Tag Archives: rendezvous

Theatre

For better or worse, Family Affair feels like, yes, family

Since the Spring of 2013, Jennifer Jasper’s Family Affair has occupied the third Wednesday of each month in the Rendezvous’s intimate Jewel Box Theater. Jasper is beloved in local fringe theater scenes and their audiences for her autobiographical, one-person shows like I Can Hear You…But I’m Not Listening. She’s also a naturally funny storyteller. Family Affair is her cabaret night of storytellers who, given six minutes at a time, will relay a story involving family in one way or another. I went last Wednesday night and had a more than enjoyable evening. In her opening remarks, Jasper explained a handful of lineup changes – too many to call the evening “curated” (and thank @almightygod for that).

On Sloane Crosley’s book I Was Told There’d Be Cake, Jonathan Lethem has a blurb where he says, “What makes her so funny is that she seems to be telling the truth, helplessly.” That’s what I had in mind whenever Jennifer Jasper was on stage.

But there was a great roster of readers and performers on Wednesday night. Jose Amador spoke first about his relationship with his Catholic mother. Bret Fetzer read a short story about rabbits, carrots, and more that was hilarious and moving at the same time (and actually went on for about 12 minutes as he was taking the place of two people who canceled. Fetzer’s wife Tracy Leigh and Abigail Hustsell performed an Elmo-like puppet show about being gay. Emily Golden told a story of a family cat affectionately named Shithead (or Shead, in formal situations). Paul Mullin told a story, which he described as nonfiction, about his stepfather having a stroke and familial panic it causes.

Between each story, Jasper told the audience about one way or another she related to the story that was just performed. Empathy explains why the night was so enjoyable. In the middle of the show, Jasper relayed a story about talking to her mom about raising money to take her production of her newest play, Etymology, to New York and her mother being dismissive and asking questions like, “Are you paying for the hotel rooms for everyone? That seems like a good deal for them, there aren’t that many lines.” It flashed back to my own dismissive mother who would ask me questions like, “Are you still writing for that website for free?”

Paul Mullin noted that some stories had traits or themes that ran through the performances by coincidence. His piece and Emily Golden’s both have stepfathers named “Bill”; his play and Jose Amador’s family both deal with Catholicism, etc…

The evening closed with Jennifer Jasper having an audience member (in this case, Tracy Leigh) draw a story from a box called “Jasper Jewels.” It has dozens of cards with stories written them. Jasper said that she never performed any of them and some she probably doesn’t remember. This one, the card said “Father – voicemail – Kotex.”  She told that story that was too painfully recognizable to have been anything but a direct retelling. Though I know it’s not the best way to review a show, it was really something that needed to be seen to believe. It as hilarious and painful and oddly moving, mostly at the same time.

The next Family Affair is on Wednesday, August 22 at the Rendezvous ($10, cash at the door, 21+), and there’s another one at Bumbershoot August 31 at 6:45pm on the Theatre Puget Sound Stage. I would recommend not missing either.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Tea Cozies, Hounds of the Wild Hunt are Unmissable

Happy Birthday, Tea Cozies’ Brady Harvey! (Photo: Tony Kay)

Two bands responsible for a couple of the best recordings to come out of Seattle last year (according to one eminent local wag, at least) play this weekend. Do yourself a favor, and try to catch ‘em live.

Tonight, Tea Cozies headline at the Jewelbox/Rendezvous. Their EP Bang Up augments their hard-candy, Brit-influenced pop magnificently, and they’re never less than aces live. Major bonus points for the certifiably trippy (and gorgeously shot) video for the EP’s indisputable masterstroke, the psychedelic and fabulously cool “Cosmic Osmo.”

Oh, and they’re supported by indie trio Charms (who sound like an electrified Ravenna Woods gone new wave, maybe), and the wonderfully scary, swampy and cavernous Gang Cult, too. Show starts at 10 p.m., and with a $7 cover, it’s a bargain at twice the price.

Mighty electric-blues monsters Hobosexual, meantime, are the leaders of tomorrow night’s bill at the Columbia City Theater. But for the love of all that is good and true (AND loud), do not miss either of the preceding acts.

Portland’s Black Pussy (it’s a Stones reference, kids) ladle on the heavy stoner rock fabulously, but my heart (and bleeding eardrums) have belonged to  The Hounds of the Wild Hunt ever since I first heard their ambitious and frequently brilliant debut full-length, El Mago. Bless ‘em, the Hounds have made a great video for one of that album’s highlights, “A Walk to Remember.”

It sounds like a band of drunk Cossacks invading your favorite nightmare, and the clip makes magnificent use of singer/guitarist Jonny Henningson’s bull-in-a-china-shop charisma. Show begins at 9 p.m., and tickets ($7 advance, $8 at the door) are still available.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Tonight’s Music Selections at City Arts Fest

The 2012 edition of City Arts Fest made its official musical bow yesterday, with turns from David Byrne and St. Vincent, The Head and the Heart’s Jonathan Russell, and Ghostland Observatory, among others. If you didn’t get a chance to check out any of Wednesday’s music acts, fret not: There are still plenty of crucial sonics coming down the pike before the Fest winds down on Saturday. A detailed schedule, ticket info, and various sundry good things can be acquired over at the City Arts Fest website, but here are some of the musical highlights coming up tonight.

DJ Swervewon, Thaddeus David, Larry Hawkins (formerly SK), The Physics, Mos Def @ Showbox SODO. Show begins at 7:15pm.

Showbox SODO sits in South Seattle, pretty far away from the Fest’s Capitol Hill and downtown focal points, and it’s an imperfect performance space at best. That said, the lineup’s strong enough to warrant just hunkering down and shaking your ass for the night. Whether he calls himself Yasiin Bay, Dante Smith, or whatever, Mos Def’s more than earned hip hop royalty status after a couple of decades in the trenches (dude’s a really good film and TV actor, too). But the front end of the bill’s brimming with multiple flavors of local hip hop.  Thaddeus David keeps it sparse and menacing, the artist formerly known as SK (Larry Hawkins) plies a more expansive, hook-laden sound, and The Physics back their rhymes with a lush sound that combines velour funk with bursts of silken soul-inflected backing vocals.

Tomten, Throw Me the Statue, Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground, Gold Leaves @ The Crocodile. Show begins at 8pm.

Yeah, Gold Leaves–the newest project from Arthur and Yu’s Grant Olsen–is pretty as all get out, what with its lush arrangements and Olsen’s plaintive, warm vocals at the center. But the three preceding acts make tonight’s Croc show a full-meal deal. Tomten‘s graceful, loping pop songs are so British-sounding you can taste the vinegar on the salt-and-vinegar crisps, and Throw Me the Statue sell their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink indie pop with phenomenal musicianship and drum-tight live performances.  Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground, meantime, sound like earnest chamber pop, bum-rushed by a drunken cabaret band.

Nark, Glitterbang, House of Ladosha, SSION @ the Rendezvous. Show begins at 7:45pm.

Wanna dance, but don’t wanna do so in the barn-like Showbox SODO? Get thee the hell to the Rendezvous tonight. Headliners SSION enjoy reams of notoriety for their warped and over-the-top live shows (lead singer Cody Critchloe’s cartoon charisma alone is worth the price of admission) and the band’s newest material takes a left turn from herky-jerky new wave to hooky electro-disco. That change in sound will nicely compliment Brooklyn beat-meister House of Ladosha and Seattle danceketeers Glitterbang, plus busy Seattle DJ Nark spins for early arrivals.

Slang!, Lemolo @ The Triple Door. Show begins at 8pm. 

You probably don’t need to hear another round of hosannahs for local duo Lemolo‘s swirly and devastatingly lovely pop, but there’s a reason for all the hoop-dee-doo: their songs completely captivate, and their live shows have never been anything less than transcendental. Opening outfit Slang! consists of Portland singer/songwriter Drew Grow and Wild Flag/Quasi member Janet Weiss. Grow and Weiss are talented as hell, so it’ll be nice to hear the former lending his famously-passionate delivery to other peoples’ material (Slang! is a cover band, apparently) while the latter delivers contrasting harmonies and (fingers crossed) gets behind the drum kit.

 

 

 

 

Arts & Entertainment, Music, Theatre

Tuesday is Modern Luv‘s Last Seattle Stand, Before New York Calls

Seattle soft-rock god Mark Siano is taking his cabaret-musical collaboration with not-so-soft-rock Opal Peachey, Modern Luv, on the road to New York City. To prepare for a smaller venue than Seattle’s Triple Door, where, Siano tells me, they had five well-sold shows, they’re holing up at the Rendezvous’ Jewelbox Theater for a one-night-only, 21+ show on April 10 (tickets: $15 advance).

“It’s an ‘Unplugged’ version,” Siano says, featuring a piano and a drum kit since the 65-seat theater doesn’t allow for much in the way of a band. But other than that, not all that much has changed. The Triple Door audiences laughed at all the right places, and one show sold out entirely. He’s tightened it up to a streamlined 90 minutes with no intermission, and changed a few Seattle-centric jokes that New York audiences wouldn’t be expected to get. A controversial “Seattle vs. New York” compare-and-contrast has stayed in the picture.

Modern Luv, like the “5th ACT’s” First Date, takes on love in a time of social media, but Siano says it’s “half-fiction, half-memoir.” He and Peachey are not an item, but they did “discover” each other online when Peachey showed up on YouTube covering a song Siano had, if I have this correctly, written the lyrics to. From this small spark, a “musical about cabaret performers” was born, with Siano and Peachey playing themselves in an alternate, rom-com universe. They spoke with Seattle Gay Scene about the show here.

Showman Siano is a man of many hats, so after his New York excursion, he returns, in a way, for Cafe Nordo’s May show, Cabinet of Curiosities. Set in Washington Hall, it’s a “a multi-room private collection of culinary exhibits,” and one of the rooms will be Siano’s creation. He’s also involved with the much-lauded and occasional sketch troupe The Habit–they’re preparing for a three-week run of a new show this November. (Full disclosure: We are also involved with at least one The Habit member, who pops up occasionally in these pages, and get your mind out of the gutter.)

Finally, because you’ve read this far, I can confirm that the “sparkle-tards” that Siano & Co. are accustomed to swanning about in are custom-made creations, from Sewing Specialties.