COFFIN APARTMENT AT THE HIGH WATER MARK LOUNGE

BY ROBERT HAM

kind of plaudits for their efforts, Altamura and the team have cultivated Holocene into a truly safe space for LGBTQIA+ Portlanders by making sure the venue has a few events each month catering to that community, such as the upcoming Brat-Worst event that will feature drag king performances.

Looking at their accomplishments over the past two decades isn’t something Altamura, McLean, or Cain seem to indulge in much. The trio seems constantly focused on what’s next, which this week is a run of shows celebrating Holocene’s birthday.

The eclectic lineup is a perfect encapsulation of the venue’s aesthetic: a night of solo piano performances by Alela Diane and Luke Wyland (June 7); performances by experimental electronic artist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and reunited disco dance band Ancient Heat (June 8); and DJ sets by Detroit dance music pioneers Inner City, plus a performance by local legend Ben Tactic (June 9).

“I’m often working and have been setting a show up, so it doesn’t hit me as much,” Altamura says. “But if it’s a night when I’m not working and I’m just walking into it with all the lights and everything, it’s magical. You get a little sense of what it feels like in the audience. Like, ‘Ooh, what a vibe.’”

SEE IT: Holocene 20th Anniversary events play at Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639, holocene.org. Wednesday-Friday, June 7-9. $25 each night. 21+.

In the right context at the right volume, heavy music can be as encompassing and therapeutic as a weighted blanket (picture a safe pummeling and squeezing of the muscles and mind and eardrums). One of the best places to experience that in Portland is the High Water Mark Lounge, a dark bar and venue with an all-vegan menu, a regular rotation of metal and experimental artists stopping by the performance space, and a sound system capable of withstanding the sonic assault of those musicians.

This past Sunday, it was Coffin Apartment who put the club’s PA system to the test. The trio was returning home to Portland after a quick run of shows in Seattle and Tacoma and was celebrating the release of Tomb Building Exercise, their new cassette that rattles the cages where noise rock and metal loudly rut.

After strong sets by local noise musician MoonBladder and visiting brutalists Private Prisons, Coffin Apartment took a good long while to get themselves situated on the stage. But once everything was locked in, they didn’t let up for more than 45 seconds, letting Johnny Brook’s processed guitar noise fill the space between songs rather than banter or drink in any applause.

Hearing the music felt like standing on unsteady ground as it shifted and slid between styles and volumes with little warning. Drummer and vocalist Justin Straw was crucial on that front. He played in the mode of Rush’s Neil Peart, never letting one groove or beat stay in one place for very long. Watching him keep up that level of complexity while simultaneously maintaining a pummeling downstroke on his kit and screeching into a microphone, it felt like he’d reached galaxy brain levels. The seismic churn of his bandmates and gravity seem to be the only things keeping Straw from achieving literal liftoff.

Grey Gardens (1975)

“I’m glad someone is doing what they want,” Big Edie quips, as a cat relieves itself behind a portrait of this ailing matriarch as a young beauty.

Just then, reality paints with a sledgehammer in Albert and David Maysles’ Grey Gardens, the seminal verité document of the Beales, a blue-blooded mother and daughter monologuing, bickering and dancing in their decrepit, 28-room Long Island estate. A master class in passive aggression, Big Edie’s response to the cat’s poetic bathroom break rebuts her daughter Little Edie’s latest rant about never finding success in love, show business or self-determination due to the sway of this house and family.

In this way, Grey Gardens is the Rorschach test that keeps on giving. Are the barbs and confessions of this raccoon-ridden mansion hilarious, tragic or maybe even ironically inspiring? Are the Beale women unfairly crystallized at their lowest through the Maysles brothers’ lenses, or have the two Edies waited their entire lives—emotionally and relationally preserved—for cameras to arrive and ignite their stardom?

Regardless of the answer, unite, you armchair psychologists, film historians, and fans of Jinkx Monsoon and Christopher Guest alike. Clinton, June 8.

ALSO PLAYING:

Academy: Switchblade Sisters (1975), The Terminator (1984), June 9-15. Cinema 21: The Palm Beach Story (1942), June 10. Cinemagic: Night of the Living Dead (1968), June 9 and 12. Shaun of the Dead (2004), June 9 and 12. Point Break (1991), June 10 and 13. Hot Fuzz (2007), June 10 and 13. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), June 11 and 14. The World’s End (2013), June 11 and 14. Clinton: But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) hosted by Violet Hex, with a pre-film drag show, June 9. Hollywood: Casino (1995), June 10. Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1984), June 10. Sleepless in Seattle (1993), June 11. Snake Deadly Act (1980), June 13.