Tribute to the Cure @ Chop Suey
Last time I saw the Cure play, at a Sasquatch! music festival, I overheard a former Stranger music editor say, about Robert Smith’s giant mug on the Jumbotron, “He kinda looks like Jackie Hell now, doesn’t he?” Oooh! BURN! Everybody has to age, and some may even slightly resemble infamous Seattle drag queens when they do, but the Cure’s iconic goth rock is unquestionably timeless. This tribute will be a collection of Cure songs played by members of Midday Veil, the Dutchess and the Duke, Gazebos, Killer Ghost, Gang Cult, and many more. Just like the song, “Friday, I’m in love!” KELLY O
LAST CHANCE TO TAKE A GANDER AT LINA RAYMOND’S AUTUMNAL AVENUES
On the Avenue @ Portalis
Lovely realist paintings that depict familiar scenes of Ballard Avenue. Raymond’s focus is on conveying an autumnal atmosphere, and she employs a large frame: vistas of the buildings, streets, and leafless trees that line the sidewalks as the year draws to a close.
Built to Spill & Co. @ Showbox at the Market
A lot has been said and written about Northwest dad-core/“indie-rock” legends Built to Spill. If you’re unfamiliar with the Boise-based superband, they nearly patented a sound that would reemerge in countless groups after them: jangly, melodic, fuzz-pop guitar with earnest, regular-dude vocals delivered by a very bearded and plaid-ed songwriter. Since the early ’90s, Doug Martsch has written songs that are well-crafted and highly listenable, helping define “college rock,” even through their latest release, 2009’s There Is No Enemy. Sometimes expansive and spacey (“Randy Described Eternity”), most of the time armed with an ultra-singable hook (“Distopian Dream Girl”), and always emotionally direct (“You Were Right”), these songs are all reasons Built to Spill are one of indie rock’s greatest successes. BRITTNIE FULLER
#Socialmedium @ Frye Art Museum
The Frye #crowdsourced the curation of their 232 Founding Collection paintings via social media, tabulating all the likes, comments, shares, reblogs, retweets, and all other units of e-pproval until a verdict was reached. These are the favorites. Robin Held, Scott Lawrimore, and Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker (the director who also curates) have transformed the Frye from oil-painting cemetery to contemporary art center in one short decade. Their stardom is of the generous variety: They’ve remade the Frye by commissioning new works, exhibitions, and publications by living, often local, artists, bringing much-needed air and light into the museum (and tackling that riddle attributed, maybe apocryphally, to Gertrude Stein, that a museum can be either a museum or modern, never both). But this people’s museum, with its “citizen curators,” is a curatorial strategy, however well-disguised as a curatorial abdication. JEN GRAVES
Spectacle @ EMP
A full exhibit dedicated to the art of the music video, with more than 300 videos, artifacts, and interactive installations.
…aaaaand the rest, of course.