Want more? Here's everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food, and This & That.

Jade: That’s Showbiz Baby! Tour

FEB 6

I constantly annoy everyone I know by bragging that I was three years early to knowing about Chappell Roan, so I need you to believe me when I say that former Little Mix singer Jade Thirlwall is going to be a main pop girlie within the next couple of years. She’s already big in the UK and steadily gaining popularity stateside. No one else out there is doing it like her—I mean, who drops a fully art-directed visual album for their solo debut?? There are no skips, either. You can hear touches of all the great pop divas, like Gaga, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, and Diana Ross. The opener, “Angel of My Dreams,” about Jade’s ambivalent relationship to fame, is dreamy, celestial pop goodness reminiscent of “Lucky” by Britney Spears. I also love the track “Before You Break My Heart,” which samples a recording of Jade singing the Supremes’ “Stop! In the Name of Love” as a little girl, and which she says is written from the POV of her “younger self, begging me not to forget her and how far we’ve come.” (Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Robyn Hitchcock

FEB 6

There is only one musician alive who could write a song titled “Tropical Flesh Mandala,” and that magus is 72-year-old Englishman in Nashville Robyn Hitchcock. A veteran psychedelic-rock court jester whom you should take very seriously, he continues to rock unorthodoxly and spin surrealistic yarns of deep mirth and poignancy at an age when most of his peers have declined creatively or dropped out of the game. Had the man with the lightbulb head only released those Soft Boys records—especially 1980’s jangly, neo-retro-psych classic Underwater Moonlight—he’d still be a hall-of-famer. But, of course, Hitchcock’s also built a prolific solo career studded with idiosyncratic gems that extrapolate on the brain-tickling elements of sonic soul mates Syd Barrett and John Lennon. Recent albums such as the earworm-intensive Shufflemania! and the acoustic-guitar-heavy, instrumental Life After Infinity prove that Robyn’s noggin’s still teeming with great, weird ideas. You never quite know which gaggle of tunes you’ll get at a Hitch gig, but you’re always guaranteed transport to more fascinating headspaces—particularly if he dips into 1981’s Black Snake Diamond Röle (hint, hint). (Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

Blood Cultures

FEB 11

They’re an anonymous, experimental indie-pop band who rock out on chillwave in hoods. What more do you need? I’m all about bands wearing disguises, and with the Residents out of commission for the moment (sigh), a quartet that tinks and reverbs and chirps along to videos of themselves (or somebody in hoods) lifting weights, shooting guns, making a mess with Chinese takeout, and turning themselves into scarecrows, just might fill dat gap. That was the gist of their video for the “Set It on Fire” single from their 2021 album LUNO, at least. What they’ll do in concert, I have no idea whatsoever, but it’s got to be conceptual. (Neumos,
7 pm, 21+) ANDREW HAMLIN

GZA

FEB 11

The fact that “Does GZA have a degree in physics?” pops up as the top GZA-related query on Google is a fitting testament to the scientific rhymes of the Wu-Tang cofounder and eldest statesman. Though he has appeared as a guest lecturer at Harvard and several other lauded institutions of learning (mostly about the field of life rather than the official study of physics), GZA—aka the Genius—keeps his most heralded published material on wax. His current tour is in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of his classic RZA-produced sophomore album, Liquid Swords. The album is an important document in the Wu catalog as it captured the essential Wu formula in amber—RZA’s developing cinematic, hard-knocking East Coast beats, heavy kung-fu samples, stacked guest verses from bandmates—while the group was in the process of taking over the rap world. Seeing a legendary artist perform a classic album, especially with a live band, is always a great opportunity to shout your favorite lines with a bunch of rowdy fans, and who knows, maybe he’ll give us a taste of his long-awaited Dark Matter project. (Nectar Lounge, 8 pm, 21+) TODD HAMM

Cécile McLorin Salvant

FEB 12–13 & 15

Cécile McLorin Salvant has the most exciting voice in contemporary jazz. It’s not just her pitch-perfect voice, which reaches the heights of Edith Piaf, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Kate Bush, but the inventiveness with which she flexes her vocals. On her most recent album, Oh Snap, the three-time Grammy Award winner and MacArthur Fellow croons through a dozen short, intimate original songs (plus an a cappella cover of the Commodores’ “Brick House”) that she never intended to see the light of day. Setting out on a personal creative quest to place spontaneity and joy at the heart of her writing process, Salvant tinkered with home recording programs to craft personal songs inspired by the music that soundtracked her childhood in 1990s Miami, from grunge and pop boy bands to classical and folk music. The result of the album is a delightfully chaotic audio journal that will please traditional jazz fans as well as genre rulebreakers like Erykah Badu and Solange. (Jazz Alley, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Ghostface Killah

FEB 15

Four days after his brother in Wu, GZA, touches the stage at Nectar, Ghostface Killah—he of many names and statement furs—plays the Crocodile. The silver-tongued storyteller is perhaps the greatest yarn-spinner in rap history; his extensive catalog stretches, of course, back to the Staten Island genesis of Wu-Tang Clan, and with very few breaks, extends to this past summer’s Supreme Clientele 2, which arrived complete with the typically preposterous skits, dicey slang, and tall tales of street corner business ethics you’d expect. It does pay to mention that not all Ghost’s exploits have aged well, and recent reports of homophobia and paternal negligence in relation to his queer son, who happens to be the rapper/singer Infinite Coles, show that he may have carried some of the uglier side of ’90s rap with him into the current day. Here’s hoping he makes an effort to clear things up by showtime. (Crocodile, 7 pm, 21+) TODD HAMM

Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore with Tiny Vipers

FEB 17

After touring together for several years, ambient musician/vocalist Julianna Barwick and experimental harpist Mary Lattimore developed a “musical telepathy” that became the basis for their newly released collaborative album, Tragic Magic. The result sounds like what would have been if there were synthesizers in the 18th century, thanks in part to their access to the Philharmonie de Paris’ Musée de la Musique’s instrument collection while recording the album. The duo miraculously recorded the album over just nine days, shortly after the 2025 LA wildfires, and poured their emotions from the tragedy into this meditation on the healing power of improvisation and shared experiences. They will support the album alongside Seattle-based experimental folk musician Tiny Vipers. (Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

Bitchin Bajas, Geologist

FEB 22

Don’t be deceived by Chicago trio Bitchin Bajas’ goofy name: They’re one of the world’s headiest groups. Evolving out of neo-krautrockers Cave, BB synthesists Cooper Crain and Dan Quinlivan and saxophonist Rob Frye have been enhancing their melodic chops, creating majestic tracks that would sound righteous filling Europe’s most ornate cathedrals. This past October at Neptune Theatre, they outshone their much more celebrated headliners Stereolab in a set that made me feel as if I were on five hits of Owsley. Animal Collective member Geologist (aka Brian Weitz) just released Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?, the follow-up to last year’s arcane, abstracted Americana LP, A Shaw Deal, with Sleepy Doug Shaw. The new hurdy-gurdy-powered album’s a mystical avant-rock trip that I dig more than anything his parent group have done. (Sunset Tavern, 8 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

clipping.

FEB 25

clipping. have let it be known that they spend a lot of time thinking about what space sounds like, but it’s their creative process that may capture the idea best: Aside from a few notable exceptions, they use no samples, no presets—they make every sound from scratch. In short, they create in a vacuum. Space also permeates their lyrics and concepts. Octavia Butler and Samuel R. Delany pop up in verses; they have entire albums billed as Afrofuturist space operas. But it’s important to remember the three humanoids amidst the sci-fi poetry: vocalist Daveed Diggs (whom you may remember as ol’ Tommie Jefferson in the original cast of Hamilton), and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. Hutson and Snipes graft jagged power electronics to the cyberpunk quilt, bold and discordant by design, while Diggs pens horrorcore anthems that he unleashes breathlessly. The result is like a cleaner, more theatrical Death Grips—both of which are equally beautiful and terrifying. Tonight’s show opener, Open Mike Eagle, is also not to be missed. (Showbox, 8 pm, all ages) TODD HAMM

Patty Griffin, Rickie Lee Jones

FEB 26

Patty Griffin is one of the of the most consistently underrated American singer/songwriters in recent decades, boasting shotgun pipes and writing chops that have led Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, Kelly Clarkson, Rory Block, Dave Hause, Sugarland, Bette Midler and the Chicks, to cover her. And if you don’t believe them, take the word of Robert Plant, who installed her in his Band of Joy and still comes around to sing backups, notably on her latest album Crown of Roses, a tribute to her late mother. Rickie Lee Jones has a new live album out, Way Up High (Live Boston ’89); she’s looking to consolidate her longer-running position in the firmament. Not that it needs much consolidation—she had a hit on the singles chart with “Chuck E.’s in Love” back in 1979, and in 2012 she sang “Sympathy for the Devil” in the matter-of-fact scratchy diction of Mr. Scratch himself. Not even Jagger managed that. (Moore Theatre, 7:30 pm) ANDREW HAMLIN

säje

FEB 26–MARCH 1

The jazz-vocal quartet säje (rhymes with “beige”), took home two Grammys between 2023 and 2025. They consist of Sara Gazarek, Seattle native and graduate of Roosevelt High’s mighty jazz program; Amanda Taylor, also of our fair city; Johnaye Kendrick, a San Diego native who moved north to teach at Cornish College of the Arts; and Erin Bentlage, who came out from Vermont to teach in Los Angeles. They blend jazz, soul, blues, pop, folk, and Gazarek’s ever-evolving experimental edge, into an elaborate mix emphasizing complex chords and braided vocal parts. They solve problems neatly, too—stuck without a recording studio during the pandemic, they rented an Airbnb and dragged their own gear into it. That’s how they clocked their first Grammy. Excelsior! (Jazz Alley, 7:30 and 9:30 pm, all ages) ANDREW HAMLIN

Jackie O Motherfucker, Abronia, Von Wildenhaus

FEB 27

Way back in the ’00s, Pacific Northwest psychonauts Jackie O Motherfucker were standard-bearers for what venerable British mag The Wire termed “New Weird America”—a hazy axis of US musicians who infused folk and rock with a lysergic looseness and who mutated songforms into third-eye-punching jams. At their best, JOMF boast the opiated tunefulness of Relatively Clean Rivers and the organic, free-range rock sprawl of Amon Düül I. Leader and sole constant Tom Greenwood keeps changing the design of JOMF’s freak flag (as well as personnel), but the colors always astound. Portland’s Abronia have been steadily rising in the underground with five albums of peyote-spiked, Popol Vuh-like soundtrack grandeur, including the new Shapes Unravel (out 2/20 on Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube). Listen to songs such as “Cauldron’s Gold,” “Smoke Fingers,” and “Walker’s Dead Birds,” and feel mountain-sized. Tacoma’s Von Wildenhaus are unpredictable eclecticists whose songs range from chamber-jazz torch songs sung by the alluring vocalist Billie Bloom to anthemic, Grandaddy-esque indie rock to Middle Eastern–inflected electronic pop to the most gorgeous song ever about ketamine. (Add-a-Ball, 8 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

cupcakKe

FEB 27

Get your loved one what they really want this Valentine’s Day: tickets to see cupcakKe. I was introduced to the Chicago rapper in 2018 when she released Ephorize, and was immediately obsessed with the icy percussion that is just as frosty as her blue metallic lipstick on the cover. It belongs in the holy trinity of winter albums alongside Björk’s Vespertine and Whitney Houston’s My Love Is Your Love. On her newest album, The BakKery, cupcakKe serves up a fresh batch of witty, pearl-clutching poetry with memorable tracks like “One of My Bedbugs Ate My Pussy” and the very romantic “Fist Me.” As always, cupcakKe’s magic lies in her ability to pair the most random topics and references with unexpected production styles, such as the silky-smooth “Akeelah,” a city-pop-inspired breakup song with references to the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee. (Showbox, 8:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Esther Rose

MAR 3

I discovered Esther Rose in 2017 when she released her debut, This Time Last Night, an intimate country/folk album that feels like she’s playing for you around a campfire. Now on her fifth studio album, Want, the New Orleans native defies the expectations of what an Esther Rose album can be with bold indie rock arrangements and fuzzed-out guitars. As it’s depicted on the album’s cover, with Rose in a gauzy white cotton dress beside a Rose in a black pleather catsuit, the album balances hard and soft, juxtaposing songs like the Liz Phair–esque track “Ketamine” with the stripped-down piano ballad “Color Wheel.” The album also includes “Scars,” a duet with Seattle-based troubadour Dean Johnson—we love to see it! For this local date, Rose will be joined by fellow New Orleans singer-songwriter Thomas Dollbaum. (Sunset Tavern, 8 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

More

The Wayne Horvitz Ensemble Feb 2, 9, 16, 23 and March 2 & 9, Royal Room, 7:30 and 8:30 pm, all ages until 10 pm

The Stylistics Feb 5–8, Jazz Alley, times vary, all ages

Purelink, 'no hup,' Hünter Feb 10, Substation, 7 pm, 21+ 

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Feb 11, Woodlawn Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages

Iris Unveiled Feb 12–15, Benaroya Hall, times vary, all ages 

Biblioteka, TeZATalks, Acapulco Lips Feb 12, Neumos, 7 pm, 21+

Sudan Archives Feb 14, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Christopher Owens Feb 17, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Living Hour Feb 16, Vera Project, 7 pm, all ages

Cat Power Feb 20, Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Lola Kirke Feb 21, Fremont Abbey, 8 pm, all ages

SRJO Presents: The Music of Jimmy Smith and Oliver Nelson Feb 21–22, Benaroya Hall, times vary, all ages

Cardi B: Little Miss Drama Tour Feb 22, Climate Pledge Arena, 7:30 pm, all ages

Joan Shelley Feb 22, Ballard Homestead, 7:30 pm, all ages

Suzanne Vega Feb 22, Neptune Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages

Neko Case Feb 27, Edmonds Center for the Arts, 7:30 pm, all ages

Early Warnings

St. Vincent Mar 5, Town Hall Seattle, 8 pm, all ages

Toody Cole, Semisoft Mar 6, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+

Blackwater Holylight, Som, Muñeca Mar 10, Neumos, 7 pm, 21+

Indigo De Souza Mar 10, Showbox, 8 pm, all ages

Mt Fog, iroiro, DJ Martin Douglas Mar 12, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

Peaches Mar 14, Showbox, 8:30 pm, 21+

Aimee Mann: 22 ½ Lost in Space Anniversary Mar 15, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Conan Gray Mar 16, Climate Pledge Arena, 8 pm

Dirty Three Mar 21, Neumos, 7 pm, 21+

Marissa Nadler Mar 26, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

Skullcrusher Mar 30, Barboza, 7 pm, 21+

Eliza McLamb Mar 31, Neumos, 7 pm, all ages

Raye: This Tour May Contain New Music Apr 3, WAMU Theater, 8 pm, all ages

Cass McCombs, Hand Habits Apr 4, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+

Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman May 3, Paramount Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages

Florence + the Machine May 12, Climate Pledge Arena, 7:30 pm, all ages

The Last Dinner Party May 22–23, Showbox SoDo, 8 pm, all ages