In addition to our list of holiday concerts you should check out this month, our music critics have also recommended great holiday-related live shows this weekend—like the two-night hesher paradise that is Hail Santa and a birthday celebration for Sonic Reducer‘s Brian Foss (who’s sort of like a punk Santa Claus)—as well as a KEXP benefit featuring Wolf Alice and a Tacocat show. See them all here, and find even more great concerts this weekend on our Things To Do calendar.
FRIDAY
1. Birthday Party for Brian Foss
“Hey, hey—it’s a BIRTHDAY! This night will honor not only the born day of one of Seattle’s most beloved music bookers (and long-time host of Sonic Reducer, KEXP’s weekly Saturday night punk-rock radio show) Brian Foss, it’s also sort of a birthday for Wimps’ new album Suitcase.” KELLY O
2. Hail Santa IV Night 1
“If anyone out there is still bitching about Starbucks ripping the Christian spirit away from the core of the holiday season with its “fence walking” red cups, these evangelical types need to attend the oh-so-Christian (not really) annual “Hail Santa,” a wonderful two-night Northwest tradition where all that is Christmas unites with all that is metal in a celebration of drunken headbanging and brutal radness.” KEVIN DIERS
3. Kiasmos
“There’s an inherent Scandinavian reserve underlying Kiasmos’ elegant dance music; it’s tech-house you can play at dinner parties without causing too much adrenaline surging or rambunctious movement.” DAVE SEGAL
4. Mingus Tribute
“Tonight at the Chapel, excellent local guitarists Rik Wright and Jason Goessl have put together a program of a dozen of Mingus’s choicest cuts, to be performed by a who’s-who of local jazz heavyweights, from Tim Kennedy to Mark Ostrowski.” KYLE FLECK
5. Graveyard
“In 1977 [Graveyard] would have been radio darlings—their riffs are catchy as well as skull-crushing, and their soulful vocal lines hide disaffected and paranoid political sentiments. More simply: Graveyard kick ass.” JOSEPH SCHAFER
SATURDAY
6. The English Beat
“Two-Tone ska legends the English Beat (known to Brits as simply the Beat) built a particularly danceable strain of late-’70s revivalist (or “second wave”) ska, separated from contemporaries like the Specials and Madness with the easy, soulful charm of new wave troubadour Dave Wakeling.” BRITTNIE FULLER
7. Wolf Alice
“Once again, KEXP pulls out all the stops for one of its “New Home” benefits, supporting the radio station’s move from its dingy old offices in South Lake Union to swell new digs at the Seattle Center.” KYLE FLECK
8. Hail Santa IV Night Two
“If one night of brutal gift-giving isn’t enough for you, deck the halls with a couple hundred drunken holiday heshers at night two of Hail Santa IV.” KEVIN DIERS
9. Tape Stacks
“Guitarist/vocalist Kara McPhillips’s winsome, throaty vocals and the group’s intimate, cheerfully bookish melodies are the antithesis of machismo-heavy rock, but if you like airy tunefulness and a little hushed majesty (see “Thunder Room”), Tape Stacks will make your cardigan-draped torso shudder with muted excitement.” DAVE SEGAL
SUNDAY
10. Psychic TV
“Even at this late date, Gen and PTV3 are more concerned about altering your mind, liberating your body, and setting you on the path of creative resistance to the force of oppression than doing a greatest-hits set (although the latter would be nice, too).” DAVE SEGAL
11. Tacocat
“[Tacocat] have a brand-new album coming out in the spring, and my erstwhile colleague and personal hero/Tacocat singer Emily Nokes has assured me that they will be playing “Lots!!” of songs from it tonight.” SEAN NELSON
As always, here’s the rest of the weekend’s offerings.
