David Schmader, The Seattle Erotic Art Festival, The Northwest Tequila Fest, And More Picks for April 18-24
by Stranger Things To Do Staff
This week, our arts critics have recommended the best events in every genre—from the Seattle Erotic Art Festival to the Northwest Tequila Fest, and from Rihanna to the Massive Monkees' annual breakdancing competition. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Seattle Restaurant Week
Seattle Restaurant Week is a twice-yearly event that is actually two half-weeks (Sunday through Thursday, from April 10–21) during which 165-plus restaurants around Seattle—and Bellevue, Kirkland, Edmonds, Woodinville, Issaquah, Redmond, Tukwila, and Snoqualmie—offer set-menu, three-course dinners for $30. Some places also offer two-course lunches for $15. How much do you save? It depends entirely on the restaurant, but Restaurant Week is a great chance to try restaurants that might normally be outside of your price range. See a complete list of our Restaurant Week highlights. (Through Thurs)
Author Dinner with Eric Werner
Meet Eric Werner, co-creator of the acclaimed restaurant Hartwood in Mexico and co-author of the new cookbook of the same name, at this five-course dinner at Manolin, which was inspired by Hartwood. The price of admission includes Hartwood-themed dishes and drinks, plus a signed copy of the book.
MUSIC
Peelander-Z, Death*Star, Smashie Smashie
Childhood nostalgia plays a big role in the manic blitzkrieg that is a Peelander-Z show. To be reductive, the Japanese group plays the kind of simple pop-punk that tends to come out of high-school practice rooms. Their stage gimmick reaches back to puberty, as well. The band performs as a color-coordinated Sentai-style superhero team—Power Rangers is the most common example of this trope in the United States. But Peelander-Z’s live show is no joke. In addition to choreographed theatrics, they play with reckless abandon, sometimes hurting themselves while jumping from amplifiers or second-story balconies. JOSEPH SCHAFER
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Pablo Neruda’s Lost Poems
When the news hit that archivists at the Pablo Neruda foundation had found a box containing 21 previously untranslated poems by the inimitable and amorous Chilean poet, the hearts of many readers did what spring does to the cherry trees. The worry in these situations is that the poems will be bad, but Seattle civic poet Claudia Castro Luna gave voice to a few of them at the Copper Canyon Christmas party last December, and they hold up quite well—he's still got those surreal turns, those surprising images, and that intoxicating tone of wonder and possibility. At McCaw Hall, Copper Canyon Press will give these poems their full English-language debut. Grab your partner—or, better yet, go stag—and get ready to bask in the light of Neruda's hidden flowers. RICH SMITH
THEATER
Assassins
In Assassins, the Stephen Sondheim musical running through May 8 at ACT Theatre and produced in partnership with 5th Avenue Theatre, everyone from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley Jr. gets a chance to explain themselves: Some are driven by insanity, some by politics, some by a desire to be remembered. Their motives and circumstances vary, but their common bond is that they all grasped for power by taking shots at some of the most powerful men on earth. The cast members of Assassins face the exhausting task of identifying with killers and trying to convince the audience to take their side. MATT BAUME (Through Sun)
My Heart is the Drum
This production, playing in Issaquah, features a young woman in Ghana fighting for her agency after her education is denied in favor of a sudden arranged marriage. (Through Sun)
COMEDY
Comedy Nest Open Mic
The rules of this pro-lady stand-up night are refreshing in their simplicity: no misogyny, racism, homophobia, hatred, or heckling. Tonight's show features Khadija Hassan.
MUSIC
Honoring Bernie Worrell: The Wizard of Woo: Khu.éex', Eldridge Gravy and the Court Supreme, and Guests
Bernie Worrell is not well, sad to say. Now based in Bellingham, the innovative funk/soul keyboardist for Parliament-Funkadelic, Talking Heads, Praxis, Ginger Baker, and others recently has been battling lung cancer, as well as racing to finish his last album, Retrospectives, at Avast! with producer Randall Dunn. Tonight is Worrell’s 72nd birthday, and it’s an opportune time to pay respect to one of the major architects of funk—and therefore hiphop, as few have been more sampled than P-Funk. DAVE SEGAL
St Germain
If you frequented chic lounges and bistros in the early ’00s, you couldn’t avoid St Germain’s Tourist. Its sleek, organic-sounding house, meticulously coiffed down-tempo funk, and uptown jazz were the ideal soundtrack to sophisticated urban drinking, dining, and seduction. Heard now, Tourist holds up as an exemplary example of meshing live instrumentation and looped samples (what a rush to hear John Lee Hooker’s voice recontextualized). It’s a dance album to which you don’t so much sweat as glisten. St Germain (French producer Ludovic Navarre) has returned after a long hiatus with a self-titled full-length that’s heavy on the blues—but it’s a very modern-sounding blues, one that’s au fait with its African desert variant. ... Navarre has taken a risk with this comeback album, and he’s succeeded more often than not. DAVE SEGAL
WEDNESDAY
FILM
Leafly Presents: A Night of Higher Entertainment
David Schmader is great, as anyone who picked up a Stranger between 1998 and 2015 will know. What they may suspect is that, however funny Schmader may be on the sober page or screen, he's a thousand times funnier when one or both of you are high as fuck. I hereby confirm your suspicion. If you don't believe me, please attend this event, one of two (he'll also be at Town Hall this Friday) that celebrate the publication of his eminently celebratable book, Weed: The User's Guide—A 21st Century Handbook for Enjoying Marijuana. Featured: A reading followed by captivating collage art by Collide-O-Scope on the big screen, plus special guests and cannabis-friendly gift giveaways. SEAN NELSON
Puget Soundtrack: Corespondents present House
Puget Soundtrack, presented by Northwest Film Forum, invites musicians to create a live score for a film of their own choosing. This time, instrumental band Corespondents will perform an original soundtrack to the psychedelic 1977 Japanese horror movie House.
WEED
4/20 Scavenger Hunt
Dockside Sodo is hosting a 4/20 scavenger hunt, "high-ly" recommended by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue. Pick up your check list, then venture around Seattle in an effort to win a brand new PAX 2. The winner will be announced at Hooverville Bar at 7 pm, after the results are tallied. If you don't win the PAX, don't despair—they'll also be giving away a virtual reality headset, a drone, a bluetooth speaker, and tons of grinders, papers, slimline vapes, and other paraphernalia, in addition to 4/20 sales at Dockside all day. Find even more 4/20 events on our Things To Do calendar.
READINGS & TALKS
Mary Norris in Conversation with Martha Brockenbrough
Mary Norris (known as the New Yorker's "Comma Queen" due to her role as proofreader) will speak about her book Between You & Me with author Martha Brockenbrough.
QUEER
House of Thee Unholy
Hasn't it been too long since your mind was last blown? Please allow PaulaNowEvent to re-blow it with House of Thee UnHoly. "A nonstop explosion of ’70s mythology and sexually charged psychedelia" is how they describe it, following up with a tantalizing tease of Vikings, sex, androgynous counterculture, and a troubled bumble bee. This show is bursting with some of the city's greatest talent: Waxie Moon, Indigo Blue, Sarah Rudinoff, Jody Kuehner (close personal confidant of Cherdonna), The One The Only Inga, and many many more. Prepare for a sensory adventure that will leave your brain tingling into next week. MATT BAUME
THEATER
My Name Is Asher Lev
Aaron Posner adapted Chaim Potok's best-selling novel (you might know Potok for writing The Chosen) to create this story of the artist as a young Jewish man with overbearing parents. Asher grows up under the patriarchal and culturally rigid thumb of his Hasidic father. The subjects (e.g. nude Jesus) and materials (e.g. ashes) that Asher uses to create his paintings render him a genius in the eyes of the art world but a potential heretic in the eyes of his father. Thus Asher's forced to chose between growing as an artist or maintaining his strong connection to his family and his community. RICH SMITH (Through Sun)
brownsville song (b-side for tray)
Playwright Kimber Lee centers brownsville song (b-side for tray) on the life—not the death—of a young black man gunned down in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Tray (Chinaza Uche) is an upbeat and thoughtful and very busy college-bound dude growing up in his grandmother's house. ... Access to constant news coverage and smartphones means the names of the dead scroll down our feeds daily, reducing whole lives to headlines. When we hear the news of death, however, we have the choice to focus on the fact that a person died or the fact that a person lived. Lee's play does the latter work, and so opens up channels of empathy that make it impossible to see someone as just another statistic. RICH SMITH (Through Sun)
The Tempest
Considering that Shakespeare does set the play on an island, I can see how it makes sense to stage The Tempest in the tiny space at New City Theater. Despite the risk of claustrophobia—let's call it intimacy—I wouldn't miss this play for several reasons. (1) It features one of the greatest characters of all time, Caliban, whose little speech about "crying to dream again" in act III always makes me tear up. (2) Caliban will be played by Mary Ewald or Peter Crook, both of whom are very good and serious actors. (3) Caliban's mother has the best witch name ever, which is Sycorax. (4) There's magic and wood chopping (in the script, at least), both of which can be fun in close quarters. RICH SMITH (Through Sat)
MUSIC
Lush
Women were hardly absent from shoegaze and Britpop, but men tended to dominate the scene. Enter Lush. Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson set the tone with their swooning vocals and soaring guitars, while Steve Rippon and Chris Acland provided the ballast (Phil King took over after Rippon left). Sadly, things came to an end with Acland’s 1996 suicide. Despite the strength of their material, Lush had often struggled to capture the immediacy of the concert hall, so their run felt unfinished until rumblings of a reunion made the rounds last year, culminating in the Blind Spot EP with Justin Welch on drums. Then came the Chorus box set. Whether the renewed activity represents an epilogue or a new beginning, it couldn’t be more welcome. KATHY FENNESSY
FWD: Hudson Mohawke
Scottish electronic-music producer Hudson Mohawke thrives on excess. His tracks sound like something you’d hear in an opulent hotel party in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, while on potent stimulants. The high and low frequencies spike in the extremes, the beats are hectic and spasmodic, and the sampled vocals pitched up to heliumed-up timbres. Everything in HudMo’s sonic world blazes with klieg-light radiance. You can hear why an egomaniac like Kanye West would want what Mohawke’s pushing; the latter produced “I Am a God” and “Blood on the Leaves” for Yeezus. HudMo kind of disastrously lost his edge with 2015’s hollowly bombastic, R&B-ballad-heavy Lanterns—save for the Twilight Zone–eerie percussive jam “Lil Djembe.” Maybe he’ll show his rougher side live. DAVE SEGAL
Mount Moriah, Margaret Glaspy, Chris King and the Gutterballs
I sense a kind of cruel ethical algebra going on in North Carolina. On the one hand, the state seems determined to legislate its way back to the social structure of 1895. What has North Carolina given the world lately to balance the other side of the equation? The best I can come up with is resonant country-rock outfit Mount Moriah. Featuring Jenks Miller of the dark and atmospheric rock project Horseback on guitar, Mount Moriah infuse the sounds of early-1970s California, particularly pre–Lindsey Buckingham Fleetwood Mac, with an Enlightenment-era intellect and Protestant Reformation fervor. JOSEPH SCHAFER
THURSDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Hoa Nguyen: A Bagley Wright Lecture Series Event
In this Bagley Wright Lecture, Hoa Nguyen will explore the idea of "teaching poetics" and consider the meaning of creative writing studies.
Red Lineage Workshop Tour
Red Lineage, presented by artist and poet Natasha Marin and Hugo House, is an original, adaptable, and constantly echoing poem, that allows uniquely personalized versions and performances. This Red Lineage workshop tour is inspired by the Seattle Art Museum exhibition Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic.
Teju Cole
Seattle Arts & Lectures presents PEN Award-winning writer, art historian, and photographer Teju Cole. His most recent work is a novella called Every Day is for the Thief.
FOOD & DRINK
Guest Chef Night: Ericka Burke
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 Chef Ericka Burke of the Volunteer Park Cafe.
THEATER
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)
Puny Humans
Puny Humans, with a bunch of intertwining plot lines à la Crash, is different from Crash in that it's set at Comicon. With dramatic plot lines including pregnancy, fame, and love between unexpected cosplay characters, this play by Bret Fetzer and Keiko Green promises the depiction of "one epic day." (Through Sat)
ART
Tim Durkan: The Pretty and the Gritty
This show at the Magnuson Park Gallery, featuring a series of photographs by Tim Durkan that capture the relatable and human stories emerging beyond the embattled local conversation about homelessness, closes this Saturday.
MUSIC
Rhye
Woman came out in 2013, and Rhye still seems to be riding that horse pretty hard. They’ve been playing new songs live since the summer of 2015, though, notably “Waste,” which is yet another super-chill R&B track with enough groove to nod your head to, but only in the privacy of your own home and feelings and dirty dishes. Singer Michael Milosh’s yawning, androgynous croon in this song and in others complicates what would be pretty straightforward stuff about strife with a beau. The genders of his voice seem to flicker, which increases the number characters in a single romance, reflects the fluidity of gender identities within a single speaker, or explodes gender binaries and expectations of monogamous characters altogether, depending on whom you’re thinking of when you’re dreaming in your kitchen. Since so many of the songs on Woman are about interstitial spots in relationships—“Open” for instance, or “The Fall”—Milosh’s timbre perfectly embodies the content of the narratives, which adds a structural kind of bliss to Rhye’s blissed-out sound. RICH SMITH
Action Potential: Erika, Jinx'75, Raica, Big Phone
A key component of Detroit’s Interdimensional Transmissions label and the excellent electro group Ectomorph, as well as overseer of the erika.net internet radio station, Erika (Sherman) has been a prime mover in American electronic music for more than 20 years. On releases like 2013’s Hexagon Cloud and 2014’s The Listeners EP with Jay, she plumbs the deepest of minimal-techno and acid-house depths, summoning a desolately psychedelic sound. Locals Raica (Chloe Harris) and Big Phone (Kenric McDowell) also deal in the more transcendent end of electronic music, with the former offering splendid variations on ambient, techno, and abstract-experimental approaches and the latter delivering techno hypnosis on the highly evolved level of Ricardo Villalobos. DAVE SEGAL
The Monkeywrench, The Gallow Swings, Sir Coyler and His Asthmatic Band
The Monkeywrench consistently satisfy that primal urge to kick out the jams (motherfuckers) in a loud, linear, and distorted manner. Best believe their 13th Floor Elevators (“Levitation”) and Rodriguez (“Sugar Man”) covers are tight. Everything old is old again, but the Monkeywrench’s studied, freewheeling tunes still get your flabby heart racing. DAVE SEGAL
Courtney Barnett and Alvvays
With inscrutable delivery and a ramshackle lyrical structure, Barnett tells you about her deepest secrets, most abject failures, and forbidden needs in the course of a simple rock song—seemingly downplaying her own humanity by showcasing it completely. Some of the most affecting music, Barnett’s included, comes from artists who feel exactly like your peers and yet create something that sounds better than however you tried to say it. Alvvays, saddled with general Canadian cuteness, hark back to a time of indie-pop nostalgia wherein the ice-cream truck jingle morphs into a siren song of teen drone necessity. This time never actually existed, which makes Alvvays that much more affecting, a band capable of making you miss an age through which you never lived. KIM SELLING
FRIDAY
READINGS & TALKS
David Schmader: The 21st Century Weed Handbook
My understanding of weed derives almost exclusively from the cult horror flick Leprechaun in the Hood, and so can be summed up entirely by the phrase "MMmmMMmmm—cuuuuuurious aroma!" It is not cool to think that. I'm going to get into some Maureen Dowd I-ate-too-much-cookie trouble thinking that. Clearly I need to pick up David Schmader's new book on the subject, Weed: The User’s Guide—A 21st Century Handbook for Enjoying Marijuana, which is, in the words of my colleague Tobias Coughlin-Bogue, "indispensable for stoners and novices alike." ... The only thing I can really promise is that you will laugh for nearly the entire time Schmader is reading from his book onstage. And when you're not laughing with Schmader, you'll be laughing with Sarah Galvin, Dan Savage, Ellen Forney, or DJ Riz Rollins and maybe even Seattle City Council member Nick Licata, all of whom will be joining him. RICH SMITH
Aimee Mann and Billy Collins
This event pairs indie powerhouse Aimee Mann with former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, promising performances of both music and poetry, as well as a reflection on possessing "a writer's eye."
FOOD & DRINK
Tarsan i Jane Pop-Up Dinners
Before settling in Seattle earlier this year, chef Perfecto Rocher, a third-generation paellero from Valencia, Spain, made a name for himself in Los Angeles. “An alarming percentage of the best paellas I have eaten have come from the well-seasoned steel pans of Perfecto Rocher,” wrote renowned Los Angeles Times critic Jonathan Gold. Rocher and partner Alia Zaine are about to open their restaurant Tarsan i Jane in the Frelard location that was until recently chef Heong Soon Park’s (Bacco, Chan) now shuttered Tray Kitchen. In the beautiful space, defined by an open kitchen, Rocher is installing an 11-foot wood-fired oven that will serve as the primary cooking surface for a menu dedicated to his native Valencian cuisine. In anticipation of Tarsan i Jane’s grand opening on May 5, Rocher and Zaine are hosting a short series of pop-up dinners with a six-course tasting menu. Now’s your chance to eat this food before the crowds show up. ANGELA GARBES (Through Sat)
Arcade Lights
This one-night tasting at Pike Place Market's North Arcade offers plenty of things (savory and sweet) to nibble on, while you taste beer, cider, and wine, as well as fun non-alcoholic beverages. Your ticket, starting at $60 and going up in price the earlier you arrive, will go towards the Pike Place Market Foundation, which helps support social services in the Pike Place Market area for low income families and individuals.
Beer Tasting Cruise with Fremont Brewing
Cruise Lake Union and Lake Washington while sitting at your own private table and tasting five Fremont Brewing beers, each paired with a different dinner course.
Northwest Tequila and Agave Spirits Fest
Learn about the history and traditions of making agave spirits (tequila, mezcal, and sotol) at this festival featuring representatives from over 130 agave brands. But don't worry—"Northwest Tequila Fest is first and foremost a tasting event," say the organizers, and a general admission ticket includes eight agave tastes and three tastes of food from local restaurants.
Science Uncorked
Learn about the science behind your favorite vintage at Science Uncorked—while enjoying appetizers and unlimited tastings from participating wineries.
Washington Beer Collaboration Festival
See how local breweries work together at the new Washington Beer Collaboration Festival, featuring 23 beers created by 46 of our state's beloved breweries, including Elysian, Cloudburst, and Hilliard's.
THEATER
SuicideGirls: Blackheart Burlesque
SuicideGirls is bringing their signature brand of raunch back to Seattle. Their Blackhearts Burlesque act incorporates pop culture references, a high energy indie soundtrack, and a myriad of choreographed strip teases. Join them at the Crocodile for their pieces in tribute to Star Wars, Orange Is The New Black, Donnie Darko, A Clockwork Orange, and more.
ART
Seattle Erotic Art Festival
The Seattle Erotic Art Festival is a venerable tradition in these parts. It does involve the showing of parts. You don't have to show yours. But you can (yes we can). If you've ever been before, you know whether you should go again. If you haven't had the pleasure, you realize you are not a Seattleite yet, right? It's a gigantic exhibitionist exhibition—of erotic art with tons of events from poetry readings to pantomime, acrobatic displays to parties. JEN GRAVES (Through Sun)
Sound and Poetry
This performance event combines sound art by Susie Kozawa and poetry by Alan Lau, set against the backdrop of Lau's exhibit Beauty in the Decay.
FESTIVALS
Seattle Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival
This year, the Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival will explore the theme of "American and Japanese milestones in history," through a series of events and performances spanning genres including visual art, traditional dance, music, games, ceremony, and martial arts.
MUSIC
Marissa Nadler and Black Mountain
While she kept it low-key, Marissa Nadler was one of the more interesting and unpredictable of the Pitchfork-approved “freak-folk” artists. While Joanna Newsom tried to weaponize her rasp and Andrew Bird tried to make everything he touched sound like a Disney soundtrack, Nadler collaborated with black-metal artist Xasthur and mined some deep pathos for her songs. On this tour, she’s accompanied by Vancouver heavy psych outfit Black Mountain, who may play her off the stage. Their new album, IV, is a return to form, adding science-fictional synthesizers to the Zeppelin-ish stomp of their excellent Wilderness Heart and self-titled LPs. JOSEPH SCHAFER
Fat White Family and Dilly Dally
If you have room in your besieged mind for that species of nonchalantly cynical and unobtrusively catchy rock that only the British and the New Zealanders really have mastered, you’ll fancy London sextet Fat White Family. Their 2013 full-length, Champagne Holocaust, flicked a two-finger salute at Oasis’s hollow stadium Britpop while trawling in the same tousled, low-fidelity trenches as the Homosexuals and Marc Riley’s Creepers. Oddly, FWF’s cheap-sounding production only enhances their songs’ melodic attractiveness, especially on the fetching, ’Murrika-baiting “Bomb Disneyland.” DAVE SEGAL
Squall: Blood Box, Contact Cult, Ox Hunger, DJ Maire
It’s a pity that Blood Box—Seattle synth player Michael Hensley—doesn’t perform much, although it could be said that his profoundly deep and subtly disturbing ambient music works best when heard alone, preferably in a dark room with some illicit substances coursing through your system. He may perhaps be better known as half of dark-ambient illuminati Yen Pox, but the music Hensley creates under his Blood Box handle swirls in similar crepuscular channels. DAVE SEGAL
SATURDAY
DANCE
Massive Monkees: The Pro Breaking Tour
An event that’s become as prototypically Seattle as the fish hurlers in Pike Place Market, the Massive Monkees’ annual breakdancing competition and showcase of hiphop and B-boy/B-girl culture hits the Showbox to celebrate the crew’s 17th windmill round the sun. Scheduled around April 26, which in 2004 was officially dubbed Massive Monkees Day by then-mayor Greg Nickels, the happening is an all-ages, practically all-day throw-down that features breakdancing team battles and individual competitions that pit dancers from around the world against up-and-coming local talent. With multidiscipline sideshows and sets by a litany of world-class DJs, this event, also an official stop on the Pro Breaking Tour, is not to be missed for anyone interested in the art of breakdancing and the traditions surrounding it. TODD HAMM
ART
35 Live: CoCA Members’ Show Closing Celebration Party
At their new(ish) Pioneer Square space, CoCA celebrates its 35th birthday with a group show featuring work by artist members.
FOOD & DRINK
Farm Days
Harvest and identify edible sea creatures at this free, hands-on series of events hosted by Hama Hama Oyster Company. Recommended supplies include "a bucket, ice, a clam rake (a hand held garden tool), gloves, sunglasses, rain jacket, and knee boots," and no matter how cute or delicious they are, you shouldn't bring dogs or booze.
FILM
Seijun Suzuki Retrospective
The dominant image we have of Japanese culture is that it’s a very orderly society. Rules are rigidly followed, a person knows who is above and below them, there is lots of bowing, and women speak softly. But that view of Japan is very limited and is contradicted by the films of directors who constitute what is known as Japan’s silver age, 1960 to 1980. One leading figure of this moment is Seijun Suzuki, whose movies are celebrated for their visual and narrative excesses. His work often overflows with violence, sex, madness, and criminals. It’s not at all surprising that they influenced Quentin Tarantino. The copresented (Northwest Film Forum and Grand Illusion) Seijun Suzuki Retrospective will provide an excellent opportunity to enter and absorb the genius of this director, who is still alive. This weekend, Grand Illusion will play Ziguernerweisen and Kagero-Za. CHARLES MUDEDE (Through Sun)
READINGS & TALKS
Red Lineage Hackathon
In addition to the Seattle Art Museum workshop tour, Natasha Marin presents a free opportunity for teens at Hugo House to use technology to contribute to Red Lineage: an original, adaptable, and constantly echoing poem.
MUSIC
Ghostblood, Kommand, Hexengeist, Dilapidation
Check your head at the door before queuing up Blood from Beyond the Grave, the decapitation-happy full-length debut from hometown heavy metallers Ghostblood, where lopped-off domes fly through the air like flocks of geese migrating south (of heaven). Reference points for this B-movie-weaned power trio include gore greats Ghoul, Exhumed, and Carcass, as well as warped VHS copies of Night of the Demons. To borrow a line from fellow horror-obsessed Seattleites the Accused, these dudes are more fun than an open-casket funeral. At least the bloodletting has a happy ending—sort of—when all those severed craniums get sewn back in place on thrash ripper “Recapitator.” JASON BRACELIN
D.R.I., Wolfpack, No Buffer, Raw Dogs, Klaw
Too punk to be metal, and too metal to be punk, Houston-based underground legends D.R.I. are the quintessential crossover band. After 34 years of grinding it out in the tour van, these guys have spent more than half their lives perfecting their patented brand of piss-and-vinegar skate thrash. There’s no sign of rock ’n’ roll retirement for these OGs, as they’ve made it a point to come though Seattle on tour at least once a year for the past four or five years. Show up early to check out local openers Klaw, who play solid stoner rock with a quirky oddball edge. KEVIN DIERS
Crown Larks, Temple Echoes, Marcus Price, Hana and the Goose
Chicago sextet Crown Larks create cerebral rock that your gut tells you to file under “post rock,” even as your head is thinking, “This is too tuneful and interesting for that off-putting descriptor.” (Pat your head for that keen observation.) Noir jazz feeds into Crown Larks’ math-PhD rock, and unpredictable dynamics and irregular song structures ensue. Their 2015 album Blood Dancer is the antidote for listeners who’ve given up expecting fresh moves from rock bands in the twenty-teens. Temple Echoes feature Gabriel Mintz on vocals and guitar plus members of Diminished Men, Tierra Magos, and other local units. Their nocturnal, 420-friendly folk rock lopes stylishly in the shadows where Mazzy Star, Brightblack Morning Light, and Cowboy Junkies lurk. See “Turkey 10” off 2016’s Temple Echoes for a prime example. Even though he’s played Debacle Fest, Marcus Price still seems like Seattle’s best-kept secret weapon in the realm of experimental electronic music. Don’t miss his unpredictable brilliance. DAVE SEGAL
QUEER
Honey Wrapped Bacon Strip
Every month at Bacon Strip, hostess Sylvia O’Stayformore brings us comedy, costumes, outrageousness, and drag performances featuring local acts and special guests. Come for the smoked pig products—stay for the men with penises tucked between their butt cheeks. The theme of this month's show is "Honey Wrapped Bacon Show," a takeover by drag queen Honey Bucket that bills itself as a party for "all of the bears emerging from hibernation." You're encouraged to wear flannel, denim, and boots, and don't forget a clean pair of underwear. Just in case. MATT BAUME
SUNDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Snouts & Stouts
Little Water Cantina’s monthly Snouts & Stouts event includes a whole hog roast, plenty of local beer (courtesy of Double Mountain Brewery), and live music. For $17, you get a pork taco platter (roast pork, rice and beans, handmade tortillas, plus all the fixings) and a pint of beer. Best of all, you can enjoy it from Little Water Cantina’s huge back patio overlooking Lake Union. The event is kid-friendly and doesn’t take reservations, so you're advised to get there early. KATHLEEN RICHARDS
ART
Seattle Makers Market
The Seattle Makers Market will be holding a special event at the Great Hall in Greenlake featuring local artists, artisans, and makers selling hand crafted products and goods.
MUSIC
Rihanna
No contemporary pop star does not give a shit quite like Rihanna, who’s indifference in heels. Seriously, better bring a sweater to the KeyArena on Sunday to insulate yourself from the chill conjured by her icy detachment. She doesn’t just phone in her performances, she dials those suckers up from a different area code. But there’s a point to it all: Rihanna’s repertoire is all about serving her needs, not yours. “I got to do things my own way, darlin’,” she purrs on “Consideration,” the deceptively titled opening cut from her latest release Anti, an equally glittery and sweaty mash of modern love triangles and 1980s R&B. This sentiment is brought to life when she takes the stage in packed concert halls. See, you care, so she doesn’t have to. JASON BRACELIN
Pony Time, Wimps, and NightBoss
Seattle bass-and-drums duo Pony Time have an album out on the respected S-S label (home to those classic A Frames LPs) called Rumours 2: The Rumours Are True, whose cover parodies the billion-selling Fleetwood Mac album from 1977 that you know by heart. If you’ve loved Pony Time members Stacy Peck and Luke Beetham’s instantly engaging and artfully ramshackle garage rock and low-end-intensive power pop up to now, you’ll dig Rumours 2. The clarity is sharpened in the production, the drums thump with greater punchiness, and the hooks hit with even more immediacy. Still, Pony Time’s scrappy, gritty garage rock will never be mistaken for the output of the Mac, although their tight songs satisfy a similar desire for familiar thrills in concise packages. DAVE SEGAL