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Tuesday, Sept. 19
Legalize Crime
There’s something to be said for dive-bar comedy. Regardless of how hilarious the comedians are or how engaged the crowd (assuming there is one), you can always admire the handful of old-timers at the far end of the bar, grimly sipping away the rent. It’s a great atmosphere for consequence-free, pathos-heavy comedy. And if you can actually make one of those oldtimers laugh? That’s gold, baby. —Brett Hamil
Blue Moon Tavern
Tuesday, Sept. 19
Big Business
Sometimes a good drummer is all you need and Coady Willis is one of the best in the game. When he plays with Big Business, the primal relentlessness of his pound couples with a nimble dexterity that leaves jaws hanging and ears happy. The inimitable Jared Warren bellowing and backing him up on bass is the slathering of gravy on this heavy-rock feast. —Dan Paulus
Tractor Tavern
Tuesday, Sept. 19 – Sunday, Sept. 24
King of the Yees
Lauren Yee’s meta-theatrical play about her relationship with her dad is whimsical and personal, intimate and expansive, ridiculous and earnest and earnestly ridiculous. In brief: Lauren is writing a play about her dad and the near-defunct Family Associations of San Francisco’s Chinatown and ends up on a mystical-ish journey to connect with herself, her family and her culture. I cried. Yees runs through Oct. 1. —Gemma Wilson
ACT Theatre
Wednesday, Sept. 20
Downtown Boys
Latinx, femme-forward punk-en-Español with a saxophone? Hell yes! Downtown Boys hail from the weirdo-art-intellectual bastion of Providence, R.I., where they’ve been agitprop heroes of the musical underground since forming five years ago. Sub Pop signed them on the strength of their hook-heavy tunes and explosive performances, releasing their third album, Cost of Living, earlier this year. —Jonathan Zwickel
Vera Project
Thursday, Sept. 21
unstable objects
The Alice’s current group exhibition, unstable objects, features work from Martinez E-B, Zachary Fabri, Steffani Jemison, Kambui Oluijimi and Amina Ross, curated by Kemi Adeyemi (UW) and Sampada Aranke (School of the Art Institute of Chicago). This is show is about “transforming (dis)figured objects into questionable bodies of inquiry.” —Barry Johnson
The Alice
Friday, Sept. 22
Barbara Mitchell’s 50th Birthday: The Cure Tribute Night
Seattle-based writer/publicist/music-scene polymath Barbara Mitchell is one of this ’burg’s most tireless supporters. Golden Gardens, Danny Newcomb and the Sugarmakers, Stereo Embers, the Staxx Brothers’ Davin Michael Steadman, A Breakthrough in Field Studies and more pay it forward by throwing down Cure covers all the live-long night. —Tony Kay
High Dive
Friday, Sept. 22
Turkuaz, Sinkane
Travel the global funk underground in your own city! Sinkane, aka singer Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, spent most of his childhood in Ghana Sudan, then played in musical collectives like Caribou and Of Montreal before establishing his own groovy eponymous band. Turkuaz, another African-inflected crew, has stepped out from the jam-band world, its nine members converging into a propulsive, whip-tight unit on stage. —Jonathan Zwickel
Neumos
Friday, Sept. 22
Local Sightings Opening Night: Early Mistakes Live!
Seattle’s premier PNW-focused film festival is famous for its imaginative (and sometimes raucous) opening-night fetes. This time, Megan Griffiths, SJ Chiro, Charles Mudede and other local filmmakers discuss their early-career failures on a live stage, followed by a themed costume party. —Tony Kay
Northwest Film Forum
Sunday, Sept. 24
Poetry in Conversation on W. S. Merwin’s The Lice
This edition of Poetry in Conversation, led by Poetry Northwest editor Bill Carty, celebrates Copper Canyon’s 50th-anniversary reissue of W.S. Merwin’s revolutionary 1967 poetry collection The Lice. Carty is an Artist Trust and Hugo House fellow and his book Huge Cloudy is forthcoming from Octopus Books. —Sarah Galvin
Open Books
