Wednesday 10/12
Sheer Mag with Twompsax and Star Party
(MUSIC) Sheer Mag's latest, 2019's A Distant Call, is a boisterous and gusty explosion of rock 'n' fuckin' roll. It's the kind of record that gets into your body on a cellular level and rewires your brain to turn you into a leather-jacket-wearing badass who takes no shit but loves love. The first five seconds of opener "Steel Sharpens Steel" is just singer Tina Hallady screeching the loudest, most ready-to-party "HELLLLLLLLLLL YEAAAAAAAAAAH!" that you've ever heard in your life. From there, the Philly band tears through songs that call back to guitar-wailing classic rock and punk, but with the sing-alongable melodies of pop. Before you think their "yacht rock" tag on Bandcamp is a joke, have a listen to "Silver Line" and tell me the Doobie Brothers wouldn't have slayed that track in the smoothest way possible. Sheer Mag roughs it up a little, Philly-style, with Hallady's guttural croon and some distortion on the guitar, but that is a soft rock jam at its core. You'll be walking out of Clock-Out Lounge sweaty, smiling, and ready to start a fight or make out with a stranger. The night is yours. (Clock-Out Lounge, 4864 Beacon Ave S, 9 pm, $18) MEGAN SELING
Thursday 10/13
(FILM) Read our preview and can't-miss picks here.
Refract: The Seattle Glass Experience
(VISUAL ART) At its core, Seattle is a glass town. Some of the greatest glass artists to ever do it cut their teeth in the furnaces of this city—Dale Chihuly, Preston Singletary, Dante Marioni, and Ginny Ruffner. In part, we have Seattle's proximity to the internationally-recognized Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA to thank for that. And on the 50th anniversary of the influential school's founding, Refract's four-day festival explores and celebrates Seattle's history at the forefront of the glass movement. Attend an open house with artists like Rob Stern or a hot shop demonstration with John Sharvin; admire the works of Chihuly and John Kiley at the legendary Traver Gallery, or go on a glass art tour of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The best part? Nearly all events are free! Go get your life! (Various venues across the region, Oct 13-16, see the full schedule here) JAS KEIMIG
Friday 10/14
(MUSIC) Read our preview here.
Saturday 10/15
Our Flag Means Death Seattle Meet UpÂ
(GAY PIRATES) While we wait for the premiere of Our Flag Means Death’s Season 2, let’s go be big nerds about gay pirates. This public-park meetup grew out of a successful gathering at Emerald City Comic Con and will be a chance for fans of the show to hang out, gossip, and show off their cosplay. There may also be snacks and “pirate games,” whatever those are, and there’s been some talk about bringing weapons to engage in “homoerotic sword fighting,” which gives me an idea for some fan art to commission. Someone also said they’d bring anarchist pirate zines, so this is shaping up to be a real hullabaloo. The HBO series is currently filming its second season, with a release date pegged to sometime in 2023 (Season 1 debuted in March, maybe it’ll be sometime around then) so this is a welcome opportunity to get a little piracy fix before the main event in the coming months. (Cal Anderson Park, 1635 11th Ave, 2 pm, free) MATT BAUME
(MUSIC) Included in this year's Earshot Festival is a must-see show by Drum Orbit, a quintet led by Seattle's most influential hip-hop producer, Vitamin D. If you have never heard him, then you and Rip Van Winkle have a lot in common. Now recall that when two stars are close together they, as Carl Sagan pointed out many years ago, "exchange star-stuff." Something similar can be said about Drum Orbit. It is an exchange between Vitamin D's hip-hop and four established, locally rooted jazz musicians: Evan Flory-Barnes, Darrius Willrich, Gerson Zaragoza, and Kassa Overall. As the bassist Flory-Barnes put it recently, Vitamin D, who has worked with local and national hip-hop acts, and whose productions are richly textured, ambient, and slamming, has been, and will continue to be, an "inspiration to many." (4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 8:30 pm, $10-$20, all ages) CHARLES MUDEDE
Sunday 10/16
(MUSIC) Since Alex G(iannascoli) sold out the Showbox and you probably don't have tickets, I'll keep this recommendation brief. For those of you unfamiliar with Alex G, the Philly-based musician is a gifted songwriter and guitarist, crafting neat-yet-messy tunes over plucky, DIY-sounding tunes. "Sarah," off his 2012 album Trick, is comfortingly dizzy and devastating as Alex croons, "Each day I'll make promises that plague Sarah's heart/So I can watch her fall apart." Even behind the scenes on songs like Frank Ocean's "Self Control" and "White Ferrari," Alex G's guitar imbues a soulful emotion to the tracks. Now, he's touring around the country in support of his latest record, God Save the Animals, a tidy collection of songs that I've already played during many wistful bus rides. I will be stuffed cheek-to-jowl with the Showbox crowd on Sunday—I'll report back (with pictures!). (The Showbox, 1426 First Ave, 8 pm, sold out but AXS official resale tickets may be found at showboxpresents.com, all ages) JAS KEIMIG
Monday 10/17
Oaxacan Smoking Jacket at Barrio
(DRINKS) What do you wear when it's 62 degrees, kinda sunny, and a little smoky in the middle of October? A Oaxacan Smoking Jacket did the trick for me last week. You can find the cocktail at Barrio, a modern Mexican spot on Capitol Hill that features ample covered outdoor seating along 12th Avenue, where you can flip off people test-driving Maseratis. Before you take a sip, the glass shimmers with late-summer, early-autumn energy. The orange peel recalls the last few rays of sun, while the drink itself looks like a drop of citrine. This take on a Mezcal old-fashioned hits you upfront with a lot of smoke, not unlike our summers lately, before the Oloroso sherry and amaro rounds it out with a nutty sweetness. Several authoritative shakes of mole bitters make the drink feel downright cozy, and a hint of bitter orange portends winter. It's a drink for all seasons, but especially this one. (Barrio, 1420 12th Ave, Mon-Fri 4-10 pm and Sat-Sun 11:30 am-10 pm) RICH SMITH
Tuesday 10/18
(HALLOWEEN) Get a pumpkin! Seriously, go get a pumpkin. A pumpkin is a joy to have. You can get one of those little squat ones that are 50 cents at QFC, or you can get a 30-pound electric-orange gourd that shines brighter than a lighthouse. Any pumpkin is a good pumpkin. If you want to feel like you're living in an episode of Gilmore Girls—sans Lorelai because, ugh, Lorelai is the worst—make a whole autumnal adventure out of it and visit any of the nearby pumpkin patches. Apple cider donuts! Fire pits! And something called a gourd tunnel! Don't carve your pumpkin just yet, though. It's too early. It will spoil by the 31st. Just place that stunning squash on your stoop or your mantel or your kitchen counter and admire it for a bit. Let it fill the room with its autumnal vibes. It is, as McSweeny's famously claimed, "Decorative gourd season, motherfuckers." Embrace it. Shit, you could even get one of those wooden spice-scented brooms. Yes! GET A SPICE BROOM, TOO! (Read EverOut's rundown of local pumpkin patches here) MEGAN SELING
