Crypticon, Lindy West, Rain Fest, And More Picks For May 23-29
by Stranger Things To Do Staff
This week, our arts critics have recommended the best events in every genre—from literary talks (including New Yorker staff writer William Finnegan and former Stranger writer Lindy West) to concerts (including the hardcore Rain Fest and a Bob Dylan birthday tribute) to out-of-town Memorial Day weekend festivals (including Sasquatch! and the Hood Canal Shrimpfest). See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY
FILM
Seattle International Film Festival
During the first full week of the 42nd annual Seattle International Film Festival, there are 34 films that are recommended by Stranger critics. See them all here, and make sure not to miss Dead Slow Ahead, Chimes at Midnight, Warehoused, Home Care, Uncle Howard, Sonita, and The Girl Who Saved My Life.
Belladonna of Sadness
In 1973, the United States wasn't quite ready for Belladonna of Sadness, Eiichi Yamamoto's erotic animated adaptation of French historian Jules Michelet’s 1862 tome La Sorcière. Though there's movement, which builds to a stroboscopic crescendo toward the end, Yamamoto relies largely on static, richly-hued watercolors and oil paintings to tell the story of Jeanne, a beautiful weaver in a feudal village where poverty and marriage don't mix. Making its US debut, this beautifully restored version combines the sexually-charged atmosphere of 1974's soft-core fantasia Emmanuelle with the anything-goes spirit of 1977's horror whatsit House. (Through Thursday)
THEATER
Bernie's Apt.
Rose Cano's Bernie's Apt. is a moving portrait of urban, immigrant Latina women and girls struggling to keep a family together and earn a living in the United States, presented by ACTLab and eSe Teatro. The pile-on of problems doesn't produce a what's-gonna-happen-next dramatic tension. Instead, the structure reveals how a paycheck-to-paycheck extended family absorbs and deflects the indignities that such a family endures in the public sphere. As with all domestic dramas, the more emotionally resonant and complex tensions happen not onstage but within the conscience of audience members. RICH SMITH
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. Perennial bonuses: free popcorn and Red Vines, and multiple prizes waiting to be won via drawings throughout the show. Tonight's bonuses: weird, fantastic, and comical videos that fit the "Far Out Fantasy" theme.
FOOD & DRINK
Yalla Pop-Up
Chef Taylor Cheney has an impressive résumé, having worked in the kitchens at MistralKitchen and the Harvest Vine (as well as the dearly departed La Bete, Licorous, and Lampreia). More importantly, she’s also spent significant amounts of time in Egypt, studying and immersing herself in the country’s cuisine. On Mondays, Cheney is taking over Capitol Hill’s Marjorie with Yalla (it means “Let’s go!” in Arabic), her Middle Eastern pop-up featuring dishes such as mutabal (charred eggplant with yogurt, tahini, and pomegranate), tabbouleh, maftoul (braised chicken with chickpea stew and couscous), and even a Moroccan mint tea julep. ANGELA GARBES
MUSIC
Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires
Look at a photograph of Charles Bradley performing live, and you’ll probably think he’s some funk-and-soul singer from the 1960s. Look up a song and you’ll confirm that suspicion. But that’s only half of the story. Bradley began performing before the Vietnam War, but he didn’t record an album until 2011. At age 67, his career is only just beginning, and the hard crawl to the top informs his songs, which have grit and weight that much throwback soul (or hell, OG soul) lacks. JOSEPH SCHAFER
Ahleuchatistas
When a rock band comes along that not only doesn’t inspire a shoulder shrug but actually excites me, I do a triple take. Is this reality? Apparently so. Asheville, North Carolina’s Ahleuchatistas create music that’s as distinctive and baffling as their name. The duo (guitarist Shane Perlowin and drummer Ryan Oslance) sound like fans of Adrian Belew-era King Crimson, minimalist composer Steve Reich, African desert-rockers Group Doueh, drone, Hella-style noise rock, and traditional Chinese music, but they’ve alchemized these influences into something uniquely Ahleuchatistas-esque. DAVE SEGAL
Kode9
Kode9—Britain’s Steve Goodman—is the philosopher king of first-wave dubstep (you know, the good kind). As boss of the Hyperdub label and DJ for the Fwd show on Rinse FM and at the DMZ and Fwd club nights, he’s been integral in spreading the highbrow, low-end gospel for well over a decade... as a DJ, Kode9’s revered for his ability to mix the highest quality specimens from dubstep, techno, house, grime, and footwork. DAVE SEGAL
TUESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Sherman Alexie: Thunder Boy Jr.
Esteemed local author Sherman Alexie was just on The Daily Show speaking about his new children's book; now's your chance to hear him discuss it in person. Each $18 ticket admits two people and includes a copy of Thunder Boy Jr.
THEATER
Stick Fly
Intiman Theatre Festival is kicking off its 2016 season, which will focus on U.S. plays written by black women, with Lydia R. Diamond's Stick Fly, a dramedy about an affluent black family living on Martha's Vineyard. Family ties begin to loosen when the sons bring their partners home to meet the fam. The two women—one a white Peace Corps volunteer who taught underprivileged children in the city; the other a black woman who grew up in a wealthy home—argue about the complexities of class, race, and unearned advantages. Over the course of all the butting-of-heads, promises are broken, confessions are made, and family secrets air out. Veteran Shakespearean actor G. Valmont Thomas plays the dad in this, and he's all the reason I need to see this. RICH SMITH (Through Sunday)
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. Based on the size, quality, and diversity of the crowds it attracts, the rules work. Tonight's show features actress, comedian, and writer Clare O'Kane, who has performed in festivals worldwide including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and SF Sketchfest, and who has written for Spongebob Squarepants.
ART
Women on the Brink
Filmmaker Tracy Rector organized this group show of installation, film, photography, music, and writing by women artists—often artists who have been making work in private for a long time and needed somebody to tell them how good it was. You will see drums hand-stretched and masterfully painted by Margie Morris (Tlingit), Melissa Ponder's iconic photographic portraits, Eliaichi Kimaro's encaustic paintings breathing with life, plus wall paintings, films, and Rector's own contribution, red butterflies she's stenciling across Capitol Hill. Wherever one appears, that's a place where a woman was raped or murdered. Across this show, Rector makes visible what's already there, sometimes painfully, sometimes triumphantly. JEN GRAVES (Through May 31)
MUSIC
Bob Dylan at 75
Fellow Minnesotan musical legend Prince is gone, but ol’ Robert Zimmerman is still here, growlin’ and pickin’. Now on the verge of turning 75, Dylan will surely be lionized a bunch in 2016, but this multi-night celebration of perhaps the most written-about American musician looks better than most. Tonight a large, rotating cast of local luminaries will pay tribute to two of the mercurial poet/composer’s peaks: 1965’s Highway 61 Revisited and 1975’s Blood on the Tracks. DAVE SEGAL
Pure Music for Muddled Times
In 1945, the 32-year-old English composer and pacifist named Benjamin Britten met the American Jewish violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and the two set out on a tour performing music to survivors of the concentration camps in Germany. Their audiences were barely surviving, and came to hear the music wrapped in blankets. After Britten returned home, he wrote his Second String Quartet, to be performed here by the remarkable cellist Joshua Roman, NY violinist Arnaud Sussman, Canuck violinist Karen Gomyo, and Westchester Philharmonic violist Kyle Armbrust. Also on this program is the newly commissioned piece by Grammy-nominated pianist Andrius Zlabys, and Zlabys will be here performing with the other four musicians in his own work as well as in the piano quintet by Shostakovich, another composer haunted by authoritarian terror. JEN GRAVES
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
When it comes to pastiches of canonical 1960s rock groups, few can nail the details like the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Leaning heavily on the lysergic side of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Donovan, the Byrds, Pink Floyd, the Chocolate Watch Band, and others, BJM leader Anton Newcombe and his trippy acolytes have forged an expansive catalog of reverently traditional psychedelia, droney shoegaze, and loose-limbed country rock. DAVE SEGAL
Moderat
Full-length collaborations that yield anything more than an interesting cross-sectional vantage of the players’ individual talents are few and far between. More than a novelty side project, Moderat, the three-albums-deep alliance comprising three German countrymen—emotive producer/vocalist Apparat and glitchy club titans Modeselektor—has instead produced phenomenal stand-alone art as a cohesive unit. TODD HAMM
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman with Lindy West
Lindy West got her start at this newspaper, where she wrote some of the all-time funniest pieces of writing The Stranger has ever published. In the years since, she has gone on to write for Jezebel, the Guardian, and GQ, contribute to This American Life, and publish a memoir, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman. The memoir is structured like a book of essays, and it's packed with hilarious sentences like "Lives don't actually have coherent, linear story arcs, but if I had to retroactively tease one essential narrative out of mine, it'd be my transformation from a terror-stricken mouse-person to an unflappable human vuvuzela." This event is sold out, but standby tickets may be available, and Lindy West will also be at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park tomorrow. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
William Finnegan
New Yorker staff writer William Finnegan will read from his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, which details, in spare, antisentimental prose, the lifelong obsession that led him all over the world. Whether or not you have the remotest interest in or experience of surfing, the book is fantastic, because good writing that reveals the inner life through fastidious description of outward behavior is rare and edifying. Finnegan writes that to call surfing a sport is "wrong at every level." To him it's "a path," but he's vigilant as a stylist (and, one gleans, as a person), of easy words that can cheapen the genuine awe that the wave inspires in him. This makes his journey down the path an austere one, and renders his incredibly fine-grain memory about seemingly every swell he ever rode or didn't ride all the more fascinating. SEAN NELSON
FOOD & DRINK
Reduce the Suffering of Nicaragua's Sugar Cane Workers: A Fundraiser for PASE
Live Latin music, cocktails crafted by Jason Alexander of Tacoma Cabana, food grilled on-site by the owner of Maple Leaf Cuban-Venezuelan-Colombian restaurant Mojito owner Luam Wersom, silent auctions, raffles, and an educational presentation are all to be expected at this fundraiser for PASE, a legal group that aims to expose and remedy injustice in the Nicaraguan sugar cane industry.
COMEDY
Comedy Bang! Bang! Live
Very popular comedy podcast Comedy Bang! Bang! comes to Seattle for a live taping, with host Scott Aukerman and expert improvisers Paul F. Tompkins, Lauren Lapkus, and Neil Campbell along for the ride.
MUSIC
LSD and the Search for God
If you’re a San Francisco band called LSD and the Search for God, you have—to put it mildly—a lot to live up to. And as shoegaze-revival groups go, LSD and the Search for God have nailed the essential elements: dulcet, inseparably blended male and female vocals that weave post-coitally through heavily FX’d guitars, rickety rhythms, and a potent sense of hazy vertigo. Fans of Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and the Telescopes’ lighter moments may find salvation in LSD and the Search for God’s blurred crusade. DAVE SEGAL
Temple Canyon, Wood Knot, Dim Desires
Seattle quartet Wood Knot have been accruing some positive buzz around town, and a listen to their debut 2015 release, (((EP))), proves there’s some justification for it. It’s hard not to be seduced by a band that uses Moog and Rhodes, and Wood Knot deploy them in service of songs that billow and surge with poised menace, shaded a vivid mauve by Annie Wise’s dusky vocals. They peddle a strain of stealthy, thoughtful rock that used to thrive in the 1990s with bands like Helium, Seam, and Slant 6. Wood Knot are following in that seldom-explored vein, and it should be interesting to see where they go from here. DAVE SEGAL
THURSDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Geoff Dyer with David Shields: Traveling for a Purpose
Acclaimed author Geoff Dyer (The Search and Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It) presents White Sands, a compilation of Dyer's personal journeys. This event will be both a reflection on that work and an address to the audience, about their own potential and as-yet unrealized pilgrimages and adventures.
THEATER
Caught
This comedy by Christopher Chen deals with themes of art, truth, and appropriation, through the story of a gallery retrospective celebrating the work of a recently imprisoned Chinese dissident artist. (Through Sunday)
ART
Drink & Draw
Come in, sip on delicious cider, and sketch live models using free art supplies from Gage Academy of Art.
JuarezX: Dragged Across Borders
Undocumented immigrants and other artists who are making art at the militarized Mexican border find they have a double life: There's meaning in working in public, in graffiti and murals and guerrilla street installations and video projections, but they often have to keep their true identities to themselves. In this exhibition, each artist lives in or around Juárez, Mexico, but sometimes that's all they have in common. One might be an undocumented immigrant and desperate for work, another might be a professor. But several, importantly, are pushing at the invisible but powerful borders of gender and sexuality, too. It's a complex confluence, but the imagery is direct and eye-popping. JEN GRAVES (Closes Saturday)
MUSIC
Boots&Pants005: KAFKA
Vancouver producer KAFKA (aka Richard Duggan) creates that special brand of minimal techno that sounds like it’s being forged in a grim, ice-cold factory. Paradoxically, something that seems so frigid and foreboding ends up setting fire to your synapses. (You’re all hardwired like me, right? Good.) Anyway, KAFKA does his literary namesake proud via the subtle sense of doom he injects into his gripping, hypnotic tracks. Nothing like a swirling aura of hopelessness to get you moving and sweating. DAVE SEGAL
The Coup
Tonight the Coup play live, and their shows are always incendiary—live guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and DJ—all set off by Riley’s charismatic intensity. Yes, the Coup want you to overthrow capitalist structures, but, more urgently, they insist you move your damn body: “Take a look around/And be for or against/But you can’t do shit if you ridin’ the fence.” If you can’t don’t dance here, you’re fucking dead inside. ANGELA GARBES
FRIDAY
THEATER
Eat The Rich: A Grotesque Gorlesque Motorhead Tribute Fundraiser
Grotesque Gorelesque bring their typical godless sexual bloodbath to the stage, but this time presenting "Eat the Rich," a Motorhead themed burlesqe benefit show for Stone Soup Group.
Harriet the Spy
Youth Theatre Northwest (the Mercer Island Children's Theater threatened by park purists) presents a stage adaptation of Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy. (Through Sunday)
FESTIVALS
Crypticon
A weekend celebration of everything terrifying, Crypticon bills itself as "the largest gathering of fans of the macabre in the Pacific Northwest." Come for author events, costumes, elaborate make-up, and the chance to mingle with people who embrace the creepy side of life. Just two of the numerous guests are Tony Todd (star of bizarre horror film Candyman) and Special FX makeup artist Kenneth Calhoun (Jurrasic World, The Revenant, and X-Men Apocalypse). Plus, don't miss Friday's show SINEMA: A Drag and Burlesque Tribute to Cult Horror Films, which will feature Cherdonna and San Francisco's "queen of frights" Peaches Christ.
READINGS & TALKS
Mark Kurlansky
Historian Mark Kurlansky will discuss his new book Paper: Paging Through History and make the case for why paper is here to stay.
MUSIC
Rain Fest Night One
The Pacific Northwest’s premier hardcore festival kicks off its opening night with top slots dominated by bands that pushed the scene’s no-frills philosophy into more nuanced territories. Burn closed out the heyday of New York hardcore by adding proto-emo melodicism, lyrical portents, and off-kilter guitar lines to the surging verses and chugging breakdowns of the era. Philadelphia’s Blacklisted similarly demonstrated the evolution of hardcore from an unharnessed four-chord assault to an exercise in tension and release. No Warning’s brief signing with Linkin Park’s Machine Shop Records in the mid ’00s added a dubious gloss to their jagged sound, but singer Ben Cook’s tenure as a guitarist for Fucked Up seems to have brought the grit back to their sound, as evidenced in recent ragers like “Resurrection of the Wolf.” BRIAN COOK
Sasquatch! 2016
Festivals are optimal memory-makers beyond the entertainment on offer, and if it’s an outdoor affair, multiply that effect by two. Hence, Sasquatch!—held over Memorial Day weekend at the resplendent Gorge Amphitheatre—draws huge crowds no matter who’s onstage. This year’s comedy bill looks righteous, with the off-kilter observations of Moshe Kasher, Todd Barry, Natasha Leggero, and Tim Heidecker. Musically, you should prioritize high-IQ electronic troubadours Grimes and Julia Holter, rock goddesses Savages, brainy dance-music composers Caribou and Four Tet, garage-rock gurus Ty Segall & the Muggers, psychedelicists King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and jazzy hiphop bohos Digable Planets. Oh, and the Cure. DAVE SEGAL (Through May 30)
Youth Code, youryoungbody, Dirty Dirty
When was the last time you heard a new industrial band that mattered on a wide scale? ... How about Youth Code right now? Their new album, Commitment to Complications, overflows with huge piston-ish drum beats and vocalist Sara Taylor barks with equivalent vitriol to, say Seattle’s own J.P. Anderson formerly of the Shizit. And people are taking notice: Youth Code are opening for Baroness on their current US tour, and we get an off date. JOSEPH SCHAFER
Squall: Timm Mason, Vast Plains, Subliminal Genocide, DJ Maire
Man of many musical endeavors Timm Mason (aka Mood Organ) rarely explores noise for noise’s sake in his rock and electronic excursions, but Squall—which is celebrating its second anniversary this evening—provides a prime opportunity to do just that. I have high hopes Mason will subvert noise-show expectations in an intriguing manner. DAVE SEGAL
Further Records Showcase: Raica, Chris Davis, Spacement
The Wayward Music Series’ partnership with Further Records (disclosure: I’ve written some press sheets for Further) has yielded two excellent shows so far, and this one also looks promising. Best known for his cosmic synth excursions with Brain Fruit and his inventively noisy techno sets as P L L, Seattle’s Chris Davis is planning an “improvised modular drone trip” for this show.... Raica—Further co-owner Chloe Harris—is the rare electronic musician who can be counted on to surprise and impress in live contexts. DAVE SEGAL
SATURDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Hood Canal Shrimpfest
The three-day Memorial Day weekend is a great time to get the hell out of town. The holiday also happens to fall during Washington’s marvelous but short spot-prawn season, when people fish for the lovely pink shellfish known for their impossibly delicate, sweet meat. The Hood Canal ShrimpFest is a perfect excuse to head out—you can buy fresh spot prawns and harvest your own clams and oysters on the public beaches (be sure to pick up a license on your way out of town). Also on the agenda: arts and crafts booths, activities for kids, and belt-sander races (!!!). ANGELA GARBES
May is for Morels
Learn how to work with wild morel mushrooms, roses, asparagus, nettles, watercress, and "the abundance of full-on Spring!" in this hands-on class from Le Gourmand Seattle; price includes a four-course meal with wine.
FESTIVALS
Madaraka Festival
A benefit concert, artisan market, and fundraiser for One Vibe Africa, Madaraka Festival spotlights sources of women empowerment and showcases artists and notables like Owuor Arunga, Choklate, D'bi Young Anitafrika, Nik West, and others, with hosts Naomi Wachira and Willy M. Tuva.
QUEER
Miss 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 "Miss Bacon Strip," but don't expect a traditional beauty pageant. MATT BAUME
MUSIC
Paul Simon
If there were an award given for the Most Paul Simon–like lyrics to ever Paul Simon, Paul Simon would surely win. Simon, miraculously, has been giving us the most poignant lyrics—and some of the most rhythmically eclectic music—for more than five decades. He has always been a slightly sentimental old man, even when he was young. He is the ultimate cool dad—as wise and thoughtful as he is darkly humorous and caustic. Though Simon began as an acoustic folk musician, since 1972 his solo albums, including this year’s Stranger to Stranger, draw inspiration from music as far-flung as Brazil and South Africa. His career disproves his own lyric “How it’s strange that some roots are like cages.” ANGELA GARBES (Through Sunday)
Rain Fest Night Two
Day two of Rain Fest is a smorgasbord play of hardcore’s various manifestations—from Gag’s hallucinatory bad vibes to Twitching Tongues’ Peter Steele–esque vocals and heavy mosh grooves. Tonight’s top slots go to two of contemporary hardcore’s biggest names: Trapped Under Ice and Terror. Both bands have perfected the science of inducing ape-shit behavior from the crowd, so claim your spot in the venue accordingly. BRIAN COOK
Kaytranada
You know when someone says something like “Hiphop is dead,” and your body involuntarily rolls its eyes so hard that you fall off your chair and into a crevasse, within which you pass the rest of your days because you refuse to believe that anyone could be both so dismissive and shortsighted? Cool, me too. Well Kaytranada is one of those artists who make me believe in the shift-refresh of genre fusion. On his latest album, 99.9%, the stand-alone canons of jazz, electronica, and hiphop, in his hands, fulfill their sonic destiny as natural forces of autonomous momentum. You can feel them pulse through every tendon. For real, get into it. You need this. KIM SELLING
The Von Howlers, Wiscon, the Black Tones
Here’s another killer night at Slim’s, starting with locals the Black Tones, a very energetic, entertaining, and eclectic power trio. Wiscon are, as I once called ’em, “lo-fi, keyboard led coolness… ALL late-’70s new wave sans checkerboard blouses.” They’re a contemporary take on driving new wave without being nostalgic and are fronted by perhaps the hardest-working vocalist in town. Headliners are a Portland group, the Von Howlers, who play good mix of Bo Diddley– and Chuck Berry–informed rock and roll. To put them in relatively recent context, they’re kinda like the Devil Dogs, except with less of a confrontational, punk attitude. MIKE NIPPER
Prong, Witchburn, Zero Down, Vial 8, Salem Knights
To quote Beavis and Butt-Head, “You know what makes this band cool (huh-huh)? They have two dudes who are good screamers, and they, like, take turns screaming (huh-huh). Screaming is cool.” NYC groove-metal masters Prong climbed to the top of the hard-rock heap back in the heyday of Beavis and Butt-Head with their opus, 1994’s Cleansing, featuring the iconic “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck.” These days, it’s not all nostalgia, though, as Tommy Victor’s brainchild has released an album a year for the past three years, proving they still possess the power of the riff. KEVIN DIERS
SUNDAY
FOOD & DRINK
Snouts & Stouts with Odin Brewing
Little Water Cantina’s monthly Snouts & Stouts event includes a whole hog roast, plenty of local beer (this month, it's courtesy of Oding Brewing), 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
QUEER
Mimosas with Mama
Good morning, Baltimore/Seattle. Mama's show, "30 Minute-ish Hairspray," features all your favorite songs from the Broadway show plus some elaborate quick-change drag-queen magic. They've mushed together the best of the original film and the Travolta travesty for a whirlwind of big-boned euphoria. But that's not all. The musical is just the culmination of the experience: The first half of the two-ish hour experience is a delightful drag cabaret/brunch buffet, with singing, dancing, comedy, and more naughty entendres than you can shake a stick at. And, by popular demand, they've extended it one extra week—so don't miss your chance to see this. MATT BAUME
Stiffed! Memorial Day Weekend Tea Dance
Stiffed! moves from its traditional Saturday time slot to a special Sunday afternoon tea party event for Memorial Day weekend, with DJs Dana Dub and Pavone on the disco spins, and $1 draft beers.
MUSIC
Rain Fest Night Three
The final day of Rain Fest has no shortage of noteworthy acts—the rare resurrection of defunct Brooklyn hardcore band Indecision and the headlining set by Virginia’s long-running straight-edge all-stars Down to Nothing are guaranteed to be barn burners. But the big deal for the Seattle old-timers is the return of melodic straight-edge band Stay Gold. In 2002, most bands in the Northwest hardcore scene were leaning heavily toward the metal end of the spectrum. Stay Gold, however, combined youth crew aesthetics with Turning Point’s heart-on-sleeve motifs and Hot Water Music’s rough-hewn punk anthems into a bold new sound. Stay Gold were short lived, but their legacy remains strong. BRIAN COOK