit, is only leaving Portland, trading the Willamette for the East River and Hudson, and will hopefully continue making music. Dim Wit isn’t chain or egg punk, nor is it outsider electronics or goofball indie. It’s all of the above and so much more. We wish Tuyay the best in the Big Apple, and bid him visit us often. More good news: This show is the hard launch of Digital Warthog, a duo composed of the inimitable Crystal Quartez and Qu Metcalf (of Wet Dream Society). What they sound like will only be known to those in attendance at this farewell-birth party. (Mississippi Studios, 8 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of Flyana Boss, Cakes Da Killa, LSDXOXO Since her Holocene appearance in 2023, I’ve been macro-dosing the Jersey footwork prodigy Uniiqu3 on the regular. The dark, cavernous floor at Process is the perfect place to try cutting new shapes, groovin’ with that cutie you came with. On her new “2 The Bass” track, Uniiqu3 demands we move our asses, making them wiggle and shake, and to “turn the fuck up”—I’m here to do anything this thicc queen says. Why? Because she claims she can get dick anytime she wants… and I’m tryna live that life. (Process, 10 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Lou Reed If you close your eyes while listening to Sam Milton’s new record Nausea, you may just think that Elliott Smith is back, pacing the streets of Portland. It’s an uncanny resemblance, an export Portland is in desperate need of. The young Milton could perhaps be our salvation from the ouroboros of delicate indie that disappears the moment it sees the light of day. This might be an “I saw him before…” show. Fellow Portland plucker Amos Heart is in the middle, with the Mars FM dreamers bumping knuckles with the cosmos in the opening slot. (Showdown Saloon, 8 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of Bing & Ruth, Bonnie Prince Billy, Marisa Anderson It was really sweet of Steve Gunn to put out an album especially for the Mercury staff. On Music For Writers, the first of two albums he released last year, Gunn explores the un-limits of the mind to hypnotizing effect. Atmospheric dalliances converge and swirl with guitar strummed so delicately. Is this music for writers because it’s ambient music with no vocals? Yes. Most of Gunn’s catalog are medium+ interesting takes on experimental roots and folk music. On Music For Writers, we see an artist let himself just be. The perfect local opener has to be the meandering ambient country of Jeffrey Silverstein. If you’re not yet a fan of Silverstein, give his 2024 EP Roseway a spin and reconsider. (Polaris Hall, 9 pm, more info here, 21+) For fans of The Vines, Hot Hot Heat, No Age Hailing from the deepest, darkest depths of South Florida, I give you Rehash. The young quartet is touring behind their third album, Mock, an LP filled to the brim with catchy hooks and early-career romance. Rehash doesn’t put the sleaze in indie sleaze, but they would be delicious tour companions for The Strokes. Julian, if you’re reading this, don’t sleep on Rehash. The noisy Los Angelenos in Clarion are along for the tour, with Portland opener Blaize Jenkins setting it off. (Mission Theater, 8 pm, more info here, all ages) Also very worth it… Trigger Object / FO/PO / Insufficient Despair / Miser at Wyrd Hut - Jan 16, more info here Street Nights / Mini Blinds / Naked Mole Rats at Swan Dive - Jan 17, more info here Year of the Coyote / Pauses / South Mouth at Wyrd Hut - Jan 17, more info here Last week, Beacon Sound released Gaza Is The Moral Compass, the first in a string of compilations supporting Palestinian-led mutual aid groups fighting the permanent decolonization of the Palestinian diaspora. This first comp features tracks by Godspeed's Efrim Menuck, Holland Andrews and Methods Body, foodman, Amulets, and more. Pick up the release as a tape in-store at Beacon Sound, or on Bandcamp as a tape or digital download.  If you been sleeping on Brooklyn-by-way-of-Portland producer and beat maker Tasa D, wake up! He dropped two releases in 2025, both are truly no skips. The Hati Hati EP is a two-track solo effort of distorted pulsing that would feel at home playing Berlin's A-Tonal festival. The second 2025 release is a collab album with rapper H Man Coker, titled Blasphemous Politickin. BP sees the artists building worlds of power and suspicion, sex and a good time. Though Tasa D is now BK-based, we implore him to snag H Man and come back through PDX! Perhaps a headlining show at Holocene with Tasa D-produced Portlander Cosmos Dark? Is Tasa D reading Hafiz in a rap video??

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Portland Mercury•

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for January 12-18

This week: Ghibli favorites, medieval books, and Steve Gunn's ambient guitar. The news is bleak, the nights are long. Yet somehow... the calendar is still stacked. January is when culture gets weird in the best way; this week, medieval manuscripts emerge from the vault, and camp horror and queer literature come out to play. Plus, artist Elizabeth Knight presents her dog embroideries, and local hardcore shows up to shred. Don't say we didn't warn you! There's no better time than the dead of winter to sit with a selection of medieval manuscripts. Lewis & Clark College understands this, and leans into the cloistered feeling of the season with Portland's first public exhibition of medieval manuscripts in decades. The college's Aubrey R. Watzek Library will present books from the 13th through 16th centuries, including a "nun’s private devotional handbook, a lawyer’s manual with amusing doodles for memory aids, a grand choir book, a thirteenth-century Bible, and sumptuous books of hours." The selections speak to the role of the book in moral development, interiority, and shared worship throughout the medieval era. (Lewis & Clark College, 615 South Palatine Hill, Jan 12-March 6, 10 am-4 pm, FREE, more info, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO Also worth it: Flesh for Frankenstein, Academy Theater, more info. Produced by Andy Warhol, directed by Factory regular Paul Morrissey, and starring beloved German eccentric Udo Kier (who passed in November), Flesh for Frankenstein’s campy, transgressive take on the Gothic sci-fi story is gleefully unfaithful to Mary Shelley’s novel.  Give a Girl a Dog Textile artist Elizabeth Knight's new solo show presents an interesting series of embroideries, giving antique images of women and their dogs a raised, jewel-like dimension. Stitching directly onto copies of old photographs, Knight's approach derived from "a strong need to give these long dead 'friends' dimension and color [and] lift them off the flat surface," the artist explains. The results are textural and sweet, depicting dogs of handheld, gigantic, tongue-wagging, and basket-carrying varieties alongside their devoted human companions. (PDX Contemporary Art, 1881 NW Vaughn, 10 am-6 pm Tues-Sat through Jan 31, more info, all ages) LC Elizabeth Knight, "Winter." COURTESY PDX CONTEMPORARY ART. Also worth it: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore in conversation with Leni Zumas, Powell's City of Books, more info. With her seventh book, Seattle author Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore traces queer survival from the AIDS crisis to her city's 2020 COVID shutdown. The Stranger’s review calls Sycamore’s sentences in Terry Dactyl her longest yet. Last week, we watched the anniversary of the January 6 assault on the US Capitol remembered under a thick veneer of revisionist history. A reelected President Donald Trump has long since pardoned the right-wing rioters who stormed Congress under his command. Several news sources reported that "the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day" was nowhere to be found. January 6 may be one of the most receipt-laden days in US history, and author Nora Neus has brought them out for all to see. The author of 24 Hours in Charlottesville returns with 24 Hours at the Capitol, taking those ready to remember through the damning details of the day. (Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 7 pm, FREE, more info, all ages) SUZETTE SMITH Let’s face facts: Sometimes the daily horror of the news is best ingested with a heaping dose of comedy. And this is why terrific comedy shows like Topic Thunder provide the exact medicine you may be needing. Starring former Portland Funniest winners (and Mercury Geniuses of Comedy) Adam Pasi and Nariko Ott, your hosts will deliver a sharp-witted “Weekend Update” style of whip-smart takes on the news of the week, followed by a lineup of comedians (Mx. Dahlia Belle, David Tveite, and Virginia Jones) bringing brand-spanking new material ripped directly from the headlines. But it gets better, because the evening ends with a non-topical headlining set from the wildly witty Lynette Manning from Olympia, Washington! (Siren Theater, 3913 N Mississippi, 7:30 pm, $20, more info, all ages) WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY A post shared by Adam Pasi (@topicthunderpdx) For fans of Dry Socket, early Korn, Spazz Is one of your new years resolutions to consume (or be consumed by) more local hardcore? Are your friends calling you a poser behind your back? Those tattered Warped Tour tees just not cutting it anymore? Then this is the gig for you. All the bands on this bill shred harder than a Tillamook cheese grater, but have you locked in with Gekiretsu yet? They’re a bunch of fuckin’ metal nerds, originally forming the band in Spokane and recently moving down to PDX to stomp on fascist necks. And trust, they’ve had their practice in the 509. (High Limit Room, 720 SE Hawthorne, 8 pm, $12, more info, all ages) NOLAN PARKER It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley Documentarian Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil) offers those who study human memory an excellent examination of what's called a "reminiscence bump" with It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley. The singer-songwriter never had the chance to experience such a bump, since he drowned at age 30, having only released one full length album, Grace, in 1994. But the portrait Berg assembles shines with the undeniable and vivid youth he left behind in his work and the memories of those who knew him. (Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, 7 pm, $10, more info, not rated) CHARLES MUDEDE Stop Making Sense with Jerry Harrison If you've seen Stop Making Sense, it's probably one of your favorite concert films. It's jangly and arty and all of the other words one might use to describe Talking Heads's catalog, and David wears the suit. But if you're not feeling the Byrne, I get it. I know watching a concert movie for a band you don't listen to sounds like hell. This one might be an exception, though. Jonathan Demme (yes, the guy who went on to make The Silence of the Lambs) recorded all of the concert footage over the course of three days at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre in 1983, during the height of the Heads' fame. Keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison, who appears in the film, will offer introductory remarks at this screening, plus an audience Q&A. (Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, 12625 SW Crescent St, Beaverton, 7:30 pm, $25-$35, more info, PG) LC Also worth it: Rose City Classic Dog Show, Expo Center, more info If you love doggos (great and small), don’t miss this annual competition of agility, obedience, and good looks. Asking someone whether they like Studio Ghibli films is a bit like asking whether they like cinema at all. Over the past four decades, the Japanese animation studio has become synonymous with emotionally resonant storytelling and poetic, intelligent engagement with nature and the more-than-human world. This year's edition of OMSI's Studio Ghibli Film Festival opens with a 4K restoration of Princess Mononoke, followed by crowd pleasers like My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. Read more in Second Run Portland. (OMSI Empirical Theater, 1945 SE Water, Jan 16-March 2, times vary, $9-$36, more info, age recommendations vary) LC Since her Holocene appearance in 2023, I’ve been macro-dosing the Jersey footwork prodigy, Uniiqu3, on the regular. The dark, cavernous floor at Process is the perfect place to try cutting new shapes, groovin’ with that cutie you came with. On her new “2 The Bass” track, Uniiqu3 demands we move our asses, making them wiggle and shake, and to “turn the fuck up”—I’m here to do anything this thicc queen says. Why? Because she claims she can get dick anytime she wants… and I’m tryna live that life. (Process PDX, 5040 SE Milwaukie, 10 pm, $15-$33.20, more info, 21+) NP Also worth it: Fan Expo, Oregon Convention Center, more info. Nerds assemble! Meet some of your fave hobbits, trekkies, and ninja turtles at this fun annual event for the fans. It was really sweet of Steve Gunn to put out an album especially for the Mercury staff. On Music For Writers, the first of two albums he released last year, Gunn explores the un-limits of the mind to hypnotizing effect. Atmospheric dalliances converge and swirl with guitar strummed so delicately. Is this music for writers because it’s ambient music with no vocals? Yes. Most of Gunn’s catalog is medium+ interesting takes on experimental roots and folk music. On Music For Writers, we see an artist let himself just be. Perfect local opener has to be the meandering ambient country of Jeffrey Silverstein. If you’re not yet a fan of Silverstein, give his 2024 EP Roseway a spin and reconsider. (Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth, 9 pm, $32.21, more info, 21+) NP Also worth it: Thanatopsis: A Meditation on Grief, Death, and Transition, Paragon Arts Gallery at Portland Community College Cascade, more info. Shelley Chamberlin, Dardinelle Troen, and Marne Lucas explore death taboos, transformations, and impermanence in this multimedia show; on January 17, the gallery will host a guided meditation on "cultivating mindfulness and awareness of our mortality" and a yoga session for grief relief. Beethoven's Eroica, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, more info. Before Madonna’s Erotica, there was Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica. Yes, it’s January, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to make new friends (or keep the old) while riding your bike. If you like Bike Summer, it’s worth regularly checking in with the Shift calendar throughout the year, because the fun group rides don’t stop. One that jumped out to me this month: the All Bodies on Bikes ride in Forest Park, hosted by the supercool bike person Marley Blonsky. You can expect a bit of a workout from the roughly 15 mile bike ride, which will include some hills. Riders will convene at Northwest Portland’s Dragonfly Coffee House for some fuel before heading out. (The Dragonfly Coffee House, 2387 NW Thurman St, 10 am, FREE, more info) TAYLOR GRIGGS Aspen in 16mm Under-the-radar screening collective Spectrum Between presents this 16mm screening of Frederick Wiseman’s Aspen. Wiseman has spent over 50 years crafting documentaries that expand and complicate cinéma vérité, avoiding voiceovers and talking heads, but his films feel subtly novelistic, crafted with moral curiosity in mind. Aspen is less-cited in Wiseman’s filmography, but it exemplifies his observational style—the 1991 film looks closely at Reagan-era wealth disparity through the lives of rich vacationers and the working class at a Colorado ski resort. Read more in Second Run Portland. (5th Avenue Cinema, 510 SW Hall, 7 pm, $10-$20 sliding scale, more info, not rated) LC Also worth it: Cara Levine: Without End: Recent Work on Grief, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, more info Levine's grief-focused solo exhibition includes the first presentation of Silverlinings, a participatory installation meditating on the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Looking for even more events happening this week? Head on over to EverOut!

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