Dirty Revival singer Sarah Clarke schools us in soul-hop this Friday. Image courtesy Dirty Revival Band.

MUSIC

RAC is back. Image courtesy Jon Duenas.

RAC with Big Data

Wednesday at 8 pm, Crystal Ballroom

Portugal-to-Portland indie-dance darling RAC brings his cerebral house style to a set of original singles. More on the man behind the mixes here.

Dirty Revival Band

Friday at 8 pm, Doug Fir Lounge

Hot off their freshman album and a sold-out CD release party at Mississippi Studios, the Portland-based soul and funk group has crawled their way from obscurity to notoriety with glowing local reviews from the likes of Portland Mercury and We Out Here Magazine.

Storm Large's Holiday Ordeal: "gags, gifts, and some very special guests."

Storm Large's Holiday Ordeal

Friday at 8 pm, Aladdin Theater

Portland’s cussy, charismatic chanteuse calls this quasi-annual music revue a “crazy Christmassy Holiday-y Solstice-ish Quaanzesque, Hannukkabulextra fabulosis party.”

Blitzen Trapper

Saturday at 9 pm, Revolution Hall

Front man Eric Earley described 2013’s VII as “hillbilly gangster.” New album All Across This Land plays more like classic Bob Dylan, riding a slow train home.

COMEDY

Ian Karmel

Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm and 10 pm, Helium Comedy Club

Lauded as the funniest person in Portland—he literally won the title in 2011—Karmel is has appeared on Portlandia and is currently a writer (LA-based, these days) for Chelsea Lately, the Chelsea Handler-helmed comedy talk show on the E! Network.

FILM

Drone

Friday—Sunday at 5 pm, Clinton Street Theater

Norwegian filmmaker Tonje Schei launched this ambitious project while living here in Portland several years back; now, the award-winning documentary—a study of the rise of "militainment" programs in step with the War on Terror—makes its Portland premiere following US screenings last week in New York and LA.

THEATER

Opening this weekend: a "1940s holiday radio massacre—Bag&Baggage style!"

OPENING A KBNB Kristmas Karol

Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 2 pm, Venetian Theatre

Bag&Baggage’s third annual holiday farce flashes back to the 1940s studio of KBNB Radio Classics, where the actors are derailed on their last night of taping.

OPENING Book of Merman

Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 2 pm, Triangle Productions

As the punnish name would imply, Mormons AND a beehive-coiffed Ethel Merman form the plot of Triangle Production’s musical comedy from Leo Schwartz.

CLOSING Ain't Misbehavin'

Wednesday–Sunday at 7:30 pm, Gerding Theater

Fats Waller could tickle a piano like nobody’s business. This PCS-produced musical revue culls two dozen early jazz gems from the Harlem Renaissance hero’s discography—from “Cash for Your Trash” to the titular song.