FRIDAY, APRIL 5 2013 >>>
1. In the days before adulthood consumed Steve Stefanowicz, the "Human Jukebox" would perform seven days a week. Blind at birth, proficient on the guitar at 15, performing solo and in his band Blind Ambition, Stefanowicz could be seen nightly through the '80s and '90s, performing any of the 1,000 songs he memorized. When not in a club, he was on stage with Lou Rawls, Sam Andrews' Holding Company, Blue Spark, Junkyard Jane, The Groovin' Higher Jazz Orchestra, jazz guitarist Michael Powers, Savoy Brown, Kansas and Elvin Bishop. The blues/rock singer and guitarist performs from 6-9 p.m. at The Hub's fifth anniversary party. Expect $5 signature drinks, $3 Harmon ales, $4 shot specials on the Drink Wheel and freakin' good music.
2. Poetry is the most specific of art forms, and the best way to tap into its secrets is not through poetry, but through a poet. Tacomans have an opportunity to do just that at 6 p.m., thanks to Maria Gudaitis and former Tacoma Poet Laureate Tammy Robacker. The duo will host a Tacoma Poetry Month kickoff party where folks may hear poetry and hug poets, pick up a free copy of the Tacoma Poetry Month anthology and win poetry prizes - all inside Anthem Coffee.
3. The Europeans shared much in terms of history, food, and culture. But when it came to really important issues, such as life, love, and death, a broad creative gulf opened up. The musical masters in France, Italy, Germany, and England each had their own interpretations of these universal dramas. Soprano Dawn Padula and pianist Tanya Stambuk present an evening of European song about life, love and death: Composers from Alessandro Scarlatti to Henri Duparc, Richard Strauss and Ralph Vaughan Williams will set poetry by Rossetti, Baudelaire and more at 7:30 p.m. inside Schneebeck Hall on the campus of the University of Puget Sound.
4. Electric guitar virtuoso Jimmy Thackery brings his gritty blues-rock band, the Drivers, to Jazzbones at 8 p.m. No one puts the pedal to the metal better than this rocking blues band filling a wide musical gap left behind when the lionized and lamented Stevie Ray died.
5. There are few things in the world as electric as the music of Aussie rock legends AC/DC. Except perhaps the songs that made them legends being murdered (hip-hop vernacular, kids. It means performed really, really well) by Hell's Belles. The Belles play all AC/DC all over the globe, from "High Voltage" to "Back in Black." Even Angus Young gives them props. The all-female cover band rocked the hell out of Tacoma last month with its AC/DC channeling, and this month it's taking it to the Capitol Theater in Olympia. The only reason this show is going to kick more ass than the Tacoma show is because Oly rock gods Mosquito Hawk will be opening at 9 p.m.
LINK: Friday, April 5 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area
