Music
There's something kind of admirable and romantic about the advent, and continued popularity, and synth music. Synthesizers were created, in part, to provide a more precise engine for creating music, cutting out the middle man that would otherwise be fumbling around with analog instruments like guitars, drums, and bass. Eliminating
Music
I've written before about bands that can seem antagonistic or confrontational toward their audience. Sometimes, this can make for a frustrating, distancing listen, pitting the band against the listener in a way that come off as more of a turn-off than a challenge. Other times, for reasons I don't quite
Stage
Screaming Butterflies Productions, an independent theater company based in Tacoma, will be putting up a production of Lisa Loomer's mystical, family-friendly fable ¡Bocón! The story concerns a young boy named Miguel, a loquacious storyteller, who gets labeled a bocón (AKA "big mouth"). As Miguel flees an oppressive regime in Central
Music
Do you remember the first time a singer's voice ever truly touched you? In my experience, growing up listening largely to pop songs from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, I mostly let everything wash over me in a great mass, very rarely tuning in specifically to hear the power behind
Music
It's a funny thing, that subgenre known as Americana. In the nearly 10 years that I've written about music for this fine rag, I've surely used that term many, many times, and I've never thought much further past its surface level connotation: homegrown roots music with ties to country, folk,
Stage
There's something difficult about describing what goes on in A Little Night Music -- not because of its madcap plotting, but because of the unexpected manner in which the lunacy unfolds. This is, in its barest of bones, a delightfully amorous sex comedy, delivered via the labyrinthine music of Stephen
Stage
In theater, there's a sea of closed-room dramas that are designed around two or three characters coming at each other to try and suss out the truth of a morally complex mystery. Think plays like Doubt, Tape, or Oleanna -- explosive depictions of conflict between people who have everything to
Music
Welcome to Three Easy Pieces, where I examine a witheringly small alley of pop culture, from how it started to how it looks today. This time: art-rock in the mainstream. I love when art-rock bands -- those noted adversaries to pop music who lurk in the underground -- take the
Music
Thinking about what bands are completely synonymous with Tacoma, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a better answer than Girl Trouble. The band mixes garage rock with ‘50s rock, a detached cool and an impeccable showmanship, and an abiding love for the City of Destiny that has made them
Music
Over the past few weeks, in preparation for a move, I've been shuffling through my record collection to decide what'll be coming with me. The vast majority of this collection came from my dad, who left them with me when he left the country. I've still not had the chance
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There are so many things that go into putting together a good show: the quality of the bands, the nature of the venue, the steps taken in ensuring that folks will even show up to the show, and a million more moving parts. If there is one element of a
Arts
It's not Elizabeth Lord's first time receiving accolades from Weekly Volcano readers, having won the title of Best Actress multiple times. This does mark the first instance, though, where she's also laying claim to Arts Scene MVP. It only makes sense, really, to consider Lord a valuable player -- since
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There are few better ways to while away an afternoon than by taking a stroll through a good record store, discovering new music and talking shop with vinyl aficionados. Thankfully, this pastime has made a roaring comeback in the past few years with the popularity of records somewhat counterintuitively skyrocketing,
Music
The indie rock boom of the early-to-mid ‘00s were a wild time. No one was quite sure just where the wind was blowing, in terms of stylistic trends and general demeanor. The garage rock revival was in full swing, LCD Soundsystem was digging through crates of ‘70s vinyl obscurities, Arcade
Stage
One of the more fascinating theater-going moments I had in 2018 was seeing the audacious, sprawling, challenging production of The Pillowman at Tacoma Little Theatre. The pitch-black comedy about a fairytale writer being imprisoned by a totalitarian government proved to be, by all accounts, divisive among the TLT audience, some
South Sound Cinema
Boy, Tacoma sure does have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to film festivals, huh? In the fall, as we're ramping up to prestige movie season, we have the Tacoma Film Festival. Then, at the end of winter, in the lead-up to the Academy Awards, the Destiny City Film
Music
How long is it reasonable for a one-person band to stay a one-person band? Is there a threshold an artist reaches where they've had enough of their albums being described as "homespun," and so decide to take the all-important step of getting the band together? Folks like Iron and Wine,
Stage
There are few names as synonymous with musical theater as Andrew Lloyd Webber. For decades, Webber has balanced artistic moxie with an unabashed crowd-pleasing mentality in such a successful way that it's likely many people's first exposure to musicals was through one of his shows. Consider what a monumental career
South Sound Cinema
It's time, again, for Three Easy Pieces, the column where I examine a pocket of pop culture, from its birth to today. This month: hangout movies. The definition of a hangout movie is nebulous enough that a great many movies can get assigned this designation, but the basics of the
Music
Every so often, out of fascination and sadness, I take another look at the career of poor Nick Drake. The English singer-songwriter managed to release just three albums before his untimely death at the age of 26. His first, the lovely and achingly poetic Five Leaves Left, seems like exactly