- Four days of the inaugural City Arts Fest kicks off with Belle and Sebastian @ Benaroya, Blue Scholars @ the Paramount, and Gogol Bordello (sold out) @ Showbox SoDo
Thursday, October 21st
- Get ready for some intense deadpan with Steven Wright @ the Moore
- Count on equal moments brilliance and trainwreck care of Cat Power @ 5th Ave Theatre
- Also at City Arts Fest, ascendant Ballardians, the Head and the Heart join the Weepies @ the Crocodile; Phosphorescent is @ Chop Suey
- Pat Graney’s career-spanning retrospective Faith Triptych opens @ On the Boards
- James Zogby discusses polling in the Arab world @ UW Kane Hall
- Another night of sexo y violencia, Mexican wrestling and burlesque, care of Lucha VaVoom @ the Showbox
- Double Yoko avant-gardedly entertains the patrons along with Ashia Grzesik @ the Can Can
- Robin Held talks onstage with Implied Violence director Ryan Mitchell @ the Frye Art Museum
- The After Midnight film noir series brings you the aptly named Between Midnight and Dawn(1950) @ SAM
Friday, October 22nd
- A good old-fashioned solid four-band lineup with Blitzen Trapper, Fruit Bats, Seabear, and Wye Oak @ the Showbox
- Soliloquys, an evening of performances from major American texts, by performer/director duos featuring everyone from Donald Byrd to Gus van Sant, goes down @ Town Hall
- Cafe Nordo‘s new culinary adventure Sauced (actually, that’s “sauced” as in “drunk”) continues @ Theo Chocolate
- Nick out of work for a long lunch and have a fireside chat with photographer Chase Jarvis about his Seattle 100 exhibition and book @ Seattle 100 studio or online
- Dum Dum Girls warm up the stage for the Vaselines @ Neumo’s
- Some sort of craziness as local performers and theatrical luminaries play musical roulette @ Century Ballroom
- The complete Metropolis, now with newly discovered footage and live score care of the Alloy Orchestra @ SIFF Cinema
- For “Caminos del Inka: A Musical Journey Through the Inca Trail,” the Seattle Symphony is led by Peruvian-born conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya and you get to see photos from the region @ Benaroya Hall
Saturday, October 23rd
- The 4th annual Hillside Harvest features pumpkin beer, cider, and food from Skillet @ the Bottleneck
- Before Rainn Wilson and friends joke and sing to benefit the Mona Foundation @ the Paramount, the actor gives an afternoon talk about the importance service @ the Paramount (free, reservations required via LizY@STGpresents.org) and makes an appearance at a Kiehl’s opening (?) @ Bellevue Square
- Cutesy-pie duo She & Him @ 5th Ave Theatre and not-so-cutesy Big Boi @ Showbox SoDo
- Foals bring moody angular rock from Oxford to City Arts Fest; arrive early to catch Pica Beats @ Neumo’s
- It cost a ton of money to build a pipe organ in there, but if you attend “An Organ Celebration” (Gabrieli, Bach, Handel, Poulenc, and more) you will count the minutes well spent @ Benaroya Hall
Sunday, October 24th
- Just some good-old rock and roll with Deer Tick @ Neumo’s
- Fancypants British folk rock with Mumford and Sons and the equally limey alt-country openers Mt Desolation @ the Moore
- Closing night of the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival @ Pacific Place
Monday, October 25th
- Danger! High Voltage! (yes, still) with Electric Six and The Constellations @ Neumo’s
- Get your buzz bands here: Born Ruffians @ Chop Suey or Henry Clay People @ the Croc
- “This is gonna take some crackerjack timing, Wang.” Big Trouble in Little China tickles your ribs @ the Grand Illusion
- Trader Joe’s Silent Movie Mondays winds up its crime spree series with 1915’s Regeneration, about a boy gone bad who falls for a social worke
r @ the Paramount - Roosevelt High School Jazz shows you why they win all those awards @ the Triple Door
Tuesday, October 26th
- Take your pick of fun or scary Halloween fare: Beetlejuice, Poltergeist, or “post-apocalyptic Irish indie” One Hundred Mornings @ Central Cinema
- Expect some lovely dueting with Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan @ Neumo’s
- Remy Cointreau’s Speakeasy series visits Paris via films (René Clair’s Sous les toits de Paris and Jacques Becker’s Casque d’Or) with musical accompaniment from Vunt Foom @ the Triple Door