The Guide Listings: Thursday, October 21

by Tim Appelo, Mark Baumgarten, Katelyn Hackett, Robert Ham, Todd Hamm, Bond Huberman, Heather Kirnak, Seth Kolloen, Whitney Ricketts and Kim Ruehl. Venue photography by Andrew Waits

MUSIC

5TH AVENUE THEATRE

9PM CAT POWER
Chan Marshall has come a long way from her days of crippling stage fright and feather-light folk pop. These days, she’s looking more like a born performer. Bolstered by her crack backing group, the Dirty Delta Blues Band (featuring members of Dirty Three and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), she works the stage with the aggressive moves of a punk rocker and a vulnerability that is engaging instead of worrying. RH

CHOP SUEY

11:30PM PHOSPHORESCENT
The brainchild of singer-songwriter Matthew Huock, Phosphorescent has slowly and steadily gained traction with a fairly versatile audience. Indie-rock crowds appreciate the band’s mellow chug of emotion, while the Americana bunch cottons to the genuine bare-bones sincerity of it all. Regardless of why or how fans flock to the band’s work, Phosphorescent is well worth paying attention to, as its latest recording, Here’s to Taking It Easy, pulls influence from the tastiest parts of American music. KR

10:15PM PEOPLE EATING PEOPLE
Nouela Johnston, formerly of Seattle band Mon Frere, has been compared in her solo project People Eating People to the likes of Gwen Stefani, Regina Spektor, Björk, Nina Simone, Tori Amoa and Fiona Apple. That’s a wide range of strong voices, which is fitting for the piano-playing pop-star-in-waiting, whose range is wide and whose voice is strong. Having just rereleased its debut self-titled album nationally, People Eating People has recently solidified into a full band and has recently been demolishing crowds in Seattle and beyond with its dramatic balladry. HK

9PM DANIEL G. HARMANN
& THE TROUBLE STARTS
What started out so long ago as the solo voice our community termed “rainy-day makeout music” has grown into a four-person band that has managed to take those heartbreaking songs and gives them the context of a vast soundscape of buzzing guitars and rumbling drums. The band will be celebrating its upcoming debut, Risk, an album that is anything but what it title says. HK

THE CROCODILE

10PM THE WEEPIES
Sweetheart duo the Weepies burst onto the contemporary folk/singer-songwriter scene when their second album, Say I Am You, came out in 2006. Since then, they’ve worked with everyone from Mandy Moore to Old Navy, developing a sound that’s equal parts saccharine pop and thoughtful existentialist folk. Live, their tightly knit harmonies and between-song banter will charm the pants off of you. KR

8:45PM THE HEAD AND THE HEART
Anchored by a banging rhythm section and sent aloft by the three-part gospel harmonies of Josiah Johnson, Jon Russell and Charity Thielen, the music of the Head and the Heart has infected the Northwest music scene, landing the band on the must-book list for every major venue in the area. Only a couple of months after releasing its debut full-length, filled with moving Americana, the band has already earned the title “Next Big Thing.” See them now. MB

8PM LUCY SCHWARTZ
Coming off a year that saw the release of her debut EP of lilting piano pop, Help Me! Help Me!, and a pairing with Landon Pigg to express an ogre’s love with “Darling I Do” for the film Shrek Forever After, twenty-year-old Los Angeles songwriter Lucy Schwartz is officially on the rise. For Heineken City Arts Fest she will play songs from her recently released debut full-length, Life in Letters, an album filled with dark songs delivered with almost cheery aplomb. MB

NEUMOS

10:45PM ROKY ERICKSON
That the former 13th Floor Elevators front man has survived his struggles with paranoid schizophrenia and drug addiction is reason enough to sing Roky Erickson’s praises. That he’s making new music again with vigor and spirit and a nasty blues-garage punch is just the icing on the cake. Erickson may still look haunted around the eyes, but when he starts to sing and crank out some dirty riffs on his guitar, you’ll be the one left gloriously spooked. RH

9:30PM THE MALDIVES
As one of Seattle’s largest, most raucous bands touting utter roots-rock mayhem, the Maldives have only just begun to win fans outside of the Pacific Northwest. Their musical palette includes everything from guitars to tambourines, fiddles, drums and pedal steel, and their live show is an energetic affair. They’ve cut their teeth playing at every opportunity both in town and on the road, and as such have earned their place among Seattle’s tightest live groups. KR

8:30PM MASSY FERGUSON
Fresh from releasing its sophomore album, Hard Water, last month, Massy Ferguson (a band, not a person) has had a month to work with a new and more refined sound. The band has maintained its Springsteen-inspired American rock roots while adding an Americana edge that puts the band in a league with the Jayhawks and the Drive-By Truckers, which is fitting since this band is named after a tractor company. MB

TRIPLE DOOR

7PM, 10PM DBR featuring EMELINE MICHEL
While his recent performance with Lady Gaga on American Idol might have provided the classical musician with his greatest exposure yet, for Daniel Bernard Romain, aka DBR, it was just another day at the office, vigorously experimenting across different music styles. The Haitian American composer already has countless commissions and collaborations under his belt for theatre, film and dance, in which he melds classical compositions for symphony and chamber ensemble, often layering them with electronic dance beats. At Heineken City Arts Fest, he teams up with guests DJ Scientific and Haitian pop star Emeline Michel for a unique performance of tracks from his new album, Woodbox Beats & Balladry. BH

PERFORMANCE

ON THE BOARDS

7PM PAT GRANEY COMPANY
For its performance at On the Boards, the Pat Graney Company combines three iconic performances from throughout its history – Faith, Sleep and Tattoo – into a mini-retrospective of work created over the span of a decade (1991–2001), featuring many of the original performers including KT Niehoff, Peggy Piacenza and Amii Legendre. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience and better understand one of the pillars of our local contemporary dance community. BH

SOLE REPAIR

7PM THE OFF HOURS: AUTUMN READING
Not your grandmother’s reading series, this quarterly event is a support group for Northwest writers and their devoted fans. Here, in-progress or recently published works are shared, people listen, and then everybody celebrates — with some help from the bar at Chapel. This special Heineken City Arts Fest edition features poets Rich Jensen, Mary Sherwin and Jason Whitmarsh, fiction writer Nancy Jooyoun Kim, ukulele player Jenny Symons and host Stacey Levine. See “Best of Off Hours,” page 44. HK

SORRENTO HOTEL

8PM CHAMBER VS. CHAMBER 4
featuring TILSON AND PAUL RUCKER
For the fourth installment of this regular event, two of Seattle’s most compelling performers explore the line between classical and popular music. Multitalented artistic visionary Paul Rucker takes to his cello to perform original compositions alongside emcee Tilson, whose wordplay with the Saturday Knights and Head like a Kite has provoked and entertained audiences up and down the West Coast. Following the performance, the two will discuss their art with the audience and moderator Mark Baumgarten. BH

FILM

SIFF CINEMA

7:30PM METROPOLIS with ALLOY ORCHESTRA
Celebrating twenty years of providing live scores to long-forgotten silent films,the Alloy Orchestra of Cambridge, Massachusetts, will accompany one of the genre’s greats, Fritz Lang’s 1927 dystopic exploration of labor and capital (and robots), Metropolis. This performance also marks the Seattle debut of what is believed to be the complete version of the film, fully restored and featuring thirty more minutes of film. MB

CONVERSATION

SORRENTO HOTEL FIRESIDE ROOM

5PM FIRESIDE CHAT: WILL THE MUSICAL EVER END? or THE FUTURE OF MUSICAL THEATRE
Ever dust off your VHS tape of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers just to see the barn-raising dance? Still have the Rent sound track on circulation in your car? There’s a place for you, here by the fire. David Armstrong, artistic director of 5th Avenue Theatre, along with performers Chris Jeffries, Richard Gray, Jayne Muirhead, Nick Garrison and John Engerman, discuss the life of the musical, maybe the only performance art that competes with sports franchises in merchandising. Marcie Sillman, KUOW culture reporter and collector of the material on which The Thin Place was based, and director Brandon Ivie host. BH