Sunset Tavern One-Year Anniversary
(MUSIC) The bar that's been siphoning Capitol Hill's hipster population by bringing rock and roll to Ballard Avenue turns one today, and is celebrating with a weekend of benefits for Home Alive. Among the bands performing in the dive bar's pretty red interior this weekend: the Yeah Oh Hell Yeahs (tonight), the Chris and Tad Show (Friday), and No. 13 Baby with the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players (Saturday). All appropriate for the Sunset--unpretentious, sparkling, and just off-kilter enough to be very, very cool. JEFF DeROCHE
Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, 784-4880.
Spletz-o-Rama
(FILMS) Former Stranger film editor Andy Spletzer presents an evening of his hilarious Super-8 films, together with works from Seattle microcinema stalwart Jon Behrens and Brian "Smell of Steve" Sendelbach. Spletzer's films are no-budget gems of pure absurdism, bursting with invention. The anti-logic that allows Space Cowboy: A Tribute to Steve Miller to degenerate into a depiction of kidnap and torture is the same engine that turns The Graham Project, which consists of narration and mock stock industrial footage, into a demented gay confessional. Spletzer takes amateurism to new and unforeseen heights. SEAN NELSON
Consolidated Works, 430 Terry Ave N, 860-5245, Thurs-Sat at 8 and 9:30 pm, $7.
Public Enemy
(MUSIC) Expressing an admiration for Chuck D is about as uniquely insightful as saying you "really like garlic" or declaring George W. Bush a dumbass. Unless you've somehow had the inside of your skull sandblasted, you're aware that Chuck D is one of the most eloquent and intelligent social activists American pop culture has produced in the last 20 years. And if you find yourself doubting the impact of his inimitable vocal presence in Public Enemy, ask your most articulate and low-voiced friend to say, "Bass! How low can you go?!" and notice how stupid he sounds. There is no substitute. HANNAH LEVIN
EMP, 325 Fifth Ave N, 367-5483, 7:30 pm, $22.
Radiohead
(MUSIC) Amnesiac, Radiohead's newest and best release to date, will be looked upon in 20 years as the final nail in rock music's eroding coffin. It's too smart to be electronica, too ambitious to be modern rock, and just too good to be made by any other band playing music today. No, Radiohead is not the greatest band in the world, but its members may die happily now, singular and brilliant after a decade's worth of hype, scrutiny, accolades, and insult. Frontman Thom Yorke is impossible not to watch live. He's a brainy, mesmerizing, guncotton performer, and if you haven't yet seen Radiohead perform, you really should make this trip to the Gorge. JEFF DeROCHE
Gorge Amphitheatre, 628-0888, 7:30 pm, $39.95.
DeBASHery: A Night of Summer Passion
(PARTY) This may be the most fun fundraising party all year: The Henry invites all participating artists to attend, alleviating the usual oxygen-free atmosphere of events where money separates art and donors. So you have artists plus music (La Movida, Joey Arias, Makedonian Naked Onions, and Love Cats) plus booze plus dancing--all blended together for a night of elegant craziness. Walls full of debauchery-inspired art will be available for $200 per piece; and though by now everyone knows my ambivalent feelings about art auctions, this is an event that artists seem glad to donate to. Dance! Drink! Win a trip to Las Vegas! See you there! EMILY HALL
Henry Art Gallery, 15th Ave NE and NE 41st St, 616-9894, 9 pm-midnight, $50, $40 for Henry members. Champagne preview 7-9 pm, $125 for patrons, $300 for sponsors.
Tragos
(FILM) This microcinematic Matrix (of sorts) involves a group of "technopagans" who worship in the titular virtual reality zone. Everything is going fine until someone assimilates, and the brothers and sisters are targeted by a fundamentalist witch hunter who deems the technopagans a Satanic suicide cult. And all they wanted to do was practice their ecstatic rites in cyberspace. A genuinely unique film by the irrepressible Antero Alli. SEAN NELSON
911 Media Arts Center, 117 Yale Ave N, 682-6552, 8 pm, $6.
Matt Briggs
(READING) When Matt Briggs left town to get a graduate degree at Johns Hopkins a year ago, he had just published his fantastic novel in linked stories, The Remains of River Names, and many people wondered why he wanted to do the Masters in Fine Arts thing, anyway. "They offered me money," he admits. Now back in Seattle, Briggs reads from new work at Titlewave's monthly showcase. Briggs is that rare thing: a writer with the ability to convey fully formed characters in the midst of an epic-sized landscape, all with an effortless grace of language. Celebrate his return to Seattle (and ask him about his "90 Minute MFA" course) tonight. TRACI VOGEL
Titlewave Books, 7 Mercer St, 282-7687, 7:30 pm, free.
DJ Spooky
(MUSIC) At I-Spy tonight: the brainbending sounds of New York's DJ Spooky (a.k.a. That Subliminal Kid) and the direct-from-the-turntables blend of hiphop, drum and bass, industrial noise, and dub reggae in constantly shifting blasts of sound that is his specialty. Having coined the term "illbient" years back, Spooky has remained creatively restless, collaborating with a passel of DJs, a string quartet, rappers, and experimental luminaries such as Bill Laswell, Arto Lindsay, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Spooky's downbeat is the exact opposite of the aural pastorals that often pass as ambient. He's sure to mix in some of his current favorites such as DJ Food, the Orb, AntiPOP Consortium, and Talvin Singh to create an urban dreamscape somewhere between the Lower East Side and Brooklyn. NATE LIPPENS
I-Spy, 1921 Fifth Ave, 374-9492, 10 pm, $12 adv./$15 door.
The Anniversary Party
(FILM) Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh's directorial debut is that rarest occurrence in vanity productions: a truly touching and insightful movie about people who, for all their glamour and success, are basically repugnant. The story is light: A Hollywood couple invites a coterie of their fabulous friends over to celebrate their sixth anniversary. The telling is heavy: Several hours, many confessions, and a few hits of Ecstasy later, and the fragile psyches (and naked skin) of a Neutra house full of neurotic Hollywoodlanders have been exposed. The film is funny, sad, and most confoundingly of all, kind of true. SEAN NELSON
See Movie Times for details.
The Fallen Women Follies
(CABARET) Who doesn't like bodacious babes in tight black outfits and feather boas? The Fallen Women Follies packed 'em in during the recent Seattle Fringe Festival and it's been selling out previous performances at Re-bar. The show tosses erotic gymnastics (including the ever-popular trapeze work), naughty theatrical skits, drag, stripteases, and some forthright political attitude into a big pot and stirs. This originated as a forum for women in the sex industry to showcase their "other" talents, but now it's just a bunch of sex-positive women, regardless of past or present occupation. (All proceeds from their shows go to charity; this one will support the Gretchen Johnston Scholarship Fund, which supports small theater companies that can't afford to pay the Fringe Festival fees; this fund made it possible for the Fallen Women themselves to take part.) BRET FETZER
Re-bar, 1117 Howell St, 233-9873, 8 pm, $10. Adults only, ID required.
Andrew Solomon
(READING) The canon of books about depression grows every season--it's the ubiquitous VW Bug of memoir-worthy topics. Not all are good, but some are exceptional, and I'd wager that Andrew Solomon's The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression is going to be required reading for anyone who cares the least bit about why we're all running to psychopharmacologists. Thanks to therapy and an elaborate cocktail of antidepressants, Solomon managed to surface from depression so severe that he couldn't figure out how to get out of bed. Armed with his personal knowledge, he explores depression as an idea, an epidemic, and a cultural phenomenon, broadening our experience of what we've been told is all in our heads. EMILY HALL
Elliott Bay Books, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7 pm, free.
