Books & Talks

Erika Lee

Dec 1 In her book, The Making of Asian America, University of Minnesota professor Erika Lee delves into the history of one of our major immigrant groups. Starting in the 1500s, Lee explores the centuries of discrimination, including WWII internment. She carries through to the last 50 years, during which Asian Americans came to be known, in a label itself knotted, as a “model minority.” Seattle First Baptist Church

Classical & More

Beethoven Symphony No. 9

Dec 28–30 Like the phrase literally awesome, Beethoven’s Ninth has been trotted out so much—in Clockwork Orange, Hellboy II: The Golden Army—that you can easily forget it is, well, literally awesome. But hearing it live, from its uneasy first movement to the shining “Ode to Joy,” you can confront anew its fear and wonder. Benaroya Hall

Comedy

The Read

Dec 8 Listening to The Read, a podcast from hosts Kid Fury and Crissle, is like sitting in on a good-natured bullshit session between friends. The topics roam—a girl who’s playing junior high football and beating all the boys on the team, a guessing game centered on Office Space—but each episode ends with “the read,” a section where the two hosts, both black and queer, unleash potty-mouthed, poetic rants. Moore Theatre

Gina Yashere

Dec 13 The only English comedian to appear in Def Comedy Jam and a correspondent for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Gina Yashere is an adroit societal satirist and a predictably raunchy stand up. She’s as adept at mocking Trump’s visit with the queen as slinging jokes about filthy hotel rooms and an out-of-control pee stream. Neptune Theatre

Concerts

Minus the Bear

Dec 14–16 After 17 years together, Seattle’s Minus the Bear is breaking up. The band—who’ve hewed to indie rock’s central tenants of layered guitars and introspection—finishes its farewell tour with three Seattle shows. To multiply the sense of local loss, the concerts will be at the Showbox, and the band’s most recent single is called “Viaduct.” Showbox

Kurt Vile and the Violators

Dec 15 His recent album, Bottle It In, positions Kurt Vile as American music’s foremost rambling man. His talk-rock vocals land somewhere between Beck and Tom Petty. His lyrics tumble out, unconcerned with making a point. Guitars and drums jot in the margins. But when has a ponderous stroll not served you well? Moore Theatre

Sera Cahoone

Dec 20 Even if you don’t know Sera Cahoone by name, you’ve heard her play before. She started her career drumming in Carissa’s Wierd, then drifted to Band of Horses for a bit. Her solo material, like last year’s From Where I Started, tends toward coffee shop twang: gentle, woodsy, intelligent. Tractor Tavern

Thunderpussy and Red Fang with the Black Tones

Dec 31 This is the way to snuff out 2018, with three Northwest variations on righteous heaviness. Seattle’s Thunderpussy could sneak songs onto classic rock radio, between AC/DC and Zeppelin. Portland’s Red Fang plays bullshit-free stoner metal. And Seattle’s Black Tones offer severely groovy psych rock. Showbox

Dance

Bon Iver and TU Dance

Dec 5 & 6 Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) is elusive. First he was a neofolk hermit pining for his long-lost Emma, next a Kanye collaborator. Now he’s teamed up with Minnesota’s TU Dance company for Come Through, a 75-minute mix of dance and music. As you’d expect from an artist who’s both everywhere and enigmatic, during the show, Vernon remains on a platform in the shadows. Paramount Theatre

Savion Glover

Dec 22 Calling Savion Glover’s dancing “tap” only gets you halfway there. The Broadway-credentialed choreographer and dancer beats the stage with his feet. In his All Funk’d Up, The Concert, Glover hits hard as ever, jittering, twisting, and twining with the drummer to get outright percussive with a six-piece band. Moore Theatre

Visual Art

Laura Castellanos

Dec 6–Jan 26 In Bodega (Love Materials), local artist Laura Castellanos will turn ArtXchange Gallery into an interactive shop. Expect acrylic on canvas paintings—perhaps a pineapple-headed person set against a popping yellow background—alongside bruja sock puppets lounging in a chest. ArtXchange Gallery

Gary Hill Sound Performance

Dec 8 Seattle sound and video artist Gary Hill, a Guggenheim fellow twice over, invites 50 visitors into his Belltown studio for a “one-of-a-kind sensory experience.” If it’s anything like his recent Linguistic Spill ([un]contained) installation, in which shifting green shapes were projected across a dark room amid crushing claustrophobic noise, you’ll leave feeling faintly deaf, displaced, and changed. Undisclosed Belltown Location

Samantha Scherer

Dec 7–Jan 12 In Samantha Scherer’s paintings and drawings, the subjects—ruined trailers, survivors of national tragedies, fictional TV victims, protestors—often appear, sketched in graphite, against spreads of negative space. Minimal as they are, like watching some distant destruction on the news, the effect is opposite: You’re compelled closer. G. Gibson Gallery