* Denotes events that are $15 or less
Washington Cider Week *
Pick from DOZENS of places to imbibe on small batch and inventive ciders, ciders transcending the usual throwaway descriptions of sweet and dry, ciders that are hopped or smoky or include lavender, pumpkin or habañero. My personal recommendation: do a flight anywhere that offers it and treat yourself to some side-by-side comparison. Saturday also marks the grand opening of the Schilling Cider House in Fremont, where there will be 32 rotating cider taps. To celebrate, they’re filling the first 1,000 glass growlers On The House. If you want to get out of the city, Washington Cider Week makes for a great excuse to ferry over to the Peninsula and go cider tasting (at Eaglemount and Finn River and Alpenfire)!
If you go: Washington Cider Week, Throughout Seattle and elsewhere, Sept. 4 to 14. — N.C.
Swans
Go to the Swans Wikipedia page, look at the genre tags and you’ll immediately get an inkling of why they’re interesting. Most bands get one, maybe two tags. Swans have Experimental rock, no wave, post punk, noise rock, industrial, gothic rock, art rock, and post rock. Notice the only truly common threads are intensity and darkness. This may well be an earplugs-mandatory show, but Swans compile this sinister compendium of genres with an air of artful alacrity. No band makes noise more thoughtfully than Swans.
If you go: Swans, Showbox Market, Sept. 4 ($25). All ages — J.S.H.
NEPO 5K Don’t Run *
I’ve loved this event ever since it launched three years ago. Dozens of artists install themselves and/or their work along a route that begins in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District’s Hing Hay Park and wends its way up to a private home/public art gallery on Beacon Hill. It’s one mother of an artwalk with 52 art projects, DJs, bands as well as life’s necessities (Port-a-Potties and, a food truck!). Work those legs, feed your brain, then drink. What could possibly be better on Saturday afternoon?
If you go: NEPO 5K Don’t Run 2014, Starts at Hing Hay Park, finishes at NEPO House on Beacon Hill. Sept. 6 from 1 to 6 p.m. ($15) — F.D.
Stanton Warriors *
Burning Man 2014 just ended, and now a slew of shindigs to help festival-goers around the country re-acclimate to reality — often referred to as “decompression — are popping up. Luckily, those who didn't have the time, money or inclination to check out the Burn can still benefit from their prodigious selection of after parties. This particular show features the UK industrial house duo Stanton Warriors. If for some reason the term “industrial house” doesn’t give it away, this is heavy, driving EDM. Stanton Warriors are the polar opposites of dreamy, chilled out Seattle duo Odesza. This is music that destroys subwoofers.
If you go: Burn One featuring Stanton Warriors, Neumos, Sept. 6 ($15). — J.S.H.
Thomas Herrera-Mishler: Revitalization of Olmsted Parks *
It’s been over 100 years since The Olmsted Brothers crafted the awesome parks we have today, setting aside land throughout our city for Ravenna, Volunteer, Lincoln and Seward Parks — to name just a few. Their goal then: to ensure a park within just a half-mile of every Seattle home. With the recent parks proposal passing, now is a great time to talk about the many successes of our parks system. And ways it can be made even better. Thomas Herrera-Mishler, President and CEO of the Buffalo Olmsted Park Conservancy, will join the Seattle Parks Foundation to talk about the restoration of Buffalo, N.Y.’s park system and what Seattle can learn.
If you go: Revitalization of Olmsted Parks, Town Hall, Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m, All Ages ($10 general/$8 student) — N.C.
Tobacco *
Thomas Fec, front man of the wonderfully-named freak synth group Black Moth Super Rainbow, performs his substantial body of solo material under the name Tobacco. Fec is a master of controlled cacophony, well-known for his bizarre, noisy song arrangements. He creates many of his unique sonic textures by monkeying with obscure instruments from the pre-digital era. One in particular, the Mellotron, utilizes a keyboard interface to play pre-recorded tape loops. I love the idea of making futuristic sounds with instruments from the past, and Tobacco makes this idea a reality.
If you go: Tobacco, Neumos, Sept. 9 ($15). 21+ — J.S.H.
The Mountaintop
ArtsWest Playhouse launches it’s 2014-15 season with the Seattle premiere of Katori Hall's The Mountaintop. The play re-imagines Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the eve of his assassination, in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. King is visited by a young woman and forced to confront the meaning of his life.
Written by American playwright Katori Hall, The Mountaintop premiered in London in 2009 where it was described as “magical, spiritual and touching.” Hall won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. The Seattle production stars Reginald Andre Jackson and Brianne Hill and it’s directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton.
If you go: The Mountaintop, ArtsWest Playhouse, Sept. 11 to Oct. 5. ($34.50) A special preview performance on Sept. 10 will benefit Seattle’s Hansberry Project, a professional black theater company. — F.D.
Crosscut's arts coverage is made possible through the generous support of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
