The Bollard Bulletin for Aug. 13, 2026

The Portland Chamber Music Festival begins today and continues through Aug. 22 with several concerts at Stevens Square Theater (631 Stevens Ave.). During tonight’s opening program, “Great Expectations,” attendees will get a rare treat: classical sax. Saxophonist and composer Steven Banks joins pianist Ran Dank and violist Melissa Reardon on Charles Loeffler’s “Deux Rhapsodies,” and the concert also includes works by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Mozart and Brahms. Starts at 7 p.m. Tix: $48 ($12 students and kids).

Artist, harpist and aspiring pop star Clio Berta has been throwing fun dance parties and arty pop-up events in the Midcoast over the past few years, and tonight she performs as part of Mayo Street Arts’ (10 Mayo St., Portland) Under the Willow backyard series with North Carolinian Shane Justice McCord playing a solo set on bass clarinet and the New York-based puppetry group Madeleine’s Puppets presenting a musical shadow-and-crankie piece titled, “Elemental Poetry: the Conference of the Birds,” at 7 p.m. Tix: $20-$25 (all ages).

Portland singer-songwriter Katie Matzell’s exquisite voice shines in many settings: jazz, pop, R&B, Bonnie Raitt’s entire catalog… Tonight the setting will be Portland’s tourist-jammed waterfront as she joins a band called Exsqueeze Me at Portland Lobster Company (180 Commercial St., Portland) at 6:30 p.m. Free.

Real talk: Yeah, I was kinda bummed to see that almost the entire schedule of the Vallée Square concert series in downtown Westbrook this summer is cover bands, but I get it. And I did have a damn good time there two or three years ago watching Wake Up Mama tear through some Allmans. And Masterstroke: The Ultimate Queen Experience puts on one heck of a show, what with powerhouse singer Sean Slaughter as Freddie, a killer backing band and multiple back-up singers. So here they are. Starts at 7 p.m. Free.

Fish fuck. That’s just a fact. As does every member of the animal kingdom, lest we forget. And contrary to Biblical teachings, this sex is not all hetero and performed in the context of marriage. In Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn From Animal Sex, artist and environmentalist Perrin Roosevelt Ireland illustrates the deeply freaky stuff horny animals get into through watercolor comics. She’ll be joined at a lighthearted book-launch event at SPACE (538 Congress St., Portland) by low-tech transqueer clown, puppeteer and playwright Eli Nixon at 7 p.m. Tix: $5 (all ages).

After a quarter century of arts listings research, I can now say with authority, and no small measure of despair, that the only attraction more popular than cover bands and cotton candy is cats. The Amazing Acro-Cats, a touring circus-variety show of rescued and trained felines, begins the first of a freakin’ 16-show run at The Hill Arts (76 Congress St., Portland) tonight at 7 p.m. Tix: $35-$70 (a portion of ticket sales benefits local rescue organizations). Continues through Aug. 30.