Friday, August 30
When the punk rocker from Portland Fred Cole died in 2017 at age 69, having been a professional musician for over 50 years: first as a teenager in the bubblegum ’60s with the Weeds and Lollipop Shoppe, then as an alt-rock hero with Dead Moon, when younger Pacific Northwest punks cited him as an influence and recognized him as a regional legend. His wife and bandmate Toody Cole is hosting a celebration for his birthday with music by Jenny Don’t & the Spurs and Monica Nelson & the Jack London Trio. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 6:30 p.m. $15. All ages.
Sunday, September 1st
Swiss roll This is what a major country star looks like in Nashville’s craziest era: a bearded, tattooed former rapper who was on the mixtape tour for nearly two decades before his 2021 country song “Son of a Sinner” hit big. His 2023 breakthrough album Whitsitt Chapel is his ninth, but it seems fully formed and ready to dominate a post-Old Town Road, post-Post Malone zeitgeist. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St. 7 p.m. $85. All ages.
Sunday, September 1st
Wolf eyes is perhaps the greatest American noise band of all time. The literally hundreds of releases they put out in the early 2000s showcase an astonishing range of creativity within a genre that may seem interchangeable to outsiders – to whom I recommend listening to their 2004 masterpiece Burnt Spiritwhose title is a guarantee of what you’ll experience when it’s over. The Detroit duo have since slowed down their inhumanly prolific pace, but continue to find new fans on the experimental fringe and beyond. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 7 p.m. $20. Ages 21 and up.
