Books & Talks

Gramma Reading Series #2

Oct 6 It’s the major poetry event of the year: Anastacia-Renée (Seattle’s current civic poet), Tyehimba Jess (whose Olio, published by local Wave Books, took the 2017 poetry Pulitzer), and breakout poet Kaveh Akbar (who got married here earlier this year) all appear at the second Gramma Reading Series installment. Local dancers Au Collective will join the authors in a celebration of writing as a physical art. Erickson Theatre

Henry Rollins

Oct 19 Since fronting hardcore punk band Black Flag, Henry Rollins has turned his intensity toward peripatetic activism, railing against homophobia, xenophobia, racism, and war mongering. He has also, apparently, been taking pictures. When he brings them (and stories) to the Neptune, expect a compelling and highly opinionated slideshow. Neptune Theatre

Classical & More

Walt Wagner Trio

Oct 16 & 17 During his 20-year stint behind the piano at Canlis, Walt Wagner played everything from Band of Horses to Coolio, all with his distinct touch—one hand in jazz, the other in classical grace. He had to execute those covers in a packed dining room, though. At Jazz Alley, backed by Ben Smith (the drummer from Heart), expect him to really let loose. Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley

Comedy

Jordan Rock

Oct 5 & 6 While Chris Rock is all zinging arena energy, his younger brother Jordan (who also acted in Netflix’s Love) keeps it calm, almost sleepy, lobbing jokes about weed, Harry Potter, and social media—not a superstar, but a fine fit for a mellow club on Roosevelt. Laughs Comedy Club

Concerts

First Aid Kit

Oct 1 Though their name might better fit the brutal black metal the region is known for, First Aid Kit are actually two Swedish sisters singing pretty Americana, an easy fit for the Northwest’s lush climes. They were even discovered on YouTube covering the Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”—you know, that song about where you hiked last weekend. Paramount Theatre

Beyoncé and Jay-Z

Oct 4 Rolling out of a period of tabloid drama—he cheated, rumors of divorce—pop music’s royal couple take to the road to parade their reconciliation and perform their new album, Everything Is Love. The whole thing may amount to a very public renewal of vows, but when those vows are this sharply written and produced, and the couple this monarchal, few shall protest. CenturyLink Field

Mitski

Oct 31 Indie singer-songwriter Mitski likes to reside in contradictions, whether that’s the self-effacing title of 2016’s Puberty 2, or “Nobody,” an early single from her new Be the Cowboy. The song juxtaposes brazenly alienated lyrics (“My God, I’m so lonely / so I open the window / to hear sounds of people”) with limber piano pop, full of squiggling synths and sharp hooks. Showbox SoDo

Old Time Relijun

Oct 14 It’s convenient to plug classic Northwest bands into one genre or another—grunge, riot grrrl, etc.—but Olympian quartet Old Time Relijun fits no easy classification. Active from the late 1990s until 2007 and named after a Captain Beefheart track, the band contorted blues, punk, and free jazz into its own sort of avant-garde. Now after 11 years, and even odder solo work, Relijun returns. Tractor Tavern

Arctic Monkeys

Oct 23 Who would’ve guessed that a group of Brit lads—who vaulted to stardom with post-Strokes punk songs about dissolute dancefloor nights and pool cue brawls—would morph into absurdist space lounge crooners, sad and dapper and a little drunk, as they have on this year’s Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino? Actually, that makes quite a lot of sense. WaMu Theater

Food & Drink

Oktoberfest Northwest

Oct 5–7 This Puyallup fairgrounds fest has touchstones—bier, brats, lederhosen, polka—which it enlivens with some sillier garnishes: a 5k Stein Dash, “wiener dog races,” and Hammerschlagen—a Minnesota import that involves, yes, hammering whilst you get hammered. Washington State Fair Events Center

Theater

Come From Away

Oct 9–Nov 4 This musical held one of its early productions at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2015 before zooming on to a Broadway run and seven Tony Award nominations. The show now returns and renders in song the true story of a small Newfoundland town that shelters and feeds more than 6,000 plane passengers who had to land there on September 11, 2001. 5th Avenue Theatre

On Your Feet!

Oct 23–28 An immigrant success story, a 1980s nostalgia trip, and a jukebox Broadway musical—On Your Feet! propels you through the rise of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, two young Cubans who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s, fell in love, and merged Cuban and American sounds to create a conga line of hits. Paramount Theatre

A Bright Room Called Day

Oct 25–Nov 18 Local theater company The Williams Project stages Tony Kushner’s play about a group of activists and artists in 1932 Berlin. When first produced, the work highlighted parallels between mid-1980s U.S. politics and the social and political climate that led to the rise of the Third Reich. You need only thumb through the news to see how a politically-minded theater company might make such material relevant today. Hillman City Collaboratory

Visual Art

Allison Collins

Oct 4–20 In her 36th show at Foster/White Gallery, Understory, local painter Allison Collins reimagines some of our state’s most notable landscapes—the San Juan Islands, the patchwork crops of Eastern Washington—as sort of quilted pastoral abstractions. Foster/White Gallery

Lucas Vidaña

Oct 11–Nov 4 Seattle painter Lucas Vidaña’s recent paintings take influence from pop art. But instead of the defined, denotative lines of Warhol or Lichtenstein, Vidaña’s layered images fade together like double-exposed photographs and become portraits of ethereal distinction. Ghost Gallery