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MONDAY
HIPHOP/RAPMichael Franti: 'Stay Human' Documentary Tour
Bay Area rapper/vocalist/guitarist will perform and present the new doc Stay Human, a hopeful look at people around the world battling pollution, illness, poverty, and war through innovation, love, and courage. The film also looks at Franti's personal and musical story. The evening will include a Q&A.
Jorja Smith, Ravyn Lenae
Jorja Smith has proven herself more than just a collaborator (and possible paramour) of Drake, who featured her on several songs on his 2017 More Life album. And despite inevitable comparisons to Amy Winehouse due to the soulful range of her voice, Smith brings a graceful intimacy and a fresh sophistication to jazz-infused R&B that is all her own. AMBER CORTES
TUESDAY-SUNDAY
JAZZTaj Mahal Quintet
We can sit here all day and talk about what an institution Taj Mahal is, be it the piĂšce de rĂ©sistance of Indian architecture or the icon of American blues. But we donât have all day, and this isnât an architecture column, so letâs just talk about the song âQueen Bee,â written by the latter. Possibly the loveliest, breeziest, and flat-out prettiest love song in his whole oeuvre, âQueen Beeâ encapsulates everything wonderful about Taj Mahal: his matter-of-fact lyricism, his unaffectedly nostalgic guitar work, and his rich, amber-hued voice. If youâve never heard this song before, I am confident in saying you havenât lived a full life. I have no idea if he still performs it live (it first emerged on an album from 1997), but for âQueen Bee,â I will always save a place on Heavenâs Best Mixtape for Taj Mahal. KYLE FLECK
TUESDAY
METAL/PUNKBehemoth, At the Gates, Wolves in the Throne Room
After vocalist Adam âNergalâ Darski won his battle against leukemia in 2011, Polish blackened death-metal heavyweights Behemoth came back from their short hiatus ready to crush. They released a critically acclaimed album, The Satanist, and toured the world relentlessly in direct support of household names such as Slayer and Lamb of God. Their recently released LP, I Loved You at Your Darkest, finds the band at a creative high, blending a thick layer of melody among their trademark chaos. Donât be late to this one, as it would be a serious mistake to miss Swedish metal legends At the Gates. KEVIN DIERS
WEDNESDAY
BLUES/COUNTRY/FOLKPhosphorescent, Liz Cooper & The Stampede
Phosphorescentâsinger-songwriter Matthew Houckâhails from the same beardy indie-folk school as Bon Iver, though he never escalated to such great heights of indie stardom. Houckâs vocals are imperfectly lovely and his music easy on the earsâheartfelt, poignant, and downhome sensible, with shades of twang and heartland rock. In the five years between his last album and Câest La Vie, Houck met and married his current wife, Australian songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jo Schornikow, relocated from NYC to Nashville, and built a studio in the Nashville warehouse where they landed. Câest La Vie feels suitably fresh and Houck invigorated in songs like the spacious, krautrock-y âAround the Hornâ and the island-vibing âNew Birth in New England,â with its heart-squeezing lyrics about his chance meeting with Schornikow in a New England piano bar. LEILANI POLK
The 2nd Annual Circus Tramp Holiday Show
Local music and burlesque queen Caela Bailey will helm this true family affair as her Von Tramp brood, one of the most active groups in the Seattle arts scene, will helm a night of glittering glamour, featuring plenty of high kicks, costume changes, and soulful cabaret tunes.
Piano Starts Here: The Music of Andrew Hill & Mal Waldron
Around the 1950s, there emerged a new kind of jazz player. They were confident, often from middle-class families, and had studied music at college. Mal Waldron was one of these musicians. He was an intellectual, and worked with the best minds in the jazz of his times: Charles Mingus, Abbey Lincoln, Jackie McLean, Eric Dolphyâall jazz intellectuals. He not only composed ground-breaking film scores, but was also one of the first pianists to experiment with free jazz (check him out on the seminal Pithecanthropus Erectus). I also have a soft spot for his jazz version of Satie's âThree Gymnopedies, No. 1.â He died in Brussels in 2002 after an almost long life. Tonight is a tribute to his intellectual genius. CHARLES MUDEDE
FRIDAY
DJMarques Wyatt, Pezzner, Doza, Manahan, Tokita
Dance-music nerds enamored of the history of house and techno most often look east to the holy trifecta of Chicago, Detroit, and New York. But the West Coast has its claims to fame and living legends. One of them is Marques Wyatt, a pioneer of the Los Angeles house scene whose DEEP party has been running for 18 years. He will grace the decks at the Monkey Loft for what is sure to be a long night, buttressed by a slew of locals, including Pezzner, who has been getting a lot of love from Berlin tastemaker label Get Physical. If your heart beats with a 4/4 rhythm, this night is for you. GREG SCRUGGS
Excision Presents: The Thunderdome
Join up with Canadian arena dubstepper Excision on his massive Thunderdome experience, which will break out the bass-heavy beats, featuring artists like Ghastly, Liquid Stranger B2B Dubloadz, Squnto B2B Subtronics, and He$h B2B Al Ross.
Pedro the Lion, Chris Staples
Voices and culture influencers like Seattleâs lionized David Bazan donât come around often. Since starting his Pedro the Lion project in 1995, heâs been one of the hardest-working musicians in the independent industry, pushing the envelope and methodically reinventing his brand. Heâs released music eponymously every year for the last decadeâ2018 being his first year offâbut 2019 marks a watershed, as weâll witness Pedro the Lion rise from the ashes after 15 years to release Phoenix. Like trading Jesus for Barabbas, trading Bazan for Pedro the Lion will satisfy the fanatics. ZACH FRIMMEL
Seattle's Tribute to the Last Waltz
The actual Last Waltzâwhen the band called the Band said good-bye to the road (for a while, anyway)âwent down 41 Thanksgivings ago. Iâm sure Iâm not the only one who feels old. Honking up yeyo from a backstage area designated the âPowder Roomâ (replete with rubber noses), the five Band members and a bevy of their funky friends belted, pounded, and screeched through several great songs. Even Neil Diamond looked righteous (although Bob Dylan thought he could top Diamond by falling asleep). This recurring Thanksgiving tribute features an all-star local cast to feed the hungry via Northwest Harvest. Letâs pray for no Powder Room! ANDREW HAMLIN
Sloucher, Red Ribbon, Snuff Redux
Kill your post-Thanksgiving food coma with three blessed helpings of Seattleâs up-and-coming local scene. Indie rock quartet Sloucher will be celebrating the release of their debut full-length, Be True, following up their 2016 Certainty EP. Sloucher initially caught me with the shy âFlower Girl,â and they return with confident riffage that is âPerfect for You.â In addition, Red Ribbon and Snuff Redux dropped prime releases this past year. Red Ribbon cut Dark Party, which lyrically highlights my deep-seated insecurities as shrouded in dark strums. Snuff Redux laid out Denim American, giving millennials their own Bruce Springsteen road rules. ABBIE GOBELI
You Say You Want a Revolution? Seattle Musicians Honor the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles' White Album
Who isnât a sucker for the White Albumâs towering highs and ridiculous lows? Goddamn philistines and boors, thatâs who. This multifarious universe of rock ranges from the proto-metal of âHelter Skelterâ to the multipart mindfuck of âHappiness Is a Warm Gunâ to the amphetamine-gazelle blast of âEverybodyâs Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkeyâ to the sly psychedelia of âDear Prudenceâ and âSexy Sadieâ to the fragile folk ditties âJuliaâ and âBlackbirdâ to the mad musique concrĂšte of âRevolution 9â to the unctuous rubbish of âOb-La-Di, Ob-La-Daââwith plenty more besides. Its iconic status is earned. The record is not only getting the deluxe reissue treatment, it's being homaged with gusto by some gung-ho local musicians. DAVE SEGAL
SATURDAY
BLUES/COUNTRY/FOLKAn Evening with The Tallest Man On Earth
The Tallest Man on Earth is the misleadingly hyperbolic stage name of normal-sized Swedish folk musician Kristian Matsson. Most remarkable about Matsson is his voice, which should bear some accent from his native central Swedish province of Dalarna (which apparently does have its own particular dialect), but which actually evokes the ramble and drawl of America's Deep South and Wild West (with just a touch of Dylan's stretched nasal tone). Or maybe Sweden also has a Deep South and a Wild West? But the geographic incongruity of Matsson's voice gets a total pass, thanks to it also being as deeply affecting as it is affected: worn beyond its years, as rowdy as it is right on pitch, and always backed by Matsson's impressive fingerpicking and twangy guitar. ERIC GRANDY
Band Crush: Pierre Kwenders & Chimurenga Renaissance
Pierre Kwenders came from Canada to play Congolese music with help from such local color as SassyBlack and Shabazz Palacesâ Fly Guy Dai. The new album, MAKANDA at the End of Space, the Beginning of Time, mixes hope and encouragement with brooding and menace. Chimurenga Renaissance boasts one Zimbabwean leader, Baba Maraire, and one Congolese leader, Hussein Kalonji, blending their respective ethnic sounds with hiphop. And apparently someone will be doing some recording this evening. Savor the show and enter your claps and whoops into history. ANDREW HAMLIN
Barrett Martin Group
A renowned drummer for Screaming Trees, Tuatara, and others, Barrett Martin is one of those treasured musiciansâlike Mickey Hart and Ginger Bakerâwho possess an omnivorous appetite for non-Western styles, in addition to rock, blues, folk, and jazz. Like those virtuosic sticksmen, Martin assimilates those elements with subtlety and inventiveness. His expansive travels to Cuba, Brazil, West Africa, New Zealand, the Peruvian Amazon, and other places led to Martin writing a book, The Singing Earth, that traces some of his inspirations and outlines his sonic theories. No doubt heâll put many of those into practice, with bandmates Evan Flory-Barnes, Andy Coe, Thione Diop, Hans Teuber, Dave Carter, and Ryan Burns. DAVE SEGAL
Jane Lynch: âA Swinginâ Little Christmasâ
The Emmy-winning Jane Lynch will perform an evening set of sentimental Christmas classics.
Julien Baker with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus
Two young songwriters working in the literate tradition of Cat Power, Liz Phair, and Leonard Cohen top this bill. Julien Bakerâs solo work is intimate, deeply felt, and strikingly candid; with little but her voice and guitar or piano, her songs detail the despair and catharsis of young-adult inner life. Phoebe Bridgers has been involved in the LA music community since middle school, and through a combination of hobnobbing and hustle, sheâs become a name in the indie scene. Her thoughtful songwriting has graced many a network TV drama, and her face appears on the cover of Faderâs fall fashion issue. Baker and Bridgers also formed a supergroup of sorts, boygenius, with Lucy Dacus (whoâs also on the bill), and dropped an EP earlier this month. ANDREW GOSPE
SUNDAY
HIPHOP/RAPFather, Danger Incorporated, Lil House Phone
Though you wouldnât guess it from his rather generic rap handle, LA-by-way-of-Atlanta artist Father knows the importance of a good name. The provocative titles of his first two albums (Whoâs Gonna Get Fucked First? and Iâm a Piece of Shit) and the name of his label (Awful Records) concisely preview his self-deprecating style and offbeat sense of humor. His latest project, a mixtape released in collaboration with Cartoon Networkâs Adult Swim, is a strong but understated record, mixing Fatherâs trademark debauchery and nonchalant flow with spare, tough production. Itâs introverted party music for a space between the living room and the club. ANDREW GOSPE
Telekinetic Yeti, Toke, Grim Earth, Swampheavy
True story: I listened to this two-piece from Iowa because of their name. Iâm like, what does a Telekinetic Yeti sound like? Answer: fuzzed-out, crunchy, low-end heavy doom metal, like if you were walking through a dark forest, and maybe you were⊠a yeti, yes! Of course, youâre a yeti. Youâve got long trailing hair and a beard with bits of leaves and moss stuck to it, and youâve got fur sprouting from every orifice, you hairy fuck, and you smell ripe, and youâve got a thousand yearsâ worth of soil encrusted under your ragged fingernails, and the rumble and growl of guitars and the occasional roaring vocals are the sounds of your rumbling and growling and roaring out of a mouth of rotted teeth as you plow through that forest. Yeah, this is Yeti music, all right. Not sure about the Telekinetic part, though. That might be a bit of a stretch. LEILANI POLK
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Yes, I know, they're cheesy in the extreme and not even actually from Siberia, but Trans-Siberian Orchestra's jolly blend of electric-guitar shredding and Christmas music is like the flu: It comes around every year and it's extremely catchy. That being said, if I'm going to be afflicted with pinch-harmonic-inflected cheer, then I'm at least going to focus on the upside. Which is, TSO formed from the remains of the excellent and under-appreciated power-metal outfit Savatage, whose interpretation of Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" probably sparked the whole classical-music-meets-metal fad. Now if only they still had Alex Skolnick from Testament in the band. JOSEPH SCHAFER
Campfire
Gutter Twink Productions presents a new night of performance of various types, including from the wondrously blunt rapper Michete and others to be announced. Bobby Higley, who is like a sad and magical ear of corn come beautifully to life, will host.
Contemporary Native American Music Showcase: Khu.Ă©ex', Indian Agent, Savage Family
At this multicultural show, you can celebrate Native American Heritage Month and the release of Khu.Ă©exâs third album. Pronounced âkoo-eex,â the collective shares the culture of the Tlingit, the indigenous people of Southeast Alaska. Their performances feature communal jazz, funk, and spoken-word perspectives. All I Sea, Indian Agentâs 2018 release, also emanates experimental folk musings. Their down-tempo sound collages, mixed by Erik Blood, are inspired by the trioâs homes in Seattle and Sitka, Alaska. While yet unannounced, special guests are expected to speak throughout the night as well, including local social-justice activists of color. AJ DENT
