I hate to play favorites, I really do, but Tuesdays are generally one of my favorite days of the week. Sure, Thursday, Friday, and of course, Saturday are exciting times, but it’s always nice to be able to properly bust out your Party Pants early in the week and Tuesdays always seem to have that going on for them, which is nice. So let’s check out what’s crackin’ this Tuesday evening.
So here’s the deal, in February of this year three members of the Russian feminist punk band, Pussy Riot, were charged with ‘hooliganism’ and have been remanded in jail, facing up to 7 years of criminal punishment, for allegedly participating in the punk-prayer ‘Virgin Mary, Send Putin Away’ that publicly demonstrated for human rights and against the current oppressive regime under Vladimir Putin. Tonight local artists come together at SPACE Gallery in Portland to raise money and awareness for these three women by playing an all ages show. Beginning at 8 o’clock you can check out sets from Metal Feathers, Correspondences, Swaath, and Dead Dog.
HillyTown and A Robot Booking and Promotions are certainly keeping everyone busy these days as they present yet another stellar show this time over at Geno’s Rock Club. Tonight a handful of Portland’s most unique rocker and rollers will come together to play a show that gets started right around 8. Taking the stage of Geno’s tonight will be Awaas, The Waldos, Mango Floss and Whip Hands. Special guest DJ Cutlass will also be on hand spinning tunes in between bands, so check it out.
Another installment of the Out of the Blue music contest series takes place over at Blue on Congress Street tonight. Starting at 7 o’clock, 15 to 20 musicians have 2 songs (or 10 minutes) to perform original music in front of an audience of peers and one unknown guest judge. Once everyone has had a chance to do their thing, there’ll be a short break and the guest judge will then determine three finalists to advance to the next round of the competition. Those three finalists will then perform one more song each before a winner of the whole shebang is decided. The prize for the Out of the Blue contest is a lump sum of some cold, hard cash. Boo-yah.
Founding member and Grateful Dead guitarist, Bob Weir will be in town this evening performing a solo acoustic set over at The State Theatre for all you crazy hippies. Bob gets started right around 8 o’clock tonight.
It’s no news when I say that Portland is ripe with talent and that is overwhelmingly true for the band that’ll be blowing up Local 188 tonight. Every Tuesday the fantastically funky and equally ferocious Jaw Gems get down on a set of tunes for free starting at 10. Even better, they just released their debut album, Take A Sip Of My Wish for free download, so check ‘em out tonight if you’re looking for a little ear candy.
Even more in the way of free jazz, fun and funk is happening over at Empire Dine and Dance in Portland where the Chas Lester Quartet will be laying it down starting at 9 o’clock tonight. Each and every Tuesday these gents get together and deliver a straight shot of jazz, funk and soul for absolutely free downstairs at The Empire.
And another freebie to check out tonight is over at Slainte Wine Bar & Lounge where DJ Ponyfarm presents another entertainment-filled evening of karaoke. That’s right, if you’re looking to belt it out and be your own rock star, you can do just that with absolutely no cover charge starting right around 9 tonight.
Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards returns to Portland tonight as The State Theatre and WCLZ present an evening with the musician over at Port City Music Hall. Starting things off tonight will be fellow Canadian singer-songwriter Hannah Georgas. The evening gets underway right around 8 o’clock.
And we’re full steam ahead with the Cover to Cover series over at The Big Easy in Portland tonight where local non-fiction rockers GinLab take on Arcade Fire’s debut album Funeral in its entirety. Of course the night will get started with an original set from GinLab followed by the album in its entirety. Things get crankin’ right around 9 o’clock, so check it out.
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