Seattle Weekly, February 29, 2012

FEBRUARY 29–MARCH 6, 2012 I VOLUME 37 I NUMBER 9

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inside» February 29-March 6, 2012 VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 9 » SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM

»REVERB

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up front 7

NEWS

BEST OF THE DAILY WEEKLY

Public defenders fight on their own behalf for once. Also, a throw-down at Ba Bar.

10 FEATURE

BY CHRIS PARKER | More than just

in back 17 THE WEEKLY WIRE Joan Rivers dishes the dirt, John Grade buries his art, and Nellie McKay sings about the jailhouse.

19 ARTS

THIS WEEK’S ATTRACTIONS

Woody Harrelson as a very bad cop, Tilda Swinton as an unfit mother, and the battle over wind power.

Earrings by Michael Good

25 FOOD

25 | BOOKSTORE BAR | Keeping up with the Alexis Hotel’s changing identities.

26 | FIRST CALL | Bacon + grenadine?

29 | BOTTOMFEEDER | Ramen holiday.

30 | A LITTLE RASKIN | Bar food: a brief history.

reverb monthly

Musical advice from John Roderick; civic advice from Duff and Ma’Chell; why small is the new big; plus reviews of every local album and a packed list of March’s most eagerly anticipated shows. Find it all following page 18.

OPENING NIGHTS | Successful revivals

of Shaw and Gluck.

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a pastime, online poker was a lucrative living for some shrewd players—until the feds went after it.

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intents and purposes, “employees.”

The county, judges noted, has over several decades exerted “more and more control” over defender organizations, so that the agencies can’t even rent office space or spend money on equipment without its approval.

Therefore, opined the Supremes, the defenders were entitled to the same retirement benefits as other county employees. The precise amount owed these defenders, including retroactive benefits, is still to be decided back in Pierce County Superior Court.

Meanwhile, state legislators who’ve done nothing but slash budgets for the past few years started to panic over the ruling’s ramifications. “If you play that out,” says Rep. Ross Hunter, chair of the House’s powerful Ways and Means Committee, “you could wind up with possibly a lot of similar cases.”

All kinds of government contractors— Hunter gives the example of construction workers carrying out state transportation projects—could lay claim to government retirement benefits, says the state rep. “It’s too much risk.” So a bill initiated in his committee, passed recently in the House and now being considered by the Senate, “clarifies” that government contractors cannot receive state retirement benefits.

It exempts the class of public defenders named in the Dolan suit.

But that doesn’t satisfy Dolan, who says that every public defender hired from 2006 on, and thus not covered by the suit, still faces the same situation. He also warns that the bill could serve as an impetus for government agencies to outsource more and more.

“There’s a lot of concern about that,” Hunter acknowledges, speaking about outsourcing. “We spent several days talking about that issue.” Labor groups weighed in.

At the end of the day, he says legislators in the House had to balance that concern with their fiscal responsibility.

As for new public-defender hires in King County, Hunter does not imagine the benefits inequity will go on for long. Given the Supremes’ ruling, the county has to “fix” its relationship with its defenders, he says, possibly by bringing them “in-house.” That would be an interesting development given the feisty nature of some defenders, like those working for The Defender Association. It runs a racial-disparity project that is critical of what it considers selective drug enforcement by police and county prosecutors.

Dan Carino

decade ago, thanks to a class-action lawsuit, Microsoft learned the hard way that it could not treat “independent contractors” exactly like employees, only without the salaries and benefits. In recent years, a public defender has been trying to teach that same lesson to King County, alarming state legislators and leading to a much-debated bill that recently passed the House.

It all started when Kevin Dolan, a veteran lawyer with the Associated Counsel for the Accused (ACA), one of four nonprofits that provides publicdefense services to the county, looked around the courtroom one day some five years ago. “I realized that every single person there, except the defendants and myself, was covered

by PERS (the state-run Public Employee Retirement System),” says Dolan. “The judge, the prosecutor, the bailiff, the court reporter—everyone.”

The government is one of the few employers left in the country that offers an actual pension—one that today looks astoundingly generous, to boot. Those hired between 1977 and 2002, by either the state or one of the local jurisdictions that offer state benefits, can retire after 30 years with an annual payout equal to 60 percent of their highest income. (Newer hires don’t receive quite as much.)

In many counties, public defenders also receive such benefits, since they are part of government agencies. But King County has a long history of independent nonprofit publicdefense agencies. And so, like many of us, the poor schlubs at ACA are left to spend their golden years with whatever they’ve managed to put into individual retirement accounts. Or, as Dolan sees it: “You get to work until you die.”

“So I went and started a lawsuit,” he says, on behalf of all public defenders who served the county within three years of the suit’s 2006 filing. His counsel was none other than the firm that handled the contractors’ suit against Microsoft: Bendich, Stobaugh and Strong.

Dolan won at the trial level, in Pierce County Superior Court, and also at the appeals level, heard directly by the state Supreme Court. Issuing a decision last August, the Supremes ruled that King County’s public defenders are, for all

Feb 28th through March 3rd 10am - 6pm

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Seattle weekly • February 29–March 6, 2012

news» The Daily Weekly » from page 7 King County Deputy Executive Fred Jarrett tells SW that officials have discussed various options, including taking the defenders in-house or, alternatively, shaking up the way contracts are written. He says, however: “We have not decided yet exactly what we are going to do.” NiNa Shapiro

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“It’s an absurd, manufactured story,” Banh says of Martin’s allegations that he created a scene.

“I was shocked somebody would pull that kind of stunt. You just don’t drink and make a fool of yourself in your own place. That’s why I don’t allow staff to drink more than one drink at our bar.”

Before driving to Ba Bar, Banh was at home, where he claims not to keep hard liquor. “It’s not nice to talk bad about certain individuals, but there’s no way I was drunk,” says Banh, who suspects he’s struggled to find the right bar manager because he’s not entirely comfortable with cocktails. “I honestly don’t know anything about liquor,” he says. “I’m too old to learn that craft. I don’t know what the heck is Van Winkle or Maple Hill. Sometimes I feel Monsoon is so awesome because wine and beer I know quite well.”

Banh is now planning to hire a consultant to work with his existing bar staff. And a shake-up is also underway in the kitchen, where chef Kevin Burzell recently submitted his resignation after months of consideration.

Burzell, who leaves on March 10, wants to start his own Malaysian street-food operation, Banh says. “Kevin is one of the best, but nobody can pay him to work anymore,” Banh says of Burzell’s determination to be self-employed.

Both Banh and Martin agree that Burzell’s organizational skills were a tremendous asset to the restaurant: “Kevin and I created the foundation of everything that functions somewhat properly in that restaurant,” Martin claims.

The mood at the restaurant yesterday was upbeat, Banh says: “The bar staff is very happy.” Still, he’s not pleased with the way Martin’s tenure ended. He doubts his fiancee would ever encounter a similar situation at Boeing, where she works.

“At least at Boeing, you have HR,” he says.

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Despite the impression given by Gordon Ramsay’s various televised shout-fests, most restaurant resignations are understated affairs. Which is why Ba Bar owner Eric Banh’s juicy confrontation, firing, and subsequent war of words with his former bar manager reads like a tabloid page-turner.

The story began this past Saturday night when bar manager Evan Martin publicly confronted Banh in the restaurant’s dining room, claiming his boss had had too much to drink. Banh, who strenuously denies Martin’s charges, then fired Martin for failing to demonstrate the proper work ethic.

“I really should have done it a month ago,” Banh says. “The bar staff has been crying to me and telling me Evan leaves early every night, I mean, literally, 10 p.m.

They come in, set up the bar, he doesn’t come in until 6 p.m. They couldn’t take it anymore.”

Martin in turn accuses Banh of mistreating his employees. “Somehow I made it almost eight months, until I shrugged my shoulders and smirked at him one too many times as he was throwing stuff around the bar and using profanity and calling me names and threatening me in front of a packed house,” Martin e-mails. “I won’t tolerate it.”

Banh hired Martin, formerly of Naga at Chantanee, to replace a bar manager who’d used a phony resume to land the job. Martin, a Tales of the Cocktail contest winner, joined Ba Bar a few weeks after the Capitol Hill restaurant opened last summer. “Evan is a very gifted mixologist,” Banh says. “He makes fantastic drinks. But for a bar manager, we need more than that.”

According to Banh, the Saturday incident unfolded around 9 p.m., when he met a group of friends at the restaurant. Martin says the busy evening had already been made stressful by a new host and an investor’s nephew’s premature distribution of the restaurant’s new cocktail menus, which were set for release on Wednesday. “I didn’t find out until during a rush, when people were ordering these new drinks nonstop,” Martin writes.

As Martin tells it, “Eric takes up a table in the middle of the rush, getting drunk, order[ing] the most complicated cocktails, half a dozen at a time.”

Banh recalls drinking only wine. “I sat down and had half a glass of wine,” he says. “Evan said, ‘You’ve been drinking too much. You’re drunk already.’ ” Banh removed Martin at 9:20 p.m.

Martin called the dismissal “a huge load of stress off my back.” He adds, “I guess I was always planning on getting fired, since everyone else does. The few people that have worked at Ba Bar or at Monsoon for a while are people who are good at taking blows from him constantly.” In 2008, Banh was arrested for assault after allegedly kicking a former employee, an incident Martin cites as an example of Banh’s management style.

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JESSE LENZ

10

W W

hen you’ve turned nothing into something once already, you tend to feel you can do it again. There’s faith your luck will turn. Perhaps it’s delusion. But for a professional poker player, self-confidence is essential.

So it is for Walter Wright, who now finds himself in Costa Rica. He left his wife and two children behind to redeem their failing finances and faltering marriage by doing something that’s now illegal in the U.S.—playing poker online.

Wright’s life began to change in 2005 when he followed his then-girlfriend from New Orleans to Virginia, where she was beginning law school at Washington and Lee University.

He’d played strategy and role-playing video games as a kid in Houston, and later began to obsess over chess. That’s when he noticed his

chess buddies were becoming increasingly dedicated to online poker and raving about the returns. Wright became engrossed.

He started as most do, playing what’s known as the “cash game.” It’s simple poker—win by pushing your advantage when the cards are good and bluffing when they’re not. If you know the odds, bet wisely, and seek tables with lesser players, within a year or two you can be making a grand a week or more. Five to 10 times more.

Wright started at low-stakes Texas Hold’em with table limits of just 25 and 50 cents. The

beauty of playing online was that he could work eight tables at once. It wasn’t the best money; PokerStars.com was taking its own cut from the pots, generally capped at $2–$3/pot. But as a volume player, he also received rewards points redeemable for things like Amazon gift certificates, which he used to buy food in bulk.

“I was grinding my face off,” he recalls.

As he honed his feel for the odds and what his opponents were holding, he moved up to Sit-N-Go games, essentially small-scale tournaments that can be finished in an hour.

It took time, but he began to see more money

than he had ever witnessed as a waiter in New Orleans. He made $17,000 that first year and quit his job. He made $28,000 the next, $55,000 the year after.

Four years ago, when his wife got a job in the Las Vegas public defender’s office, the Wrights shipped to Nevada. Walter dabbled in casino poker, where the stakes are higher. But it also required a bigger bankroll and presented wider swings of fortune. He wasn’t ready. “I made some money to, like, get some new tires on the car. Make some money and pay a bill . . . I was getting a little frustrated with that.”

That’s when he discovered multitable tournaments online: like Sit-N-Gos, but including as many as 200,000 participants in a single tourney—and much bigger pots. This was easier than playing head-to-head in cash games, since the competition was generally worse. His strategy was to play dozens of tournaments a night, primarily on PokerStars, moving conservatively through the early rounds as lesser players fell away, then amping his aggressiveness.

It was still a grinding way to make a living, sometimes requiring Wright to stare at a computer for 24 hours straight. But he’d spent his teens pulling World of Warcraft all-nighters.

And now, instead of making bank with tiny pot after tiny pot, he could bring home as much as $15,000 in a single session.

His first year of online tournaments brought in $100,000. A year later, Wright’s earnings doubled, thanks to more than $100,000 he won by reaching the final table at the 7th World Series of Poker in the summer of 2009.

But the money was coming a bit too easily.

“We never really learned to manage money, because nobody in our family has ever had any,” he says. “So we didn’t manage it well . . . My mind-set became ‘How much money do you need? I’ll make more.’ Rather than ‘We need to cut down on expenses,’ it was ‘Don’t worry, I’ll shoot for this goal.’ ” Wright found himself retreating more and more into the casinos, especially when he and his wife would fight. He was becoming a classic workaholic, and didn’t enjoy the soul-sapping casino atmosphere. He was equally worried about the effect of Las Vegas on their kids.

Last year he convinced his wife to move to Asheville, N.C., to be closer to her parents.

The plan was for her to take the year off, care for their newborn daughter, and study for the North Carolina bar. Wright would support them by playing online. Most of their bank account was consumed by the move, but he had few worries. Why should he? He could always make more.

They moved April 1. Two weeks later, the federal government took his job.

In the poker world, April 15, 2011, is known as Black Friday. That’s the day the U.S. Department of Justice seized the assets and shut down the three biggest companies serving the American market—PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker (which also operated Ultimate Bet)—charging them with bank fraud, moneylaundering, and illegal gambling.

Wright was luckier than most. Only a few thousand dollars in his PokerStars account was frozen by the feds. Others saw tens of thousands confiscated in the raids.

But he was now stuck in North Carolina, out of a job, living with his in-laws, and with no way to provide for a family of four. His family’s financial troubles accelerated. When the first opportunity came for his wife to take the bar, they didn’t have the money to pay for the test.

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 13

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ardly anyone noticed when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed in 2006.

Moralists and casinos, who were trying to protect their turf, had been pushing it for years without luck. That’s when Senators Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) and Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) got the bright idea to stuff it in a port security bill as a last-minute amendment.

In true Washington fashion, most legislators never read the final bill. Many didn’t even know an anti-gambling measure was in it. But in one secretive stroke, the two senators had declared war on poker.

It didn’t actually outlaw online play. Kyl and Frist preferred that their attack on the American pastime remain surreptitious.

Going after individual players would have meant a huge backlash. Instead they targeted the financial institutions that handled the sites’ money, making it illegal to deal in gambling proceeds.

Party Poker, the world’s largest site, decided to cash in its chips. It agreed to pay a $105 million fine and leave the American

York was pressing ahead. In 2009 it filed charges against Allied Systems and Account Services for processing poker money. The feds seized $34 million owed to 27,000 players.

The sites reimbursed their customers and rolled on. PokerStars and Full Tilt discovered that SunFirst, a struggling Utah bank, was willing to handle the payments in exchange for fees and an investment. But the feds killed that deal a year later. They also quashed Full Tilt’s attempts to make similar arrangements with two Illinois banks.

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Se attle weekly • Febru ary 29–M arch 6, 2012

market in exchange for not being prosecuted.

That left the world’s most lucrative market up for grabs. PokerStars and Full Tilt, also-rans at the time, were quite willing to step into the breach, despite the legal risks.

And why not? PokerStars, based on the Isle of Man, and Full Tilt, headquartered in the UK’s Channel Islands, figured they were outside the reach of U.S. prosecutors. It wasn’t long before the two companies had cornered some 70 percent of the American market with revenues of nearly $2 billion a year.

But since the feds were squeezing banks and credit-card companies, finding payment processors to handle their money grew increasingly difficult. “By early 2007, suddenly the payment options are becoming much more tricky for PokerStars and Full Tilt,” says Melinda Sarafa, a New York lawyer who’s represented gamblers. “That’s where they’re starting to look into alternative providers.”

The feds’ squeeze was working. By 2009, an audit of Absolute Poker revealed that almost one-third of its revenue went to disguising the money trail. Says Sarafa: “The allegation is that the companies tried to find banks that were essentially in distress, providing them with a very lucrative lifeline, and that the transactions were disguised as other types of transactions so it wouldn’t raise regulatory eyebrows.”

Some in Congress tried to fight back, realizing that playing a few hands of poker after work wasn’t exactly the height of fiendishness. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) authored a bill to legalize online games.

But while that measure was winding through the House, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New

our summers ago, Maxwell Fritz (includes airport to hotel transportation) was making minimum wage serving cotton candy and curly fries at a Portland amusement park. He’d just finished his first year at Princeton, where TWO NIGHTS: he was studying to become a math teacher.

Accommodations (double occupancy) at the Fritz had played online poker casually with friends back in high school. He’d managed to Plaza Inn and Suites at Ashland Springs turn a few hundred dollars’ profit, and that planted the seed for next summer’s job. It had to pay better than minimum wage.

THREE PLAYS: He made $10,000 after school let out, so he continued during thePreviews school year. Overof an The Pirates of Penzance and Henry IV, Part 2 18-month period, while still attending Princeton and working his teaching internship,and a matinee of The Imaginary Invalid Fritz managed to take home $100,000. Over the next six months, he would grab another $200,000.

THREE EXTRAS: Then Black Friday hit. Suddenly Fritz had not only lost his income, but $65,000 was Backstage Tour, Play Prologue and seized from his Full Tilt account.

Discussion Period with a cast member He was among the fortunate to recover quickly. A fellow player provided a reference that allowed him to move from one kind of FOUR MEALS: gambling to another: Wall Street. “I figured if gambling online is illegal, I might as well go 2 lunches and 2 dinners to legalized gambling in the form of the stock market,” Fritz laughs. A friend had gone to a Wall Street firm and “just blew the doors off, INNUMERABLE MEMORIES: and he said what he learned in poker really helped him. They were, like, ‘Well, we need to All for only $865.00 per person. hire more poker players.’ ” For Michael LaTour, the game was a way out of unemployment. The Syracuse, N.Y., information please contact david@earsinc.com For more man landed a job out of college selling mortor call 206-273-7548. gages and personal loans for American General Financial. But a year later, spectacularly ACCEPTING must beTRANSFER made by January 20, 2011. inept bets by American’s parentReservations company, APPLICATIONS AIG, put him back on his ass. “There weren’t FOR FALL 2012 many jobs out there, and I’d been on unemployment for a while,” LaTour says. “I saw www.cornish.edu some people being successful at poker, and I 800.726.ARTS decided if I was ever going to seriously take a admission@cornish.edu shot at it, now would be the time to do so.”

He played for two years, earning $50,000 in 2010. He was doing much better last year, SEATTLE WA averaging $10,000 a month for 2011, until the

13

Seattle weekly • February 29–March 6, 2012

They Were Kings for a Moment » FROM PAGE 13

14

feds came calling. Suddenly the $35,000 in his PokerStars account was seized. “The days after it was really a panic,” he says. “Nobody knew what was going on. It’s been draining emotionally.”

If he and his girlfriend hadn’t bought a house, LaTour might have gone to Canada.

Instead he’s taken the Syracuse police-officer exam, but the academy doesn’t offer classes until April. Two years after pulling himself off unemployment by his wits, he’s back to the job search. “This isn’t something I wanted to do my entire life,” he says, “but the money was out there, and it made more sense than any entry-level job just because of the potential to win such huge amounts of money.”

Players weren’t the only ones thrown out of work. The feds blew up an entire industry.

In 2003, Michael Minkoff started a business that handled the shipping of poker books and videos sold on websites. His Las Vegas company also did freelance video production. It was a modest affair, employing three people and a passel of part-time help.

Then, in 2006, came the stealth attack by Frist and Kyl. Sites began to close and pare costs, hurling little guys like Minkoff to the side of the road. Black Friday nearly finished him. At his height, he was moving more than a thousand books a month. Nowadays he sells less than 50, hardly enough to employ himself part-time.

The feds launched an even bigger hit on the television industry. The list of canceled shows since April is long. Poker After Dark, a late-night show on NBC, was canceled abruptly after four-and-a-half years when the feds called its sponsor, Full Tilt, a “Ponzi scheme.” High Stakes Poker ended a four-year run on the Game Show Network last May. The National Heads-Up Poker Championship, also on NBC, collapsed in October after seven years. In April, Fox pulled PokerStars Big Game and PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge after their second seasons.

According to Kantar Media, Full Tilt and PokerStars spent $26 million in TV advertising last year; PokerStars spent another $8.3 million on web and magazine ads. In one fell swoop, the feds made it disappear.

T

hough they wiped out the major American sites, a few remain, most notably Bovada and Merge Gaming Network.

The volume is much lower, and it’s difficult to get paid. All have severe restrictions on how much and how often you can withdraw from your account. Merge only allows players to withdraw up to $2,500 once every six to eight weeks. And many find it difficult to add money to their accounts, since credit-card companies will often reject the transaction.

After Black Friday, Walter Wright started playing on Merge just to soothe nerves made raw by an empty wallet and a squealing baby.

He and his wife went to Florida for a live World Poker Tour event, but he didn’t play well. When they returned to North Carolina, they didn’t even have enough money to get their dogs out of the kennel.

With their marriage stretched to its breaking point, Wright went to Costa Rica just before Thanksgiving. A friend agreed to front him a roll, pay his airfare, and cover his rent for a few months.

Costa Rica has become a magnet for Americans. Wright lives in an apartment complex with other online players. The country’s touristfriendly economy makes it a logical landing spot for those like Wright, who has a DUI and subsequently isn’t allowed into Canada. Since Black Friday, companies like Poker Refugees have sprung up to help players get visas, bank accounts, and apartments in Costa Rica.

But a larger question remains: Why are the feds chasing honest, taxpaying citizens out of the country? Especially for something as benign as playing cards, an act committed by nearly every American? Congressman Frank denounced the crackdown as an “incredible waste of resources,” wondering why the feds felt compelled to protect “the public from the scourge of inside straights.” After all, for most of the country’s estimated 2 million online players, poker is little more than leisure recreation. And those who made their living from it seemed to personify the American spirit, providing for families by their wits.

THE GENERAL SENTIMENT, FROM PLAYERS TO POLITICIANS, IS THAT SOMETHING WILL GET DONE . . .

EVENTUALLY. And why did conservatives like Frist and Kyl push a law so rife with dreaded nannystate overtones? “I believe in a smaller, more conservative role for government than telling me which card games I can play on my computer,” says Fritz.

Frist declined to comment on his motives.

Kyl didn’t respond to repeated interview requests.

Most players cynically dismiss the senators’ move as a strong-arm play. The feds want their protection money—i.e., taxes—and won’t let the ride continue until someone pays up. But since government moves in slow motion, it’s left a multibillion-dollar industry to rot from atrophy. Any remedy will likely take years. “It’s really frustrating to me,” says LaTour. “It just seems they weren’t seeing any of that money that was going out there, so they want to set it up so they can tax it.

But the longer this takes, the more there will be people like me who just give up on it and move on with our lives to find another way of making a living. I’ve pretty much stopped waiting around.”

A solution seems rather simple. Since winnings are handled electronically, Internet poker offers the possibility of instant taxation.

And the feds could easily force sites operating in the U.S. to pay American taxes for the privilege of doing business here.

Yet the mom-and-pop poker enthusiast doesn’t employ a battery of lobbyists on Capitol Hill. And even if they did, they’d still be confronted by the moralists who believe any form of gambling is a sin.

“We’re a pretty small minority,” says Wright. “We don’t have a big voice. We need to be louder. But we’re talking American politics. One, we know it’s going to take longer than it should, they’re going to find a way to screw people, and they’re probably going to make the taxing situation really complicated.”

W

ithin a month of the federal crackdown, PokerStars returned $100 million to U.S. players and continued to

operate abroad.

Full Tilt was cleared to offer returns but never did, since it doesn’t have the money. It owes $150 million to American players alone.

In September, the feds accused owners Howard Lederer and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson of running a “global Ponzi scheme.”

“Banks fail for not having sufficient revenue to cover customer deposits all the time,” the company’s lawyer, Jeff Ifrah, said at the time. “No one refers to such failures as Ponzi schemes. And there was no Ponzi scheme here.” The court battle rages on.

This past fall the French company Groupe Bernard Tapie stepped in to buy Full Tilt for $80 million, promising to pay off the debts to international players. The feds have assumed responsibility for paying American players. They’ve announced no timetable for repayment.

Absolute Poker—originally formed by four frat brothers at the University of Montana—also wasn’t liquid enough to continue.

None of its players have been reimbursed. In December, Absolute Poker co-owner Brent Beckley pleaded guilty to lying to banks about the nature of his transactions. He’s expected to receive 12 to 18 months in jail. His accomplice, Ira Rubin, ran a payment-processing company in Costa Rica that disguised gambling proceeds through fake merchants and suppliers. He pleaded guilty in January, and is expected to receive up to two years. Rumors have been circulating that Absolute Poker will be repaying players soon, though payoffs may be as little as 25 cents on the dollar.

“If you had a federally [or] state-regulated system, that wouldn’t happen,” says Congressman Joe Barton (R-Texas). He’s also pushing a law to legalize online poker. “This is one of those rare congressional bills that’s not a Republican/Democrat issue,” Barton says. “There are people for it and against it on both sides, but there are much more people for it. If it came up on the floor of the Senate on a majority-vote-wins [basis], it would pass.

Whether it has 60 votes, I just can’t tell you.”

The general sentiment, from players to politicians, is that something will get done . . . eventually.

Meanwhile, poker has gathered some powerful advocates. Casinos that once guarded their turf are hoping to get in on online action.

They’re pushing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) to do something, but new revenue sources are anathema to many Republicans, who quashed Reid’s attempt to pass online poker regulation in 2010.

It may come down to states legalizing it within their borders (much like medical marijuana) and daring the feds to step in. Nevada has already begun to issue online gambling licenses.

Washington, D.C., passed a plan for running its own online poker site. And in December, the Justice Department reversed its longstanding view that the 1961 Wire Act banned online gaming, a move many experts see as opening the door to state-regulated poker.

Yet for the moment, the future remains cloudy. Maybe one day players will again be able to provide for their families. Until then, they’re just out of luck. E Chris Parker is a freelance writer in Cleveland.

He can be reached at musicscribe@gmail.com. news@seattleweekly.com

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the»weekly»wire COMEDY

Can We Talk?

Just three days after terrorizing the A-listers walking the red carpet at the Academy Awards, the woman who invented the phrase “What are you wearing?” makes her Benaroya debut. Love her or hate her, there’s no denying that Joan Rivers, whose comedy career spans more than 50 (!) years, is a show-business legend. If you giggled rather than gasped when she described Nicole Richie, in a metallic silver dress, as “a former drug addict who dresses like a needle” at the Golden Globes last month, then her stand-up routine is bound to amuse.

And she’s taken to Twitter! Granted, most of her tweets are promotional (supporting her mother/daughter reality-TV show Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best? on WE tv and Fashion Police on E!), but it shows that the 78-year-old refuses to slow down. And here’s our favorite bit of recent Rivers trivia: Asked who her best lay was, she cheerfully confessed to a one-night stand with Robert Mitchum. That is a life well-lived. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., seattlesymphony.org. $29–$55. 8 p.m. ERIKA HOBART BOOKS

One Is the Liveliest Number

You’ve heard it all before: Still not married?

How can you live in such a small apartment?

Don’t you want kids? Have you even tried OkCupid? Don’t you worry that you’ll die

Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

PATRICK WEISHAMPEL

wed/2/29

alone, no one will know, and your corpse will be eaten by your cats? But in fact, as the city with the third-highest percentage of people living alone (41.3 percent, per the U.S. Census, behind Atlanta and D.C.), Seattle may be leading a new demographic trend.

And according to NYU sociology professor Eric Klinenberg, singletonism— to use the scientific term—is increasingly the new norm. There’s nothing solitary or unhealthy about it, he says in Going

(Penguin, $27.95). “Living alone seems to encourage more, not less, social interaction,” he writes.

And furthermore, contrary to stereotype, “Internet use does not seem to cut people off from real friendships and connections.” Beyond the obvious factors of real estate, divorce, empty nests, the death of a spouse, etc., single-person households are ideally suited to urban density and the modern economy. Large families were once necessary to run the farm, but today, all those new Amazon office workers in SLU may prefer to chart their own path from cubicle to condo. Klinenberg addresses both real estate and marriage in his book. For instance, 22 percent of American adults were single in 1950, before the Pill, the sexual revolution, and no-fault divorce. And today?

Nearly 50 percent of adults are unwed—some

HALF-BURIED

© JOHN GRADE

John Grade is an artist who likes to work

The indoor half of Grade’s bifurcated sculpture.

with scale, texture, and time. His sculptures tend to be large and weathered, and Fold is no exception.

Ultimately bound for a new King County Library branch in Duvall, the wood-and-resin lattice is the second piece in his Fold series (three are planned). About eight feet high, with an undulating surface, it makes you think of honeycombs and tiny windows—like the carapace of some weird undersea reef creature, perhaps. (Grade actually calls them “termite sculptures.”) Half the sculpture has been planted in the Arizona soil; the plan is for the two sections to be reunited in Duvall in 10 years.

Decay is often part of Grade’s process, so in another decade we’ll be able to see how the two halves fit.

But for tonight at least, the unburied half is cleaner and closer than Arizona. Also on view: a 36-foot chalk-rubbing mural by Brian Benfer. (Through March 30.) Gallery4Culture, 101 Prefontaine Place S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 296-7580, 4culture.org.

Free. Opening reception: 6–8 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

unhappily, sure, but not everyone is miserable and pining for a partner. And you wanna know some other advantages of the single life? Your computer password can always be “password.” You can talk to your cat without shame. Unlimited shower time.

No arguing over the TV remote. The toilet seat is always in the position you left it.

And you can drink straight from the milk bottle without reprimand. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5.

7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER

thurs/3/1 STAGE

Chew the Mic

Last year, the oddly spelled Portland performance group tEEth won the grand prize at On the Boards’ AWARD show with Home Made, in which members hid under a sheet covering the stage and a tiny camera revealed them in a series of tender maneuvers projected on a large screen. The old childhood trick of reading under the covers with a flashlight was transformed into sensual exploration. Led by choreographer Angelle Hebert and sound designer Phillip Kraft, tEEth returns to OTB with the new Make/ Believe , applying the same spirit to a different set of materials: A microphone becomes a penis (or a bone), and its electrical cord is a tether, a net, or a noose. (Through Sat.) On the Boards, 100 W. Roy St., 217-9888, ontheboards.org. $20. 8 p.m. SANDRA KURTZ

DANCE

Dance of Conscience

José Limón believed that dance should reflect both the heights and depths of human experience—works like There Is a Time, drawn from Ecclesiastes, and The Moor’s Pavane, based on Othello, illustrate his concerns. But Limon died in 1972, and since then his Limón Dance Company has been searching for new takes on such humanist themes. To be performed tonight and Friday, the latest addition to its repertory is Come With Me by Rodrigo Pederneiras. (Saturday’s show is Limón only.)

Come With Me is inspired by The Ladies in White, Cuban women who publicly protest the imprisonment of dissidents. Pederneiras, known to local audiences as the choreographer of the ebullient Brazilian troupe Grupo Corpo, is now addressing more serious topics.

Limón would approve. (Through Sat.) Meany Hall, UW campus, 543-4880, uwworldseries.org. $20–$45. 8 p.m. SANDRA KURTZ

sat/3/3 CABARET

Doom and Tune

Reviewing then-teenage Nellie McKay’s debut album in these pages in 2004, I fretted that—despite her mischievous instincts and prodigious gifts—she was maybe a bit too much. I knew she had a bright future, but I was wrong about one thing: Being a bit too much is the effusive artist’s whole point.

She’s since covered Doris Day (on a cheeky tribute CD) and performed Kurt Weill (as Polly Peachum in the 2006 Broadway revival

Se attle weekly • Febru ary 29–M arch 6, 2012

*

FIRST THURSDAY

tEEth returns to the scene of its past OTB triumph.

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 17

Urban Eye Care

of The Threepenny Opera). In her lounge act–cum– social commentary I Want to Live!, which shouldn’t be missed in this one-night stand, the deceptive sunshine of McKay’s voice lights the darkened skies of the 1958 film about Barbara Graham, a thief and prostitute put to McKay has a love death in California’s for old Hollywood gas chamber in 1955 and its melodramas. for the brutal killing of a Burbank widow.

(Susan Hayward emoted her way to an Oscar in the movie.) McKay’s song cycle, backed by a jazz quartet going pop, finds room for all kinds of odd surprises in making murder go musical. She sings her way to the Beatles in the show: Just before she’s found guilty, McKay’s Graham plucks “I’m So Tired” on a ukulele in her prison blues, moving from sweet to sour with a furious cry of “I’d give you everything I’ve got for a little piece of mind!” Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave., 425-828-0422, kpcenter.org. $27–$30. 8 p.m. STEVE WIECKING NELLIEMCKAY.COM

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The Weekly Wire » FROM PAGE 17

sun/3/4 FILM

After the Frontier

Seattle weekly • February 29–March 6, 2012

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In Lee Anne Schmitt’s documentary The Last Buffalo Hunt, Terry Albrecht guides hunter/ tourist expeditions in southeastern Utah’s Henry Mountains, which were until 1872 called the “Unknown Mountains.” This far edge of the frontier, the last unnamed mountain range in the United States, is where the weathered cowboy assists his clients in shooting the area’s few remaining bison. After more than 30 years in the business, Albrecht vows, every season, that this one will be his last.

Riding with Albrecht’s outfit, Schmitt surveys a barren landscape dotted by gas stations and, in one case, a lonely pair of road signs pointing the way to Paradise and Last Chance. As her camera plainly shows, the Wild West has long since been tamed, evident in a caricature of Buffalo Bill presiding over a casino-resort or cowboys frozen in animatronic effigy at a rodeo trade show. The film’s critique of the region’s commercialization is most pointed when we see a squealing middle-class woman fail to deliver a kill shot. Although she treats the hunt as if it were an amusement park, she’s not the only one. The Last Buffalo Hunt parses the remains of Western conquest, the boom of expansion contracted into a desiccated, ghostly history. (Schmitt will attend the screening, part of a weekend series that also includes her California Company Town and two programs of shorts.) Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 267-5380, nwfilmforum. org. $6–$10. 8 p.m. GENEVIEVE YUE

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S E AT T L E W E E K LY. C O M / R E V E R B M O N T H LY

S E AT T L E W E E K LY ’ S M U S I C R E V I E W

REVERB

Li t R tle oo B I m G s

MONTHLY

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Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

opening acts »March 2012 volume 2 | number 3 » seattleweekly.com/reverbmonthly

»editoR’S letteR

In Review

03-REVERB-INTRO-1

In this seventh issue, you’ll probably notice a few changes. Some columns have come and gone, some new ones have popped up. We’ve also launched a few experiments outside these pages. For example, we’re partnering with Josh Kerns and the fine folks at KIRO 97.3 FM on a new show, Seattle Sounds, which airs every Sunday at 3 p.m. I’m co-hosting, and my colleague Erin Thompson— responsible for corralling and editing each issue’s reviews—is a regular guest.

We’ve also launched a Kindle edition of Reverb Monthly. If you’d rather read our prose on an eReader than on a computer screen or via a dead tree, you know where to find it. Expect more improvements—digitally and in print—in the months to come.

Enjoy the issue, wherever you’re reading it. E Chris Kornelis Editor, Reverb Monthly ckornelis@seattleweekly.com

inside»

»up front

»feature

4

6

answers & advice

BY John RodeRick | The Seattle

scene is overly self-serious, except when it’s relentlessly positive.

4

dig my mood

BY david StoeSz | Maybe someday

you’ll appreciate the blues like I do.

5 5

role model

BY duff Mckagan | This town could learn a few things from L.A. Really.

power ballard

BY Ma’chell duMa lavaSSaR |

The ’hood’s just a few small steps from perfection.

little big rooms

BY eRic gRandY | Small spaces—

the hot and sweaty kind—are the new trend in Seattle music venues. »the rest

9

reviews

Battles snarls, TacocaT pops, and more.

16 the month ahead The Warren G. Hardings, Skream & Benga, Zepparella, and much more.

»cover credit

IllustratIon by: tom Dougherty

»reverb monthly Editor Chris Kornelis dEsignEr Jane Sherman sEnior Editor Erin K. Thompson Copy Editor Gavin Borchert proofrEadEr Michael Mahoney Columnists Duff McKagan, John Roderick,

David Stoesz

Contributors Litsa Dremousis, Gwendolyn

Elliott, Gregory Franklin, Julia Mullen Gordon, Andrew Gospe, Eric Grandy, Todd Hamm, Dave Lake, Ma’Chell Duma LaVassar, Joe Williams layout Editor Kim Love COPYRIGHT © 2012 bY SeaTTle WeeklY, llC. all RIGHTS ReSeRved. RePROduCTIOn In WHOle OR In PaRT without permission is prohibited. issn 0898 0845 • reverb IS PublISHed mOnTHlY bY SeaTTle WeeklY, llC. SeaTTle WeeklY® IS a ReGISTeRed TRademaRk. 1008 WeSTeRn ave., ste. 300, seattle, wa 98104. • Founded 1976. main switchboard: 206-623-050 0 retail and online advertising: 206-467-4341

Reve r b • Se attle weekly • Feb ru a ry 29–March 6, 2012

When SPIN announced in January that it would review 1,500 records a year at 140 characters or less via Twitter, I couldn’t help but clap my hands.

In his announcement, senior editor Christopher Weingarten said the @SPINReviews were “aiming to be an exhaustively definitive listener’s guide and argumentstarter for virtually every album or EP or mixtape that matters in 2012.” He went on: “Think of this as a passionate cheat sheet, a jumpingoff point to explore your own opinion and fandom.”

We’ve been engaged in a similar experiment here at Reverb Monthly since we set up shop last August, when I announced that in each issue we would review every release (albums, EPs, mixtapes, singles . . . everything) put out by Seattle’s bands and labels. In many ways, our reviews are intended to do what SPIN’s do. In 25 to 50 words, we’re not trying to provide a definitive critical assessment of a record, but to offer a road map of our scene’s offerings. In other words, our reviews aren’t the end of a discussion, but the beginning.

When we launched this endeavor, there was no single clearinghouse of what Seattle was producing each month. Our first issue had 64 reviews. Our second, 54. This month we have 69 reviews. Every month we assume the number will fall off, that there will be a slow season. But there’s always another single from a local favorite (Red Jacket Mine), a band of up-and-comers (Eighteen Individual Eyes), or a random harp record inspired by a silent Peter Pan flick (Leslie McMichael). To date, we’ve reviewed more than 300 pieces of music. Never underestimate the diversity, quality, or quantity of your local producers.

3

distractions&diversions» ANSWERS/ADVICE

Irony or Seriousness?

Actually, relentless positivity might be the new fuck-you.

BY JOHN RODERICK

Do Seattle’s higher-learning schools do much to truly support the arts and/or music in Seattle and/or the world?

—Anonymous Roderick: My exposure to the music programs at local universities is fairly limited. I mean, I met dozens of Cornish “jazzbos” at after-hours hip-hop clubs back when you couldn’t go into a party in this town without someone rapping about “integrity” over a stand-up-bass solo, but that scene never made the daylight. I tried to take some music classes at UW, but they were all reserved for music majors, so my music education there came from listening to people practice vocal scales while I played stoned Frisbee on the quad.

Periodically I meet someone who studied music at a local college and now gigs out, but they’re the exception rather than the rule.

Most Seattle musicians I know learned to play their instrument the old-fashioned way: by sucking at it and claiming that their suckiness was actually art.

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Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

K

4

Why the so-serious tone in much of Seattle’s music? And then on the other side, why when it’s not serious, it’s just ironic?

—Anonymous

Seattle is a songwriter’s town rather than a musician’s town, which means the focus is on individual “geniuses” rather than chops or jams.

This alone doesn’t mean it has to be so deadly serious—there are some great songwriters who write happy, or at least merry, music—but Seattle was profoundly influenced by two factors: the Scandinavian conviction that celebration is unseemly, and the punk-rock belief that raw emotion is the source of unvarnished truth.

Most Seattle musicians I know learned to play their instrument the old-fashioned way: by sucking at it and claiming that their suckiness was actually art.

These two unfortunate misconceptions combined in Seattle to make a culture where multiple generations of kids whimper about the time their babysitter almost touched their pee-pee, while dozens of other kids smirk and/ or weep. This has been so ingrained that the only way for kids to have fun is by pretending that “fun-having” is a massive art prank.

Why do Seattle folks—specifically, much of Seattle press/radio—seemingly go overboard in their praise over the most mediocre musical acts, specifically local music? I get that supporting local music is essential, but is there anything wrong with criticism?

—Anonymous

I remember back in the late ’80s, when I was just starting out, hating yuppies so much. They were such bores, always boasting about how much better their music was and sneering that our protests and rock festivals would never compare to their stupid old Vietnam Woodstock. Even if they were mostly right, I hated their smugness, and I wasn’t alone. I like to think the whole grunge era was just saying “Here’s your Vietnam Woodstock, assholes—we just combined the sounds of both.”

DIG MY MOOD

Are ‘We’ Ruined?

And by “we,” I mean everyone but me.

BY DAVID STOESZ

I

f you listen to a lot of music, you may run into the problem of other people being left behind by your sophisticated taste. Take jazz. People don’t like it. They’re supposed to. That’s probably why they don’t. I of course spend my evenings alone at home, pipe in mouth, nodding along appreciatively to 45-minute sax solos. I’m sure you do the same. But people—they’re the ones who don’t like jazz. They don’t have the attention span we do.

Same with the blues. People (and again I’m referring to those less discerning than you and me) may dislike blues slightly less than they dislike jazz, but it’s still regarded by most as something that should keep to itself. Hanging out and being the bedrock of all popular music, or whatever it does to occupy itself.

As far as actually listening to the blues, though—God, what a fucking drag. There’s B.B. King or Stevie Ray Vaughan or Eric Clapton or whoever,

Nowadays the rock scene is full of freshfaced young people in thin T-shirts, all waving their praise-hands in the air and giving backrubs and all that shit. Most of the older rock people I know are confused and disgusted by these displays. “Who are all these shitty folk bands and why do they moon over each other with big, dumb cow eyes?”

The answer may be that you, sir, are a rock dinosaur. Young bands may not have any new musical ideas, but their “scene” is supportive and inclusive and vaguely “Christian” expressly to irritate and annoy all fat, grey dudes in dandruffy leather car coats clutching Jazzmasters and wondering where the negativity went.

Relentless positivity might be the new fuck-you. E John Roderick is the singer and songwriter responsible for The Long Winters. He tweets @ johnroderick. Send your questions and conundrums to jroderick@seattleweekly.com.

all of them up there hitting the same repertoire of riffs we’ve been bullied into accepting as classic.

An old crank named Martha Bayles once wrote a book called Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music, arguing that the exaggerated, macho strain of the blues that caught on in the UK (and was subsequently communicated back to white America) basically wrecked our ears.

The swaggering Chicago blues practiced

by Willie Dixon and his Brit followers reduced the music’s emotional spectrum to a single element—male braggadocio— and made guitar playing an athletic event. This kind of blues leaves behind the cosmic detachment of Robert Johnson contemplating “leaves trembling on the trees” and the mischievous humor of Blind Willie McTell—not to mention the delicate, intricate rhythm of early acoustic blues that doesn’t beat the shit out of every single downbeat.

Martha Bayles is good at arguing. Her arguments about music would be 100 percent correct if music were about arguing. It’s not. But on this point, she may have a point.

The bludgeoning power of rock and roll, springing from a tiny, emotionally stunted sliver of the blues tradition, may indeed have ruined us for the subtle pleasures of other music. Like, for example, I don’t know . . . jazz. Not you and me, of course. “Us” in the sense of everyone but us. E music@seattleweekly.com

10 Things Seattle Can Learn From L.A.

BY DUFF MCKAGAN

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UNDER THE NEEDLE TATTOO

Reve r b • Se attle weekly • Feb ru a ry 29–March 6, 2012

9. Get an arena. Staples n truth, you can’t really compare these very differCenter has done pretty well for ent municipalities. Seattle downtown L.A., if you ask me.

10. Move to the Valley. It is a place people grow up is now all hip and cool. Oh, not in, have roots in, and defend to a the San Fernando Valley here point of hilarity (myself included).

Conversely, Los Angeles—the city in L.A. (which is hip and cool I spend part of my life in—is a place now too). No, the RAINIER Valley, people move to. They move there which is the hippest and coolest to get something from that town. “I that Seattle currently has to offer.

11. Start more indoor playwanna be a STAR!” . . . or something. grounds for your kids. In L.A., they’re all That said, here are 10 things that Seattle over the place, and it’s sunny! In Seattle, all the could stand to take note of from Los Angeles: playgrounds are outdoors! Indoor playgrounds 1. Wear sunglasses more often. Yes, should be everywhere! E I know we don’t have the 280 days of sun that L.A. has, but it doesn’t mean you can’t just don Duff McKagan is the founding bassist of Guns some shades to look cool in at all times. Heck, N’ Roses and the leader of Seattle’s Loaded. they wear sunglasses in clubs and restaurants askduff@seattleweekly.com at night down in Los Angeles.

2. Clubs: Put bands on earlier. When a band says they are headlining and going on at one are Ballard’s days as a des10 p.m. in L.A., it actually means tination for those seeking the 10 p.m. and not 12:30 a.m.! twangy comforts of Hattie’s and the 3. More tax incentives Tractor. Blooming with businesses, it’s for film crews. Movies and this close to being the ultimate Seattle shows actually being filmed It’s almost neighborhood—a mini-downtown in our town will bring more the perfect Portland minus the boobies, if you dollahs. Money is good for our neighborhood. will. But Ballardia still lacks a few town. We got a little full of ourAlmost. easily fixable elements. Such as: selves after Singles and SleepBetter transit service. A lack

BY MA’CHELL less in Seattle, and pulled some of frequent late-night bus service DUMA of these good tax breaks for and daytime express routes make LAVASSAR film companies. Now all you accessing Ballard, other than by see is a flyover shot of Seattle car, a huge pain in the ass. Which on Grey’s Anatomy or The Killmakes parking a nightmare and puts far too many boozers behind ing. The rest is filmed in Holthe wheel. Since liquor makes this neighborhood boom, the city lywood or Canada. should re-evaluate and address its needs.

4. Make something up A “Gay”zlewood. Not one neighborhood in Seattle has gone about yourselves. Say you from frumpy to fab without the help of our now free-to-marry friends in went to Harvard or are a model/ the queer community. Yet there isn’t a single spot for them to gather in actor. Flower that shit up! this happening part of town. Why relegate these big-spending folks to 5. Don’t use your damn Capitol Hill? I propose a joint modeled after the elegant Market Street blinkers all the time. I haunt Hazlewood—relaxed, posh, and full of well-curated, danceknow it’s easy to do, and does beat-free music for grown-ups of all sexual persuasions to enjoy. inform other drivers of your A rock-’n’-roll boutique hotel. Do not say the words impending intention . . . but “Hotel Ballard” to me. It’s nice there’s somewhere to sleep in Balhow boring! lard if you have the foresight to make a reservation. A handful of 6. Start up a new busirooms in a converted residence doesn’t have the space, price, or ness for maps to stars’ scope to be a place where legendary nights are born. I’m talking homes. Hell, we’ve got music an Ace-style hotel with a sexy lounge—a place to house traveling and technology stars aplenty up musicians playing in the ’hood and to serve as a base for the lovely here. And really, they don’t have ladies who seek the boys in the band. Something with a throwback, to be the real “stars’ ” homes. It Continental Hyatt House vibe. Not only is this much needed in the works every time! music community, but it will be a place for tipsy “new friends” to 7. Get a good New York hook up after the bars close, and keep to a minimum the line of cars Jewish deli. In L.A. they “a-rockin’ ” on Shilshole Avenue Northwest at 2:30 a.m. have Canter’s and Jerry’s deli, 24-hour dining. This seems like a no-brainer, but for some just to name two . . . open 24 reason no one but a few hot-dog vendors wants to feed the drunken hours a day, 364 days a year. masses at 2 a.m. Not only would late-night dining space out the 8. Get a damn NBA bastimes people leave Ballard, it would also sober them up, straighten ketball team. We need our them out, and keep business booming another hour or two. I’d love Seattle Sonics back home . . . so to see the Sunset and Hattie’s keep their kitchens open ’til 4. E that we can have a rival in the music@seattleweekly.com Lakers again!

What’s happening& in MARCH

5

trending»

Little Big Rooms

From basements and back bars to lofts and storefronts, small is the new big in Seattle nightlife.

BY ERIC GRANDY

TY

HER

OUG

6

TOM D

Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

O

n a drizzly Friday night in February, Brooklyn band Cold Cave was playing to a packed, sweaty room at Capitol Hill’s Electric Tea Garden, a small loft space where the low ceilings amplified the show’s crowded feel. An installment of goth rave monthly Second Sight, it was the band’s third sold-out Seattle appearance in the past year, but a far cry from their previous shows: at a packed Neumos (capacity 650) for the Capitol Hill Block Party, and opening for the Kills at Showbox at the Market (capacity 1,130). Tonight, Cold Cave were playing for a capacity crowd of only 150.

Cold Cave themselves were stripped down from a three-piece (formerly a quartet) to a duo—the live drummer was jettisoned, leaving only frontman Wes Eisold and keyboardist/noisemaker Dominick Fernow on vocals and electronics—and they played an abbreviated set, thrashing through just a half-dozen songs in under half an hour. And that was the night’s appeal: Everything about it was small.

They’re not the only ones thinking small lately. A new crop of smaller venues on Capitol Hill and in other neighborhoods are redefining Seattle’s nightlife on a more intimate scale.

A couple of blocks down Pike Street from the Electric Tea Garden, on any Friday or Saturday night, there’s likely to be a line down the block in front of Grim’s—not just for its steampunk-inspired bar or “Butterfly Lounge” mezzanine, but for its loft-level dance-party space, the Woods: a 150-capacity room with exposed-wood walls and floors, its own bar,

“There’s a big difference when you’re not miles from your favorite artist. You want to feel their sweat coming off of them.” and a DJ booth perched a ladder’s length above the dance floor. Portland house duo Miracles Club’s set at the Woods for last year’s Decibel Festival got the venue noticed as far abroad as the UK, courtesy of The Guardian.

“The trend to open smaller venues does seem to be what’s happening now,” says Benjamin Sheffield, who’s been booking weekends at the Woods since its opening six months ago.

“It makes sense from a financial point of view.

If you are responsible for opening the establishment, that’s less of an investment to get the doors open. To me, the size of the room is perfect—it doesn’t take 200 people to make the night feel alive. At the peak hour, the Woods is like a house party. A house party set in the best neighborhood for nightlife.”

More than just size sets such spaces apart; it’s their re-creation of a house-party vibe.

Around the corner from the Woods, the Unicorn is finishing construction on a new

basement space, as is Neumos down the street. Both are set to open in April, and both are relatively expansive—the Unicorn’s Narwhal Room extends not only below their upstairs bar space but underneath the Post Options mailboxes store next door, while Barboza, below Neumos, will be twice the size of its mid-’00s incarnation as the VIP Room—but both aim to project a unique not-quite-anightclub vibe.

“Neumos is a bigger room,” says coowner/booker Steven Severin. “There’s a lot of bands that we don’t get to work with that I’m a fan of, especially locally. This is a way for us to get to do that, and on Capitol Hill with a full sound system, lights, etc.

“We used to have some killer parties at the old VIP room,” he continues. “We had Justice and Diplo DJ there after their crazy Showbox SoDo show [capacity 2,000]; a Band of Horses after-party with Sub Pop; and even

Muse came and threw down there after one of their arena gigs. There’s a big difference when you’re not miles from your favorite artist. You want to feel their sweat coming off of them. That’s what I like the most, and that’s the kind of vibe we’re hoping to create.”

The Narwhal Room aims to keep things intimate by more concrete means. “It is a large space down there for a bar,” says Unicorn co-owner Paul Blake. “It’s two or three times

bigger than the upstairs. But it is small for a venue. Capacity will be about 300—and that includes upstairs. It will seem smaller and cozy, though, because we have broken up the space into some separate spaces”—including a pinball room and a main room with one long bar and a stage barely big enough to fit a fourpiece band.

It’s not only on the 21-plus bar circuit that smaller spaces have become the loci for music and nightlife. Until it was shut down late last year, the Healthy Times Fun Club, a basement punk venue beneath the Annex Theatre, hosted all-ages shows with a distinctly DIY, communal, house-party vibe.

For a suggested donation, a person could catch touring acts, like Lightning Bolt and No Age, or any number of local bands—and enjoy a complimentary vegan potluck beforehand.

Since HTFC’s closing, some of that activity has shifted to Cairo, a small gallery/retail storefront space in Capitol Hill’s quieter Northwest quadrant.

Though its shows are considerably more low-key, Cairo has become a hub for many of Seattle’s up-and-coming artists and musicians, even earning a front-page profile in The Seattle Times’ arts supplement.

Of course, smaller venues are nothing new; spaces like the Comet Tavern, the Rendezvous’ JewelBox Theater and Grotto in Belltown, or even the Sunset in Ballard have long done big things in little spaces. The Electric Tea Garden space has existed in one form or another since the mid-’90s.

And larger clubs continue to thrive: Neumos’ overhauled basement wouldn’t be possible if the main club and Moe Bar weren’t doing good business upstairs, and Q, a 17,000-square-foot gay megaclub, is under construction down the block at Broadway and Pike.

But across the city, some of the best nights out are happening in closer quarters—Seattle’s basements, lofts, and side rooms. Even the Crocodile has recently started hosting smaller events in its Back Bar. “I don’t know how much of a trend there is towards smaller spots,” says Severin. But on their special appeal, the Neumos co-owner— who’s booked shows from there to the Paramount (capacity 2,800)—concurs: “Personally, I’d rather see shows in a smaller room.” E music@seattleweekly.com

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REVERB

reviews»Our Take on Every Local Release*

*

It’s March 2012, and Seattle Sounds Like . . .

Eighteen Individual Eyes, Unnovae

Nights (3/6, self-released, eighteen individualeyes.com): The opening and title track from EIE’s first full-length pulses with feverish melodies, thick, buzzy guitars, and Irene Barber’s luxuriant vocals. Happily, the rest of the album keeps to the same uniquely beautiful and compelling blueprint. ERIN K. THOMPSON (Thurs., March 1, The Crocodile)

LOCAL RELEASES The Adarna, The Adarna (3/2, self-released,

theadarna.com): Melodic pop-rock that is both competent and catchy, with a production style and vocals from singer/guitarist William Moore that sound ready for rock-radio airplay.

ANDREW GOSPE (Sat., March 3, Comet Tavern)

EvergreenOne, “Bangin’ ” (out now, selfreleased, wearecityhall.com): Though he packed in quite a few rap clichés here, I dig Ev1’s fury (talking about people getting their asses kicked and whatnot), and “Bangin’ ” sounds like it would be just that in a live setting. TH

Alabaster, Unraveled (out now, self-released, alabasterband.com): Super-slick, femalefronted radio rock from a Seattle-via-Chicago six-piece. Their latest seven-song EP is filled with big guitars, big vocals, and a glossy production that removes any edginess that may have poked through. As for pop hooks, the band delivers, though not much separates them from the rest of the pack—except maybe those angular haircuts. DAVE LAKE

The Fabulous Party Boys, The Fabulous

Party Boys (3/16, self-released, facebook. com/thefabulouspartyboys): On this fun and daringly funktastic record, electric saxophone and trumpets pierce through thumping tuba and guitar to create a record full of jazzy soul and foot-tapping. JOE WILLIAMS (Fri., March 16, Nectar)

*

ADRIEN LEAVITT

Avatar Young Blaze, The Humble Villain (out now, self-released, avyoungblaze.com): A fresh load of character-rich rhymes from one of the town’s best. At times pop-culture-referential, at others surprisingly personal, Av continues to flex like few can.

TODD HAMM

*

Battles, “White Electric (Shabazz

Christa Says Yay!, Monster Love Machine

(out now, self-released, christasaysyay. bandcamp.com): Easygoing female-fronted alt-rock with a heavy ’90s vibe. Fans of acts like Goodness will appreciate its moody groove and grown-up sensibility. MA’CHELL

Palaces Remix)” (out now, Warp, bttls. com): Shabazz Palaces flips Battles’ tense guitars into a spaced-out bed for typically snarling yet laid-back raps—and connects one more to Shabazz’s hermetic musical world. ERIC GRANDY

DUMA LAVASSAR

Jon Brenner, Pisces Pieces (out now, self-

Jill Cohn, Beautiful I Love You (out now, Box

Buildings on the Moon, World’s Away

(out now, self-released, facebook.com/ buildingsonthemoon): Newt Gingrich may want buildings on the moon, but Buildings on the Moon just want to rock you with their progressive hard rock, which isn’t to say they fancy odd time signatures or lyrics about distant lands. What it mostly means is that they probably love Incubus and play most of their verses with clean guitars before kicking on the distortion for the chorus. DL (Thurs., March 15, Chop Suey)

Yeah, every release

O’ Beanies Music, jillcohn.com): The ninth release from the Eastern Washington pianist and guitarist offers more of her brand of adult-contemporary coffeehouse rock, featuring her warm voice and delicate melodies.

There’s even a song called “John Denver’s Ghost,” which ought to give you some idea of Cohn’s inspiration/aspirations. DL

Cold Lake, Better Living (out now, Trench

Art Records, coldcoldlake.com): This aggro punk-metal quartet serves mega-heavy chromatic riffs on their five-song EP. And so what if singer Corey J Brewer’s guttural screams render nearly every lyric unintelligible? That’s part of Cold Lake’s charm. Includes a cover of Body Count’s “Cop Killer.” DL

*

Keith Comeau, Nelson’s House (out

now, self-released, superprojection. bandcamp.com): Indie pop with distinctive

*In each issue, we review every release from local bands and labels scheduled for the coming month. We fully expect a few releases to slip through the cracks. So each issue will also include anything we missed in previous issues, or that had been released in the interim. Send releases and reminders to reverbreviews@seattleweekly.com.

*

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

vocals and serious teen angst meets a toothache-sweetness vibe. This barelyout-of-high-school singer/songwriter obviously grew up on Bright Eyes and Modest Mouse records, and has the kind of talent that warrants notice. MDL The Crying Shame, EP One (out now, selfreleased, thecryingshame.bandcamp.com): Seasoned, feel-good twang-pop with simple melodies and cool, harmonic vocal play.

Well-crafted songs ably approached. MDL Daydream Vacation, “Clever Is Not

My Best Excuse” (out now, self-released, daydreamvacationband.com): Head Like a Kite mastermind Dave Einmo crafts another powerful pop track here, and for her part, DV vocalist Asya de Saavedra (previously of Smoosh) sings beautifully about moving on.

The song’s one downfall is Einmo’s overacted sentiment of regret, as he sings “Sittin’ in the corner with a dunce cap on” and “I just want to make it up to you” to death. That aside, the song bodes well for DV’s upcoming album Dare Seize the Fire. TH (Fri., March 16, The Crocodile)

*

Don’t Talk to the Cops!, Let’s Quit

(out now, Out for Stardom/Greedhead, donttalktothecopsmusic.com): Let’s Quit packs more of the playful dance rap and quick-hitting audio antics that have endeared DTTTC! to local fun-havers over the past year into an enjoyable 30-minute package.

A few well-placed features and hyper-catchy songwriting make this album a big-time win.

TH (Fri., March 9, Neumos)

*

Floods, “A Toast (to the Fallen)” (out

now, self-released, barfly13.bandcamp. com): The first new offering from the Saturday Knights’ Barfly in quite some time was worth the wait. The production (laid down

by Fliz himself ) is something spacey and dark, like El-P’s “Stepfather Factory,” and his words are beautifully solemn and anthemic.

One of the best singles 2012 has thrown my way thus far. TH

Lindsay Fuller, You, Anniversary (3/27, ATO Records, lindsayfuller.com): With the backing of champion Dave Matthews, Fuller’s big-label debut is her shot at the adult-contemporary set. That audience should cotton nicely to her gravelly, loosely mystical vocals and nuanced instrumentation, which ranges from solo piano to Silver Bullet-esque revelry. CHRIS KORNELIS (Wed., March 28, Tractor Tavern) Philana Goodrich, Arrows for Everyone (4/14, self-released, facebook.com/philana. goodrich): Every song on Arrows for Everyone sounds like it could be on the soundtrack of a Gregory Hines/Billy Crystal buddy-cop movie. And Hines is dead. MIKE SEELY

*

Grimeshine, rip.mpc (out now, selfreleased, grimeshine.bandcamp.com): Pro beats that cherry-pick from jazz, classic rock, and beyond. Grimeshine is a fresh new voice in the area’s beat scene, whom we surely haven’t heard the last of. TH

Reve r b • Se attle weekly • Feb ru a ry 29–March 6, 2012

released, jonbrenner.bandcamp.com): The only thing fishy about Brenner’s latest release is the song titles, like “Hearing Herring” and “Tuna Tune.” If you can get past all the watery wordplay, you’ll be privy to the work of an interesting modern composer whose minimalist instrumentals fuse electronica, post-rock, and the avant-garde into hypnotizing sonic seascapes. DL

Eighteen Individual Eyes’ Unnovae Nights is out March 6.

*

Fatal Lucciauno, The Message (out now, Sportn’ Life, fatallucciauno. bandcamp.com): A surprise free EP which appeared just two weeks before the release of his formal sophomore record, Respect, The Message is entirely produced by local powerhouse Jake One, and is every bit as strong as its proper successor. Lucciauno’s hard-core yet introspective lyricism strikes gold over Jake’s pristine production. TH (Thurs., March 8, Rendezvous)

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 9

reviews» » FROM PAGE 9

*

Grynch, Perspective (3/2, self-released,

getgrynch.com): Grynch’s well-crafted third full-length shows marked growth in both verse- and songwriting. When his songs center less around specific things and more around his personality and unique take on the world, as they mostly do here, his skill as an MC is fully realized. TH (Fri., March 2, Neumos) J-Pros, Level Up (out now, self-released,

jpros.bandcamp.com): This hip-hop duo’s first-ever EP fits in nicely with the general tenor of the Seattle scene: earnest lyrics (check out the nostalgia trip on “Lunch Lines & Assemblies”) coupled with straightforward beats. AG (Sat., March 10, The Mix) (out now, self-released, soundcloud.com/ keyboardkid206/katie-kate-houses-remix): Occasional Lil B producer Keyboard Kid throws down some syrupy synthesizers and hi-hat stutters behind Katie Kate’s vocals.

The result is a welcome twist, but it’s hard to beat the hauntingly beautiful original. TH Davidson Hart Kingsbery, “Two Horses”

b/w “Stuck in Washington” (3/20, Fin Records, davidsonhartkingsbery.com): DHK’s gravelly country twang, somewhere between Bruce Springsteen’s and Jeff Tweedy’s, saddles up nicely on these two tracks of pedal steel–steeped Americana rock. GE

Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

Kung Foo Grip & Giorgio Momurda, Indigo

10

Children Tales From the Other Side (out now, self-released, kungfoogrippbbj.com): A promising release from the young KFG crew and upcoming Eastside producer Momurda.

Lyrics are occasionally dark, but always smooth. TH

Jordan Lake, Consistency (out now, selfreleased, facebook.com/jordanlakemusic): Usually when you say one musician sounds like another, you don’t mean exactly like the other. But Jordan Lake’s Consistency really does sound exactly like Barcelona (with some slide guitar thrown in), probably because Barcelona frontman Brian Fennell produced and played on the record. MS (Sat., May 19, party at UW’s Theta Xi house) Leeni, Headphones on Your Heart (out

now, self-released, leeni.bandcamp.com): Years past chiptune’s micro-moment, local Gameboy girl Leeni returns with . . . a “5th anniversary” remake of Headphones, plus an apt 8-bit cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games” for timeliness. EG

*

Luck-One & Dekk, Beautiful Music Part 2 (out now, self-released, luckone music.bandcamp.com): Portland/Seattle MC Luck-One and collaborator Dekk show off their individual talents while making highly listenable songs. TH Jacob McCaslin, Calm Before the Storm (out

now, self-released, jacobmccaslin.bandcamp.

POOR MOON ILLUSIONS

RA Scion, Beg Borrow Steal (out now,

self-released, rascion.com): Scion (best known as Common Market’s MC) released this blisteringly angry three-song EP as a tribute to the Anonymous movement, but songs like the hard-driving “Beg” hit home regardless of the political context. AG

(3/27, Sub Pop, subpop.com) No doubt Poor Moon’s going to get a lot of first listens thanks to their pedigree—frontman Christian Wargo and guitarist Casey Wescott hold down day jobs with Fleet Foxes. It shouldn’t surprise or disappoint FF fans that the bands share few prominent musical characteristics. Poor Moon is lo-fi and monochromatic where Fleet Foxes is lush and expansive. The disappointment comes at this EP’s lack of ambition. There are fleeting (sorry) moments of inspiration, such as the lyrically articulate guitar lines on the lead single “People in Her Mind” and the operatic harmonies on album closer “Widow.”

But it’s otherwise forgettable and unfocused, the product of a band that sounds sure they want to make a record, but not certain of much else.

CK (Tues., March 27, Tractor Tavern) com): At 17, McCaslin can be described as nothing other than an old soul, channeling John Mayer through his polished, bluesy guitar riffs and vocal vulnerability. The title track is by far the most definitive, but Calm Before the Storm has little in the way of disappointments. McCaslin certainly has room to grow, but it promises to be a great journey to follow. JEVA LANGE Leslie McMichael, Peter Pan (out now,

self-released, pluckmusic.com): This Vashon Island harpist’s gently tuneful, Celtic-flavored original music for the 1924 silent film Peter Pan, which she has performed live during screenings of the film to popular acclaim across the West, makes for soothing, meditative listening on its own.

GAVIN BORCHERT

*

Nacho Picasso & Blue Sky Black Death, Lord of the Fly (out now, self-

released, nachopicasso.com): The in-demand Picasso continues his barrage of comic-bookvillain raps as fantastically vulgar as they are creative. As on LOTF’s predecessor For the Glory, Blue Sky Black Death creates a perfectly dreary digital backdrop. TH

*

Naomi Punk, “Voodoo Trust” (out now,

Couple Skate, coupleskaterecords.com): The first single from the art-rock enigma’s upcoming The Feeling LP stays true to its name—it’s bewitching, thanks to the woozy electric guitars and chanting, high-pitched vocals. The chugging bass and walloping drums keep things heavy and rocking. EKT

Dangerfield Newby, Life in Another Time: (3/1, self-released, soundcloud.com/ dangerfield-newby): Jeremy Best’s debut album is a grab bag of digital emotions and inspiration. Keyboard and electronic beats

Luke Rain, Rain Shine (out now, selfreleased, lukerainmusic.com): In a town where the hip-hop competition is so fierce, it’s essential that artists bring something new to the table. Local MC Luke Rain has a familiar flow that, while well-executed, cannot be called wholly original. MDL Red Jacket Mine, “Listen Up (If the World is

SUB POP RECORDS

Katie Kate/Keyboard Kid, “Houses” remix

bright refrains fuel this pro-Occupy anthem aimed at the Tea Party and conservative news media. GE

blend with audio samples and sounds of cheering crowds, though the best instrument of all is Best’s voice. JW Parker & Lace Cadence, Imagination (out

now, Members Only, membersonly206.com): State of the Artist’s Parker and local hip-hop/ R&B veteran Lace Cadence prove effective in the club/slow-jam game. This EP would sound good in the background while you’re laying low with a date. TH

The Past Impending, The Past Impending (out now, self-released, reverbnation.com/ thepastimpending): Most songs on this Head and the Heart–recalling three-piece’s debut EP feature some combination of fingerpicked guitar, gently brushed drums, syrupy cello, and frontman EJ Christopher’s gruff, yearning vocals. These songs are allowed to meander, but they never get very far. AG

*

Robin Pecknold, “Olivia, in a Separate

Bed” (out now, self-released, Google it): Stripped of Fleet Foxes’ harmonies and arrangements, Pecknold’s acoustic-guitar strumming and high, airy voice easily carry this meditation on an unraveling love. EG

J. Pinder, “Never No” (3/6, Fin Records,

myspace.com/jpinder): The first single from Pinder’s forthcoming album Careless gets by on the strength of its Kuddie Fresh–produced beat, which pulls out all the stops—organ, brass stabs, gospel backup vocals—and meshes well with the fairly archetypical lyrics about the hip-hop industry. AG (Sun., March 25, The Crocodile)

Post Adolescence, “What You Would

Call Socialism (I Would Call Civilization)” (out now, self-released, postadolescence. com): Power chords, fuzzy guitars, and

Going to Hell)” b/w “Rosy Days” (out now, Fin Records, soundcloud.com/redjacketmine): Red Jacket Mine are a sonic respirator keeping ’70s AM pop alive and well—radio-ready vintage Top 40 flirting with soul that could blend right in on a mixtape next to Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. MDL (Sat., March 10, El Corazon) The Riffbrokers, The Green Key Will Let You In (3/17, self-released, riffbrokers.bandcamp. com): Roots-centric rock, like a low-key Sun Volt, that could benefit from the occasional up-tempo surge. Green Key features solid songs that could be great if infused with a little more rock-’n’-roll energy. MDL (Sat., March 17, The Rat and Raven) Sam Russell, “I Am the Ghost” b/w “When

I’m Gone/Talk About Heaven” (out now, self-released, thebluemoonbible.com): This local folksinger’s new single is poignant in its restraint and subtlety; the flip, a simple acoustic-guitar-strummed, perfectly harmonized duet with Kate Noson, is even lovelier.

EKT (Wed., Feb. 29, Columbia City Theater)

Sad Face, Cheer Yourself Up (3/3, selfreleased, wearesadface.com): The latest from this pop-rock quintet starts out gloomy and droning; things pick up a bit with the punchy guitars on “Batman” and the pretty, rhythmic vocal harmonies on “Red Chair,” but for the most part this EP is more “sad face” than “cheer yourself up.” EKT (Sat., March 3, High Dive) Spoke, Ghost (out now, self-released,

spoke.bandcamp.com): Inventive electronic constructs that show a natural knack for songwriting. Spoke’s smooth voice unfortunately gets Auto-Tuned a couple of times, but when it’s left bare (as on the beautifully somber “Satellite” with Jewel Lazaro), his emotive tone rings clear and strong. TH

Suttikeeree & WD4D, After School EP 2 (3/6, Fourthcity Records, fourthcity.net): Two local beatmakers get together to lay down some extracurricular jams full of headnodding beats, gleaming synths, and the odd, cut-up hip-hop shout. EG (Tues., March 6, Lo-Fi Performance Gallery)

*

THEESatisfaction awE naturalE

(3/27, Sub Pop, theesatisfaction.com)

DAVID BELISLE

Enough waiting in the wings; Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White, collaborators on Shabazz Palaces’ superb Black Up, now have a record of their own with the full backing of the Sub Pop machine.

Ishmael Butler is the guest star this time around, and the ladies build on his signature blend of avant-jazz, hip-hop, and funk. If anything, awE naturalE is impressive for its sheer diversity of sounds. The lead single, “QueenS,” is a nouveau-disco jam that sounds like a Seattle-hipster take on the Scissor Sisters (“Sweat through your cardigan”), while the preceding track, “Earthseed,” is a wholly innovative spin on R&B that combines gentle piano chords, an off-beat drum loop, and an intensely profound rap verse, all building in an abrupt crescendo. There are moments of brilliance, but the 13-song LP just barely clocks in at half an hour, leaving the listener wanting more satisfaction. KEEGAN HAMILTON (Thurs., March 29, Neumos)

*

Art Vandelay, “Vitiligo” (out now, selfreleased, unimpress.com): MC Ricky Pharoe drops a couple of Christ-critical verses here that are as heavy as producer Mack Formway’s distorted beat. A single this on-point would make any alt-rap fan pray to some old carpenter for the speedy delivery of Vandelay’s upcoming LP Face Tattoo. TH

Three Ninjas, Live at the Monkey Grind (out

Various artists, Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly #27 (out now, self-released, ballofwax.org): Another fine compilation showcasing local artists like songstress Alicia Amiri, melodic chillsters The Music of Grayface, and a smattering of national talent including the Steve Albini-approved The Bats Pajamas. MDL

now, self-released, threeninjas.net): Recorded in 2010 in a Greenwood coffee shop, this live album from nerdcore MC and producer Jason J Brunet, aka Three Ninjas, isn’t unlike the reality series Hoarders, which he once appeared on. His songs are mashups of found sounds, hoarded beats, and tweaked pop samples; the result sounds a little like listening to three radio stations at once. DL (Fri., April 13, Cafe Venus/Mars Bar) Tip to Base, No Consequences (out now, self-

released, facebook.com/tiptobase): Quirky and incredibly upbeat, Tip to Base offers funk fans an excuse to get up and dance.

“Cut to the Chase,” the standout track, is quick and bounces around while making it obvious the band is all about fun. JW (Fri., March 16, Nectar)

The True Spokes, The True Spokes (out now, self-released, truespokes.bandcamp.com): This quintet, formerly known as Flowmotion, mixes up mellow, harmony-dense alt-country with an occasional feel-good pop groove. MDL

*

Kate Tucker, Ghost of Something New (3/13, Red Valise, katetucker.net): At the intersection of Mazzy Star Boulevard, Innocence Mission Avenue, and Cowboy Junkies Way stands onetime Seattleite Kate Tucker, whose new EP is just as pleasant as any of her prior releases. Tucker is also hotter than a mouthful of ghost chiles. Why she hasn’t blown up yet is beyond us. MS (Fri., March 30, Columbia City Theater)

Viper Creek Club, Hot Lights (out now, selfreleased, vipercreekclub.com): VCC do some fine remixes, but their latest EP of originals is a disappointing batch of cringy electro-emo, every thick kick or synth line marred by Mat Wisner’s strangulated howling. EG

*

The Walkabouts, “My Diviner” (3/13, Fin Records, thewalkabouts.com): The Walkabouts spend 10 minutes building anticipation on the back of meticulous atmospherics and slick Americana. That the record is then over and not just getting started is the only quibble. And not a minor one. CK

LOCAL LABELS’ OUT-OF-TOWN BANDS Jeremy Camp, I Still Believe: The #1’s

Collection (3/13, BEC, jeremycamp.com): Camp’s deep, grainy voice meshes perfectly with the driving, upbeat instrumentation on this showcase of his hits. Genre lines disappear across the 16-track record, with heavier songs like “Take My Life” offsetting the slower, acoustic-laced “Right Here.” JW

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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TacocaT, Take Me to Your Dealer (3/13, Hardly Art, tacocatdotcom.com): A-side lead “Spring Break-Up” details the neurotic disintegration of a relationship over some of the band’s tightest, poppiest punk yet; the B-sides pay homage to Cat Fancy magazine and the band’s favorite vaporizer. EG (Fri., March 23, Crocodile)

11

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Reve r b • Se attle weekly • Feb ru a ry 29–March 6, 2012

13

reviews» » FROM PAGE 11 feedtime, The Aberrant Years (3/13, Sub Pop, subpop.com): Sub Pop has rescued two hours and 42 minutes of punk ’n’ roll from this Australian power trio. The Aberrant Years includes everything the band made between 1978 and 1989, including inspired covers of the Beach Boys (“Fun, Fun, Fun”), the Stones (“Last Time”), and the Animals (“We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place”). CK (Wed., March 21, Tractor Tavern)

La Sera, Sees the Light (3/27, Hardly Art,

hardlyart.com): In the growing period between scrappy and full-grown, Vivian Girls’ Amy Goodman brings spunk and hooks aplenty to a record in which she’s looking for her place outside the garage. CK (Sat., March 3, Rendezvous) Maga Bo, Beyond Digital Mix (out now,

Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

Automation Records, automationrecords. com): This Selector and Seattle expat

14

first released by Portland label Fast Weapons. Nü Sensae play doomy, gloomy punk riffs which bassist/vocalist Andrea Lukic screams over, and which would make the perfect soundtrack for a slasher-flick killing spree. DL

The lovely La Sera.

Retribution Gospel Choir, The Revolution EP (3/27, Sub Pop, retributiongospelchoir. com): This group lets Low’s Alan Sparhawk air out songs too rocking or power-poppy for his slowcore day job; not quite a revolution, but it’s always nice to crank up the amps. EG

*

Spoek Mathambo,

Father Creeper (3/13, Sub Pop, spoek mathambo.com): It’s hard to listen to this South African producer/MC without being reminded of labelmates Shabazz Palaces, but Mathambo’s musical palette is broader, rooted in spacy electronica and hip-hop while incorporating rock and funk stylings reminiscent of TV on the Radio’s more experimental work. AG

*

Sent by Ravens, Mean What You Say

MAGDA WOSINSKA

Aaron Gillespie, Echo Your Song Live (out now, BEC, aarongillespie.com): Naysayers came out in droves when Gillespie parted ways from Underoath. Though he was the last founding member, it’s clear why he left: Echo Your Song is an uplifting album from a man who obviously needed a change of scenery. JW

currently resides in Brazil, and this DJ mix hosted by local label Automation is an appropriately dizzy survey of dirty global beats. EG

MyChildren MyBride, MyChildren MyBride

(3/13, Solid State, facebook.com/ mychildrenmybride): In a genre diluted with drop-D tuning and pounding instruments, MyChildren MyBride does its best to stand out. However, short of “Morpheus,”

which builds among layered screams, the record as a whole feels like a regurgitation of everything else. JW Nü Sensae, Tea Swamp Park (3/6, Suicide Squeeze, facebook.com/nusensae): A digital reissue of the Vancouver, B.C., band’s sold-out three-song seven-inch,

(out now, Tooth & Nail, facebook.com/ sentbyravens): The band’s second album is an exemplary example of powerful, aggressive rock that’s both uplifting and intricate. Echoing guitar and pounding drums round out a record that stands strongest on “Rebuild, Release” and “Prudence.” JW

*

Yellow Ostrich, Strange Land (3/6, Barsuk, yellowostrich.com): The New York trio’s second LP, all raw guitars, thrumming percussion, and strident vocals, is every bit as outré and charming as their first, last year’s The Mistress. The enchanting “Elephant King” is reminiscent of another indie-rock royal, Neutral Milk Hotel’s “King of Carrot Flowers.” EKT E

music@seattleweekly.com

John Atkinson Editor Stereophile Magazine

Music Matters7 A Special Evening of Presentations Devoted Exclusively to the Reproduction of Music

This is your invitation to Music Matters 7, our seventh annual special event devoted to the reproduction of music. Regardless of your favorite artists, your music library, or the way you listen, if music is important to you, you will want to attend Music Matters 7.

During one music-filled evening, you will see and hear the absolute finest 2-channel systems available - many of them presented by their manufacturers to the public for the first time - in six calibrated sound rooms.

Bob Stuart Chairman and Chief Technical Officer Meridian/Sooloos

Mark Glazier President Wisdom Audio

• Wednesday, February 29th, 5-10pm • Definitive Seattle - 6206 Roosevelt Way NE • Each of the presentations will run 30 minutes Highlights this year include the new Meridian M6 loudspeakers and 818 Reference pre-amp, Dan D'Agostino Momentum amp and pre-amp, Wilson Audio XLF speakers, Audio Research Reference DAC and 5SE, the prototype of the new Vienna Beethoven Baby Grand – Symphony Edition speakers, the Linn Akurate DSM, Isobarik speakers and Songcast, new Peachtree Decco products, as well as two representatives from Stereophile Magazine this year; editor, John Atkinson and writer, Stephen Mejias.

Presentations will be made by the following manufacturers: Audio Research D'Agostino Meridian/Sooloos Transparent

Ayre Acoustics Finite Elemente Peachtree Audio Vienna Acoustics

B&W HRS Rotel Wilson Audio

Classé Linn Stereophile Wisdom Audio

Peter McGrath Sales Manager Wilson Audio

Steve Croft Director of Sales Linn

Dave Nauber President Classé

Seating is limited, please RSVP to 206-524-6633 or online at definitive.com Light hors d'oeuvres & refreshments will be served. No dealers please.

Seattle Showroom - February 29th from 5:00 - 10:00 pm

Dan D’Agostino President Dan D’Agostino Audio

CONCERT SERIES

JIM JEFFERIES

!

AY D R

dinner & show

I

TH

!

AY D R

vagabond opera solas

7PM DOORS • ALL AGES

U AT S S

FRI/MARCH 2 • 7PM & 10PM CD RELEASE SHOWS!

SAT/MARCH 3 • 8PM

SAT MAR 3 • MOORE THEATRE

S HI

TU SA

SAT MAR 3 • MARKET

SUN MAR 4 • MARKET

8PM DOORS • ALL AGES

7PM DOORS • ALL AGES

“I GET WET” TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR PERFORMING THE ENTIRE “I GET WET” ALBUM LIVE, WITH FULL BAND

T

ANDREW W.K. with THE EVAPORATORS

THU/MARCH 8 & FRI/MARCH 9 • 8PM

leroy bell and his only friends SAT/MARCH 10 • 8PM

dudley manlove quartet

“edge of seventeen” anniversary celebration

TUE MAR 13 • MARKET 7PM DOORS • 21+

BALKAN BEAT BOX

SAT MAR 10 • MARKET 8PM DOORS • ALL AGES

WOODY GUTHRIE PROJECT feat.

JAY FARRAR, WILL JOHNSON, ANDERS PARKER, and YIM YAMES with SARAH JAFFE

NU BLACK ARTS WEST THEATRE PRESENTS

TUE JUN 12 • MARKET

dark divas

next • 3/14 lucy wainwright roche • 3/15 - 3/17 mark siano presents modern luv • 3/18 william fitzsimmons w/ denison witmer • 3/22 michael gira – of swans! w/ sir richard bishop • 3/23 darrell scott cd release • 3/24 girlyman w/ adrianne • 3/25 & 3/26 an evening with paul kelly “a to z”

7PM DOORS • 21+

SUN JUN 3 • MARKET 7PM DOORS • ALL AGES

UP AND COMING:

ON SALE 3/2@10AM

TINARIWEN

ON SALE 3/2@10AM

SOJA | MAR 1 | MARKET • G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE | MAR 2 | MARKET • FEED ME W/ TEETH | MAR 12 | MARKET • J BOOG | MAR 17 |

SODO • GEORGE CLINTON & PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC | MAR 17 | MARKET • DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS | MAR 20 | MARKET • UMPHREY’S MCGEE | MAR 22 | MAR-

• 3/1 first thursday w/ john breitweiser / tubaluba presents: whifth of fiskey • 3/2 youngblood groovement / bakelite 78 • 3/3 4 outta 5 • 3/5 free funk union • 3/6 trivia + industry night! • 3/7 sung park

KET • KAISER CHIEFS | MAR 23 | MARKET • GALACTIC | MAR 23 | SODO • OF MONTREAL | MAR 24 | MARKET • OF MONSTERS AND MEN | MAR 26 | SODO • SAY ANYTHING | MAR 27 | MARKET • THE TING TINGS | MAR 28 | MARKET • MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE | MAR 28 | SODO • DARK STAR ORCHESTRA | MAR 29 &

30 | MARKET • NIT GRIT & TWO FRESH | MAR 30 | NEUMOS • CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS | MAR 31 | MARKET • ANI DIFRANCO | APR 1 | MARKET • STEVEN

FRI JAN 20 • ALL AGES SAT JAN 21 • 21+

WILSON | APR 4 | MARKET • UNCLE KRACKER | APR 7 | MARKET • KASABIAN | APR 10 | MARKET • CHILLY GONZALES | APR 10 | THE TRIPLE DOOR • THOMAS DOLBY | APR 11 | MARKET • ODD FUTURE | APR 11 | SODO • COUNTING CROWS | APR 13 | SODO • DOM KENNEDY | APR 14 | MARKET • SLAUGHTERHOUSE | APR

15 | MARKET • ESCAPE THE FATE AND ATTACK ATTACK! | APR 16 | MARKET • GREENSKY BLUEGRASS | APR 19 | MARKET • YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND | APR 21 | SODO • THE NAKED AND FAMOUS | APR 24 | SODO • BRAD | APR 27 | MARKET • ZEDS DEAD | APR 28 | SODO • HUNTER HAYES | MAY 1 | MARKET

TO ENSURE THE BEST EXPERIENCE

PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY DOORS OPEN 1.5 HOURS PRIOR TO FIRST SHOW ALL-AGES (BEFORE 9:30PM)

thetripledoor.net 216 UNION STREET, SEATTLE 206.838.4333

SHOWBOX AT THE MARKET 1426 1ST AVENUE SHOWBOX SODO 1700 1ST AVENUE S. SHOWBOXONLINE.COM

Reve r b • Se attle weekly • Feb ru a ry 29–March 6, 2012

JUST ADDED

SUN/MARCH 11 • 7PM

15

the»month»ahead

pop/rock

Side Saddle FRIDAY, MARCH 9

This trio of classic country-loving ladies sing with sweet harmonies and conjure up a time when Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris ruled country radio.

BY ERIN K. THOMPSON

Dylan Baldi (rear left) and his Cloud Nothings.

Cold War Kids THURSDAY, MARCH 1–SATURDAY, MARCH 3

The Long Beach, Calif., quartet is playing three three-night stands in three West Coast cities to promote their hooky new single, “Minimum Day,” and their new lineup— former Modest Mouse guitarist Dann Gallucci replaced the departing Jonnie Russell just last month. With Superhuman-

Conor Byrne, 5140 Ballard Ave. N.W., 784-3640. 9 p.m. $8.

New Multitudes SATURDAY, MARCH 10

Jeff Tweedy had his Woody Guthrie– inspired collaboration with Billy Bragg (Mermaid Avenue), and it’s only fitting that Uncle Tupelo’s other founding father, Americana rock legend Jay Farrar, should have his, too. With Sarah Jaffe. Showbox at the

oids. Columbia City Theater, 4916 Rainier Ave. S., 722-3009. 9 p.m. $20 or $50 for all three nights.

Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151. 8 p.m. $22.50 adv./$25 DOS. All ages.

Cloud Nothings TUESDAY, MARCH 6

The Buckaroosters

Cloud Nothings’ third LP, this year’s Steve Albini–produced Attack on Memory, finds 20-year-old mastermind Dylan Baldi recording with a full band for the first time, making for a heavier, more aggressive sound. With Mr.

THURSDAY, MARCH 15

This all-Buck Owens, all-the-time cover band, comprising some of Seattle’s best country players, regularly lights up the Hen’s dance floor with their honky-tonkin’ take on Owens’ classic Bakersfield sound.

Dream. The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618. 8 p.m. $10.

Little Red Hen, 7115 Woodlawn Ave. N.E., 522-1168. 9 p.m. $3.

Javier Colon WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7

Drive-By Truckers

16

E. Pike St., 709-9442. 7 p.m. $25. All ages.

Islands SATURDAY, MARCH 10

Islands’ latest record, the endearing A Sleep & A Forgetting, chronicles Nick Thorburn’s devastating Valentine’s Day split with a longtime lover last year; the result is the most touching and starkly emotional collection of songs he’s written yet. With Idiot Glee.

Vera Project, 305 Harrison St., 956-8372.

7:30 p.m. $11. All ages.

The Raincoats FRIDAY, MARCH 16

Veteran lady punks the Raincoats haven’t released an album in 16 years, but after Jeff Mangum asked them to play his curated version of All Tomorrow’s Parties this year, the girls decided to follow up the festival with five U.S. shows. Seattle is one of the lucky cities they’ll hit. With Grass Widow, M. Women. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8004. 8 p.m. $16.

Kelly Clarkson THURSDAY, MARCH 22

With her fifth album, Stronger, Kelly Clarkson proves her endurance as a pop star; her anthemic single “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” topped the Billboard and iTunes charts, making it much more successful than her recent Ron Paul endorsement via Twitter.

TUESDAY, MARCH 20 RYAN MANNING

Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

Javier Colon’s wrenching rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” was one of the highlights of last year’s first season of The Voice; Colon went on to win the entire competition and collaborated with Pharrell Williams, Ryan Tedder, and Adam Levine on his new record Come Through for You. Neumos, 925 With Matt Nathanson. ShoWare Center, 625 W. James St., Kent, 253-856-6777.

7 p.m. $35–$65. All ages.

Comet Tavern, 922 E. Pike St., 322-9272.

9 p.m. $10.

Milagres

The Ting Tings

SUNDAY, MARCH 25

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28

The New York indie-pop quintet has spent the past year touring the U.S. and Europe, relentlessly pushing their Kill Rock Stars–released Glowing Mouth, a radiant, exquisitely crafted record that deserves any attention it gets and more. With 1,2,3, Desert Noises. High Dive,

After four years, this British dance-punk duo is finally releasing the follow-up to their much-hyped debut, We Started Nothing.

Sounds From Nowheresville is more of the same—a clash of party pop, punchy beats, and breezy R&B. With MNDR. Showbox at the

513 N. 36th St., 632-0212. 8 p.m. $7.

Sharon Van Etten

live setting. With White Mystery, Sick Secrets.

Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151. 8 p.m. $21 adv./$23 DOS.

These Alabama/Georgia based alt-country rockers swing through Seattle on the heels of last year’s Go-Go Boots with their dirtySouth-styled operatic ballads and roots-rock anthems. With Robert Ellis. Showbox at the

Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151. 7 p.m. $25 adv./$28 DOS.

Lady Antebellum TUESDAY, MARCH 20

Irrepressible country rockers Lady Antebellum have garnered an impressive seven Grammy wins (their latest: 2011’s Best Country Album, Own the Night), and will just as likely charm Seattle with their effervescent harmonies and soulful rock.

With Darius Rucker, Thompson Square.

KeyArena, 401 First Ave. N., 684-7200.

7 p.m. $24–$76.50. All ages.

Latigo Lace

SUNDAY, MARCH 25

FRIDAY, MARCH 23

This buzzworthy, world-wise Brooklyn singer/ songwriter played a lovely set at Bumbershoot last year; since then she’s released her intimate third record, Tramp, which features Van Etten’s colorful vocals alongside moodily strummed guitars. The Neptune, 1303

“Butt Kickin’ Rockin’ Country” outfit Latigo Lace performs classic and Top-40 country with punch and pizzazz, and have been a mainstay at the Hen for years. Little Red Hen, 7115

N.E. 45th St., 877-784-4849. 8 p.m. $15. All ages.

The Coathangers WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28

These feral Atlanta girl-rockers released their riotous Larceny & Old Lace on Suicide Squeeze last year; their thrashing punk tunes are even more of a rip-tearing good time in a

country

BY GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT

Woodlawn Ave. N.E., 522-1168. 9 p.m. $5.

Punch Brothers

Darrell Scott

TUESDAY, MARCH 6

FRIDAY, MARCH 23

Merging bluegrass themes with expansive, progressive instrumentation, mandolin man Chris Thile formed this lively five-piece string band after Nickel Creek broke up in 2007. With Aoife O’Donovan. The Neptune,

Revered Nashville session player Darrell Scott’s new album, The Long Ride Home, has climbed to the top of the Americana charts with its traditional, rootsy, down-home country sound. With

1303 N.E. 45th St., 781-5755. 8 p.m. $19.

All ages.

Gary Ogan. Triple Door, 216 Union St., 8384333. 7 p.m. $22 adv./$25 DOS. All ages.

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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Events

MARCH 18-31

GET A CLUE SEATTLE WHERE: DOWNTOWN-CAPITOL HILL-QUEEN ANNE

Photo of the Week

Free Stuff GIMME CULTURE WIN TICKETS TO TOP SEATTLE SHOWS

BEARD & STACHE FESTIVAL

» FROM PAGE 16

Head Like a Kite & Daydream Vacation FRIDAY, MARCH 16

The Warren G. Hardings FRIDAY, MARCH 23

This Seattle string quintet performs bluegrass-styled compositions with an indie-rock edge. With Polecat, Head for the Hills. High

Dive, 513 N. 36th St., 632-0212. 8 p.m. $10.

Rosie Flores FRIDAY, MARCH 30

This Tex-Mex rockabilly queen is one of the few female guitarists to have her own official Day (August 31 in Austin), but there’s no doubt the maestra, credited as one of the creators of alt-country, has earned it. With

Dave Einmo has been called the “Supreme Chancellor of Seattle dance pop” (by me), and has done nothing of late to discredit that claim. He will pull double duty tonight with his two bands: established dance/hip-hop project Head Like a Kite and new venture Daydream Vacation. Likely cameos include cohorts Trent Moorman, Tilson, Asya de Saavedra, and Nat Damm. With NighTraiN, Sports. The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618. 8 p.m. $10.

America’s Young Jeezy.

Marti Brom. Slim’s Last Chance Chili Shack, 5606 First Ave. S., 762-7900. 9 p.m. $13 adv./$15 DOS.

LIVE

LIVE

@ THE Crocodile

@ The Rendezvous

hip-hop

3/1

4/1

BY TODD HAMM

Grynch FRIDAY, MARCH 2

DOWNLOAD

The Adarna self-titled

available at easy street, itunes, amazon and theadarna.com

$10.99 Eighteen Individual Eyes Unnovae Nights

available at sonic boom, easy street and eighteenindividualeyes.com

Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442. 8 p.m. $10. All ages.

LIVE

One Be Lo

@ HARD ROCK

SATURDAY, MARCH 3

Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

4/6

18

At this album-release show for Grynch’s third album, Perspective, expect to see a few of the record’s guests and hear a ton of new music from one of the scene’s most endearing figures. With The Bar, Chev, DJ Swervewon.

$7.99

DOWNLOAD $8.99 CD

As a solo artist and half of Binary Star, this Pontiac, Mich., MC has been making classic music for well over a decade. He’s made Seattle his second home over the past few years, and tonight’s show should have some killer energy. With Ra Scion, Luke Rain, AudioDose

Crew, E & Dae. Nectar, 412 N. 36th St., 632-2020. 8 p.m. $8.

The Good Sin & Luck-One Art Vandelay Face Tattoo

available at unimpressive.com starting in May

Chad Knight Shy Daydreamer EP

available at itunes, amazon and cdbaby

LIVE @ NECTAR

LIVE

4/14

@ NECTAR

FREE EP

available at bandcamp and lukerainmusic.com

available at itunes and cdbaby

TUESDAY, MARCH 27

Swinging through Seattle for the second time in six months (he appeared at Showbox at the Market in September), Atlanta’s hyphy figurehead is playing a more intimate setting this time. The Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th

St., 877-784-4849. 7 p.m. $27.50 adv./ $30 DOS. All ages.

Fresh Espresso

Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618.

8 p.m. $12.

FRIDAY, MARCH 9

Philana Goodrich Arrows for Everyone

Young Jeezy

Jovial MC The Good Sin and lyricist LuckOne have both come a long way in the past year. Having released a steady stream of quality product and built their brands to a comparably high level, holding a dual album-release show makes perfect sense. It’s a great opportunity to get acquainted with a couple of buzzing artists. With Thaddeus David, Brothers From Another. The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618. 8 p.m. $10.

3/3

Luke Rain Rainshine

SATURDAY, MARCH 3

DEF JAM RECORDINGS

$5

Although they’ve been somewhat quiet since releasing their summer 2009 debut Glamour, Fresh Espresso’s music remains as inventive and forward-thinking as ever.

Expect P Smoov and Rik Rude, hard at work on their next album, to bring the heat. With Don’t Talk to the Cops!, White China Gold, DJ 100proof. Neumos. 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442. 8 p.m. $10.

Eligh & Amp Live WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28

Living Legends representative Eligh and Zion I producer Amp Live found a successful mesh-point in last year’s Therapy at 3, so, along with whatever solo material they decide to bring to the stage, they should be able to please fans of both parties. The

THEESatisfaction THURSDAY, MARCH 29

The album-release show for TS’s Sub Pop debut, awE NaturalE, will likely mark the beginning of a fruitful chapter for the duo and hint at what’s to come. Be there to see things take shape. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442. 8 p.m. $10.

dj/electronic

BY ERIC GRANDY

Soul Train Party FRIDAY, MARCH 2

Soul Train’s Don Cornelius (R.I.P.) taught a nation to get down while exposing audiences to some funky music; tonight DJ Riz and Shonuph honor that legacy by doing the same for Seattle. Electric Tea Garden, 1402 E. Pike St., 568-3972. 9 p.m.

Mike Q SATURDAY, MARCH 3

Before Madonna took vogueing to the Super Bowl, it was part of NYC’s gay “ballroom” subculture, where it persists. Mike Q is one of the current scene’s premier DJs, and his jacking house tracks are ideal for throwing shade, reading bitches, and otherwise working it.

With Cedaa, Ill Cosby, 214, flarelight, Kid Simpl, DJAO, qp. Lo-Fi Performance Gallery, 429 Eastlake Ave., 254-2824. Midnight. $8.

Stop Biting: Suttikeeree & WD4D TUESDAY, MARCH 6

Local producers WD4D and Suttikeeree celebrate the release of their joint effort, the After School EP 2, an ace batch of heady beats laced with glossy synths and rough, cut-up samples.

Lo-Fi Performance Gallery, 429 Eastlake Ave., 254-2824. Midnight. $5.

Soul’d out ProductionS & double tee concertS PreSent

Grammy Electronic Mixer THURSDAY, MARCH 8

Soul. Electric Tea Garden, 1402 E. Pike St., 568-3972. 6 p.m. Free with RSVP.

Trus’Me FRIDAY, MARCH 9

Decibel’s monthly at Re-bar brings British nu-disco phenom Trus’Me back to Seattle for a night of re-rubbed classics and deep, funky original cuts. With Justice + Treasure vs.

aS SEEn On thE OSCarS!

ON SALE NOW!

FRI MARCH 16tH • Neumos • 9pM • 21+

Pezzner & Hanssen. Re-bar, 1114 Howell St., 233-9873. 10 p.m. $13 adv./$15 DOS.

ON SALE NOW!

Steve Aoki & Datsik FRIDAY, MARCH 9

In the past decade, Dim Mak label owner Steve Aoki has championed post-hardcore, dance punk, blog-house, electro-clash, and whatever else the wind was blowing; that he arrives in Seattle this time with the wubby bro-step of Datsik seems entirely in character.

The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 467-5510.

8 p.m. $25–$35. All ages.

Knightriders 5-Year Anniversary FRIDAY, MARCH 9

Detroit house and techno producer (and sometimes stand-up comic) Kenny Larkin headlines, while local crew-turned-label

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

MUSiC SOCiEtY

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U mad about Skrillex and Deadmau5 at the Grammys? Tonight’s mixer promises subtler strains of electronic music via Portland’s Natasha Kmeto—plus the opportunity to join NARAS, the body that votes on Grammy winners, bro. With 214, Sean Majors, Nordic

19

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themonthahead» » FROM PAGE 19

Vendetta Red SATURDAY, MARCH 17

Hard at work on a new album, a reunited Vendetta Red will take a break from recording to celebrate the release of a new seven-inch, the first 300 of which will be hand-numbered and on glow-in-the-dark vinyl, which you can pick up at the show.

Knightriders shows off their promising stable of Seattle talent earlier on the bill. With Christy

With Encourager, Viper Creek Club, Silicon Girls. The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618. 8 p.m. $15. All ages.

Chicago funkmaster DJ Heather.

Deicide SUNDAY, MARCH 18

SATURDAY, MARCH 17

SATURDAY, MARCH 10

Local house crew Uniting Souls celebrates its 15th anniversary with OM Records/ Mushroom Jazz DJ Mark Farina. Expect Farina’s typical organic grooves, and maybe a couple screwballs from local support Pezzner.

Two British punk legends face off onstage.

Cornwell led the Stranglers from 1974–90, while Matlock wrote the lion’s share of the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks. Catch them now before they’re both too old to tour.

With Michael Manahan, Ramiro, Deepvibez, Jeromy Nail. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9442. 9 p.m. $15.

With Red Jacket Mine, Toxic Kid. El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 381-3094. 9 p.m. $15 adv./$17 DOS.

Skream & Benga

Flogging Molly

THURSDAY, MARCH 22

TUESDAY, MARCH 13

Skream and Benga were among dubstep’s first innovators in the early ’00s in south London; since then, once-austere bass music has blown up to big, Grammy-winning proportions, and for better or worse its pioneers have largely kept pace. With Kid Hops. Neumos, 925 E.

Flogging Molly’s latest was written in a Detroit basement and recorded in an old church. Speed of Darkness is a sharp blast of Celtic punk about faith, resilience, and community, but the band’s always been as enjoyable live as on record. With Suede-

BY DAVE LAKE

Guttermouth SATURDAY, MARCH 3

They’re obnoxious, they’re offensive, they’re Guttermouth—and how better to spend a Saturday night than drinking cheap beer with your fellow degenerates while slamming along to hits like “Pee in the Shower,” “Cram It up Your Ass,” and “1-2-3 Slam”? With Uncivil,

Boldtype. Funhouse, 206 Fifth Ave. N., 374-8400. 9:30 p.m. $13.

Andrew W.K. SUNDAY, MARCH 4

Marking the 10th anniversary of his breakthrough debut I Get Wet, the party animal will play the record in its entirety tonight, touring with his full band for the first time in almost seven years. With the Evaporators. Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151.

7 p.m. $25 adv./$28 DOS. All ages.

Zepparella

In town to record a new record with Matt Bayles, this Boston post-hardcore band will play a one-off show, where you’ll hopefully get to hear some of those new songs. Catch them at the intimate Vera before they head out on the Warped Tour this summer. With Success, Erode, Crutches, Four Minute Mile.

Vera Project, 305 Harrison St., 956-8372.

7 p.m. $11. All ages.

E

ST

s

S E AT

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LIVE MUSIC 5 NIGHTS A WEEK tickets at brownpapertickets.com FRI 3/2 $5/21+

DOWN NORTH KISSING POTION GEORGE TISDALE BAND SAT 3/10 $8adv/$10dos

Boston’s Make Do and Mend.

MORNING GLORY (DRAG BRUNCH)

SUN 3/18 all ages matinee $5/full bar with ID

PUDDING

20 LB. GUMBALL SAT 3/24 $5/21+

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MAX SCHWARTZ

the heavies

head, Sean Wheeler, Zander Schloss. The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 467-5510. 7:30 p.m. $29.25. All ages.

SUNDAY, MARCH 18

YLAR

FRIDAY, MARCH 16

Rather than choosing between your love of Led Zeppelin and your love of hot chicks, why not combine them by taking in a set from this kick-ass all-female Zeppelin tribute?

Bonus: See both shows for $20. I wonder if they’ll spend the night fishing at the Edgewater afterward. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard

Ave. N.W., 789-3599. 7 & 11 p.m. $12.50 adv./$15 DOS, or both shows for $20.

DragStrip Riot SATURDAY, MARCH 17

Celebrate St. Patty’s Day with a gaggle of souped-up punk bands. You’ll be getting drunk anyway, and these bands are the perfect soundtrack. Plus, The Graceland Five combine two things you didn’t even know you wanted together: the Misfits and Elvis. With The Hardcount, Warning: Danger. Funhouse, 206 Fifth Ave. N., 374-8400. 9:30 p.m. $6.

SWEET SECRETS guests

THU 3/29 $7adv/$9dos/21+

Onslaught MONDAY, MARCH 19

The British thrash-metal vets bring their live show to North America for the very first time. Supporting are M-Pire of Evil, featuring black-metal progenitors Mantas, Antton, and Demolition Man of Venom. With Evil Dead,

Crush Your Enemies. Studio Seven, 110 S. Horton St., 286-1312. 6 p.m. $15 adv./ $17 DOS. All ages.

Mudhoney WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21

Mark Arm’s treatise on Creed in the grungethemed episode of VH1’s Metal Evolution was a highlight. So will be this show. If you’ve seen Mudhoney before, you already know that. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

With feedtime. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599. 8 p.m. $15.

WESTSIDE BURLESQUE REVUE

FULL EVENT CALENDAR AT

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Reve r b • Se attle weekly • Feb ru a ry 29–March 6, 2012

Pike St., 709-9442. 8 p.m. $20. All ages.

Make Do and Mend

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Hugh Cornwell & Glen Matlock

206-441-5449 W

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K

With Jeromy Nail, Sky Ortiz, Deepvibez. Electric Tea Garden, 1402 E. Pike St., 568-3972. 10 p.m. $10.

Williams, Lecherous Nocturne, Super Happy Story Time Land. El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 381-3094. 7 p.m. $25 adv./$27 DOS. All ages.

COCKTAILS • TASTY HOT DOGS • LOTSA PINBALL

E

OM RECORDS

House may be making a comeback in hipper circles, but for Chicagoan DJ Heather, house never left—and she’ll probably still be throwing it down once the fairweather-heads have moved on.

L

Tampa, Florida’s death-metal legends will pummel your eardrums with songs from their 25-year career, including their latest, 2011’s To Hell With God. Start your Sunday at church, end it here. With Jungle Rot, Abigail

SATURDAY, MARCH 10

S

Diggin’ Deep: DJ Heather

OPEN NOON TO CLOSE EVERY DAY!

K

Love, Mathew Anderson, 214, Ill Cosby, Rhines, Baron & Grindle.

Lo-Fi Performance Gallery, 429 Eastlake Ave., 254-2824.

9 p.m. $10 adv./$16 DOS.

Join us in the Trophy Room for Happy Hour: Thursday Bartender Special 8-Close Fridays: 5-8pm

21

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theatlanticcrossing.com. NC. Mondays, 9 p.m.

BLARNEY STONE 1909 Third Ave., 448-8439, blarneystoneseattle.com. NC. Saturdays, 9 p.m.

BOGART’S AIRPORT WAY 3924 Airport Way S., 622-1119, bogartsairportway.com. 9 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays–Saturdays.

BOXCAR ALEHOUSE 3407 Gilman Ave. W., 286-6000, NC. Thursdays, Saturdays, 9 p.m.

BUSH GARDEN 614 Maynard Ave. S., 682-6830, bushgarden.net. NC. Sundays, 5 p.m.; Mondays– Thursdays, Saturdays, 9:30 p.m.

CHANGES BAR & GRILL 2103 N. 45th St., 545-8363, changesinwallingford.com. NC. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays, 9 p.m.

CITRUS 1001 Fairview Ave. N., 402-6364, citrus lakeunion.com. NC. Mondays, 10 p.m.

CRESCENT LOUNGE 1413 E. Olive Way, 324-5358. Free.

Daily, 9 p.m.

DANTE’S 5300 Roosevelt Way N.E., 525-1300, dantes seattle.com. Free. Mondays, 9 p.m.

DUBLINER PUB 3517 Fremont Ave. N., 548-1508, dubliner seattle.com. NC. Mondays–Tuesdays, 9 p.m.

EL NORTE 13717 Lake City Way N.E., 954-1349. NC. Thursdays, 9 p.m.

FOUR SEAS RESTAURANT 714 S. King St., 682-4900, fourseasrestaurant.com. NC. Thursdays–Saturdays, 9 p.m.

FOURNO’S GREEK RESTAURANT 4733 University Way N.E., 729-5195. NC. Tuesdays, 10 p.m.

Send events to karaoke@seattleweekly.com

HIDEOUT 1005 Boren Ave., 903-8480, hideoutseattle.

com. NC. First Sunday of every month, 9 p.m.

HIGHLINER PUB AND GRILL 3909 18th Ave. W.,

283-2233. NC. Fridays, 8 p.m.

MOLLY MAGUIRE’S 610 N.W. 65th St., 789-9643,

seattleirishpubs.com/mollys/index.htm. NC. Thursdays, 9 p.m.

MONKEY PUB 5305 Roosevelt Way N.E., 523-6457, myspace.com/monkeypub. Sundays, 6:30 p.m.

ROCK BOX 1603 Nagle Pl., 302-7625, rockboxseattle. com. $7 per person per hour ($4 per person per hour during happy hour), Daily, 4 p.m.–2 a.m.

ROOSEVELT ALE HOUSE 8824 Roosevelt Way, 527-5480, rooseveltalehouse.com. Free. Thursdays, 9 p.m.

SCARLET TREE 801 N.E. 65th St. C, 523-8888, scarlet-tree.com. NC. Tuesdays, 9:30 p.m.

SPECTATOR 529 Queen Anne Ave. N., 599-4263, thespectatorsports.com. NC. Thursdays–Saturdays, 9:30 p.m.

THE CUFF 1533 13th Ave., 323-1525, cuffcomplex.com.

NC. Thursdays, 8 p.m.

TIM’S TAVERN 602 N. 105th St., 789-9005, NC. Tuesdays–Thursdays, 9 p.m.

TONY’S BAR & GRILLE 14417 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, 425-825-8669. NC. Mondays–Saturdays, 9 p.m.

TUG INN 2216 S.W. Orchard St., 768-8852, tuginn.com.

NC. 8 p.m. Sundays, Wednesdays.

VENUS KARAOKE 601 S. King St., 264-1779. Daily, 2:30 p.m.–2 a.m.

WATERWHEEL LOUNGE 7034 15th Ave. N.W., 784-5701, thewaterwheellounge.com. NC. Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 8:30 p.m.

WHITE RABBIT 513 N. 36th St., 588-0155, fremont whiterabbit.com. NC. Wednesdays, 9 p.m.

KaraoKeKorrespondent » by jeff roman

Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

Whitney Houston Suicide

22

I was enjoying an easygoing Saturday afternoon with friends in a plush town house at the Eagle Harbor Inn on Bainbridge Island when the texts started flooding in about Whitney Houston’s death. The first thing we did after receiving this tragic news was brainstorm what numbers to sing for an all-Whitney tribute at The 122 Bar that night.

It was a fun but silly idea, as I stopped to consider the songs we called out: “Greatest Love of All,” “I Will Always Love You,” “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Every one sounded more absurd to attempt than the last. When it comes to mimicking Whitney, they’re all suicidal (oops), especially if you’re a guy. But since everyone seemed into it and had no problem wasting their precious turn to make a fool of themselves, I had to suck it up and do my best.

After four hours of drinking to prepare ourselves, we arrived at The 122 just before 9. It’s a big venue with high ceilings. The place is dark and has a dance-club atmosphere. The DJ/KJ is set up at the entrance. We took over a couple of tables in the middle of the room. I scored a couple of books and handed one to my buddies Mochie and Cary. As I sat down to check out the selection, Mochie told me they were kidding and never planned on singing Whitney that night. On one hand, it made sense because it was completely ridiculous. But I had already mentally prepared myself for the challenge.

The night opened with a tight, beautifully harmonized rendition of The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” delivered by Mochie and Cary. I was called next, and decided to go with “How Will I Know?” I figured if I was going to bomb, I might as well sing the song of Whitney’s that I loved the most.

The KJ was a jokester. He gave me a big intro, saying I had just come back from auditioning for The Voice. I asked him to take me down a key, and it ended up being a mistake. Tuning the key down made the song sound noticeably slower, and it took me a few verses to sing in tune. The performance was as embarrassing as I expected it to be; singing a love song from a female perspective about pining over a man isn’t where my strengths lie (a lesson I learned years ago when I tried to sing Madonna).

Cary and Mochie got in some solos, and killed. There were only a couple other singers, but the KJ mixed in a lot of music between songs (this night is advertised as both a DJ and a karaoke night; karaoke-only is Thursdays).

Finally called back up, I sang the manliest song I could find, “Lido Shuffle” by Boz Scaggs, and got a big ovation. That’s what I love best about karaoke: You’re always just a song away from redemption. E karaoke@seattleweekly.com THE 122 BAR 241 Winslow Way W., 451-4440, BAINBRIDGE ISLAND

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STEEL TIGERS OF DEATH PARTMAN PARTHORSE

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Reve r b • Seat tle weekly • Feb rua ry 29– Mar ch 6, 2012

arts»Opening Nights P Orphée et Eurydice

crisp, vigorous period-instrument sound; it’s amazing to think these are the same musicians who lavish such velvety opulence on Wagner and Strauss. GAVIN BORCHERT

The only real dramaturgical flaw in Gluck’s otherwise thoughtfully plotted Orphée et Eurydice is the same one that mars any retelling of the Greek myth: Why doesn’t Orphée simply tell Eurydice that he’s not allowed to look at her? Then she wouldn’t be all “Why are you ignoring me” and he wouldn’t be all “Back off, I’m dealing with some stuff,” and the two could get on with living happily ever after.

As it happens, librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi wrote the pair a happy ending anyway. Seattle Opera’s production of Gluck’s 1762 opera (in his French-language rewrite of 1774) is uncluttered but telling and lovely, with stirring choral work

P Pygmalion

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Se attle weekly • Febru ary 29–M arch 6, 2012

Travel & adve nT ur e ps

ELISE BAKKETUN

The more things change, the more they don’t.

In a world where an all-male panel can advise a congressional committee on contraception and a proposed Virginia law would require “transvaginal” ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, the century-year-old Pygmalion appears more timely than The Help.

In this Seattle Shakespeare Company production, director Jeff Steitzer readily accepts that Pygmalion (originally a Orphée et Eurydice: sculpture that comes to life) has its Burden brings pathos own Hollywood baggage: The stage to his protagonist. lights rise to the strains of “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady. Then playwright George Bernard Shaw (A. Bryan Humphrey) strides onstage to stop the music and launch his rather more droll comedy instead.

As you know: Petulant linguist Henry Higgins (Mark Anders) bets his pal Col. Pickering (R. Hamilton Wright) that he can transform bedraggled flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Jennifer Lee Taylor) into a genteel lady capable of mingling with aristocrats. Their course is a bumpy one, because although Pickering (they’re almost always onstage) and attractive treats Eliza as a lady (no matter her social dance interludes from a seven-member troupe, standing), Higgins sees humanity as a parade choreographed by Yannis Adoniou. The tale of simpletons worthy only of experimentation begins in medias res with Eurydice’s funeral, and study. In the end, Eliza simply outgrows affectingly staged by Jose Maria Condemi as a the man who invented her, and walks out more procession of chorus members, robed in black, mature than he’ll ever be. who wind their way across the stage and make What makes this a tale worth telling yet sharp silhouettes against the champagneagain is Steitzer’s mischief with the material. colored rear wall.

Not only does Shaw keep returning to hasten Amour’s witty entrance—a surprise I won’t along his two-and-a-half-hour comedy of spoil—relieves the gloom and sends Orphée, after a triumphantly ornate aria, on a quest to manners, but there’s a distinct Monty Python bring his love back from Hades, portrayed by vibe. Several characters have Terry Jones’ a lurid scab-red backdrop resembling nerves female shriek (think of the Messiah’s mum and tendons. With Heidi Zamora’s costumes Mandy in Life of Brian) down to a T. Then (stretchy cowls that the chorus and dancers there’s Humphrey’s other job, as Eliza’s pull up over their grimacing faces and angled con-man father, who bears a not-so-slight arms), it all looks a bit like a choir of Munch resemblance to John Cleese, all mock dignity Screams in a Fantastic Voyage nightmare. To and puffed-up self-importance. follow this scene, set designer Phillip Lienau’s Crucially, in a play where class difference is conception of the underworld’s Elysian Fields signaled—and enforced—by linguistic nuance, seems quintessentially Seattleite: a lush the cast puts over the various British accents, emerald lawn and a cloudless blue sky. from Cockney to Oxbridge. Words spill out in Of the small cast—two-thirds of whom endless variety, speed, and pitch, and Higgins are mentioned in the title—William Burden’s delights in pinning down everyone’s birthplace Orphée bears the heaviest responsibility. A with his uncanny ear. core of ardent pathos framed by the somber Seattle Shakes leaves not one element out stylization of the staging, Burden was emotionof place—the acting, lighting, and spectacular ally convincing throughout, vocally combining costumes provide a pristine snow-globe peek French chastity with just a dash of Italianate into Victorian England. Jason Phillips’ scenery sob, and valiant in the coloratura (extremely and projections provide just enough backdrop rare in tenor roles). Davinia Rodriguez matched to allow Deane Middleton’s extravagant coshis passion during Eurydice’s brief interludes tume designs room to breathe. (Not only are of resurrection, and made me want to hear the fashions beautiful to admire, but the actors more of her, maybe in one of Verdi or Puccini’s wear them rather than the other way around.) big, throbbing heroine roles. Julianne Gearhart There are so many ways that a show like made a Puck-like, fresh-voiced Amour.

Pygmalion can go wrong. This one gets them In the pit, conductor Gary Thor Wedow all right. KEVIN PHINNEY E elicited from the Seattle Symphony a lithe, stage@seattleweekly.com

Philli

MCCAW HALL, 321 MERCER ST. (SEATTLE CENTER), 389-7676, SEATTLEOPERA.ORG. $25 AND UP. 7:30 P.M. WED. & SAT. PLUS 2 P.M. SUN., MARCH 4. ENDS MARCH 10.

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arts»Performance

BY GAVIN BORCHERT

Stage OPENINGS & EVENTS

DINA MARTINA: AMPLE WATTAGE! An all-new show

By George Bernard Shaw | Directed by Jeff Steitzer

from the supreme mistress of entretainment. Re-bar, 1114 Howell St., 800-838-3006. $20. Opens March 2.

8 p.m. (most) Fri.–Sat., 2 p.m. (some) Sun.; see brown papertickets.com for exact schedule. Ends April 22.

FIFTH OF JULY Lanford Wilson’s Missouri-set drama.

Raisbeck Performance Hall, 2015 Boren Ave., cornish. edu. $5–$15. 8 p.m. Thurs., March 1–Fri., March 2, 2 & 8 p.m. Sat., March 3, 2 p.m. Sun., March 4.

HAPPY DAYS Mary Ewald and Seanjohn Walsh take on Beckett’s eschatological comedy. New City Theater, 1404 18th Ave., 271-4430, newcitytheater.com. $15 Thurs., $20 Fri.–Sat. Preview Feb. 29, opens March 1. 8 p.m.

Thurs.–Sat. Ends March 24.

JOAN RIVERS SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 17.

SPIN THE BOTTLE Annex’s late-night variety show. Annex Theatre, 1100 E. Pike St., 728-0933, annextheatre.org. $5–$10. 11 p.m. Fri., March 2.

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A barbed comedy

SCAN T H I S CO D E

Now through March 11 Feb. 23–Mar. 11, 2012 Performed at Intiman Playhouse

Ticket Office: 206-733-8222 www.seattleshakespeare.org

THE MATT BAKER COMEDY VARIETY SHOW

With Trevor & Lorena Watters and Roberto the Magnificent.

Second Story Repertory, 16587 N.E. 74th St., Redmond, TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE 425-881-6777, secondstoryrep.

SEATTLE WEEKLY org. $15. 8 p.m. Fri., March 2– IPHONE/ANDROID APP Sat., March 3.

FOR MORE EVENTS OR VISIT NELLIE MCKAY SEE THE seattleweekly.com WIRE, PAGE 17.

RED John Logan’s play stars Denis Arndt as abstract expressionist Mark Rothko; Connor Toms plays his assistant. Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Center, 443-2222. $12–$69. Opens Feb. 29.

Runs Wed.–Sun with some Wed. & weekend matinees; see seattlerep.org for exact schedule. Ends March 18.

THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE Jim Cartwright’s play about big talent and big dreams, set in a workingclass northern England town. ArtsWest, 4711 California Ave. S.W., 938-0339, artswest.org. $10–$34.50. Opens March 7. 7:30 p.m. Wed.–Sat., 3 p.m. Sun. Ends March 31.

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CURRENT RUNS

Seattle weekly • February 29–March 6, 2012

CAVALIA “A Magical Encounter Between Human and

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Horse.” Marymoor Park, 6046 W. Lake Sammamish Parkway N.E., Redmond. $34.50–$189.50. Tues.–Sun.; see cavaliaseattle.com for exact schedule. Ends March 4.

FREAK STORM Don Fleming’s Cascade-set comic adaptation of The Tempest. The Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., 800-838-3006, ghostlighttheatricals.org. $12–$15. 7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat., plus 7:30 p.m. Mon., March 5 and 2 p.m. Sun., March 11. Ends March 11.

I AM MY OWN WIFE Charlotte, the transvestite at this show’s nucleus, began cross-dressing under the Nazis, continued under the Commies, and never surrendered her identity. In this solo show, Nick Garrison provides a constellation of emotions and gestures and a truly elastic set of vocal cords. As flawed as Charlotte may be, Garrison’s performance is flawless and triumphant. KEVIN PHINNEY Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Center, 4432224. $12–$59. Runs Wed.–Sun.; see seattlerep.org for exact schedule. Extended through March 10.

OKLAHOMA! A controversial production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic. Attend a public talk on the show’s casting of Jud at 7 p.m. Mon., March 5. 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave., 625-1418. $29–$119. Runs Tues.– Sun.; see 5thavenue.org for schedule. Ends March 4.

PRAIRIE NOCTURNE If a play is going to push the threehour mark, it ought to be extraordinarily compelling or feel supremely important. Prairie Nocturne, adapted from Ivan Doig’s 2003 novel, is no such sweeping epic.

It’s a simple story drawn out to unnecessary length.

In 1920s Montana, a voice teacher (Myra Platt) is persuaded to give lessons to a promising black student (Geoffery Simmons). This draws the ire of the Klan, which threatens the pair even before their relationship evolves into romance. Unfortunately, Elena Hartwell’s dramatization demonstrates the challenge of adapting such a bulky novel full of undeveloped characters and briefly touched-on subplots. And, under Laura Ferri’s

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Kirkland Performance Center, WA March 24 - April 1, 2012 McIntyre Hall, Mt. Vernon WA April 14-22, 2012 Friday and Saturday evening performances at 7:30pm Sunday afternoon performances at 2:00pm

Send events to stage@seattleweekly.com, dance@seattleweekly.com, or classical@seattleweekly.com = Recommended

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direction, the actors move much too slowly through the exposition-heavy scenes. Only toward the end of Act 2 do we finally get a glimpse of the anxiety and urgency that must have been felt by a mixed-race couple a century ago. But it’s not worth waiting two and a half hours to get there. BRENT ARONOWITZ Center House Theatre, Seattle Center, 216-0833. $22–$44. Runs Wed.–Sun.; see book-it.org for exact schedule. Ends March 4.

PYGMALION SEE REVIEW, PAGE 19.

A SINGLE SHARD The tale of Tree Ear and Crane Man, told via Korean dance and puppetry. Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Center, 441-3322. $20–$36. Runs Thurs.– Sun.; see sct.org for exact schedule. Ends March 18.

TARTUFFE A patriarch, Orgon (Don Brady), is infatuated with the outwardly pious Tartuffe (Frank Lawler)—so much so that he offers Tartuffe his daughter’s hand in marriage. Persuading Orgon to change his mind is more challenging than it ought to be, and a little bit of hilarity ensues. Molière’s 350-year-old criticism of self-righteous religious hypocrisy is as relevant today as it ever was.

BRENT ARONOWITZ Taproot Theatre, 204 N. 85th St., 781-9707, taproottheatre.org. $22–$37. 7:30 p.m. Wed.– Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 2 & 8 p.m. Sat. Ends March 3.

WEB Charlotte’s Web is already dark, but when you throw in infanticide, insanity, child molestation, and a trial, it becomes downright creepy. Written and directed by Brendan Mack, Web imagines what later happens to Fern, heroine of the famed children’s novel. It also frankly borrows from the 1995 case of mommy/murderer Susan Smith. Web has a lot going on, perhaps too much; its many twists can seem gratuitous, simply added for shock value in a parable that’s by turns pedantic and gripping.

IRFAN SHARIFF Freehold Theatre, 2222 Second Ave., Suite 200, 800-838-3006, seattlestageright.org. $15. 8 p.m.

Fri.–Sat. (except March 3). Ends March 10.

THE YOUNG MAN FROM ATLANTA Horton Foote’s family-in-crisis drama. Stone Soup Theatre, 4035 Stone Way N.E., 633-1883, stonesouptheatre.org. $14–$22. 8 p.m.

Thurs.–Sat., plus 4 p.m. Sun., March 4. Ends March 10.

For many more Current Runs, see seattleweekly.com.

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Classical, Etc.

ORPHÉE ET EURYDICE SEE REVIEW, PAGE 19.

•ODAIR ASSAD A solo recital from this guitarist. Benaroya

Recital Hall, Third Ave. and Union St., 297-8788. $25–$32.

7:30 p.m. Fri., March 2.

THE ESOTERICS New choral works evoking the myth of the Sirens, including one by director Eric Banks. At First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach, 18354 Eighth Ave. N.W., Shoreline, 7 p.m. Fri., March 2, and First Congregational Church, 752 108th Ave. N.E., Bellevue, 8 p.m. Sat., March 3. $10–$20. theesoterics.org.

THE RALPH HUMPHREY TRIO Originals from this jazz drummer, with Tom Collier and Dan Dean. Brechemin Auditorium, School of Music, UW campus, 685-8384, music.washington.edu. $15. 7:30 p.m. Fri., March 2.

MARK SALMAN This powerhouse pianist plays Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and more. University Christian Church, N.E. 50th St. & 15th Ave. N.E., marksalman.net. $15–$50.

7:30 p.m. Fri., March 2.

SEATTLE COMPOSERS SALON New works by Jay Hamilton, Clement Reid, John Teske, and Terry Wergeland. Chapel Performance Space, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., composersalon.com. $5–$15. 8 p.m. Fri., March 2.

CONCERT SPIRITUEL Music by Bach and sons from flutist Jeffrey Cohan and Jan Weinhold on harpsichord.

Christ Episcopal Church, 4548 Brooklyn Ave., 633-1611, concertspirituel.org. $15–$20. 7:30 p.m. Sat., March 3.

PUGET SOUND SYMPHONY Alan Shen conducts splashy faves by Dvorak and Respighi. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., psso.org. $4–$10. 7:30 p.m. Sat., March 3.

NICOLE MITCHELL This jazz flutist performs with the Cornish Contemporary Big Band. Cornish College/ PONCHO Concert Hall, 710 E. Roy St., cornish.edu. $10–$20. 8 p.m. Sat., March 3.

OCEANA QUARTET This UW student quartet in residence plays Britten, Debussy, and Mendelssohn. Brechemin Auditorium, School of Music, UW campus, 685-8384, music.washington.edu. $5. 2 p.m. Sun., March 4.

MEDIEVAL WOMEN’S CHOIR “The Medieval Four Seasons” explores music inspired by the cycle of the year. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 264-4822, medieval womenschoir.org. $10–$25. 3 p.m. Sun., March 4.

NORTHWEST CLARINET CHOIR Music for duodecet

by Boccherini, Schickele, and others. Woodland Park United Methodist Church, 302 N. 78th St., nwclarinet choir.org. Free. 5 p.m. Sun., March 4.

UW JAZZ ENSEMBLES Led by Cuong Vu. Meany Studio Theater, UW campus, 543-4880, music.washington.edu. $10–$15. 7:30 p.m. Mon., March 5.

GARRICK OHLSSON A Seattle favorite—heck, a world favorite—this pianist plays Liszt to mark his bicentennial. Meany Hall, UW campus, 543-4880, uwworldseries.org. $20–$42. 8 p.m. Wed., March 7.

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film»This Week’s Attractions

arts»Visual Arts

BY KAT CHOW

Openings & Events • BAM’S FREE FIRST FRIDAY Here’s your chance

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SAYA MORIYASU AND GALA BENT In Folly, Moriyasu uses

Arun Sharma’s decomposition le, at ArtXchange.

JOEL BROCK AND DANE YOUNGREN In Brock’s

Recent Paintings, he depicts the landscapes and rural tokens of life from near his home in the Skagit Valley. Youngren’s Remnants, linked to the NCECA gathering, includes sculptural pieces in clay that can resemble architectural models based on buildings both fanciful and real. Note First Thursday opening reception, 6–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1. Lisa Harris Gallery, 1922 Pike Place, 443-3315, lisaharrisgallery. com. Opens March 1. Sun., 11 a.m.–4 p.m.; Mon.– Sat., 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Through April 1.

JESSE BURKE & ARIANA PAGE RUSSELL To create Blinds, Burke traveled to South Carolina and Maine to photograph hunting blinds. Russell’s Blouse documents her skin-tone experiments with her face and body. Note First Thursday artists’ reception, 6–8 p.m.

Thurs., March 1, and artists’ talk at Photo Center NW, 6:30 p.m. Fri., March 2. Platform Gallery, 114 Third Ave. S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 323-2808, platformgallery. com. Wed.–Sat., 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Through March 17.

SUJ’N CHON The local photographer’s Dreams of Fire and Ice was inspired by her travels in Iceland; she’ll also read poetry prompted by those travels.

Send events to visualarts@seattleweekly.com See seattleweekly.com for full listings = Recommended

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Better Than Something: Jay Reatard RUNS FRI., MARCH 2–THURS., MARCH 8 AT GRAND ILLUSION. NOT RATED. 89 MINUTES.

Like the longhair with the foghorn falsetto it’s titled after, this unfussy rock-doc profile is shaggy, sophisticated, and more than a little sad. Compiled from dozens of hours of 2009 interview footage with Memphis indie-punk icon Jay Reatard (born Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr.), Better Than Something captures its subject at a crossroads: pushing 30 and losing the adrenalized rage that gave his early work (and stage name) its nasty edge. Reatard is candid and cogent about his future as an artist; all the more tragic, then, that he OD’d in 2010. Directors Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz make a case that Reatard’s accidental death came as much from his openness and inclination to push boundaries as from the demons nipping at his ass, a subject they broach with grace rather than milk for sticky details.

Better Than Something is most alive when it shadows Reatard at record-store gigs, restaurants, and hanging out on his front porch. The obligatory interviews with fellow musicians and label execs provide context, but only those with Reatard’s stoic, stricken dad and adoring younger sister rise above standard scene-setting. Even nonfans will appreciate what a tough act Reatard is to follow, though, and anybody with a shred of respect left for rock ’n’ roll will feel loss and anger at his passing. MARK HOLCOMB

P Kill List

OPENS FRI., MARCH 2 AT SIFF CINEMA AT THE UPTOWN. NOT RATED. 95 MINUTES.

Hit men have bills to pay, too, and sometimes a kid to feed and an anxious wife to placate even as they worry that their reputation in the bad-guy underworld is slipping. In the suburbs of Sheffield, England, a former soldier named Jay (a superb Neil Maskell) is stressed to the max, not least because his wife (MyAnna Buring) and his hit-man partner, Gal (Michael Smiley), keep reminding him of the job he screwed up in Kiev eight months ago. Clearly fascinated by the bickering banality of domestic life, writer/director

On the Ice: Patkotak and fellow cast members were cast from the tribal community.

Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace) isn’t in a hurry to reveal the nature of the Kiev incident, but the tension in Jay’s eyes suggests that it was a manifestation, not the cause, of a growing inner torment. When Jay and Gal are contracted to kill three people in quick succession, they’re happy, in their way. Steady work can save a man, right? What happens next is brutal and bloody and utterly unnerving, thanks in no small measure to Jim Williams’ brilliant score, filled with strings so taut they sound like screams you might hear in the distance and decide (quite sensibly) to ignore. CHUCK WILSON

P On the Ice

OPENS FRI., MARCH 2 AT SIFF FILM CENTER. RATED R. 96 MINUTES.

If I said “Eskimo hip-hop crime tale,” would that send you running to the nearest sunny beach? Shot on location in far-northern Alaska with a native cast and writer/director (Andrew Okpeaha MacLean), On the Ice is a marvel of concentrated, classical storytelling.

The flat, snowy landscape strips away all but the essentials from its tale: Two teens, best buddies from different families, have a bloody encounter on a hunting trip. They lie to their parents and community about it, and that lie inexorably catches up with them. They must hide a corpse, they smoke crack, and collegebound Qalli (Josiah Patkotak) begins to waver in his determination to escape a culture of poverty, alcoholism, and teen pregnancy.

Blood and guilt seep into the pure white snow. You could call the film ethnodocumentary noir, since MacLean includes elements of Iñupiaq language and culture. Living in cheap housing in Barrow, the natives have uneasily adapted to an ancient/modern existence, hunting seals from their snowmobiles on retreating ice, cell phones ringing in their pockets and hip-hop playing at their parties.

The film is like a meeting of River’s Edge and The Fast Runner. BRIAN MILLER

Se attle weekly • Febru ary 29–M arch 6, 2012

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

ceramic and glaze. In Geology of Longing, uses watercolor on paper.

Note First Thursday opening, 6–8 p.m.

Thurs., March 1; NCECA Conference reception, 6–9 p.m. Tues., March 27; and artist talk 2 p.m. Sat., March 31.

G. Gibson Gallery, 300 S. Washington St. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 5874033, ggibsongallery.com. Opens March 1. Wed.–Sat., 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

Through April 14.

OPEN FOR CONSTRUCTION In this participatory exhibit, SOIL opens itself for “construction” by allowing guests to sculpt unfired clay in a stereotypical office space. Note First Thursday opening reception, 6–9 p.m. Thurs., March 1. Soil Gallery, 112 Third Ave. S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 264-8061, soilart.org. Opens March 1. Wed.–Sat., noon–5 p.m.; Tues., March 27, 6–9 p.m. Through April 14.

PREY/CAPTURE This group show features local ceramics artists. Also on view: Table of Content, featuring more clay work. Note First Thursday opening reception, 6–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1. Foster/White Gallery, 220 Third Ave. S., 622-2833, fosterwhite.com.

Opens March 1. Tues.–Sat., 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Through March 24.

REANIMATED Members of the Seattle Experimental Animation Team present a collaborative new cartoon, part of the First Thursday art walk. Zeitgeist Art and Coffee, 171 S. Jackson St., 583-0497, zeitgeist coffee.com. Thurs., March 1, 8 p.m.

• TIM RODA Today based in New York, the UW-trained photographer incorporates himself, his wife, and his kids into some of his elaborate blackand-white tableaux, many of them based on mythology and classical themes. Note First Thursday opening reception, 6–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1. Greg Kucera Gallery, 212 Third Ave. S., 624-0770, gregkuceracom.

Opens March 1. Tues.–Sat., 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Through March 31.

SHIRLEY SING In her exhibit Help, she depicts “hope amidst the death and destruction in Africa” via pointillist paintings. Note opening reception, 7–10 p.m. Sat., March 3. Art/Not Terminal Gallery, 2045 Westlake Ave., 233-0680, antgallery.org. Opens March 3. Sun., noon– 5 p.m.; Mon.–Sat., 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Through April 5.

ONTHEICETHEMOVIE.COM

to check out the museum’s current exhibits, including Mary Lee Hu’s jewelry and Push Play: The 2012 NCECA Invitational. (That’s the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.). Bellevue Arts Museum, 510 Bellevue Way N.E., 425-519-0770, bellevuearts.org. Free. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Fri., March 2.

BEYOND BORDERS This group show features work from Europe’s largest center for ceramic studies.

Artists hail from 20 different countries, including Wales, England, Ireland, Australia, Lebanon, and Korea. Locals include Arun Sharma. Note First Thursday opening, 5–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1.

ArtXchange, 512 First Ave. S., 839-0377, artxchange. org. Opens March 1. Tues.–Sat., 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Tues., March 27, 3 & 5–8 p.m. Through March 31.

SHARON BIRZER In Medusae Fossae, she melds drawing and painting with elements of digital production and Hanga, a traditional Japanese woodblock technique. Note First Thursday opening reception, 5–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1. Shift Collaborative Studio, 306 S. Washington St. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 547-1215, shiftstudio.org. Opens March 1. Fri.–Sat., noon–5 p.m. Through March 31.

BRIDGING THE GAP This group show features the ceramics work of local community-college faculty members. It’s part of the big NCECA conference.

Note opening reception, 7–10 p.m. Sat., March 3. Art/ Not Terminal Gallery, 2045 Westlake Ave., 233-0680, antgallery.org. Opens March 3. Sun., 1:30–5 p.m.; Mon.–Fri., 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sat., 1–6 p.m. Through April 5.

Note First Thursday artist reception, 6–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1. IDEA Odyssey Gallery, 666 S. Jackson St. March 2–April 28.

CLAY & PRINTS This group show features the ceramics and prints of eight locals including Bob Arneson and Jenny Lind. Note First Thursday opening reception, 6–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1. Davidson Galleries, 313 Occidental Ave. S., 624-1324, davidsongalleries. com/home.php, Opens March 1. Tues.–Sat., 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Through March 31.

EARTH & FIRE: MATERIALS AND METHODS This group show is concurrent with the NCECA conference. Nancy Blair, Granite Calimpong, and other locals are featured. Note First Thursday opening reception, 5–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1, and NCECA reception, 5–8 p.m. Tues., March 27. Pratt Gallery at Tashiro Kaplan Studios, 312 S. Washington St., Ste. 1A, 328-2200, pratt.org. Opens March 1. Wed.–Sat., noon–5 p.m. Through March 31.

JOHN GRADE SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 17.

SARAH HAVEN Just Because I’m a Girl presents her ceramics-based “investigation of female gender identity using architectural forms as her metaphorical vehicle.” Note First Thursday opening reception, 6–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1. Punch Gallery, 119 Prefontaine Place S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 621-1945, punchgallery.org. Opens March 1. Thurs.– Sat., noon–5 p.m. Through March 31.

JANE KELSEY-MAPEL & BECKY FREHSE More clay, more NCECA. The two offer new ceramics work in ReConfigured. Also on view: Monika Dalkin’s tiny clay garments and travel mementos in Journey, Milestones, Balance. Note First Thursday opening reception, 6–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1. Gallery 110, 110 Third Ave. S. (Tashiro Kaplan Building), 624-9336, gallery110.com. Opens March 1. Wed.–Sat., noon– 5 p.m.; Tues., March 27, 5:30–9 p.m. Through March 31.

ALDEN MASON The iconic Northwest artist is represented with works from the 1960s to the present. Note First Thursday opening reception, 6–8 p.m. Thurs., March 1.

Foster/White Gallery, 220 Third Ave. S., 622-2833, fosterwhite.com. Opens March 1. Tues.–Sat., 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Through March 24.

» CONTINUED ON PAGE 22 21

A CULT CLASSIC IN THE MAKING

film»

“

- The Onion

“

” .

THE FUNNIEST FILM I’VE SEEN”

IN YEARS

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– Chris Krapek, Huffington Post

IM EHE WAR C I R & E KER DEC I E H TIM

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT

STARTS FRIDAY, MARCH 2

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This Week’s Attractions » FROM PAGE 21 P Rampart

OPENS FRI., MARCH 2 AT HARVARD EXIT. RATED R. 107 MINUTES.

Directed by Oren Moverman from a script by Moverman and L.A. noir master James Ellroy, Rampart tracks the downward spiral of LAPD cop Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson).

The action’s set in 1999, right around the time 70 Rampart Division cops were busted for misconduct. Soon Brown is at the center of his own scandal, when a surreptitiously shot video of him beating a suspect makes the nightly news. The dominoes fall from there: An effort to obtain cash for his legal costs leads to a second charge of suspicious force, which leads to Brown’s ejection from the home he shares with his two daughters and two ex-wives—who happen to be sisters.

Although he’s working in a style of heightened naturalism that’s the antithesis of glossy Ellroy adaptations L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia, Moverman mimics the freeassociative style of Ellroy’s writing with restless, cubistic editing. Every scene is seen from multiple angles, with Moverman toggling back and forth between medium shots and images captured from afar, as if via hidden camera.

This ping-pong cutting doesn’t suggest that Brown is being watched so much as that he thinks he’s being watched. We only view the world as he perceives it—which allows us to understand how he can justify even his worst behavior. Together, Ellroy and Moverman have created a fascinating, open-ended pulp fiction out of a character study so subjective it’s nearly psychedelic. KARINA LONGWORTH

AM SCHOONMAKER

Oscar-winning film editor

4 COLOR

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In-store appearance & signing

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7 2 p.m.

Thelma Schoonmaker presents

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Peeping Tom

at SAM on March 6 & 7. Visit scarecrow.com for details.

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Blu-ray $27.95

NEW THIS WEEK

Yes, that is Robert Loggia with a machine gun in Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie.

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A Martin Scorsese film DVD $22.95 Blu-ray $29.95

VANYA ON 42nd STREET The Criterion Collection DVD $22.95 Blu-ray $27.95

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NICK PINKERTON

We Need to Talk About Kevin OPENS FRI., MARCH 2 AT MERIDIAN. RATED R. 112 MINUTES.

In Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel, Tilda Swinton lives out an urban bohemian’s worst nightmare.

Forced to give up her independence (and downtown loft) when a reckless night results in accidental pregnancy, free spirit Eva becomes an unhappy housewife in suburbia, stuck caring for a kid with whom she’s unable to bond. Baby Kevin is a terror, but Eva isn’t exactly a model parent, either.

She makes little effort to hide her resentment, cooing “Mommy was happy before Kevin came along” to her toddler’s face.

Later, when Kevin tries to force Eva to mother him by refusing to potty-train, she teaches him violence by example. He’s a sharp study: On the eve of his 16th birthday, Kevin (Ezra Miller) masterminds a mass execution at his high school. The movie’s present day is roughly two years after the massacre, with Kevin in prison and Eva a drug-addled shut-in haunted by visions of what Kevin did and of scenes from his childhood that she fears led him to do it. The film is essentially constructed as a long, associative montage, flowing backward and forward in time at varying speeds. But late in the film, Ramsay slows into a more conventional style, fleshing out incidents we previously saw as flashes, making excessively explicit what she had already suggested, and building to an anticlimactic “reveal.” By treating Kevin’s evil as a mystery to be solved, Ramsay only succeeds in making what was once allusive banal. KARINA LONGWORTH MAGNOLIA PICTURES

Seattle weekly • February 29–March 6, 2012

(Goodfellas, The Departed, The Aviator)

TV Carnage (the attrition of this is significantly greater at feature length). Tim and Eric’s dump-truck disgorging of retro-trash imagery reflects our mass-media landscape, still suffering the fallout of the 1980s popculture catastrophe. The conceit here is that stars/directors/writers Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim get run out of L.A. after squandering a billion-dollar film budget. To recoup their losses, they give themselves a grotesque corporate makeover and take on the management of a near-dead mall in no-man’s-land America, whose residents include a Top Gun– obsessed outgoing manager (Will Ferrell) and a sickly man-boy, Taquito (John C. Reilly).

In every swelling musical cue, Billion Dollar Movie displays open contempt for friendship, family, love, sex, heroism, and everything lofty and beautiful that multiplex movies have reduced to cant. Such derision will be largely greeted with the same—it’s an inside joke for a self-selecting inside audience—but Billion Dollar Movie shares its disdain for the mechanics of movie storytelling with nonsense classics like Million Dollar Legs or Hellzapoppin’. If it matches neither in anarchic imagination, Heidecker and Wareheim should still be applauded for pure destructive impulse, the healthy urge of this sick movie.

Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie RUNS FRI., MARCH 2–THURS., MARCH 8 AT VARSITY. RATED R. 92 MINUTES.

The Turin Horse not excepted, Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, a comedy, is the most startlingly apocalyptic film of the year. As in their Adult Swim show, the abiding aesthetic is free-associative channel-surfing, owing something to the public-access mashups of

206.324.9996 | www.siff.net

P Windfall

RUNS FRI., MARCH 2–THURS., MARCH 8 AT NORTHWEST FILM FORUM. NOT RATED. 81 MINUTES.

PINA in 3D

A film for Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders “A unique and often sublime artistic experience... immerses us in the movement, letting us feel that we could reach out and touch these dancers as they float past us.” —Seattle Times

WINDFALLTHEMOVIE.COM

Extolling the virtues of wind power is where most ecological documentaries finish—after subjecting us to the details of the land-raping extraction process du jour and asserting those whispering windmills as the remedy. Not so fast, Laura Israel’s playfully thorough examination of the subject warns. Big as hell and largely unregulated, those scenic wind turbines aren’t nearly as benign (or whispering) as their image suggests, something Israel’s upstate–New York neighbors discovered when several of them leased land to wind developers. Among the problems they bring are respiratory ailments, decimation of bat and bird populations, and the murderously distracting “shadow flicker.” First-time director Israel tells us that the same investors who brought us fracking also back wind, but she avoids a full-throttle attack on industrial money-grubbers (who in fact never appear) in favor of a close-up examination of how energy policy gets worked out on the ground—often at the expense of community harmony. Windfall is also more narratively and aurally daring than most of its kin, thanks in part to intriguing sound design,

PLAYING MARCH 2–8

Daily 3:30, 6:00, 8:30 / Sat–Sun 1:00

You damn windmills get off my lawn!

a haunting electro-folksy score by Hazmat Modine, and Israel’s refusal to hew to a simplistic Big Energy–versus–Little Guy format. The latter might actually make her film a target of the anti-wind lobby, but the joke’s on them: Prescriptive eco-docs are rarely as attuned to the folly of human ingenuity as this one, or as insightful about our knee-jerk demand for impossibly easy solutions. MARK HOLCOMB E film@seattleweekly.com

ONLINE » SEATTLEWEEKLY.COM aMORE See reviews of The Lorax, Project X.

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film» FROM THE BACK OF THE ROOM The distaff side of

BY BRIAN MILLER

Local Film • BATTLE ROYALE Veteran director Kinji Fukasaku is

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kind of like the Sam Peckinpah of Japan, only here we have ninth graders, not cowboys, battling to the death in 2000’s Battle Royale. The nutty premise that has these sweet-faced, uniformed schoolkids confined to an island until only one’s left alive naturally recalls Lord of the Flies, but entertainment isn’t the point to this carnage-ridden spectacular. There are no cameras to relay the allegiances, betrayals, and gore to an imaginary viewing audience; instead, the blood sport is meant as a cautionary, punitive example against disobedient youngsters. On hand as a gruff teacher is Takeshi Kitano, who jeers, “So today’s lesson is—you kill each other off!” (R) BRIAN MILLER Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, Opens March 2, Fridays, 11 p.m. Through March 30.

BLUE VELVET On the innocuous surface of David Lynch’s unforgettably freaky 1986 Blue Velvet are Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan (Yakima’s proud son) as small-town sweethearts. Then, as the voyeuristic MacLachlan learns, there are darker hearts beating nearby, those belonging to Frank (Dennis Hopper) and his beloved captive chanteuse (Isabella Rossellini). If she—no simple victim—enchants our hero, pulls him into the darkness, Frank is even more the seducer. He literally takes the kid on a ride, a tour through a violent, sexually charged underworld that is, of course, a huge turn-on for the innocent lad. With his square jaw and vigorous dark hair, MacLachlan could pass as a young Ronald Reagan, and part of the movie’s impact was to peel back the “It’s Morning in America” façade to Reagan’s ’80s, revealing something rotting beneath. (R) BRIAN MILLER Central Cinema, $6-$8, March 2-7.

Send events to film@seattleweekly.com See seattleweekly.com for full listings = Recommended

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punk rock is celebrated in this new documentary by Amy Oden. Her subjects include Bikini Kill and Kathleen Hanna, comic-book artist Cristy Road, zine creator Chris Boarts-Larson, and Slade (of the band Tribe 8). (NR) Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, March 6-8, 7 & 9 p.m.

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A BEARD? Indie rocker Calvin Johnson will perform a short solo set following this half-hour doc, in which he and music writer Chris Estey both perform at the Columbia City Theatre (the latter reading memoir-ish essays inspired by Phil Ochs songs).

Along with Johnson, local directors Kathy Wolf and Pat Thomas will attend the event, which also includes the very short doc All Ages Music and Arts, about all-ages music clubs in Seattle and Olympia. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, Mon., March 5, 7 p.m.

KUNG-FU MADNESS DOUBLE FEATURE The Portland Grindhouse Film Festival tours northward with two titles: Fist of the White Lotus (1980) and The Bastard Swordsman (1983), both of which promise plenty of old-school stunts and fights without benefit of CGI. (NR) Grand Illusion, $7-$12, Sat., March 3, 9 p.m.

THE LAST BUFFALO HUNT SEE THE WIRE, PAGE 18.

THE LAST METRO François Truffaut’s 1980 WWII drama stars Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu, who’ve got a Jew hidden in the basement, the Nazis outside, and a theater to run. (NR) Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave., 654-3100, seattleartmuseum.org, $59-$66 series, $8 individual, Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Through March 1.

THE MONTAGE MONTAGE From Rocky (remember “Gonna Fly Now”?) and other sources, musical montage sequences are extracted and spliced together into a new 90-minute super montage. (NR) SIFF Film Center, 305 Harrison St. (Seattle Center), $5-$10, Thu., March 1, 8 p.m.

PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE Underrated by other critics because they haven’t had as many bicycles stolen as I have, Tim Burton’s 1985 road-trip movie Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure brought Paul Reubens’ cable-TV man-boy character to the big screen in all his adenoidal glory.

Resolutely pre-sexual, Pee-Wee lusts only after his tasseled one-speed cruiser, pursuing his bike across the Southwest. The whole thing is a kind of goof on De Sica’s

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The Bicycle Thief, but it’s more surrealist than neorealist—Burton makes America just as weird and plastic as his hero’s overgrown imagination. Pee-Wee’s quest takes place in an oddly pliable world where his single-minded hunt looks like high principle. (PG) BRIAN MILLER SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, $4, Opens March 3, Sat., Sun., noon. Continues through March 11.

RAW FORCE From 1982, this Filipino action flick (aka Kung Fu Cannibals) involves a cadre of martial-arts students, cannibal monks, piranhas, zombies, and a Hitler lookalike. (NR) Grand Illusion, $5-$8, Fri., March 2, 11 p.m.; Sat., March 10, 11 p.m.

Oscar• THELMA SCHOONMAKER PRESENTS nominated for her seventh time for Hugo (she’s won three Academy Awards), Martin Scorsese’s favorite editor visits to present two films directed by her late husband, Michael Powell. On Tuesday, it’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), in which a military man looks back over his 40-year career, trying to understand how the rules of war (and life, and love) have changed.

(The film was co-directed by Emeric Pressburger.) On Wednesday, it’s the horror shocker Peeping Tom (1960), about a voyeur with a camera and a killing fetish. (NR) Seattle Art Museum, $8-$10, Tue., March 6, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., March 7, 7:30 p.m.

SCI-FI SATURDAY SECRET MATINEES The Sprocket Society presents surprise features following episodes from 1939’s Buck Rogers serial, starring Buster Crabbe.

(NR) Grand Illusion, $15-56 (series), Sat., 2 p.m.

SEX + MONEY: A NATIONAL SEARCH FOR HUMAN WORTH Joel Angyall’s new doc examines the Internet-

abetted scourge of underage sex trafficking, which pending Washington state legislation may address. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, Thu., March 1, 7 p.m.

THREE AMIGOS Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short star in this 1986 comedy about a trio of actors who foolishly agree to battle Mexican bandits. Call for showtimes. (PG) Central Cinema, $6-$10, March 2-5.

TO CATCH A DOLLAR This new documentary follows the father of microfinance, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, an economist who tries to apply Third World lending practices here in the U.S. (NR) Northwest Film Forum, $6-$10, Wed., Feb. 29, 7 p.m.



THE WIZARD Fred Savage stars in this 1989 kiddie comedy

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about two brothers who run away from home, one of them a video-game savant. This is a special pajama party screening. Watch for Christian Slater in a small role. (PG) Central Cinema, $7-$9, Wed., Feb. 29, 7 p.m.

THE WIZARD OF OZ Family flick, gay cult movie, midnight stoner jamboree—it doesn’t really matter how you categorize The Wizard of Oz (1939). It couldn’t be sweeter or more family friendly—however your family is defined. Expect gays, straights, and kids of all derivations to sing along, misty-eyed, to the timeless songs by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. The Wizard of Oz has its roots in the book series begun by L. Frank Baum in 1900, but it’s really a Depression-era picture reflecting both the sadness and hope of that era. For all today’s CGI wonders, there’s nothing quite like the moment when Judy Garland wakes up in a Technicolor Oz. No DVD or giant plasma-screen TV can really do the scene justice.

Movie screens at midnight. (G) BRIAN MILLER Egyptian, $8.25, Fri., March 2; Sat., March 3.

THEATERS: Admiral, 2343 California Ave. SW, 938-3456;

Big Picture, 2505 First Ave., 256-0566; Big Picture Redmond, 7411 166th Ave. NE, 425-556-0566; Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave., 686-6684; Cinebarre, 6009 SW 244th St. (Mountlake Terrace)., 425-672-7501; Cinerama, 2100 Fourth Ave., 448-6680; Crest, 16505 Fifth Ave. NE, 781-5755; Egyptian, 801 E. Pine St., 781-5755; Grand Illusion, 1403 NE 50th St., 523-3935; Guild 45, 2115 N. 45th St., 781-5755; Harvard Exit, 807 E. Roy St., 781-5755; iPic Theaters, 16451 N.E. 74th St. (Redmond), 425-6365601; Kirkland Parkplace, 404 Park Place, 425-827-9000; Lincoln Square, 700 Bellevue Way N, 425-454-7400; Majestic Bay, 2044 NW Market St., 781-2229; Meridian, 1501 Seventh Ave., 223-9600; Metro, 4500 Ninth Ave. NE, 781-5755; Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., 2675380; Oak Tree, 10006 Aurora Ave. N, 527-1748; Pacific Place, 600 Pine St., 888-262-4386; Seven Gables, 911 NE 50th St., 781-5755; SIFF Cinema at the Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., 324-9996; SIFF Film Center, 305 Harrison St. (Seattle Center), 324-9996.; Thornton Place, 301 NE 103rd St., 517-9953; Varsity, 4329 University Way NE, 781-5755.

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food&drink»

What Happens in Vegas...

The drink was a disappointment, but didn’t qualify as a low point in a restaurant flush with them.

As best as the hotel’s publicist could reconstruct, the pink-walled Alexis Restaurant opened in 1982. It was a flop. In the span of a year, two chefs tried and failed to create a dining room worthy of a hotel angling for worldclass status. In 1983 the Alexis hired Robin Sanders and Bruce Naftaly, now chef/owner of the soonto-close Le Gourmand, to right the operation. “The restaurant was a disaster when we got there,” Naftaly said in 1984. “There were no systems in place.”

But systems couldn’t save the restaurant, which the Alexis eventually leased to McCormick and Schmick’s, already running a restaurant one block north that remains today. The chain renovated the space as a “Seattle-style steakhouse,” meaning the south wall was plastered with a mural of local celebrities.

Somehow red meat and smiling faces didn’t do the trick either, so the Alexis surrendered, turning the elegant room into a breakfast-only spot, which survives as the Library Bistro. The hotel refocused its dinner attentions on the original restaurant’s bar, rechristened Cafe Alexis. Jerry Traunfeld was among the chefs charged with making it work.

In 1993, Cafe Alexis became The Painted Table. A decade later, it was again transformed into the Bookstore Bar. Bodybuilder David Hatfield, who had previously run restaurants in Bend, Oregon, was named executive chef last month.

T

he Bookstore Bar doesn’t look like it suffers from instability. Perhaps as a reaction to so many years of turmoil, the hotel has settled on a decorating scheme that emphasizes timelessness and permanence. As the name implies, the snug, dimly lit bar is surrounded by bookshelves stocked with endearingly ratty hardcovers and board games meant to be played.

The bar’s signature spirit is scotch, and so many brands are on offer that they don’t all fit behind the bar (a chorus line of whiskeys stands between the bartender and her customers). It’s best not to stray too far from brown liquor here: When I ordered a martini, which seemed like just the thing to drink while paging through a mid-century British mystery plucked from alongside my seat, it tasted as though it had been made with oxidized vermouth.

The drink was a disappointment, but didn’t qualify as a low point in a restaurant flush

with them. I’d save that designation for an At least there are plenty of good books excruciatingly tough flank steak, served with to choose from. a plop of gremolata and greasy fingerling potatoes as long and tender as lipstick tubes.

The squared-off steak itself tasted like metal cheese and bacon confetti. Crab cakes fried to shavings and money wasted. a corn-dog finish are not.

Or maybe the low point came on my For his entrée, Ingle had roast pheasant, second visit, when a single server was which was spoiled for him by chanterelle unfairly assigned the task of handling every mushrooms: “I have always found chantetable during happy hour. Happy didn’t relles to be one of the more overrated-butdescribe the bartender, who explained she we’re-too-hip-to-admit-it foods being sold couldn’t take my drink order if for outlandish sums of money,” I insisted on sitting at a table. he wrote. There’s no pheasant When I asked whether a highat Bookstore Bar, but there’s a » price guide Blue fries.................. $7 top near the bar counted as a fairly tender roasted chicken Pork sliders ...........$11 table, thinking the restaurant that outshines a dried-out ChiCken .....................$19 salmon ..................... $28 might classify it as extended salmon, which disassembled on flank steak .......... $28 bar seating, she snapped: my plate like a house of cards, “What else would it be?” I and a clump of overcooked returned to our table, still sporting the balled- angel-hair pasta swamped with a cannedup napkins, highball glasses, and ginger-beer tasting tomato sauce. bottles left by drinkers who’d departed 20 As much as Ingle liked the braised rutabaga minutes ago. slivers in his salad and the goose fat in his squash soup, he ultimately wasn’t eager to return to the Alexis for dinner. “Possibly for hen Ingle ate at the Alexis brunch,” he allowed. That might be a wise in 1984, his meal began with approach today, since Hatfield is promising rosemary-cured beef. “The biscuits with French mornay gravy and housemeat alone had authority, made wild-boar sausage. While menu tweaks a dark, muscle flavor that quickly grew,” he alone may not vault the hotel back atop local wrote. “The cabernet underpinnings kept diners’ restaurant wish lists, future changes everything floating in air. The sauce acted are nearly certain at the Alexis. E as a complement to soften it up, giving the potency of the beef a splash of laughter.” hraskin@seattleweekly.com Currently, the meatiest starter at the Alexis is a pair of pulled-pork sliders slathered with Bookstore Bar a brown-sugared sauce and served on firm 1007 First Ave., 382-1506, librarybistro.com. dinner rolls. It’s a decent happy-hour choice, 11:15 a.m.–10 p.m. Mon.; 11:15 a.m.–midnight as are the French fries, matted with blue Tues.–Fri.; 1 p.m.–midnight Sat.; 1–10 p.m. Sun.

W

Se attle weekly • Febru ary 29–M arch 6, 2012

ingly, the Alexis Hotel is traveling against the flow of traffic, transitioning over its history from an intimate dining room serving chanterelles and skate wing to a noisy pub that hosts weekly movie nights.

The Bookstore Bar, currently the only Alexis venue offering dinner, is just across the alley from Seattle Weekly’s offices, but it took a movement of heaven and earth to get me there. Today is Leap Day, a calendar adjustment that occurs every four years to account for the extra hours the planet accumulates in its revolutions around the sun. The last year Leap Day fell on a Wednesday—meaning the last time we published on a Leap Day—was 1984. In addition to an editorial endorsing Gary Hart and quarter-page ads for sheepskin car-seat covers, our Feb. 29, 1984, issue included a review of The Alexis, the snazzy restaurant occupying the then-two-year-old hotel of that name.

“I would say I had a pleasant meal at the Alexis,” critic Schuyler Ingle wrote. “Several days later, I am still thinking about that meal, retasting the sauces, surprised that it is all still with me and not fading off into a haze of one more night on the town.”

Food writers today are more likely to arrive early for a reservation so they can check out a restaurant’s rooftop honey hives than beat a hazy exit from another evening spree in a car outfitted with sheepskin seats, but I wondered how our previous assessment of the Alexis’ cooking would hold up. Complicating my mission was the jittery nature of the Alexis’ dining program. In 1991 Seattle Times critic John Hinterberger declared “few places in town have gone through so many changes”—and that was two changes ago.

By Hanna Raskin

Joshua huston

L

as Vegas is supposed to tempt and torment—not educate— the jackpot aspirants who book vacations there. Instruction is usually best left to cities where gift shops can legitimately sell tin fifes and quill pens.

But for at least a decade or two now, Sin City has functioned as a secondary school for serious eaters, exposing inhabitants of finedining wastelands to the art of saucing and the science of sous vide. Vegas has taught its visitors sundry culinary secrets—for example, that a restaurant housed in a hotel has more to offer than bland room-service fare delivered a very short distance.

Many hotels which once operated kitchens as an afterthought now pride themselves on their extraordinary restaurants, serving meals that rival the cost of a night’s stay. Interest-

. . . doesn’t happen at the Alexis Hotel.

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food&drink»Featured Eats $ = $25 or less per person; $$ = $25–$40; $$$ = $40 and up.

These capsule reviews are written by editorial staff and have nothing to do with advertising. For hundreds more reviews, searchable by neighborhood and type of cuisine, go to seattleweekly.com/food.

BELLTOWN

KUSHIBAR 2319 Second Ave., 448-2488. Umi Sake

House’s owners advertise Kushibar as an izakaya specializing in street snacks: Spaced out on the long communal tables you’ll find several menus listing fried things and grilled skewers, plus little bites, ramen bowls, and the always-mysterious “specialties” category. Meanwhile, the prodigious drinks list includes beers, sakes, and sugary cocktails. The robata grill dries out any of the skewered meats that aren’t fatty or doused in marinade, so stick to the other stuff— takoyaki (octopus fritters), tempura, potato croquettes, pork fried rice shiny with fat. It’s a restaurant made for happy hour. $ SPUR GASTROPUB 113 Blanchard St., 728-6706. The problem with so many of today’s flailing attempts at modernist cuisine and molecular gastronomy is that, in their breathless fascination with all the goop, gear,

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WEEKLY SPECIALS • FEB 29 - MAR 6, 2012

Seattle weekly • February 29–March 6, 2012

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The Watering Hole: Bitterroot, 5239 Ballard Ave. N.W., 588-1577, BALLARD The Atmosphere: The sweet aroma of smoked meat hits your nostrils the moment you crack the front door to Bitterroot, and almost instantly that smell triggers a rumbling in the stomach that can only be quelled by a rack of ribs. This just-opened barbecue joint includes a handful of tables in its narrow front portion, and a bar area with a few booths and seating for maybe two dozen through a hallway in the back. The bar itself is smooth stainless steel, and the whiskey-laden liquor shelves are illuminated with desk lamps. Most people seem to be there for the food, but a handful of customers are just hanging out and sipping drinks.

The Barkeep: Trevor O’Dell, formerly of Frank’s Oysterhouse and Champagne Parlor, is literally right at home on Ballard Avenue: He lives in the neighborhood and took the job when the place opened four weeks ago because he liked the prospect of walking to work. Sporting a sweet “Northwest” T-shirt from Ballard-based graphic designer Mike Klay, O’Dell says he has also tended bar at The Saint and Havana.

The Drink: I knew I was in for something unique when O’Dell turned around and began to gather ingredients for the drink, only to pause abruptly and ask, “You’re not a vegetarian, are you?”

Informed that I am carnivorous as they come, O’Dell reached into a glass jar above the bar with the mouthwatering label “Bacon Jerky” and plucked out a crisply arched strip of belly meat.

He broke off a half-inch-long bit and speared it to make a garnish.

The drink, called a Root Down, consists of Old Ezra bourbon, Campari, Cynar, vanilla syrup, a little bit of lemon juice, and a thick spurt from what looked to be a ketchup squeeze bottle. Thankfully, it’s housemade grenadine–a viscous, crimson goo that spends a few hours acquiring flavor in the restaurant’s smoker. Shaken and strained into a martini glass, the final product was frothy, pink, and surprisingly good. The sweet, smoky grenadine and pungent Cynar were the dominant flavors, with

KEEGAN HAMILTON

Fresh food and brew made and served here in Ballard!

2 courses for $20

FirstCall

» by keegan hamilton

Drink and Food Specials!

Winter happy hour 4pm -close

and gadgetry involved in turning cheese into pasta and fish into foam, many chefs forget they’re still being paid to make people dinner. That means that the food itself still has to be a recognizable part of the “dining experience” and not get completely lost amid the chemicals and lasers. This, then, is the strength of Spur—a kitchen where a grounding in locality, seasonality, and recognizable ingredients (hedgehog mushrooms, salmon, potatoes, leeks, bacon) balances the impulse toward abstract gastronomic modernism, always elevating the trout above the almond foam and the sockeye salmon and housemade mascarpone above pure gimmickry. Because Spur’s crew can manage this (at prices considerably lower than those at many of the country’s other temples of molecular gastronomy), dinner here can be an event and an eye-opening indulgence without ever slipping over the line into a piece of egotistical performance art staged by cooks solely for their own enjoyment. $$$ TILIKUM PLACE CAFÉ 407 Cedar St., 282-4830. Tilikum Place is an unexpectedly successful hybrid between an all-day diner and a erudite little bistro. During the day, chef Ba Culbert serves nostalgic classics like baked beans on toast and airy Dutch babies made to order in cast-iron pans. The day’s sweet option may

Garnished with “a salty hit of bacon ecstasy.”

the citrus and vanilla becoming more discernible as I emptied the glass.

Left over was the little chunk of bacon jerky impaled on a plastic spear. The fat glistened pale white in all its unrendered glory, and with the marbled bits of meat still a deep red color, it almost looked raw. Somehow it was still crispy even after soaking in the drink for half an hour. But rather than having a crunchy texture, it dissolved on the tongue like a salty hit of bacon ecstasy.

The Verdict: Come for the drinks, stay for the ribs. My significant other and I split a half-rack of baby-backs that we soon sucked clean to the bone. They came slathered in sweet sauce (this is generally a no-no; the best barbecue is served with sauce on the side), and we made good use of the wet wipes stacked next to the bar napkins.

The bar carried a nice selection of microbrews, and boasted an impressive bourbon and rye collection for having just opened. In addition to the smoked grenadine, O’Dell uses smoked sugar cubes in some cocktails. He also seemed excited about the cook’s plan to smoke a batch of kangaroo jerky. Assuming the ’roo meat gets used as a garnish, the drink he served me has to be renamed the Roodown. E khamilton@seattleweekly.com

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food&drink»Featured Eats be laden with roasted apple slices and walnuts, the savory, with tendrils of duck confit. Dusk shutters the cafe’s wide-open atmosphere, transforming it into an intimate hideaway. Now’s the time to order the specials of the day, which can be anything from scallops set atop two purees, yam wasabi and spinach, or a tender haunch of rabbit with spinach-mushroom dumpling cakes. $-$$

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Seattleites have eaten Hot Mama’s when sober enough to give the Pine Street corner store its due. If there’s any pizzeria in town that delivers the pizza by the slice, it’s Hot Mama’s, where the thin-crust pies are only at their best when they’re reheated (something about the double-cooking gives the floury crusts an extra snap).

They’re so good that no one minds the grease that drips onto their plates, covering the paper with orange dots.

The late-night eavesdropping is priceless. $ KANAPE 700 Broadway E., 708-1210. The obvious love for generally unloved things defines Kanape. The menu spouts such typically undesirables as chicken-liver pate, or vegetable caponata. Kanape balances the menu with a long list of crepes, both sweet and savory and Turkish coffee from the bar. Eastern European food is still a relative rarity in the West, and I trust a place that takes as its inspiration the homesickness and melancholy of someone far from their native soil. $ THE KINGFISH CAFE 602 19th Ave. E., 320-8757. Seattle is peppered with inventive and quirky dishes featuring delicate flavors; it’s one of the advantages of living here.

But sometimes a girl just wants a piece of deep-fried chicken with a side of buttersoaked collard greens and sweet potatoes. The Kingfish Cafe offers food inspired by owners Laurie and Leslie Coaston’s Alabama ancestors. The key to good Southern food is fat, a notion that Kingfish embraces with T H I S CO D E aplomb. Even the menu’s TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE veggie options—macaroni SEATTLE WEEKLY and cheese and griddlejacks IPHONE/ANDROID APP (a fried black-eyed-pea-andFOR MORE RESTAURANTS OR VISIT veggie cake)—comprise seattleweekly.com enough dairy fat to make you gain 20 pounds just by inhaling the fumes. To tide you over at the bar while you wait, Kingfish offers the city’s stiffest mint julep—adorably served in a Mason jar. And whatever you do, order dessert, even if you don’t think you have room for it. Kingfish is so famous for its cakes, people have been known to order a slice with brunch. If ever there was a reason to own pants with an elastic waistband, Kingfish is it. $ MIRCH MASALA 213 Broadway Ave. E., 709-0111. The instant you walk into Mirch Masala, the servers greet you warmly, as if they’ve been preparing a meal in anticipation of your arrival. Specializing in classic Indian cuisine, the restaurant’s chef Sanjay Sharma uses recipes handed down in his family over several generations. The butter chicken is so tender it practically melts in your mouth, the lamb boti masala is drenched in a creamy, seasoned stew. You can sample a dozen or more of Sharma’s specialties during the impressive $7.95 lunch buffet (11 a.m.-3 p.m. daily), as long as you don’t fill up on the fresh naan they bring to your table. $ ODDFELLOWS CAFE AND BAR 1525 10th Ave., 325-0807. Oddfellows Cafe & Bar is a dining hall for the Capitol Hill of today. Decorated in washes of nostalgia— gray-blue walls, scuffed wood tables, salvaged signs and portraits—it’s Linda Derschang’s most beautiful space yet, where old-timey cocktails served in Grandma’s glassware look like they’ve always shared tablespace with MacBooks. During the day, the place operates as a counter-service cafe and at night as a bar and restaurant.

The food classes up basic American food without sparking class resentment. The simple mac and cheese looks circumspect yet has a surprising depth of flavor, and the crisp coating on the “pork nuggets” house a dense hunk of carnitas. For every plate of clams with chorizo the kitchen puts out, it assembles six BLTs and chickensalad sandwiches. The braised pork shank and meatballs with pine nuts, currants, and polenta are popular, but the menu’s also seasonal (the spring menu has a plethora of arugula, asparagus, and green peas, for example). Drinks flow with abundance—the full bar offers a small wine selection, specialty cocktails, canned and bottled beer, and Manny’s Pale Ale and others on tap. $-$$ POPPY 622 Broadway E., 324-1108. Hate looking at a menu and trying to pick just one dish? Poppy takes the tapas trend to a whole new level, offering Hindu-inspired

SCAN

thalis: large platters with several small bowls filled with delicious foods of one kind or another. In India, that means curries, rotis, and chutney. Here that means fusion delicacies, as Poppy strays far from its Indian inspiration, though a few traditional elements remain.

A given day’s 10-item thali might consist of duck leg with huckleberry sauce and fennel salad in addition to naan. The many small delicacies delight taste buds, but aren’t quite filling enough if you’re suffering a powerful hunger. That said, thanks to an inventive drink list (think curry leaves and bell peppers) and a delicious bar menu (whatever you do, get the eggplant fries with honey), Poppy is the perfect place to down cocktails when you and your indecisive friends are in the mood to taste an entire menu in one sitting. $$-$$$ SMITH 332 15th Ave. E., 709-1900. The decor at this popular Capitol Hill pub looks like it was patterned after your old English professor’s home study, the impossibly pompous one who treated “The Sun Also Rises” like gospel. The abundant wood paneling is brown enough to appear black and there is a puzzling amount of stuffed (and mounted) animals. But for all of its taxidermy weirdness, the atmosphere (and the bar) are probably the best things about Smith. The menu—though styled for gastropub simplicity—isn’t expert enough to warrant a special trip just for a meal. Burgers, poutine, mac and cheese, and the like make up the bulk of the board, with occasional high-tone touches like sweetbreads adding little of note. $$ ZAW ARTISAN PIZZA 1424 E. Pine St., 325-5528. The pitch: take-and-bake pizzas made with local, largely organic ingredients and given cutesy names (the “Vietzawm”). The procedure: Preheat your oven, then slide the pizza, laid out on a piece of parchment paper, onto the rack, and bake until the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly. The ultra-thin crust gets crackly just at the point the toppings are cooked. The trick, when picking a ‘zaw, is to avoid all innovation—the caramelized onions and huge sage leaves on a “Savory Savary” unite in cloying sychronicity, for example, but a Chicago deli with bacon, prosciutto, salami, and pickled pepperoncini is a decent pie as well. $

COLUMBIA CITY

ISLAND SOUL 4869 Rainier Ave. S., 329-1202. There is

indeed soul in this laid-back Caribbean restaurant in Columbia City. It’s the kind of place where if you ask what the coconut corn muffins taste like, you’re likely to get a small plate of them gratis. You will then know that they are fabulous, especially when warm, adding a slightly exotic twist to Southern U.S. cuisine. Lunch here is particularly good, and reasonable: Eight dollars will buy you a superb fish sandwich, like one with red snapper transformed by a spicy pepper, onion, and carrot vinaigrette. Island Soul is also one of the few places in town where you can get plantains, either the luscious ripe variety or crispy tostones. Largely undiscovered by the aging hipsters who converge on the neighborhood, it isn’t as crowded as some Columbia City hot spots. That leaves more room for the rest of us. $

DOWNTOWN

IL CORVO 1501 Western Ave., Ste 300, 622-4280. There’s

no shortage of great meals within walking distance of Seattle Weekly’s offices, and Il Corvo’s pasta was no exception. The spaghetti with briny cured tuna heart, crushed Calabrian chiles, olive oil and parsley leaves evokes the feverish, lascivious spring that many chefs forsake in favor of celebrating the season’s tender greens. The pasta preparations change daily, so check owner Mike Easton’s blog for a running roster. $ JAPONESSA 1400 First Ave., 971-7979. Japonessa is not really a Japanese/Spanish fusion restaurant. It is absolutely a Japanese restaurant, with its heavy reliance on noodles, seaweed, sushi, sashimi, and the artful preparation of everything that swims. There are hints of a Spanish tradition dotted here and there throughout the long menu. And on top of that, a kind of nouvelle Latino. And French. Non-Japanese Pacific Rim. Mediterranean. Even South American influence. The takeaway is confusing, but delicious. $$ MAD OVEN BBQ 213 Marion St., 625-0375. If barbecue joints are churches, then Mad Oven is a storefront chapel. The digs may not be very flashy, and the ministry may not be as popular or as well-publicized as others in the city. But the sermons (sandwiches of pulled pork, beef brisket, or hot link, all sauced appropriately) are solid enough to keep the congregants coming back. $ MARKET HOUSE MEATS 1124 Howell St., 624-9248.

Several years back, Market House Meats, which has supplied the city’s Irish with corned beef for five decades, turned its showroom into a eat-in deli. The decor consists of a windowside counter, some stools, and the smell of smoked meat, but really, what else do you need? The deli’s fat, meat-packed sandwiches come

food&drink»Featured Eats with potato salad, some pickles, and a tiny cookie. The pastrami is lighter on the spices and the cure than East Coast versions, but it’s succulent nonetheless, and the corned beef is proper: not too salty, not too nitrate-pink, beautifully tender. Try it in a Reuben with sauerkraut and marbled rye. $ PABLA INDIAN CUISINE 1516 Second Ave. Ste. 101, 623-2868. You feel like you’re visiting Pabla’s actual home when you sit down for a meal. Lace curtains adorn the windows, fresh flowers sit on the table, and the scent of simmering stew wafts in from the back kitchen. Her Punjabi dishes are comforting; lamb jalfrazie soaked in freshly ground spices and pepper and chicken tikka masala that’s sweet with the perfect hint of spice. More often than not, your server will be Pabla herself. $ PALOMINO 1420 Fifth Ave. Ste 350, 623-1300. Located on the top floor of City Center, Palomino is a stylish restaurant that attracts droves of twenty and thirtysomethings, especially at the end of the workday. It serves standard midscale American fare (pasta, seafood, steak) that’s decent but forgettable. However, the happy hour (4-6 p.m. and 9 p.m.-close, daily) is an absolute steal, featuring $5 brick-oven pizzas, under-$7 appetizers like calamari and mussels, and $4 house wines and specialty cocktails. Better still, your server will validate your parking so you can enjoy a downtown romp after your meal. $$ RED ROBIN 1101 Alaskan Way (Pier 55), 623-1942. Situated on Pier 55 on the Seattle waterfront, this is the bestsited Red Robin in the city. Tourists and seagulls love it for the same reasons: good food, amply served, and French fries left over to feed to the hovering birds.

Only one of the tasty burgers runs over 10 bucks, making it a favorite affordable lunch-hour joint. Happy-hour specials also attract office workers after 5 o’clock.

During summer, if you can’t find an open table (as is frequently the case), consider doing takeout for a picnic in nearby Waterfront Park (just a few steps north at Pier 57). The seagulls will be waiting for you. $

EASTLAKE & SOUTH LAKE UNION UPTOWN ESPRESSO 500 Westlake Ave. N., 621-2045.

One of the biggest and newest among the Uptown chain, the Westlake location sits smack on the SLUT tracks in South Lake Union. Condos and Amazon are rising all around it; already the place is jammed full with tech workers on laptops and any number of headhunters covertly scouting talent for competitors. It’s a good place for a meeting over coffee and scones, and also to discreetly check your personal e-mail account for that certain job offer you’re expecting. If you get it?

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FREMONT

HOMEGROWN 3416 Fremont Ave. N., 453-5232. You can

see Homegrown’s grasp of the zeitgeist in the progression of ceiling-high blackboards that mark your path to the cash register. The list of hot sandwiches is followed by cold sandwiches, salads, and combos, then by a mission statement, and finally by a checklist of which suppliers are local, certified organic, or sustainable. Sustainable appears frequently on the boards; so does bacon. Instead of ketchup, there’s chimichurri, mostarda, and romesco. Luckily, sandwiches are all about the quality of the ingredients, and the shop’s ingredients—the Dungeness crab in the crab cakes, the chicken thighs coated with rhubarblavender butter, the fennel and Granny Smith apples in the apple slaw—taste great. $-$$

INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT

GYRO HOUSE 212 Fifth Ave. S., 624-7266. Most of

America’s gyros meat comes from Chicago, so telling most local gyro shops apart simply entails finding out which Midwestern firm supplies them. That said, this friendly cafe on the edge of the ID sets itself apart by doing the most it can with a standardized product: swaddling the strips of beef-lamb (blam?) in thick, soft pita; tenderly piling on fresh lettuce and tomato; and

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For those accustomed to instant ramen, the soup dished up at Okinawa Teriyaki—in an earthenware bowl, with a roughly Mt. Fuji– sized mound of grilled meat heaped atop wavy, relatively thick noodles and a garden’s worth of fresh vegetables nestled beneath the cloudy, egg-infused broth—is a revelation.

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Se attle weekly • Febru ary 29–M arch 6, 2012

KEEGAN HAMILTON

For the majority of American eaters, the word “ramen” implies a pale brick of instant noodles packaged with a silver packet of salty beef, chicken, or shrimp bouillon in powder form. This bargain-priced, sodium-saturated food staple has kept countless college students from starving; the

Situated at the corner of Western Avenue and Spring Street, Okinawa has become even more of a no-frills downtown lunch destination since relocating from a nearby space beneath the Viaduct last year. Encountering lines that stretch out the door is not uncommon during the lunch rush; savvy diners will phone in orders ahead of time. The teriyaki is served up quick, and for $6.95 the massive platter of rice, chopped lettuce, and dark meat slathered in sweet, sticky sauce might be enough food to sate even Takeru Kobayashi’s hunger. They also offer yakisoba, and an assortment of pot stickers and other fried items.

The ramen varieties include chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, and katsu (breaded, deep-fried pork). They take a few minutes longer for the kitchen to prepare, and cost slightly more than other menu items, with prices from $6.99 for veggie to $9.99 for tofu and shrimp; any soup can be made “spicy” for an extra two bits. The upgrade doesn’t pack much punch, but a spurt of Sriracha sauce adds enough oomph for capsaicin cravers. Adding sauces and condiments to ramen and other prepared foods is apparently a faux pas in Japan, but the culture also dictates that it is polite to slurp ramen as loudly as possible to signal that it’s tasty and has been served at the proper pipinghot temperature. And at Okinawa, be prepared to slurp extra loud. E

29

food&drink»Featured Eats drizzling on tangy yogurt. If you’re a fan of more local fare, the chicken and lamb shawarma are juicy and justly seasoned, and the flaky-gooey baklava varieties are worth a splurge. Figure out which of the trays on the counter has come out of the oven the most recently, and order that one. $

MAGNOLIA & INTERBAY

MAGGIE BLUFFS MARINA GRILL 2601 W. Marina

Place, 283-8322. With all due respect to Palisade, its downstairs neighbor, Maggie Bluffs, is a more affordable, family-friendly endeavor. Sure, the view’s not as majestic, but the water’s still right there, and the fish tastes as though it’s jumped straight out of Puget Sound and into the fryer. $ ROMIO’S PIZZA & PASTA 2001 W. Dravus St., 2845420. Always weird lighting in this Interbay corner store––too bright here, too dark there. What the hey, close your eyes and enjoy the never-disappointing pies or a memorable (cholesterol-busting) baked spaghetti. $-$$

NORTH SEATTLE

HT OAKTREE MARKET 10008 Aurora Ave. N., 527-5333.

Where most businesses strive for excellence, HT Oaktree Market revels in its mediocrity. The floors are dirty and littered with buckets to catch the drips from the ceiling when it rains. Service is regularly surly, and the produce is wilted more often than not. Yet somehow, HT is greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps it’s the variety of goods available—an international sampling that covers most of Asia, the Mediterranean, Russia, and Latin America. $ STANFORD’S RESTAURANT & BAR 401 N.E. Northgate Way Ste. 1106, 834-6277. Part of a thematically schizophrenic local chain of Northwest eateries that includes Newport Bay, Palomino, Cutters, and Maggie Bluffs, Stanford’s seemed rudderless until a back-to-basics menu shift in late 2009 also signaled a rise in quality. Service can be a bit uneven and carnivorous entreés are priced at least $5 higher than they should be, but Stanford’s is moving in the right direction, anyway. $-$$

ALittLeRAskin » by hanna raskin

Seattle weekly • February 29–March 6, 2012

Feeloaders

30

Craft-cocktail bars tend to be very faithful to pre-Prohibition standards, from their glassware to their bartenders’ facial hair. But the practice of treating patrons to free food along with their fancy drinks has vanished.

During the late 19th century, the free lunch represented a rare point of agreement between saloon keepers and anti-alcohol crusaders: None of them liked it. Elaborate spreads featured hams, smoked herring, loaves of rye bread, pickled oysters, and massive rounds of beef. The tavern owners forced to foot the grocery bills complained about the cost, and teetotalers argued the gratis buffet was turning hungry customers into drunkards.

“When one can do sufficient business without being obliged to set out the lunch, he is fortunate, as it not only saves expense, but avoids considerable trouble,” Harry Johnson wrote in the 1900 edition of his bartenders’ manual.

Although it was impossible for saloons in Johnson’s day to eliminate the amenity and remain competitive, the free lunch didn’t survive Prohibition. When bars reopened after Repeal, legal drink was enticement enough.

Still, many bars routinely dished out pretzels, peanuts, or cheese and crackers—the traditional snack at Sardi’s in New York City until the Department of Health last November extinguished the

PIKE PLACE MARKET

THREE GIRLS BAKERY 1514 Pike Place Ste. 1, 622-1045.

Nothing says “you’re in the Market now” like pulling up a stool at this beloved Pike Place lunch counter.

The sandwiches are overstuffed, the service is friendly, and your fellow travelers are always entertaining. It’s a cozy spot to while away the lunch hour, but don’t dawdle, because there’s always someone hovering just outside waiting to take your spot. If you’re just passing through, stop at the Girls’ takeout window, where there’s an array of tempting (and reasonably priced) breads and pastries wooing the throngs of Market visitors. $

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QUEEN ANNE

HOW TO COOK A WOLF 2208 Queen Anne Ave. N.,

838-8090. Ethan Stowell’s third restaurant looks like a cross between a cigar box and a sauna, and not much bigger than either. It’s a casual neighborhood joint for people who enjoy hanging out in tiny, refined spaces and are comfortable ordering off a menu that refuses to define itself in courses. A meal at Wolf might start with a plate of escolar crudo, which gives way to chicken-liver bruschetta drizzled in balsamic vinaigrette, then a bowl of gnocchi with cauliflower and olives. The dishes are of the moment, both in terms of food trends and the seasons, and the cooking is frequently exquisite. So is Angela Stowell’s list of Italian wines. $$ LA LUNA 2 Boston St. (between N. Queen Anne Ave. & N. First Ave.), 282-2511. The Mexican lounge takes pride in offering a full page of grub on its bar menu, promoting $2 off during happy hour. Its fare is described as “fine Mexican fusion” that throws in some seafood dishes like seared scallops and crab cakes and tops them with salsa. There’s even a fancied-up version of a grilled cheese sandwich. Without any traditional Mexican decor, it’s hard to tell what La Luna is all about without glancing at its menu. If anything, the lounge offers a more professional atmosphere for Queen Anne-ites who are tired of having to dodge the partiers at Pesos in order to get a taco. $$

communal cheese pot, forcing the bar to serve individual cheese crocks with plastic-wrapped crackers. Sardi’s now charges $3 for the setup.

“You shouldn’t have nuts or pretzels or definitely not cheese out at the bar,” a department spokesperson told The New York Times in the wake of the Sardi’s imbroglio. “You can be served new appetizers, if you want to call them that, but that can’t be left out.”

The Department of Health isn’t entirely to blame for the disappearance of bar mix: Craft-bar owners say they can’t afford to give away salty snacks of a caliber consistent with their vermouths and vinegars. A few European-style bars still offer cheese and cold cuts at cocktail hour, but the vast majority of upscale venues serving peanuts now slap a $3 price tag on the plate.

Olives, popcorn, and housemade potato chips are also popular low-cost snacks.

“Dive bars and such can do it, as the majority of the drinks are highballs, shots, and beer; all have huge margins, and can afford to give away snacks,” says Canon’s Jamie Boudreau. “The only way that a craft-cocktail bar could sustain giving away food would be to charge $13-plus for all of their drinks, and we all know how well that would go over, given the Pacific Northwest stance on price and value. If anything, I think that happy hour has replaced the free snack.” E hraskin@seattleweekly.com

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Greenside Stays on My Good Side Greenside Medical, a medicinal-cannabis collective on Lake City Way in north Seattle, has a great reception area and friendly staffers who made me feel welcome as soon as I entered. They were quick to verify my medicalmarijuana authorization and send me into the waiting room, which is between the reception area and the bud room.

When I went into that middle room, I was the only patient there; just a couple of minutes later, several more people came in. Thus began a narrowly averted customerservice disaster for Greenside.

One of the people who came into the waiting room after me was either so self-absorbed or thoughtless that when the receptionists asked who was next to go into the bud room, this (quite big) guy got up and claimed the spot before I even had a chance to.

In my capacity as dispensary reviewer, that just wasn’t going to go unremarkedupon. So I went to the receptionists’ window, explained what had just transpired, and asked them if that sort of thing took place all the time. Greenside seemed well on its way to a bad review at that point, but the receptionist defused the entire situation. She had me go on back to the bud room, where budtender Bobby politely apologized for the misunderstanding before showing me around.

The lesson is that assertiveness may be required in Greenside’s waiting room, or you could be overlooked. Speak up for yourself!

The bud room was as well-stocked as any I’ve seen. In fact, Bobby told me Greenside never has fewer than 40 strains in stock. It also had plenty of medibles—a variety of both

sweet and savory—and lots of topicals and concentrates too.

Fortunately, since several patients were jockeying for position at the bud bar, the bud room was a little larger than the cramped spaces I’ve seen recently at other shops. Even so, the room felt a little crowded, not least because of the jerk who had jumped in front of me, who was in there casting furtive, sidelong glances.

Most of the strains can be had with donations of $12 or $15, with five or six $10 strains for good measure.

Bobby told me that one $15 strain is always on sale for $10, so with planning it’s possible to get top-shelf medicine for a little less.

On the day I visited, the $15for-$10 was God Bud, which, while gorgeous and potent, had a certain unfinished feeling. It was, however, quite de-focusing, and might be a bad idea to smoke just before filing your taxes.

The Afgoo Berry, on the other hand, was well worth the $12 donation. Its lush, trichome-resplendent flowers more than followed through on their promise of pain relief and relaxation.

Greenside Medical is at 9804 Lake City Way N.E., 380-3129, e-mail info@greensidemedical. com, website greensidemedical.com. It’s open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., noon to 7 p.m. on weekends. E Steve Elliott edits Toke of the Town, Village Voice Media’s site of cannabis news, views, rumor, and humor.

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Dear Dategirl, In the wake of an affair I had a year ago, my wife’s friends advised her to cut me loose and not look back. I completely understand their point of view: They want their friend to be happy. We are separated now and working with a therapist. My wife is trying to move past this and forgive me. I hope to someday reconcile. I realize that this will be difficult no matter what, but more so with her friends advising her to drop me like a hot potato. Any thoughts or advice?

—Discouraged, but Not Ready for Divorce

Of course your wife’s friends hate your guts.

How would you feel about some schmendrick who fucked around on your sister? They wouldn’t be good friends if they didn’t think you were a piece of shit. These pals were on the front line; they’re the people who bought her beers and passed her tissues as she read your illicit e-mails aloud. They talked her out of keying your

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It’s not your wife’s friends’ collective fault that you’re not together. You guys split up because you lied to her, banged some other broad, and then lied some more. If you want your wife—and by extension, her friends—to forgive you, you have some serious work to do.

First, quit being such a whiner. Second, take responsibility for your actions. You guys had an arrangement to forsake all other genitalia, and you decided to alter that contract without telling her. Third, apologize. And not a lame “I’m sorry that you were offended that I fucked our neighbor/your bff/ my third cousin.” Genuine remorse must be evident.

Fourth, make sure you’re not going to “accidentally” fall back into this other chick’s vagina. If you work with your affair partner, get a new job. Cut off all lines of communication with her. Fifth—and this is the one you’ll balk at—be transparent. Volunteer to tell her where you’re going and whom you’re seeing. Give her your e-mail and Facebook passwords. Don’t lock up your cell phone or password-protect your computer. Give her keys to where you’re living.

When it comes to dealing with her friends, be polite. Don’t be a suck-up and don’t be combative. Tell them you’re sorry for putting their friend through the wringer and thank them for taking such good care of her.

It’d be nice if all transgressions could be neatly packed away in the don’t-go-there room, but you didn’t break her favorite coffee mug—you broke her heart. That’s going to take some time to heal, bub. E

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600 Music

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PLACE YOUR AD TODAY • 206-623-6231 FREE ONLINE ADS AND PHOTOS AT WWW.BACKPAGE.COM 167 Restaurants/Hotels/Clubs

The YWCA of Seattle-King County-Snohomish County is seeking a Youth Services Director. This position will work both independently and as part of a team to cultivate opportunities that assist youth-serving staff to think creatively and strategically about improving systems to increase the success of vulnerable youth populations.

The Director is responsible for overseeing the development, operation and evaluation of YWCA's youth programs and services which include leadership development/mentoring and internship programming for Girls of Color entering their freshman year of high school with continued support until graduation (YWCA GirlsFirst); a pre-employment program for homeless youth ages 15-22 (Funded by WIA) and a homeless young parent program managed in conjunction with YWCA's family housing (YWCA Young Parent Program). PT, 25hrs/wk, Exempt.

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Se attle weekly • Febru ary 29–M arch 6, 2012

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LGEMR seeks Software Engineer (L158-M188) in Redmond, WA to engage in all phases of product development from design to product realization and life-cycle support. Master's degree in CS, CE or related field and 2 yrs exp in wireless software req’d. Will accept Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related field and five years of progressive experience. Fax resume indicating Job Code L158-M188 to LG Electronics Mobile Research USA, LLC. ATTN: K. Hanson (858-635-5378). EOE.

PLACE YOUR AD TODAY • 206-623-6231 FREE ONLINE ADS AND PHOTOS AT WWW.BACKPAGE.COM

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Asthma Study

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Volunteers needed to participate in a study about the causes of asthma. There will be up to seven visits to the University of Washington Medical Center. You will undergo diagnostic breathing tests for asthma. A total of 3 maximum effort exercise tests, 2 sputum induction tests and 2 medical procedures called bronchoscopy, where a physician uses a lighted tube to look directly at the air passages of the lungs and takes small airway samples. Compensation will be provided for time and inconvenience. You must be:

Medication Study for PTSD and Alcohol Problems

Jobs for the Food and Drink Industry Staffing Solutions for Owners & Managers

The Seattle VA is looking for people ages 18 and over who have experienced trauma and have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and also use alcohol frequently, have problems with it, and want to stop using it. Non-veterans are welcome! Study is evaluating whether an investigational medication is effective at reducing alcohol craving and use and symptoms associated with PTSD. Study takes 8 weeks. Volunteers will be paid up to $395 for participation in this study.

Call Bergetta at 206-277-4015

Medicinal Cannabis / Medical Marijuana Doctor-Nurse Owned Holistic Center Protection of your PRIVACY is #1 24/7 Service: (888) 508-5428 www.AdvancedHolisticHealth.org

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New! Increased compensation for 1st time egg donors. with photos and maps.

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Donate Your Car, Truck or Motorcycle!

Support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound FREE PICK UP OF MOST USED VEHICLES Tax Deductible. (206) 248-5982

AAAA** Donation. Donate Your Car, Boat or Real Estate.

IRS Tax Deductible. Free Pick-Up/Tow. Any Model/ Condition. Help Under Privileged Children Outreach Center 1-800-419-7474.

Seattle weekly • February 29–March 6, 2012

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Free TRY FOR

206.576.2411 Local #s: 1.800.926.6000 Ahora en Español 18+

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Win a Trip for Two to Palm Springs!

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Southend Room For Rent...$130 a week w/no deposit! Includes Cleaning and Util. 206-762-2757

skies and stunning natural beauty. Let its storied Hollywood legacy, Native American heritage and stellar collection of mid-century modern architecture lure you to your desert playground today. Enter now for a chance to win this amazing prize package! Must be 18 or over to enter. www.SeattleWeekly.com/PalmSprings

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Debris Removal • 206-784-0313 • Credit Cards Accepted!

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Home Buyer Seminars HOME BUYING SEMINARS at Seattle Central C.C. and Evergreen Home Loans*

Private Investigator Butler Investigations 206-257-0552

Classified Ads Get Results!

2011 Federal Postal Positions. $13.00-$36.50+/hr., Full Benefits plus Paid Training. No Experience plus Job Security. Call Today! 1-866-477-4953 Ext .152.

PREGNANT? CONSIDERING ADOPTION? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families nationwide.

LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby's One True Gift Adoptions 866-413-6293 (Void in Illinois)

In compliance with RCW 69.15A

Paid In Advance!

Make $1000 a Week

Shop and earn $275 - $380/wk. This is a freelance job which will not disturb your present job if you have any.

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Massage Special $20 for 2nd hr 425.214.1279 License # MA00020273

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*some restrictions apply on all strains except private reserve label

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Must bring in this ad or a picture of this ad

Debt relief agency for bankruptcy. 206-625-0460

EARN $75 - $200 HOUR. (Now 25% Off ) Media Makeup & Airbrush Training. For Ads, TV, Film, Fashion. 1 wk class. Learn & build portfolio.

AwardMakeUpSchool.com 310-364-0665

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KDCSTUDIO.COM, for Wedding/Event Photo/Video, (425)-945-0062

For more information contact the study coordinator at 206-221-6393 or email uwasthma@u.washington.edu.

(The confidentiality of email communication cannot be guaranteed)

The Green Skunk Seattle’s Premier Medical Marijuana Collective

For an emotion theory / worldview

Call Alexandria O'Shea MA, LMHC. 24 yrs exp. alexandriaoshea.net, 206-729-7284

18 - 59 years old Have a physician diagnosis of asthma With or without exercise induced symptoms Be in good physical condition Be a non-smoker No other major health problems Be available on Tuesdays or Thursdays

Get Ahh-thorized with AHH!

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Advertise your business here. Contact Peter Muller at Seattle Weekly for advertising rate info. 206-467-4364

• • • • • • •

FREE! Tuesday, March 27th Check www.evergreenedu.com for upcoming seminars.

Realty West Properties, 804 SW 148th Street, Burien from 4:00-9:00PM. Please join your instructor Lynne Garton, Evergreen Home Loans (MLO-209901) and take the worry and stress out of home buying in a relaxed class that guides you through the journey of finding and financing your home whether this is your first or fifth house!

www.evergreenedu.com

*Evergreen Home Loans is a registered trade name of Evergreen Moneysource Mortgage Company CL-3182