This week, our arts critics have recommended the best events in every genre—from the Edible Book Festival to a concert highlighting the father of the father of science’s music to Ahamefule J. Oluo’s autobiographical odyssey. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney will read from her debut novel, The Nest—a book that was the subject of a contentious bidding war that ended with a seven figure deal from Ecco Press.
Bard in a Bar
Shakespeare would no doubt approve of Bard in a Bar: rowdy, crowdsourced, and boozy presentations of his plays. Tonight, head to Solo Bar (where scripts and props will be provided) and help participate in Henry IV Pt. 1.
FOOD & DRINK
Dine Around Seattle
During Dine Around Seattle (not to be confused with Seattle Restaurant Week), which runs until March 31, more than 50 restaurants throughout the area are serving three-course dinner menus for just $33, with many restaurants also offering a three-course lunch for $18. Even better: When you make reservations online, a donation is made to the Rainier Valley Food Bank, which serves roughly 12,000 people every month from its tiny 1,200-square-foot facility on Rainier Avenue. Making a reservation at restaurants such as Chavez, Chiso, Lecosho, Poppy, and Tray Kitchen will help provide groceries to hungry families in Southeast Seattle. ANGELA GARBES (Through Thurs)
Plate of Nations
Plate of Nations is your two-week-long chance to explore the many cuisines and cultures of Rainier Valley. Through April 10, independently owned eateries serving Ethiopian, Eritrean, Laotian, Middle Eastern, Somali, Thai, and Vietnamese food (or, in the case of Olympic Express restaurant, a wondrous Halal mash-up of all nearly all of these things) are offering shareable plates, specially priced at $15 and $25. If you’ve never been to Cafe Ibex, Foo Lam, or Huarachitos, you’re missing out on some of the best food in town. ANGELA GARBES
MUSIC
An Evening with Steve Hackett
I know the kids try hard to get “out there” with their math rock, beards, and droning experimental jams—but tonight, guitarist and actual crafter of progressive rock Steve Hackett will be bringing it like it ought to be brought. And, yes, during the early 1970s he was guitarist for Genesis. Um, the early ’70s was Genesis’s progressive period, not the loved/hated Phil Collins–fronted biz. MIKE NIPPER
Iggy Pop
When you bust out of the gate with albums like The Stooges, Fun House, and Raw Power, as James Osterberg (aka Iggy Pop) did, you kind of set up your fans for anticlimactic feelings. It ain’t easy to follow three records that inspired punk, metal, and avant-rock, said Captain Understatement. On those works and onstage, Iggy upped the ante with regard to feral frontman stunts and provocative stage banter while harnessing world-historical power from his limited but powerful voice. … but even this late in the game, Iggy is a riveting onstage presence, his body still sinewy, his voice a deadpan hammer. DAVE SEGAL
Satan, Skelator, Substratum, Gatekeeper, and Nox Velum
British heavy-metal lifers Satan never got their due in the 1980s. They broke up after releasing one now-legendary classic album, Court in the Act, while their peers Iron Maiden and Def Leppard rose to international superstardom. The internet has offered Satan a second life and a younger, more rabid fan base. … Two of Seattle’s finest classic-style heavy-metal bands, Skelator and Substratum, each worth the price of admission alone, will open. JOSEPH SCHAFER
COMEDY
Collide-O-Scope
Created and hosted by Michael Anderson and Shane Wahlund, Collide-O-Scope is the cavalcade of curated video delights that takes over Re-bar twice a month. The show keeps getting better, with thematic suites, hallucinatory repetition, and inspired guests. Perennial bonuses: free popcorn and Red Vines, and multiple prizes waiting to be won via drawings throughout the show. Tonight’s show is Spring Orgy-themed.
TUESDAY
FILM
In Cold Blood
It was Clint Eastwood who pointed out that cinema and jazz have this in common: They are truly American art forms. And so it is not a surprise that some of the best soundtracks in the history of Hollywood were composed by jazz masters. There is the Modern Jazz Quartet’s super-slick Odds Against Tomorrow, Duke Ellington’s lusty Anatomy of a Murder, and, of course, Quincy Jones’s hazy In Cold Blood. As for the last, the book it is based on, by Truman Capote, is interesting, the movie itself is fine, but the soundtrack is just superb. It’s a cloud of sounds. CHARLES MUDEDE
READINGS & TALKS
Garth Greenwell
Garth Greenwell’s debut novel, What Belongs to You, begins with the narrator meeting a 23-year-old in a bathroom in Bulgaria and paying him for sex. The rest of the book is filled with these “little theaters of heat,” where the narrator variously succumbs to and resists the pressures of prurience and curiosity and doubt. Greenwell’s gift is to render the narrator’s intensities so intensely that you can’t help but be pulled into his morass. Before you know it, you’re happily reeling in a verbal vortex. Tonight, Dave Wheeler, associate editor of the Shelf Awareness newsletter, will facilitate a conversation between Greenwell and Idra Novey, author of Ways to Disappear. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
MUSIC
Joanna Newsom and Robin Pecknold
Can’t nobody walk away with their jaw hinged tight after watching Newsom play the harp with the amount of physicality and concentration she brings to the task, like some marathon runner made of music. RICH SMITH
Breez Talent Show
For a promising iteration of Seattle’s ever-present open-mic scene, it would behoove you to seek out this “talent show” at anything-goes/everything’s-great Capitol Hill holdout Chop Suey. MCed by Tricky Vicky, the evening promises a loose and entertaining collection of Broadway oddballs and the extended musical family Bree McKenna (Tacocat/Childbirth bassist, occasional Stranger contributor, and this event’s namesake) and crew have cobbled together over years in the scene. The event page promises it’s “the only open mic night that’s not filled with crappers,” and one can only hope the promise is kept. Sign up’s at 7:30 pm sharp, wannabes! KYLE FLECK
Field Music, Hazel English, and Nolan Garrett
Plagued by a name that repels curiosity (mine, anyway), Field Music actually create an interesting strain of low-key, progressive indie rock. … Like that much more popular band, Field Music sneak deceptively challenging elements into songs that ostensibly sound like hits in a more intelligent world. It’s so much better than Field Music’s name. DAVE SEGAL
Mobb Deep
On March 12, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump found himself in the middle of a rowdy rally. He was trying to maintain his cool when suddenly someone tried to climb onto the stage. Trump went from royal indifference to fear for his life in a split second. As security guards stormed the stage, Trump trembled like a little animal in a dark and deep forest. Now a man going by the Twitter handle theBURBSLIFE described this moment of utter fear, which was transformed into a popular GIF as “Shook Ones Part 3,” which is, of course, a reference to the Mobb Deep’s gangster-rap classic “Shook Ones Part 2.” To use the words of Mobb Deep, a NYC duo that produced several classics on three albums released in the 1990s and one in the ’00s with the G Unit: Trump was “feeling closer to God in a tight situation.” CHARLES MUDEDE
Weedeater, Author & Punisher, Today is the Day, and Lord Dying
Sonic/visual artist Tristan Shone reminds us of early industrial music’s tactile approach and bleak worldview with his one-man project Author & Punisher. Surrounded by a steel fortress of hand-built contraptions, Shone physically hammers out guttural low-end riffs and militaristic beats capable of collapsing new buildings across Capitol Hill. You’d also be foolish to miss out on the gamut of grimy underground metal offered up by Weedeater, Today Is the Day, and Lord Dying. BRIAN COOK
ART
Dick Weiss & Cappy Thompson
See work in what some people consider the sexiest, most dangerous medium—glass—created by artists Dick Weiss and Cappy Thompson. (Closes Sat)
Koren Christofides: A Modern Medieval Bestiary
New ceramic pieces and paintings that depict Christofides’ experience with animals on a farm in Southern France. (25% of exhibition sale proceeds will go towards the Seattle Animal Shelter.) (Closes Sat)
Lynne Woods Turner: bend/fold/open
This exhibition of oddly refreshing abstract paintings closes on Saturday.
Norman Lundin: Spaces: Inside and Outside
Norman Lundin taught painting for years at the University of Washington, and in retirement he’s founded Prographica Gallery, remaining in dialogue with and offering support to the artists he loves. But we haven’t seen a new show of his still, calm, studied paintings in a while. What has he been working on? JEN GRAVES (Closes Sat)
THEATER
brownsville song (b-side for tray)
The New York Times called brownsville song (b-side for Tray) a “moving if somewhat predictable play” that’s both “elegy and polemic.” The plot involves a Brooklyn high school senior writing a scholarship essay trying to distance himself from the stereotype that he’s a “poor black boy from the violent ghetto,” only for him to be victimized by gang violence immediately after he finishes writing it. According to the Times, “The drama moves back and forth in time, vaulting from the weeks and months before Tray’s shooting to its aftermath.” CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Gary Faigin, Negarra A. Kudumu, and Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes: The Subversive Art of Kehinde Wiley
A panel discussion about the racial, social, and artistic questions that Kehinde Wiley’s paintings raise, coinciding with Kehinde’s exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. Featured panelists include Gage co-founder Gary Faigin, Negarra A. Kudumu (Educator, Frye Art Museum), and writer, artist, and filmmaker Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes.
Think and Drink: Now or Never: Climate Change and Policy in the Pacific Northwest
Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien and UW Climate Impacts Group Director Amy Snover will discuss what climate change means for the Pacific Northwest, and how to work within the system to address the problem, in this conversation moderated by KUOW environmental reporter Ashley Ahearn.
MUSIC
Ra Ra Riot and PWR BTTM
PWR BTTM is absolutely my favorite band right now. The New York glitter-covered queer ambassadors of totally catchy rock ’n’ roll write songs with lyrics I wanna write on my binder and scream along to meaningfully in my car with the windows rolled down. … If that’s not already enough to make you swoon, PWR BTTM are known for their hilarious onstage banter and wildly weird and fashionable attire. They open for the beloved Ra Ra Riot on a big stage like they deserve, and I can’t wait to see them on even bigger and bigger stages. ROBIN EDWARDS
ART
The Brink: Jason Hirata
Jason Hirata’s sculptures and drawings are about food, about specials in particular. One of his “specials,” handwritten on a piece of paper as on a restaurant board, is “Plumpy’Nut,” and you wonder, what is that? It is a peanut-butterish food made for the victims of malnutrition, and a single French company has a patent that makes it the only company that can produce it, only to be imported from the developed world, never to be produced where it is consumed. Hirata won the 2015 Brink Award, and his funny, sad, wonky, scruffy Brink Award show takes as its inspiration an early-19th-century print by Francisco de Goya and a 1981 speech by General Electric CEO Jack Welch. There is a great dissonant distance between Hirata’s conceptualist style and the smells, tastes, and corpulences that his works conjure. JEN GRAVES
Roy Dowell & Xavier Toubes
This group show features the off-kilter exuberance of Roy Dowell’s paintings with a mesmerizing group show called Tunnel of Silence. JEN GRAVES (Closes Sat)
TECTONIC
This multimedia group show dealing with ideas of “location, dislocation, identity, repetition, and time” features a lineup full of Seattle favorites: Julie Alpert, Tim Cross, Sue Danielson, Emily Gherard, C. Davida Ingram, Dave Kennedy, Kat Larson, Ashleigh Robb, and Krista Svalbonas. (Closes Sat)
THURSDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank (What’s the Matter with Kansas) will read from Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?, his latest book.
FOOD & DRINK
Guest Chef Night: Brian Pusztai
FareStart is a fantastic organization that empowers disadvantaged and homeless men and women by training them for work in the restaurant industry. Every Thursday, they host a Guest Chef Night, featuring a three-course dinner from a notable Seattle chef for just $29.95. This week FareStart welcomes Executive Chef Brian Pusztai of Urbane.
PERFORMANCE
Blue Man Group
Weird-pop performance artists/bald icons the Blue Man Group perform a four-night residency at the Paramount. (Through Sun)
Triple Threat with Kimball Allen
If you pumped a bunch of quarters into one of those claw-grabbing machines full of talent, there’s a good chance you might extract an unlikely collection of performers resembling a lineup at Triple Threat. First of all, there’s the headliner, Leslie Jordan—the adorable elder gay guy who always makes you go, “Oh, it’s that guy I just saw in that thing.” Then there’s local burlesque heroine Jamie Von Stratton, whose very presence demands your attention the moment she enters a room. Add offbeat comedian Christian Leonard, the music of the Great Um, and that guy who wound up with Sir Mix-A-Lot’s old phone number, and you have a night to remember thanks to your queer host Kimball Allen. MATT BAUME
Eulogy
This comedy performance by Kevin Kent, directed by Jennifer Jasper, tells the story of Eleanor, “a professional mourner in a one-stop-shop suburban funeral parlor.” That’s pretty much all you have to know before you rush over there. Kent is a treasure. Any time he’s on stage, it’s worth your attention. (Through Sat)
Mariela in the Desert
Latino Theatre Projects presents Karen Zacarias’ Mariela in the Desert, a family play about creativity, loss, and secrets, set in Northern Mexico. (Through Sat)
FILM
Campout Cinema: Donnie Darko
At Campout Cinema, you get comfy in the Sky Church with your pillow and sleeping bag, and there is a bar (with spiked hot chocolate!) and snacks like hot dogs and s’mores. Before this 15th anniversary screening, there will be an acoustic performance of songs from the Donnie Darko soundtrack by wonderful musician Tomo Nakayama.
MUSIC
Denzel Curry 2055: The Ult Experience
Hailing from rap-world hotbed Carol City, Florida, which you may also remember as the center of social unrest after the gunning down of resident Trayvon Martin, Denzel Curry rolled into 2016 with a head full of steam. His last two releases, Nostalgic 64 and 32 Zel / Planet Shrooms, found Curry pushing words with blunt force over hype alien trap beats from a growing collection of innovative producers, and big names took notice. The former Rvidxr Klvn member pulled Rick Ross and Joey Bada$$ for his new project, Imperial, and Curry more than proved he can hang. TODD HAMM
Tacocat, Ononos, Mommy Long Legs, and Erik Blood
How can anyone deny the surfy, bubblegum-punk perfection of a song like “I Hate the Weekend,” the first single from Tacocat’s latest album, Lost Time? What’s not to like about the casually clever, casually glum lyrics, the fuck you, dude angst hurled at the gay-bashing normies and money-lusting techies who invade the city every weekend as unwitting symbols/byproducts of thoughtless gentrification, and all that bound together with ultra-catchy hooks? It’s called catharsis, people, and it helps. Anyhow, this show is the album release for Lost Time, produced by Erik Blood, who will play his Stranger Genius–approved set. RICH SMITH
Charlie Parr and Michael Wohl
Minnesota guitarist/vocalist Charlie Parr is one of those real-deal folk troubadours who play with fluid grace and sing with blues-soul passion, and his act never comes off as shtick—not an easy feat, as anyone who’s endured his/her share of mediocre, try-hard pickers and grinners can attest. Parr’s 13th album proper, Stumpjumper (recorded in North Carolina with Megafaun and Hiss Golden Messenger member Phil Cook and released last year), sounds like the sort of Americana to which you wouldn’t mind building a shrine: profoundly moving melodies, leathery vocals delivering archetypal storytelling, and guitar and banjo tones that glint and ripple with glorious vitality. These primal songs hit you like a rusty rake to your noggin, inducing raw, backwoods satori. DAVE SEGAL
Wolfmother and Deap Vally
If you’re looking for a little quick entertainment, look on YouTube for an interview with Mike Patton circa 2005, wherein the Faith No More singer has a conniption fit over Australian classic-rock throwback band Wolfmother. In between his histrionics, Patton pinpoints the greatest strength and weakness in sole original member Andrew Stockdale’s songwriting: Wolfmother capture all of the Sturm und Drang of ’70s monster rock without any of the storied history. Still, if big fuzzy guitars are your jam, Stockdale will deliver. For more surprising music, come early for openers Deap Vally, who refresh the stale two-piece garage-rock template with rhythmic variation and a little snark. JOSEPH SCHAFER
Underpass, Morning Coup, Annex, and Arcane
Part of Hollow Earth Radio’s monthlong Magma Fest, this is a well-curated punk showcase. San Diego-by-way-of-Olympia goth punks Underpass’s expansive, hollow guitar sound could fit in easily in the early-’80s UK post-punk scene, also conjuring Robert Smith–isms with romantically agonized vocals. Mourning Coup, the celestial electronic-pop experiments of Vancouver’s Chandra Melting Tallow, lands somewhere between the Knife and Bruce Haack, with disjointed and sparkly synth passages and eerily beautiful, highly affected female vocals. Her dark gothtronica-glazed pop possesses an otherworldly majesty, and shouldn’t be missed. Driving Texan dark-punks Annex sound like Siouxsie and the Banshees if they were on Dischord Records in the ’90s (a very good thing) while locals Arcane round out this spookified bill with their sinister goth-punk sprawl. BRITTNIE FULLER
ART
Martha Rosler: Homeless: The Street and Other Venues
What a data center! Somewhere in here, in all the videos and documents and photographs and charts and graphs that Martha Rosler collected related to housing, homelessness, and gentrification in New York in the 1980s and Seattle today, there must be answers. Or at least the right questions. Rosler is the first winner of The New Foundation Seattle’s 100K Prize, which comes with a yearlong celebration of her work in several parts, this exhibition being only the first at The New Foundation’s gallery. Rosler wants to deploy activism and discussion as forms of art, so don’t just visit, use your visit to figure out what to do next about the fact that, all evidence to the contrary in our transmogrifying city, Housing Is A Human Right, as her year of events is titled. JEN GRAVES (Opens today)
Salt/Water
PCNW presents Salt/Water, featuring photographer/sculptor/multimedia artist Daniel Hawkins, who is also known for the time he built a lighthouse in the desert. (Closes Sat)
FRIDAY
FILM
The Last Dragon
At this screening of The Last Dragon, a 1985 martial arts musical movie, you’ll also get to meet Taimak, stuntman and the martial arts star of the film, in person.
READINGS & TALKS
Rick Bass
Quietly powerful author and environmental activist Rick Bass will read from his book For a Little While.
MUSIC
Epic: Pezzner
Veteran globetrotting Seattle house-music producer/DJ Dave Pezzner launches a new monthly party called Epic that revolves around the premise of letting one DJ control the dance floor for the entire night—to 4 am, if the crowd’s into it. It’s his first endeavor as a promoter, and although his idea’s an old, reliable one, it’s rarely instituted in this city. Pezzner cites Larry Levan, Doc Martin, and Tony Humphries as inspirations; these disc jockeys are renowned for their marathon sets that take clubbers on proverbial “journeys,” and in the process save their lives (we’ve seen it happen!) and make them dance off several pounds (ditto!). Epic’s debut will feature the brilliant, idiosyncratic selections of Pezz himself while the visuals will be handled by Brandy Gray and stage design by Celeste Cooning. Guided by Pezzner’s vast connections and keen aesthetics, Epic promises to be a first-class monthly. DAVE SEGAL
Decibel Magazine Tour: Abbath, High on Fire, Skeletonwitch, Tribulation
It’s been an interesting couple years for the Immortal camp. The iconic Norwegian black-metal band made headlines in late 2014 when founding guitarist/vocalist Abbath filed to register as copyrighted owner of the Immortal brand—reportedly, without informing his bandmates Demonaz and Horgh. Abbath was denied, leaving the remaining two Immortal members to soldier on without him, as he left to pursue his new project, appropriately named Abbath. It’s dark, it’s grim, and honestly, it sounds a hell of a lot like Immortal. Black metallers of yesteryear chopped each other up with axes and used their skull fragments to fashion necklaces. These days, they leave the battles to their lawyers. KEVIN DIERS
THEATER
The Mis-Education of the Well-Meaning Liberal
This collaborative performance event exploring social justice topics, from race to adoption to education to gentrification, will feature stories by six writers, each exploring different themes. Produced by Donte Felder and directed by Marcel Davis. (Through Sat)
Spin the Bottle
This is Seattle’s longest-running cabaret and has seen just about everything—dance, theater, comedy, paper airplanes, tears, stunts, music, romance—from just about everyone.
SATURDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Edible Book Festival
Food, book, and, most importantly, pun lovers unite! The Edible Book Festival brings people together for a lighthearted culinary, artistic, and literary celebration. Throughout the day, “books” made from food and inspired by works of literature will be displayed. (Past entries have included works titled Gourd of the Rings, War and Peas, and The Life of Pie.) Later, awards (including “Most PUNderful”) will be handed out. Contestants are asked to bring a copy of the book that inspired them as well as a serving utensil—because at the end of the day, all the creations will be eaten. Punch and coffee will be served. It’s the most wonderful and delicious nerd parade imaginable. ANGELA GARBES
PERFORMANCE
Now I’m Fine
Ahamefule J. Oluo, of Stranger Genius Award winning band Industrial Revelation, remounts his autobiographical odyssey, a harrowing, hilarious personal story punctuated by astoundingly strong songs, brilliantly arranged and performed by several of the most talented musicians in Seattle. Originally staged at On the Boards, Now I’m Fine received rave reviews during its recent New York run, and should definitely be seen at the Moore, because you never know where it will end up next. SEAN NELSON (Through Sun)
Sarah Rudinoff: NowNowNow
The performer Sarah Rudinoff stars in a new evening-length autobiographical work about finding truth in a world dominated by Facebook, Twitter, and created personas. Rudinoff presented 20 minutes of this material at On the Boards a while back, and it was really, really good—funny, daring, intimate, risky. If that glimpse of the show-in-progress was anything like the final result, you don’t want to miss this. “She uses shifting narratives, intimate confessions, and her spot-on comedic timing to unravel the schizophrenia of modern living,” says a description of the show. Rudinoff won a Stranger Genius Award in 2004 on the strength of two previous autobiographical shows, Go There and The Last State. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE (Through Sun)
READINGS & TALKS
Noriko Manabe
Noriko Manabe will read from The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Protest Music After Fukushima, a book about social movements that erupted after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
MUSIC
Hey Marseilles, Hibou, and Maiah Manser
If there was ever a band that could create the soundtrack to Seattle’s moody transition from winter to spring, it’s Hey Marseilles. With a stopover at home in Seattle for their first tour since their latest self-titled album dropped in February, Hey Marseilles have returned to beckon brisk spring mornings and lazy summer days back to the Pacific Northwest. The University of Washington grads’ newest tracks near-seamlessly blend lilting violin and cello with just enough synth to take a short stroll away from their strings-heavy sophomore album, Lines We Trace. After seeing them live, prepare to feel cello vibrato buzzing like audio sunshine in your eardrums through July. The winter doldrums are over, Seattle. ANA SOFIA KNAUF
Narrows, Sandrider, and Big Trughk
New Distances, the 2009 debut album of forward-thinking hardcore band Narrows, was an appropriate title in both content and form. Doesn’t every hardcore album ultimately serve to highlight the emotional chasms that develop between friends, family, and community? But even without the lyrical themes of betrayal and antipathy, New Distances was an apt description for a band built on fleeting proximity. Narrows had a Northwest base, but the band grew to encompass a Brit, and half of the band relocated to San Diego. Those distances also brought their own musical perspectives. It’s hard to ignore the influence of San Diego’s Drive Like Jehu in Narrow’s dueling guitar dissonance, or deny the hints of Seattle’s proto-grunge chug-and-churn in their breakdowns, or overlook the impact of London’s Southern Records roster on their angular arrangements. BRIAN COOK
ART
Mario Lemafa: last_resort
Mario Lemafa will explore “erasure, whiteness, colonization and the physical/metaphorical qualities of cleansing” in last_resort, and ask: Will the death of inequality render vacations obsolete? (Closes today)
SUNDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Raclette Sunday!
Raclette is a rich, nutty, semi-hard cheese that originated in the Valais region of Alpine Switzerland. It tastes especially good melted, which, according to legend, is what shepherds did with it when they’d gather together on cold nights in the fields. They’d build a fire, melt raclette on hot stones, and then scrape the bubbling hot cheese off onto a simple meal of boiled potatoes, cured meats, and pickles. The communal spirit of raclette lives on at Capitol Hill’s Culture Club Cheese Bar, where they’ll be melting a giant wheel of raclette and serving it up with potatoes and cornichons (and probably some very nice wine). The cheese scraping begins at 6 p.m. and continues until it’s gone. You’ll probably want to get there early. ANGELA GARBES
MUSIC
Life During Wartime: Stop Making Sense
Perhaps tribute concerts have gotten out of hand. Now we’re seeing bills dedicated to a live show that became a Jonathan Demme documentary? Oy. Granted, Stop Making Sense is one of the greatest films of its kind and Talking Heads were operating at peak expanded-lineup potency when it was shot. … Stop Making Sense stands as a wonderful overview of Talking Heads’ catalog through Speaking in Tongues, and as a bonus, includes Tom Tom Club’s sensuously slow funk classic “Genius of Love.” Life During Wartime promise “exciting visuals, costuming, signature licks and moves, even stage props.” Hmm. Maybe this will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience; maybe they’ll Byrne down the house. DAVE SEGAL
Oxbow, Thrones, Cornelius Asperger & the Bicurious Uniorns, and Great Falls
Oxbow are a lot like a Thomas Pynchon novel—paranoid, hallucinatory, fluctuating between the cerebral and the base, the accessible and the impenetrable. Originally an offshoot of ’80s Bay Area hardcore band Whipping Boy, Oxbow distanced themselves from loud-fast-rules appeal and veered into a labyrinth of highbrow music theory and lowbrow viscera. This is a band where one member will sing the praises of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók while another member publishes a book asserting the merits of physical violence. The contradiction continues onstage, where vocalist Eugene Robinson frequently grapples with feisty members of the audience while the band churns out a disciplined blend of free jazz, modern classical, and avant-garde noise rock. Like a Pynchon novel, you might not always understand what’s happening, but you also can’t turn away. BRIAN COOK
Prince Rama, Dinner, and Jabon
Prince Rama—Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist sisters Taraka and Nimai Larson—have metamorphosed from the tom-tom-heavy, Krishna-chants-and-ritualistic-dance-in-a-cave aesthetic of 2010’s Shadow Temple and 2011’s Trust Now full-lengths to something much more modern and club-friendly. Top 10 Hits of the End of the World (2012) was an ambitious concept album in which Prince Rama “impersonated” 10 different groups playing cosmic disco, new wave, glam rock, grunge, etc. with thrilling results. Their new full-length, Xtreme Now, reputedly was inspired by Taraka’s near-death experience inside an ancient Viking ruin, which triggered in her a feeling of existing in several time periods at once. This led, naturally, to Prince Rama making a concept record about extreme sports, which sounds like a mile-high dance-pop created on gallons of Molly-enriched Gatorade. Get pumped! DAVE SEGAL
The Life and Times of Galileo
What’s that you say? That you would like to see small persons right here in Seattle recreating the blazing world—including song, period costume, and era-appropriate music—of the man who singlehandedly fought the entire Catholic establishment to defend his belief that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around, and in so doing (along with a few other things), established science itself? Well. This is your day. The Seattle Historical Arts youth troupe are the actors, and the band is directed by Shulamit Kleinerman. On the bill: music composed by Galileo’s father. The father of the father of science’s music. JEN GRAVES
ART
Backstreet Bazaar
On the first Sunday of every month, Hillman City Collaboratory throws a little street festival, featuring live music, food, and local artists. HCC is an energetic new place worth visiting.
PERFORMANCE
Weird and Awesome with Emmett Montgomery
On the first Sunday of each month, comedy, variety, and “a parade of wonder and awkward sharing” are hosted by the self-proclaimed “mustache wizard” Emmett Montgomery.
FILM
Pioneers of African-American Cinema
This four-week series at Grand Illusion delves into the genre of the “race film,” which were films “funded, written, produced, directed, distributed, and often exhibited by people of color” during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. They’re not well known due to the fact that they were only circulated in low-quality 16mm prints, but they’ve now been restored. Today, they’ll screen Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA and Hot Biskits.
