The SunBreak’s Picks for City Arts Fest Friday

One day down, two to go. Here are our picks for City Arts Fest tonight!

Ryan Adams w/Rebecca Gates @ Benaroya Hall
Josh: Ryan Adams is known for prolific and genre-promiscuous singer songwriting with a dash of unpredictable performances. It’s hard to say how this will translate to Benaroya Hall, but I certainly want to see for myself.

Tamara: Thank goodness for the staggering of set times, because it means you might able to squeeze in both of Friday’s must-see gigs, starting with Ryan Adams at Benaroya Hall. For me, this is more based on nostalgia than anything else; I still wallow in the beautiful despair of 2000 solo debut, Heartbreaker, like it was released just yesterday.

Audrey: Whatever you do, do NOT call him “Bryan Adams.”

FENCES Allen Stone w/William Elliott Whitmore, Black Whales, Daniel G. Harmann @ Neumos
Tamara: Ryan Adams’ 9 p.m. set time will give you plenty of room to head over to Neumos for hometown boy Christopher Mansfield, aka: FENCES, at 11:45. But the highlight here is really banjo-toting opener William Elliott Whitmore, at 10:30. It seems like this guy is always opening and never headlining (he’s toured with Chris Cornell, Murder by Death, and The Pogues, among others), which is a shame–particularly considering how well his rough-and-tumble bluesy howl can rev up a crowd.

Josh: For another volatile sad singer-songwriter, try recently-ascendant FENCES at Neumo’s. update: Speaking of volatility, FENCES had to cancel tonight’s performance at Neumo’s. In his place, Allen Stone is filling the headlining spot, making him the likely contender for the CityArts MVP trophy as this will be his third festival performance (Wednesday’s stint at the opening night VIP party and last night’s scheduled show at the Triple Door.)

Helio Sequence: Live Laser Show @ Laser Dome
Tony: I’ve been enthralled by the Helio Sequence’s amalgamation of epic rock, shoegaze, and layered electronics for a long time, so this should be a perfect marriage of event and artists.

Josh: Half the fun of the Helio Sequence is watching Benjamin Weikel’s exuberant drumming, which, if you can see him in the dark, might compete with the spectacle of the Laser Dome.

Shabazz Palaces w/Metal Chocolates, DJ Riz @ The Triple Door
Josh: Shabazz Palaces will likely sound phenomenal in the expert hands of the Triple Door’s sound engineers, but there’s something that seems awkwardly sterile about the dinner theater setting.

Katelyn: The last time I caught Shabazz Palaces live (Neumos, late June 2011), the group hadn’t quite figured out how to let the intricacies of their new, critically lauded material from Black Up fully blossom on the stage. A summer of performances later, those wrinkles will be ironed out. Expect to be challenged, expect to grow.

Pickwick w/ Yuni in Taxco, Viper Creek Club, and guests @ The Crocodile
Tony: Sometimes, you can thank God for the cancellations bestowed upon big festivals. With the exodus of Boxer Rebellion (with all due respect, I too thought, “Boxer who?”) from this bill, the Croc’s headlining slot for the night goes to Seattle’s blue-eyed garage soul kings, Pickwick. I’ve seen ‘em live three times, and they’ve always been roof-rattlingly transcendent onstage.

Sons of Warren Oates w/Smokey Brights, Joseph Giant, Bryan John Appleby @ The Rendezvous
Tony: The Maldives are as reliable as rain live, so expect Maldives splinter group Sons of Warren Oates to be pretty great, too.

Seth: Brian John Appleby is a singer-songwriter type of fellow who got his start at the Conor Byrne open mic that also spawned The Head and the Heart. His songs are frequently pretty.

All Star Tribute to The Replacements (with members of The Fastbacks, The Cops, Virgin Islands, Kinski, Fort Union, Cataldo, and a special appearance by John Roderick) @ The Comet Tavern
Seth: The Comet is one of my all-time favorite bars, and “Skyway” is one of my all-time favorite love songs, but I can’t ever remember thinking, while I’m slamming back port shots at The Comet, “Hey, I’d love to hear ‘Skyway’ right now!” So it’ll be just an interesting event.

Color Me Obsessed: The Replacements Documentary @ the Northwest Film Forum
MvB: In conjunction with the Fest’s All-Star Tribute to the Replacements, Northwest Film Forum is presenting Color Me Obsessed, the documentary about The Replacements told through their fans, colleagues, and exes. Director Gorman Bechard doesn’t give you concert footage or music, just remembrances of how deeply the fractious Minneapolis band affected listeners. (Cheers‘ George Wendt even has a favorite lyric he thinks might be about Norm.) Since The Replacements remain the band that more likely you have “heard of” rather than heard, the documentary is (like the band) withholding in its narrative strategy, and the finale’s ceaseless protestations as to how epic they were becomes a commentary on the glory days of the interviewed. Think of it as Part One. Part Two is when the film ends, and you go looking for some Replacements to listen to.