Seattle Restaurant Week, Obscura Day, Paul McCartney, And More Picks For April 11-17
by Stranger Things To Do Staff
This week, our arts critics have recommended the best events in every genre—from Obscura Day to Record Store Day and the EMP Pop Conference, and from a Paul McCartney concert to Seattle Restaurant Week. See them all below, and find even more events on our complete Things To Do calendar.
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MONDAY
READINGS & TALKS
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 Hamlet.
Sarah Bakewell: The Modern Applications of Existentialism
Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Cafe, a biographical history of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, will focus on existentialism at this evening event. In conversation with science historian Mott Greene, she'll discuss the philosophy's influence on social and political movements and call for a more pervasive understanding of it.
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. (Sun-Thurs)
FILM
Mr. Robot Viewing Party and Potluck
Every other Monday, watch two episodes of USA's psychological thriller Mr. Robot and enjoy a community potluck at Tin Dog Brewing. It's not too late to start going—they'll be screening episodes 4 and 5 of the show tonight.
RuPaul's Drag Race Viewing Parties with Robbie Turner
Drag queen Robbie Turner has been hosting Monday-night screenings of RuPaul's Drag Race at R Place for some time, but now at last she's on the show herself. Go cheer on our local gal every week — Robbie is smart and funny, and she has impeccable vintage style, so we're thrilled to bits by the prospect of watching her onstage and on-screen at the same time. The only thing better than a show that features Robbie Turner is a show that features TWO Robbie Turners. MATT BAUME
ART
Joan Tanner: The False Spectator
For many years, based in California, Joan Tanner has created structures out of discarded materials that have their own stories of destruction, decay, rebirth, and resemblance. At Suyama Space she'll respond directly to the dramatic room of the gallery with vertical structures: "troughs, columns and step constructs made of wood, sheet metal, plastic webbing, and a variety of other materials." That's not a very specific description, but based on her past work, this will be worth the visit. JEN GRAVES (Closes Fri)
TUESDAY
COMEDY
Comedy Nest Open Mic: Chase Brockett
Comedy Womb has become Comedy Nest in the name of inclusivity, and unsurprisingly, they write that "although the name has changed the mission is still the same." 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 Portland comedian Chase Brockett.
ART
Constructs: Installations by Asian Pacific American Women Artists
Among six new installations by artists who are Asian Pacific American women, two have locked-up interiors that beckon. Lynne Yamamoto’s house made of white silk is doorless and windowless. You circle its sealed body, hoping it will reveal itself another way. In another room, Kaili Chun’s small metal cages are double-locked, and you must unlock both (keys are given) to release the voices of birds and people and musical instruments recorded and just waiting to play from interior speakers. Each is a mysterious broadcast, and you can DJ by releasing more than one at a time. JEN GRAVES (Closes Sun)
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)
WEDNESDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Hope Jahren with Sydney Brownstone
Award-winning scientist Hope Jahren will give a book talk on her debut memoir Lab Girl, in conversation with our own staff writer Sydney Brownstone.
THEATER
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
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
FILM
Jefferson in Paris
James Ivory's 1995 Franco-American historical drama tells the fictionalized story of Thomas Jefferson's pre-presidential role as US Ambassador to France, and marks the first filmic representation of Jefferson's almost certainly adulterous relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings. Scarecrow Video will screen the film tonight, for free.
Point Break
Tonight, $1.99 movie night at Central Cinema, is the perfect time to see Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 film starring Keanu Reeves as a rookie FBI agent tasked with investigating a string of unusual bank robberies.
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. CHARLES MUDEDE (Also Sat-Sun)
ART
Brenna Youngblood: abstracted realities
Youngblood is the 2015 winner of the Gwendolyn Knight | Jacob Lawrence Prize, awarded by SAM biennially and curated by Sandra Jackson-Dumont, SAM’s former education director (who is now head of education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York). In eight works in photo-based collage, painting, assemblage, and sculpture, Youngblood cleverly toys with abstraction and direct sociopolitical reference. She’s dealing with what is unknown by using what is familiar—everyday objects, seductive washes of color, letters and numbers. JEN GRAVES (Closes Sun)
The Harmon & Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper
It was the mid-1980s when Harriet and Harmon Kelley walked through the San Antonio Museum of Art to see the proud exhibition Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art 1800-1950—and emerged ashamed. The shame came from the fact that they’d never heard of the artists. They started collecting works by African Americans immediately, and they kept on for decades. Now they have one of the world’s best collections of African American art on paper, and 68 pieces ranging from the early days of the 20th century up through 2002 are here at the Northwest African American Museum, including familiar names (Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett) and plenty of names that should, and may someday, be better known. JEN GRAVES (Closes Sun)
MUSIC
BADBADNOTGOOD
Toronto Jazz quartet BADBADNOTGOOD began their career in 2010 covering hiphop tunes by Gucci Mane and Nas, as well as a couple cuts from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time soundtrack. Yes, their approach is populist—some would say pandering—but you can’t deny their chops. JOSEPH SCHAFER
Bilal, Shaprece, and DJ El Mizell
Since the inception of his illustrious career, Philadelphia Soulquarian Bilal Sayeed Oliver has moved with ease among the worlds of hiphop, soul, and jazz (other members of the Soulquarians collective include D’Angelo and Erykah Badu). Traces of punk and reggae also flow through his eclectic work. ... When Bilal hasn’t been hanging out with heavy hitters, like Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, he’s released four studio recordings. KATHY FENNESSY
FWD: Baths
Will Wiesenfeld has already accomplished much under his Baths moniker. While his debut, Cerulean, was made in his bedroom on the cheap, it went on to garner high praise from Pitchfork and the A.V. Club. But you, discerning reader, don’t care about accolades; what does Baths sound like? Some would say he takes a bit much from the chillwave style of Toro y Moi, but where that artist is content to relax, Wiesenfeld uses his electronic template to crank up the anxiety—he didn’t call his sophomore LP Obsidian for nothing. JOSEPH SCHAFER
Hieroglyphics, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Casual, Pep Love, Domino, Souls of Mischief, and DJ Toure
This show presents essentially the founders of Bay Area hiphop. At the time of their first appearance (the beginning of the 1990s), they were overground and sometimes even housed by major record labels. By the end of the 1990s, they went underground and helped make the Bay Area one of the centers of indie hiphop (the other centers being Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis). All in all, some of the greatest and most innovative hiphop tracks and albums ever made came from the rappers and producers who are part of or orbit the Hieroglyphics crew. CHARLES MUDEDE
Kenny Werner and Joyce Moreno
East Coast pianist Kenny Werner plays the Great American Song/Fake Book by immersing the melodies, and sometimes the changes, deep within folds of his own improvisations based on that same underlying timbre. ... Werner has captured countless standards and composed a moving suite for his dead daughter—but for this tour, he’s bringing out his deep love for Brazil. He’ll run down songs from his new album, Poesia, which consists of duets with Rio’s own Joyce Moreno, aka Joyce. Expect tact, restraint, slow music running deep, and perhaps a few surprises. ANDREW HAMLIN
The Residents present Shadowland: Theory of Obscurity Showing and Concert
It’s a big night for Residents fans. Director Don Hardy’s Theory of Obscurity documentary tells the great American avant-oddball group’s story with just the right amount of irreverence and mystery. After that, these venerable enigmas launch into Shadowland, the final installment of the Randy, Chuck & Bob Trilogy. DAVE SEGAL
THURSDAY
MUSIC
EMP Pop Conference
The theme of this year’s Pop Con is “From a Whisper to a Scream: The Voice in Music,” so naturally all conference components focus on the structure, meaning, usage, and delineation of voices throughout music and how those voices add to our experiences. Keynote speakers Merrill Garbus, Valerie June, and k.d. lang lend their equally distinctive sounds to deciphering what makes each voice their voice, and why that matters (or doesn’t). Panels throughout the conference—some of which will be led by Stranger notables Charles Mudede and Sean Nelson, as well as a slew of pop-culture experts and prolific music critics—attend to voice-activated variables, like environmental impact or historical legacy. KIM SELLING
Fungal Abyss, Diminished Men, and Weeed
Because the main idea behind Fungal Abyss is to take mushrooms and play improvisational spacey doom metal, no two Fungal Abyss shows are alike. This experiment is the brainchild of local stoner-metal kings Lesbian. A Fungal Abyss show is a unique experience, as they flow freely through a mind-bending and ear-crushing jam session. Psychedelics aren’t required, of course, but they could certainly enhance the experience. Equally as out there, Diminished Men are a Seattle-based four-piece instrumental project that blends everything from saxophones to synthesizers (and, of course, guitars) into a mélange of heavy oddball sounds. KEVIN DIERS
Jane Monheit
In 2010, Jane Monheit snagged the greatest reward to which any singer can aspire. That’s right, she played a singer who’s very big in a parallel universe—the otherwise nonexistent Judy Bridgewater, who “furnished” the title song for Never Let Me Go. Now she’s reversed thrusters to tackle a singer who was, at least for a while, very big in this universe—the new album, Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald, should be self-explanatory. Trodding where Ella Fitzgerald trod will be tricky, especially since Fitzgerald herself never let anyone see her sweat. But Monheit is packing heat, spark, and a special delicacy in scat singing. I’m eager to hear her try. ANDREW HAMLIN (Through Sun)
Motor: Personable, P L L, Novacom, DJ Explorateur
Personable—the more beat-oriented project of LA synthesizer maestro M. Geddes Gengras—retains the lab-coated-experimentalist tonalities of the work he does under his own name and translates it to the dance floor… albeit a wavy dance floor. ... Personable’s releases for the Peak Oil label—New Lines and Spontaneous Generation—are totally in synch with the MOTOR monthly’s mutant-dance thesis statement. His chaotic, clangorous, and complex productions will be right at home in Kremwerk’s bunker. DAVE SEGAL
Pillar Point, NAVVI, The Spider Ferns, Zoolab x King Snake
Get ready for some Dark. Indie. Dream. Pop. Y’all. Pillar Point are running around with Marble Mouth, the band’s second from Polyvinyl. Scott Reitherman (former frontman of Throw Me the Statue) recorded the album in Athens, Georgia, under the influence of Kevin Barnes (of Montreal mastermind). You can tell. It’s darker and sweatier than their self-titled debut, and Reitherman has traded his signature smoky-casual falsetto for an array of deeper throwback tones. Instead of being indie-lonesome about lost love and gray days, he’s dance-party-lonesome about lost love and gray days. It’s great. NAVVI are like sleepy Rhye, the Spider Ferns are probably tired of comparisons to Portishead, and Zoolab will bring the morphed Top 40 pop. RICH SMITH
Scriptures, Demon Eye, Disenchanter, Githyanki
Goddamn, tonight’s bill looks SWEATY, so shine up your blackest of denim and brush out your beards, longhairs, ’cause it’s time to get down! ... Headliners Scriptures, an instrumental band, quote from the heaviest and darkest of the strict monastic, progressive tradition. Their songs are engaging for the strange paths they forge: Sometimes they’re atmospheric and other times syncopated and loud, but always surprising. Oh, and tonight they celebrate their new record being released! MIKE NIPPER
FILM
Storefront Hitchcock
This 1998 Jonathan Demme film revolves around a simple conceit: Train a camera on eccentric British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock performing 14 beautiful, hilarious rock songs in the storefront of a disused New York City shop window, and let the sonic, lyrical, and between-song-banter enchantments ensue. It’s hard to discern which is more gobsmacking—Hitchcock’s charmingly doleful post–Syd Barrett songs or his serpentine, acid-logic introductions to said songs. Both of Hitchcock’s skills possess a cracked wisdom all too rare in today’s (or yesterday’s) musical world. Tonight, he’ll give a live introduction to this screening. DAVE SEGAL
A Space Program
Tonight is the Seattle premiere for this experimental film from Van Neistat, in which artist Tom Sachs (who will be at tonight's event) and his team build an entire space program from scratch for a handmade journey to Mars.
ART
Capitol Hill Art Walk
The monthly art walk on Capitol Hill! Always worth checking out are: Photo Center NW, True Love Art Gallery, Ghost Gallery, and, on the outskirts but worth the trip, the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park and Gage Academy next to St. Mark's Cathedral. While you're out and about, appreciate the art of the male nude at True Love Art Gallery's MAN-DATE exhibition, which will also be accompanied by live music.
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 (or was supposed to, but, due to the announcement that the Pioneer Square gallery will close next month, this will be the last iteration at the New Foundation). 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 was to be titled. JEN GRAVES
FOOD & DRINK
Guest Chef Night: Jon Langley and Omar Salazar-Cruz
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 presents a yogurt-centric meal with Chefs Jon Langley and Omar Salazar-Cruz of Meet the Moon.
FRIDAY
QUEER
Gay-La for Fantastic.Z Theatre
Raise some money for Fantastic.Z Theatre at their special upcoming Gay-La — an opportunity to contribute to a center whose mission is to continue bringing LGBTQIA artistry to the Seattle stage. Hosted by Ms. Mitzi Brewer and Cheeky Diamondz, the Gay-La will also have hors d'oeuvres and dessert provided by Tango Restaurant and Lounge and the Confectional, respectively.
READINGS & TALKS
Seattle StorySLAM
A live amateur storytelling competition much like The Moth, hosted by Lindy West, in which audience members who put their names in a hat are randomly chosen to tell stories on a theme—this week, it's "romance."
MUSIC
Blood Drugs, Steal Shit Do Drugs, Charms, and Freeway Park
Good to Die is one of those rare record labels that I can trust. The simple fact that these tastemakers of the heavy Seattle underground-rock scene endorse a band is enough for me, even if I’ve yet to hear the music. Seattle’s Blood Drugs issued their debut self-titled LP on Good to Die last April, and it maintains Good to Die’s perfect record for winning releases. Blood Drugs’ nine tracks of raging post hardcore fit somewhere between Fugazi and Moss Icon—just a little more unwound and aggressive. Long live Good to Die, long live Blood Drugs. KEVIN DIERS
SATURDAY
COMMUNITY
Obscura Day
Obscura Day (a creation of Atlas Obscura, an online magazine devoted to the weird, wondrous, and underappreciated), is a worldwide celebration of unique, offbeat locations and experiences, with events that range from a visit to a former Soviet prison in Estonia to a walking tour of Barcelona's supernatural phenomena. Here in Seattle, it's a chance to either explore something you didn't know existed (like the instrumentarium of Harry Partch, renowned American composer known for his unique instruments like the Cloud Chamber Bowls) or see a new side of somewhere familiar, like Fremont or the Museum of History & Industry. JULIA RABAN
Record Store Day
Record Store Day is a scourge to most small indie labels. For several months, major labels clog the vinyl pressing plants with their massive orders for records that commonly can be found used for under $10, thus delaying schedules for less powerful companies doing smaller runs. Mix in crass music-biz opportunism and consumers who care nothing about the releases except for their resale value, and you have a shitshow that seems to worsen every year. You know the drill. However! A small percentage of RSD releases are actually worth hearing, as best as we can gauge, and the frenzied, extravagant shopping obviously boosts the financial health of brick-and-mortar stores. See a complete list of Record Store Day happenings on our Things To Do calendar.
QUEER
ShakesQueer
It's one of those weekends when all the good parties are happening at the same time, and you're going to have to make some tough choices about which ones to skip. But I can't in good conscience allow anyone to miss ShakesQueer, a drag tribute to history's favorite bisexual (maybe) playwright. Coinciding with a display of William Shakespeare's First Folio at the Central Library, the show features some of the city's top queer talent, performances, fashion, and "solilo-queens." We'd like to think Willie would approve of that kind of punning. Miss this show and you'll wonder how camest thou in this pickle. MATT BAUME
Tainted Tales: Reefer Fever
The Haus of Keebler is bringing back their successful Tainted Tales series with a whole night dedicated to the sweet green. Expect weed puns, liberal fog machine usage, hosting magnificence by Shelita Potroast and Abbey Roads, and performances by Akasha Manila, Veronica Electronica, Stacy Starstruck, Apollo Vedra, Lucy Paradisco, Butch Alice, Betty Wetter, and Hellen Tragedy.
READINGS & TALKS
Chester Brown
The influential indie comics writer/artist will come to Hugo House to talk about Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus, a "polemic reinterpretation of the Bible."
ART
Surface City: A Participatory Workshop by Tivon Rice
This is an extremely promising Gift City workshop with artist Tivon Rice, where participants will work with Rice to choose a location in Seattle that exemplifies both its past and its future. Then the class will relocate, and collectively document the place with hundreds of digital photographs; Rice will process the images to create the end result.
MUSIC
Blue Moon's 82nd Birthday Party: The Allman Butters, Hounds of The Wild Hunt, Blackheart Honeymoon, The Brothers Balthazar
Facts related to the Blue Moon’s 82nd birthday: When original Blue Moon owner Hank Reverman borrowed money from his father to open the place in 1934, Prohibition had been repealed for less than a year. The space featured dirt floors and was just over one mile from the University of Washington campus—and, due to the latter, therefore eligible to legally sell alcohol. Reverman owned the Blue Moon for six years, and he lived to be 96 years old. GRANT BRISSEY
Research: Gunnar Haslam, Olin
Recording for the always-fascinating L.I.E.S. label, as well as Delsin and Efdemin’s Naïf imprint, Gunnar Haslam has done work related to the Large Hadron Collider while studying particle physics at NYU. During that time, he also absorbed the transcendent, psychedelic techno aesthetics of New York City’s Bunker Club, and you can hear all of this deep scientific research infiltrating his cerebral, idiosyncratic tracks. Even Haslam’s bangers sound like they contain DNA from the highest echelons of academic composition (a very good thing). His diverse output—ranging from Chain Reaction–like dub techno to spacey, disorienting ambient and IDM excursions—should make Haslam’s set unpredictable and exciting. DAVE SEGAL
Imarhan, Diminished Men, and Zen Mother
Algeria’s Imarhan play a rollicking brand of the sort of Tuareg psychedelic blues that’s gained surprising acceptance in the West. Or maybe not so surprising, given how danceable and trance-inducing the music of artists like Bombino, Tinariwen, and Group Doueh can be. You’d have to possess a cold heart and a dead ass not to embrace Imarhan’s melodically sparkling and rhythmically vibrant songs. (Imarhan also play earlier in the day at Everyday Music, as part of the Capitol Hill store’s free Record Store Day activities.) DAVE SEGAL
SUNDAY
READINGS & TALKS
Nikki McClure
Nikki McClure (Waiting for High Tide) will speak about her art and new picture book.
MUSIC
Paul McCartney
As Elvis Costello (who happens to be playing in Bellingham this very same night) once said, “Compared to whom is Paul McCartney not good?” You can go into a concert by Paul McCartney and his able group—who have now been backing him longer than either the Beatles or all the versions of Wings were together—with as much savvy reserve as you care to. You will almost definitely leave with sore hands, a hoarse throat, and tears drying on your cheeks. Has he lost a bit of his top end? Yes, but not so much that he doesn’t play all the old numbers—from “Yesterday” to “Helter Skelter”—in their original keys. Does he pause for a few minutes after every song to catch his breath? Yes, but also to allow the audience to ovate and adulate him with the overwhelming magnitude of their appreciation. Do you know any other 73-year-olds who can play 38 songs a night, several of which have a legitimate claim to being the actual greatest rock song ever written? No, and you never will. If you are even remotely curious about going, do yourself a favor and go see Paul McCartney play live. SEAN NELSON
Foster Body, Sioux City Pete & the Beggars, Quaaludes, and the Fabulous Downey Brothers
In venerable post-punk tradition, Foster Body feature male and female vocalists who spit with equal vitriol over guitars that slash and sting like Gang of Four’s Andy Gill crossed with Contortions’ Pat Place. If you ever contorted yourself to James Chance, the Stick Men, Pylon, or any other rock band that squeezed 10 pounds of nervous energy into a five-pound bag, you’ll likely jerk your skeleton to Foster Body’s truculent anti-boogie. DAVE SEGAL