Panicking because you don’t know what to do this weekend and you’re short on cash? Don’t worry—below, find all of your options for last-minute entertainment that won’t cost more than $10, ranging from the Witches’ Night Out Market’s Oracle Speaks event to the Slow Day Art Tour at the Frye, and from a feminist Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to the Edible Book Festival.
- The Blue Stones, James Anaya & The Current
Guitarist Tarek Jafar and percussionist Justin Tessier comprise the blues-rock duo the Blue Stones. Catch them in Ballard on their Be My Fire Tour with opening support from R&B/soul artist James Anaya & the Current.
(Pioneer Square, $10) - The Boss Martians, The Greasy Gills, The Delstroyers
The Boss Martians will break out their retro sounds of surf and frat rock for a rowdy crowd alongside fellow instrumental surf crews the Greasy Gills and the Delstroyers.
(Georgetown, $10) - Flying Fish Cove, Sundae Crush, Wolfgang Strutz, Dog Sister
Local indie rockers Flying Fish Cove will debut their dreamy new album At Moonset with extra reverie-inclined pop-rock support from Sundae Crush, Wolfgang Strutz, and Dog Sister.
(University District, $5-$10) - The Glaring, Bigfoot Accelerator, Boxcutter PNW
Billing their sound as “a punk rock blade with a sharp metal edge,” the Glaring will shred things up with support from fellow punks Bigfoot Accelerator and Boxcutter PNW.
(Shoreline, $6) - How Now Brown Cow
Get your jazzy funk fix from improvisers How Now Brown Cow.
(Downtown, free) - Leif Totusek & 1-2-3
Local jazz pros Leif Totusek, Larry Jones, and Steve Kim will combine their powers.
(Green Lake, free) - Medicine Bows, Programmes, Enos
Seattle noisy punks Medicine Bows will be joined by local power-pop duo Programmes and psychedelic rockers Enos.
(Eastlake, $6/$8) - Tremulant Presents Lunar Plane
Electronic music duo (and identical twins) Lunar Plane will bring double the melodic house tonight.
(Downtown, $8) - The Whags, Secret Band, Black Ends
Jam-heavy experimental bands the Whags, Secret Band, and Black Ends will bring garage vibes.
(West Seattle, $5)PERFORMANCE
- Beer & Puppet Theatre
Be forewarned: Someone who has attended one of these shows in the past tells me it was “extremely obscene” and possibly inappropriate for children. That may actually be the point: a press release describes the early show as “funny, surreal and violent fun for all ages.” The late show—which will apparently include “explicit puppet-on-puppet sex, and unspeakable acts with a sexy mule”—is (thankfully) adults only. Featured performers include a hairy clown, a family band, and a number of talented local puppeteers sure to both entertain and appall. KATIE HERZOG
(University District, $8)READINGS & TALKS
- Heather Mayer: Beyond The Rebel Girl
Heather Mayer peers behind the popular (predominantly male) image of the Industrial Workers of the World—or “Wobblies,” an international labor union that was founded in 1905 in Chicago—to uncover the role that single and married women played in the movement in Seattle, Portland, Spokane, and smaller Northwest towns. This sounds like a refreshing corrective.
(Lake Forest Park, free) - Lindsey Freeman: This Atom Bomb in Me
Lindsey Freeman’s childhood must have been weirder than most. She grew up in and near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a secret uranium-enriching town during the Manhattan Project. According to the book description, Oak Ridge’s facilities “add[ed] something to each and every bomb in the United States arsenal.” Hear Freeman read her reminiscences of a kid’s-eye view of this strange time.
(Downtown, free) - Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs
If you think of poetry as something over-precious and pretentious, read Nickole Brown’s “The Scat of It” (2018), which is about exactly what you think it is: “The shit of it, the slick of it, the beetle’s tumbling joy / the bear’s berry slush of it, the coyote’s ghost white dry of it—undigested fur, nothing more / hot-pressed into a turd—that nothing-wasted prayer.” How’s that for rich nature imagery? Brown is the author of the collections Sister and Fanny Says as well as the recent chapbook To Those Who Were Our First Gods. She’ll read tonight with her wife Jessica Jacobs (Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going), past winner of the New Mexico Book Award in Poetry and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. JOULE ZELMAN
(Wallingford, free) - Nikkita Oliver: Pebbles in My Shoes
Poet and activist Nikkita Oliver will share new work at this lounge-style reading.
(Pioneer Square, $10) - Rachel Cusk: The Outline Trilogy
In this trilogy, beginning with the “lethally intelligent” (Heidi Julavits, NYT) Outline, a British writer whose very presence induces people to confess their secrets copes with her own traumas and transitions. Outline and its sequels, Transit and Kudos, have together racked up about a dozen mentions and awards, including Vogue, NPR, the New Yorker, and the Guardian‘s Best Book of the Year.
(Capitol Hill, free)VISUAL ART
- Student Show
Students ranging from absolute beginners to veteran potters reveal what they’ve been laboring over.
(Seattle Center, free)
Opening FridayFRIDAY-SATURDAY
FESTIVALS
- UW Maker Summit
See creative projects—from art projects and handmade electronic gizmos to short films and music videos—submitted by UW students, faculty, and Seattle community members at the 2019 Makers Summit.
(University District, free)VISUAL ART
- Chelsea Ryoko Wong: Maximalist in Motion
San Francisco–based artist Chelsea Ryoko Wong is interested in urban culture. Streets, crowds, sidewalks outside of yoga studios, supermarkets, parks. Using vibrant hues and mediums like gouache, watercolor, and colored pencil, Wong brings these diverse scenes to life. There’s a text element to her work as well, with her figures wearing clothing that say things like “WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE SEXY,” “DRIVIN’ A JAGUAR SEDAN,” or “LOST FLAMENCO DANCER.” In a time when humanity seems to be more at odds with itself than ever (though, if I’m being real, humanity has always been at odds with itself), Wong’s work is like a cloud break on a warm day. Reminding you that we are all part of a community and that we really should look out for one another. JASMYNE KEIMIG
(Pioneer Square, free)
Closing Saturday - Mary Coss: Groundswell
Mary Coss spent two years working with Roger Fuller, a spatial ecologist at Western Washington University, examining the dangerously increased salinity levels encroaching on local estuaries. Estuaries are where river, land, and ocean meet and mix—for instance, in the Skagit Valley, one of our fresh-water resources. On the left side of the gallery is an installation called Silent Salinity, a ghost meadow (as the artist calls it) made of 300 pieces of hand-tied wire sedge, a grass-like plant, dipped in abaca pulp, a type of fiber. The ghost meadow in the gallery consists of crusted layers of salt, out of which stick salt-casted things like kelp, barnacles, and other organic matter. The other day in the gallery, Coss was in the middle of installing a giant wave of tulle overhead. It’s meant to represent Mother Nature fighting back. “Ultimately, the water will be here,” Coss said, referring to her wave specifically and the future of this imperiled planet more generally. “We have a window where we have the opportunity to turn things around or not. And if we don’t, we probably won’t be here, but the water will.” JASMYNE KEIMIG
(Pioneer Square, free)
Closing Saturday - Mary Maki Rae: Sweet Reverie
Rae depicts pleasant subjects like birds, flowers, and fruit.
(West Seattle, free)
Closing Sunday - Regeneración | Rebirth
Over the course of three shows, and in partnership with the yəhaw̓ Pacific Northwest Native artistic movement, Vermillion hosts indigenous Latinx artists adapting the themes of “regeneration, rebirth, and renewal.”
(Capitol Hill, free)
Closing Saturday - Swoon: Every Portrait Is a Vessel
“Every portrait is a vessel” is an interesting proposition. My brain begins to fill in the rest of the sentence. Every portrait is a vessel of love. A vessel of self. A vessel of truth. Every Portrait Is a Vessel is the first solo exhibition by Swoon (aka Caledonia Curry) in the Pacific Northwest. Swoon is a legendary street artist, most famous for her portraiture-based artwork and large-scale installations. At Treason, she’ll be showing a mix of new and old pieces in a range of formats, from music boxes to mixed-media pieces. JASMYNE KEIMIG
(Pioneer Square)
Artist talk SaturdayFRIDAY-SUNDAY
VISUAL ART
- AJ Hawkins: The Reclamation
Order of the Good Death movement member Hawkins investigates what happens to the body after death—decay and the nutrient cycle—in these strangely glamorous paintings of the animated deceased.
(Capitol Hill, free)
Closing Sunday - Amy Simons: Structures
Local ceramic artist and printmaker Amy Simons will show new work.
(Downtown, free)
Opening Friday - Debra Stewart
Sink into “deep, dark ocean wonderlands” in resin by this Everett-based artist.
(Downtown, free)
Closing Sunday - Lola Gil: Thirsty
The “anthropocene”-focused art gallery Roq La Rue invites Lola Gil to show beautiful figurative surrealism, featuring sad midcentury women in Dorothea Tanning-like interiors, impossible still lives, and riffs on Dalí and other famous dead artists.
(Capitol Hill, free)
Closing Sunday - no hard feelings
Experience the art of “Seattle’s dopest creatives,” with drop-in pop-up shows by painters barry johnson and Che Sehyun, poet Kamari Bright, dancer Noelle Price, plus Adam Jabari, Aramis Hamer, Nijuana Chardonay, Jen Moore, and Taqueet$.
(Georgetown, free)
Closing Sunday - Organic Forms: Reflecting the Natural World
Artists Susan Ringstad Emery and Francesca Udeschini explore organic forms and lines in linocut, cyanotype, ink, and other mediums.
(Redmond, free)
Closing Sunday - Veronica Mortellaro: New and Recent Work
Indifference and beauty can be a terrifying combination. I think, as a society, beautiful things are allowed to exist in two ways: with arrogance or with complete innocence. Beauty any other way falls into the uncanny valley—recognizable, but a bit off. Veronica Mortellaro’s stony, beautiful figures are frightening in that their beauty is something accepted and not to be dwelled any further on. The medium they are portrayed in, watercolor, makes them feel so fragile, so permeable, that you halfway hope they’ll manage to soak into you. JASMYNE KEIMIG
(Capitol Hill, free)
Closing SundaySATURDAY
COMMUNITY
- Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: Spring 2019
Whether we like it or not, Wikipedia provides definitions and biographies that are seen by the general public as perfectly objective and comprehensive. This event offers feminists the chance to add their voice by editing Wiki articles about queer and women artists of color. No experience necessary.
(University District, free) - Civic Saturday
Marcus C. John will host Civic Saturday, described as “a civic analogue to church”: a service that celebrates the American civic tradition through readings, songs, silent reflection, and a sermon by Liu himself.
(Pioneer Square, free) - Congresswoman Jayapal’s Medicare for All Speak Out
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal will talk about the Medicare For All Act that she initiated this year, which aims to bring comprehensive health care to all Americans. There will also be a Q&A, so bring your questions about the bill.
(Capitol Hill, free) - First Caturday
Because even the laziest housecat is wild at heart, this event is the perfect opportunity to treat your beloved feline to an outdoor adventure among other (leash-trained) kitties, whether they want to chase birds, eat bugs, or take a nap in the grass.
(Capitol Hill, free) - Photowalk: UW Campus
Peak day for UW’s cherry trees may have passed, but spring flowers are still very much abloom on campus. Take your camera and snap some pictures on this guided walk.
(University District, free)FOOD & DRINK
- Edible Book Festival
View (and then devour) tasty tomes on display at this festival devoted to punny “books” made out of food and inspired by famous literary titles—past winners have included Donkey Oaties and A Pringle In Time.
(Lake Forest Park, free)MUSIC
- Alabama Threeway, The Meadow Roads
Alabama Threeway promises a night of classic country and western swing with bill support from Everett Americana band the Meadow Roads.
(West Seattle, $8) - Autolite Strike, New Rose, Teen Cat, DJ Xerox
Earnest punks Autolite Strike, named after the Ohio federal labor union strike of 1934, have been known to rock the theremin. They’ll take over Eastlake with New Rose, Teen Cat, and DJ Xerox.
(Eastlake, $8/$10) - The Ben Thomas Trio
The Ben Thomas Trio will get your blood flowing with a night of tango music.
(Downtown, free) - The Black Planes, Space Owl, White Shark Cafe, Mhostly Ghostly
Bliss out to psychedelic rock with the Black Planes, Space Owl, White Shark Cafe, and Mhostly Ghostly.
(Shoreline, $10) - Bloom ft. Kristen Dalen and Gag Reflex
This edition of the techno-oriented DJ night BLOOM will bring sets from Kristen Dalen and Gag Reflex
(Downtown, $6/$8) - Hand Trembler, Tsun Dog, What’s Next?
Enjoy grungy, danceable psychedelic rock from Hand Trembler, plus more rockin’ from Idaho’s Tsun Dog and What’s Next?
(Belltown, $6) - Hosannas, Darksoft, Sean Downey
The chilled-out Portland duo Hosannas, melodic guitarist/crystalline vocalist Darksoft, and chillwave soloist Sean Downey will share a bill.
(Capitol Hill, $8/$10) - The Limit Club, Brainiax, Raw Dogs
Phoenix psychobilly band the Limit Club wrangle in occasional punk and darkwave influences for a unique cacophony of noises. They’ll headline with support from locals Brainiax and Raw Dogs.
(Pioneer Square, $10) - Psychedelic Shindig with Sunflower Sutra, Palatine, Brianna Skye
Wear the trippiest colors in your closet and space out to the cosmic soundscapes of psychedelic rockers Sunflower Sutra, jazzy prog-rock from Palatine, and folk-pop from Brianna Skye and the Dark Clouds. To top it all off, Erin Fox will be doing live painting.
(University District, $7) - Ranger and the Re-Arrangers with Toby Hanson
Old-timey jazz dudes Ranger and the Re-Arrangers will perform a free set that will include swing standards, traditional g*psy melodies, tracks from the catalog of Django Reinhardt, and Ranger’s original work.
(Columbia City, free) - Soul and The City with Julia Francis, Wynne C Blue, KiSMiT, Katrina Charles
Blues singer-songwriters Julia Francis, Wynne C Blue, KiSMiT, and Katrina Charles will fill the bill of this Soul in the City concert.
(Fremont, $7/$10) - Sun Breaks In-Store
John Atkins and James van Leuven will bring their new Ethio-jazz-inspired project, Sun Breaks, to West Seattle for an in-store performance at Easy Street Records.
(West Seattle, free) - Thee Perfect Gentlemen, Sick City Vultures, Shaken Growlers, Projections On A Wall
Lateral rockers Thee Perfect Gentlemen say they play both types of music: “rock and roll.” Joining the bill will be Sick City Vultures, Shaken Growlers, and Projections On A Wall.
(University District, $7) - US Coast Guard Woodwind Quintet Concert
The United States Coast Guard Woodwind Quintet—”one of the Coast Guard Band’s most popular and versatile chamber ensembles”—will give a concert in Seattle.
(Greenwood, free) - Whiskey Fever, Great American Trainwreck, Everson Pines
Hillbilly-rock quartet Whiskey Fever will play their passionate jams after alt-country sets from Great American Trainwreck and Everson Pines.
(Ballard, $8)PERFORMANCE
- Botnik Live!
Botnik Studios writers and engineers—who have created a predictive text Harry Potter chapter and a computer-generated Coachella poster, among other things—will host a night of readings, sketches, songs, and interactive experiments.
(Capitol Hill, $7)READINGS & TALKS
- Christina Thatcher: More Than You Were
Christina wrote the poems in More Than You Were as a way of understanding her father’s overdose death and its aftermath. Hear her read some selections.
(Ravenna, free) - Gregory Erich Phillips: The Exile
In Gregory Erich Phillips’s new novel The Exile, a Hispanic woman with a successful career in Phoenix is suddenly deported back to her birth country. Hear the author read.
(Lake Forest Park, free) - Katie Arnold: Running Home
In her memoir Running Home, Outside Magazine contributing editor Katie Arnold talks about forces in her early life (like her complicated relationship with her father) that compelled her to become an ultramarathon champion.
(Capitol Hill, free) - Should I Still Watch This Show?
UW Professor and Humanities Washington speaker Amy Peloff will help you grapple with the dilemma of whether to keep watching media whose creators have been caught for bad-to-criminal behavior. She’ll go over the following questions: “How do we weigh the cultural value of art against the behavior of the individual creating it? What do we think accountability in the #MeToo movement should look like? Do the decisions we make around our pop culture consumption even matter?”
(University District, free) - Steven Rowley: The Editor
Steven Rowley (Lily and the Octopus) harks back to New York in the 1990s, when Jackie Kennedy Onassis was working as a book editor. In this fictionalized story, a young novelist sells an autobiographical novel to Onassis, but balks when he realizes that the publication will disrupt his family.
(Capitol Hill, free)RESISTANCE & SOLIDARITY
- It’s Up To Us-The Trump/Pence Fascist Regime Must Go
Refuse Fascism Seattle will gather to demand public access to the full Mueller report.
(Capitol Hill, free)SHOPPING
- 23rd Annual Spring Plant Sale
There’s nothing wrong with tending to a couple rare orchids and cacti, but native plants that thrive naturally in the Pacific Northwest are essential for slowing stormwater, sequestering carbon, and providing homes for bugs that birds eat. Here, you’ll find a selection of wildlife-friendly plants from local nurseries, plus bird- and nature-related used books.
(Wedgwood, free) - Arboretum Spring Plant Sale
Stroll through the public garden at peak bloom, then pick up some seasonal plants to take home.
(Capitol Hill, free) - Garden Lovers’ Book Sale
Stock up on bargain-priced books on everything from gardening to tree identification, plus works of art from the Pacific Northwest Botanical Artists.
(University District, free) - Witches’ Night Out Market Presents The Oracle Speaks
Witches and the metaphysically minded can shop for mystical wares, get psychic readings, and more.
(Ballard, free)VISUAL ART
- Artist Talk: Sara Siestreem
In partnership with the Indigenous artist group show yәhaw̓, visiting artist Sara Siestreem will talk about her multi-disciplinary practice, which addresses ancestral memory and continuing traditions, Indigenous survivance and sovereign rights, and “the inclusion of natural processes and environmental relationships.”
(University District, free with $10 museum admission) - Slow Art Day Tour
Slow Art Day is a worldwide event in which museum visitors are encouraged to take their time—10 minutes—over works of art and discuss their impressions. The goal: direct, lengthy experience with art, without a mediator.
(First Hill, free)SATURDAY-SUNDAY
FESTIVALS
- International Children’s Friendship Festival
In honor of International Children’s Day, a holiday honoring youth that originated in Turkey, this festival represents different nationalities and cultures through music, ballet, and folk dances performed by and for kids.
(Seattle Center, free) - Movin’ Around the World: Spring
In partnership with the Northwest Folklife Festival, this weeklong event invites people of all ages to learn about cultures around the world through live music and dance and hands-on activities.
(Seattle Center, free)SUNDAY
FILM
- DJ Nicfit & Substation Present: A Nightmare on Elm Street
DJ NicFit will remix a new soundtrack on two turntables to the horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, the Wes Craven original about a man named Freddy with a striped shirt and nasty claws who turns Johnny Depp into soup.
(Ballard, free) - VR Film Screening: Home in América
See a sneak peek of the upcoming interactive, room-scale virtual reality documentary Home with América by the Family Reunions Project. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the VR director, Alvaro Morales, members of WAISN, Latinos in Tech, and the Seattle Public Library.
(Downtown, free)MUSIC
- An Afternoon with Darci Carlson, Dylan Earl, and Ian Jones
Enjoy an evening of “straight-up country” and honky tonk with Seattle’s Darci Carlson, who has been thrice nominated for the Outlaw Female of the Year Award. She’ll share the stage with fellow twangers Dylan Earl and and Ian Jones.
(Shoreline, $8) - Fortress of the Bear, Winehouse, Bad Honey
Classic rock-inclined locals Fortress of the Bear will headline this show after opening sets from Olympia alt-funk band Winehouse and blues-rockers Bad Honey.
(Ballard, $8) - Kyte Mika, Don Haugen, Infinite Neck
Snuggle up to Kyte Mika, Don Haugen, and Infinite Neck for a night of “cozy” ambient experimental music and dance.
(Capitol Hill, $10) - Slow Crush, Holy Fawn, YMDITD, X SUNS
Steep yourself in noise-pop from “compelling abrasive shoegaze band” Slow Crush, who will be joined by Arizona indie rockers Holy Fawn, Seattle’s YMDITD (You May Die in the Desert), and space rockers X SUNS at this all-ages show.
(Seattle Center, $8/$10) - Society of the Silver Cross, Gibraltar, Night Ships, Yar
Husband-and-wife duo Joe Reineke and Karyn Gold-Reineke lead Society of the Silver Cross, a “blend of east and west” filled with cosmic droning. They’ll be joined by nostalgic Seattle rockers Gibraltar, fuzzy post-punks Night Ships, and groovy trio Yar.
(Capitol Hill, $8/$10) - Street Jail, Pass the Flask, Brian Hoffman & The What’ve Beens, Porn Bloopers
Get your grimy punk rock from Street Jail, Pass the Flask, Brian Hoffman & the What’ve Beens, and Porn Bloopers.
(University District, $7) - Watch Rome Burn, Dream Wulf, Of The Heavy Sun
High-energy guitar-rock duo Watch Rome Burn will share a bill with fellow rockers Dream Wulf and Of the Heavy Sun.
(Fremont, $6/$8) - The Wheal, Harsh-R, Vox V/Nitel Etch/Celedon, Vanessa Skantze
Parisian electronic music maven the Wheal and Olympia’s dark-electro spinner Harsh-R will team up for a DIY evening of darkwave and ritual noise. Also on the bill: Northwest artists Vox V, Nitel Etch, and Celedon and Vanessa Skantze.
(Sodo, $10) - Whitney Rose, Devin Sinha, Guests
Texan singer-songwriter Whitney Rose will headline Ballard after a set from Devin Sinha.
(Ballard, $10) - Will Jordan, Seaan Brooks, Jalantā Thomas, Dorian Duta
Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Will Jordan—who worked on the track “Fly” by Nicki Minaj—will come to Seattle in support of his new EP Deep Sleep. He’ll be joined by Tacoma rapper Seaan Brooks, Jalantā Thomas, and Dorian Duta.
(Belltown, $10)PERFORMANCE
- Never Again is Now: The Art and Activism of Millennial Nikkei
Millennial Japanese Americans will honor their persecuted ancestors, imprisoned for their ethnicity during World War II, through poetry, dance, and art. Hear spoken-word by Troy Osaki and Kurt Yokoyama Ikeda; see movement by Gabrielle Kazuko Nomura Gainor in an excerpt of a piece called Farewell Shikata ga nai with live music by Seattle Kokon Taiko; gaze at photos from The Suitcase Project by Kayla Isomura; and join a discussion moderated by Nina Nobuko Wallace. This event is co-organized by the Japanese American Citizens League and Densho.
(Chinatown-International District, free) - Off Road Shakespeare Company Presents: Twelfth Night
Leah Adcock-Starr will direct this Off Road Shakespeare production of the Bard’s raunchy-sweet comedy Twelfth Night.
(Downtown, free) - Spring Reading Series: Athena by Gracie Gardner
Hear a staged reading of a play about two Junior Olympics fencers who wish they were friends.
(University District, free)READINGS & TALKS
- Elisa Murray: 52 Seattle Adventures With Kids
Elisa Murray, author of 52 Seattle Adventures with Kids, will let you in on fun and affordable family outings in and around Puget Sound.
(Rainier Valley, free) - Evan James: Cheer Up Mr. Widdicombe
Mrs. Widdicombe tries to cheer up her husband by making their new home on Puget Sound a social hub, with unexpected and comic consequences for the entire family.
(Capitol Hill, free) - Stacey Marie Brown: The Unlucky Ones & Twisted Love
Paranormally inclined romance author Stacey Marie Brown will read from two new novels.
(Lake Forest Park, free)SHOPPING
- Handmade Brigade Pop-Up: Spring Edition
Shop from over 75 Washington artists, artisans, and food purveyors.
(Fremont, free) - My Favorite Craft Fair
If you’re a fan of the podcast My Favorite Murder, this market is specifically for you. Artists and artisans will sling their crafty wares related to the beloved program about serial killers, from candles and pet products to paper goods and jewelry.
(South Park, free)VISUAL ART
- Ilya Okazis: Me and the Telephone That Never Rings
This studio and street artist from Kaliningrad, Russia, will have his first show ever in the US at Robert Yoder’s home gallery SEASON.
(Ravenna, free)
Opening Sunday
FRIDAY
MUSIC
