THURSDAY, OCT. 17 2013 >>>

1. The Plastards have been a staple of the local bar scene, pounding out frantic sets of rowdiness, for around 13 years. Bill Schlanbusch, Rich Bundy and the boys churn out punk 'n' roll with doses of swirling fuzzy garage and a savage beat. Besides wildly grandiloquent stage antics and volume, they show an unparalleled love and understanding of rock's many facets. The Plastards rock with enough temper to incite, but enough smarts to walk away before someone really gets hurt. The Plastards will rock The Swiss with Kramer and Gold records beginning at 9 p.m.

2. The Art Bus is a tour of art exhibitions and galleries around Tacoma. But it's really so much more than that. Every excursion on the Art Bus has a different local celebrity tour guide - tonight's guide is Carmen Melendez, proprietress of Nerdy Stuffs, which was named Best Comic Store in the 2013 Best of Tacoma issue. Also, since it's Halloween month, and comics are in the house, the Art Bus folks asks riders to dress as superheroes and villains. The schedule for tonight's Art Bus is as follows: Proctor Art Gallery, Spaceworks Post Office, Spaceworks Woolworth Windows, 253 Collective, Rampart, Freighthouse Square and Constellation Art Gallery. Tickets are $10, or $20 for VIP (includes VIP bag). The bus launches at 6 p.m. from the Tacoma Art Museum.

3. You've heard it many times: Practice makes perfect. Doyle's Public House in Tacoma's Stadium District lives by this adage. Every 17th of the month, the watering hole hosts St. Practice Day, a trail run at its annual, massive St. Patrick's Day party. It's a warm-up, if you will. Olympia singer/songwriter Ethan Tucker will entertain with his mix of folk, blues, pop and reggae. Practice starts at 8 p.m. Don't be late or the coach will yell at you.

4. Born out of Los Angeles, Dionvox now reside in Seattle, where they specialize in shimmering, glitchy electro-pop that gets buoyed by the sonorous vocals of their female lead. Occasionally, the dancey grooves are pushed aside in favor of industrial beats and club-thumping bass. The melding of the ambient and the aggressive calls to mind other masters of electronica like Aphex Twin and Massive Attack, while their live show promises cabaret theatrics, which can be seen at 8 p.m. in Le Voyeur.

5. Every Thursday night at 9 p.m. in Puget Sound Pizza, the Volcano's music critic Rev. Adam McKinney hosts a karaoke session showcasing a Tarantino-like mix of downtown denizens seriously singing Bill Withers and glasses-wearing gals squawking out punk rawk, plus appearances by local rock stars. 

LINK: Thursday, Oct. 17 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

FRIDAY, OCT. 18 2013 >>>

1. Oh Kylesa, how you reek of sludge and doom, yet co-mingle with the heaven of drums, riffs and vocals hammering down a mighty force of pleasure. How your psychedelia and metal create a blistering twist of emotion on the soul. This is why tens of thousands of people flock to your shows, sporting Kylesa insignia and banging heads. Kylesa is touring in support of their newest release on Season of Mist Records, Ultraviolet, which Pitchfork magazine claims to be darker lyrically and sonically than previous works, containing more vocals from singer/guitarist Laura Pleasants. Ultralviolet is Kylesa's sixth studio album. Taking their name from "kilesa mara," a Buddhist term denoting delusory mental states, Kylesa will rumble Olympia's Capitol Theater with their Black Sabbath meets Tool meets Mastodon sound at 9 p.m. with Pinkish Black, Sierra and Witchburn.

2. BJ Shea celebrates his 14th year on the air with a listener party from 7-9 p.m. at the Great American Casino in Lakewood. Hang with all of the BJ Shea Morning Experience crew, and possible win tickets to the sold out Pearl Jam Dec. 9 show at KeyArena.

3. They danced before mammoth floating neon dragons and grand desert sculptures and hissing Mad Max-ish art cars shooting flames 396 feet into the air, and every single thing around them smelled like some combination of body odor and sand and bud and urine and fire and rum and glue. And when they weren't tailing the all-female all-topless bike procession, they were snapping photos. They were Steve LaBerge, Lisa Fruichantie and a mystery guest and they'll each present a slideshow of their Burning Man experiences at Lynn Di Nino's TRIPOD Slide Show at 7 p.m. in the Madera Furniture Company showroom.

4. When's the last time someone read you a story? If it's been a while, check out the Broadway Center's Free For All featuring the play reading of Southbridge, written by playwright Reginald Edmund at 7:30 p.m. its Rehearsal Studio II. Actors will transport you to Southbridge where a young woman has been brutally killed and an angry mob is at the jailhouse door demanding the sheriff lynch the accused murderer. The only way to untangle the truth is for the accused, a young man called "Stranger" to relive the events that led him to the hangman's tree in Athens, Ohio, in the year 1881. Afterward, the director of Southbridge, C. Rosalind Bell, and Bryan Willis, playwright in residence at Northwest Playwrights Alliance, will host a Q & A.

5. Vive la révolution! Meet me at the barricade, comrades, and we'll overthrow the nasty French aristocracy! But first, let's sing about it for three hours. Tacoma Musical Playhouse stages Les Miserables, the story about this guy named Jean Valjean, who was jailed for stealing a loaf of bread and 17 years later is still being chased by Inspector Javert. (That Atkins Diet really screws you up.) Along the way Valjean adopts a little girl, dedicates his life to God and ends up fighting in a French Revolution that's not the one you're thinking of.

LINK: Friday, Oct. 18 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Puget Sound soccer fans - rejoice! The Tacoma Soccer Center has a historic treat for soccer fans of all ages.

Friday, Oct. 25 the Center will host the second annual Northwest Soccer Legends Night. Two teams of past professionals will compete in a grand indoor night match including local and international legends Alan Hinton and Jimmy Gabriel serve as captains and coaches of the match.

Here's why this match is awesome. Gabriel and Hinton are the real deal. Nearly 40 years of professional playing experience in Europe and the United States is nothing to scoff at. Add in more than a 1,000 first team appearances, the duo knows soccer and knows how to develop players. Both men have Pacific Northwest roots as Sounders coaches as well as coaching other teams in the region.

Of course, there will be great past players to watch, too. Stick around after the match; grab some autographs and share memories with the players. As a bonus, catch an exhibition game with the South Sound Shock. One admission fee gets you the full meal deal for the evening.

The $10 tickets will be available at the door, as well as on the Seattle Sounders FC website. Food and beverages are for sale inside the facility, including the Far Post Sports Bar, overlooking the field. Parking is limited, so phone the neighbors to carpool/tailgate.

For more information, check out the Tacoma Soccer Center website or call 206.445.2097.

NORTHWEST SOCCER LEGENDS NIGHT, 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 25, Tacoma Soccer Center, 2610 E. Bay St., Tacoma, $10, soundersU23.com

SATURDAY, OCT. 19 2013 >>>

1. For some, running can be an excruciating experience. To many others, it's what they live for. But however you feel about running, there's no doubt the experience can be improved by the donning of a ghoulish costume or vampire teeth and a cape. Enter the Black Cat Fun Run, a family-friendly 2.5 or 5-mile jaunt through Point Defiance Park set to go down at dusk. Organized by Metro Parks Tacoma, the event caters to runners and walkers of all levels, and the registration fee gets you a running cap with lighted brim, glow necklace and live music, hat bales and snack at the finish line ... or water if you're, like, a really hardcore runner and stuff.

2. What would all this Halloween talk be without perhaps the most classic (and bloodiest) Halloween-y performance of them all? Head over to see Tacoma City Ballet performance of Haunted Theatre: Backstage Tour and Eerie Dances at 3 and 5 p.m. inside the Merlino Arts Center. Walk behind the scenes in an old ballet studio and see what kind of chills, thrills, and arabesques lurk as Tacoma City Ballet dancers perform spooky Halloween ballets complete with bats, marionettes, ghosts, monsters, mummified Egyptian cats, pumpkins, skeletons and witches. Afterward, go grab a "bite." The dance company will be sure to make a great impression (or is it a great mark?) on you.

3. Actor Elliott Gould will appear at a 7 p.m. screening of the 1970 Robert Altman film M.A.S.H., in which Gould played Trapper John McIntyre, as a fundraiser for the Olympia Film Society's digital cinema campaign at the Capitol Theater.

4. PugetBrass will perform traditional and contemporary literature in a unique and entertaining style popularized by British colliery bands of the early 20th century at 7:30 p.m. in Tacoma Community Coolege Building 2 Auditorium.

5. "For an event that pretty much takes the worst elements you could possibly combine together," says Craig Egan, "we've had surprisingly little amount of trouble." Egan is speaking about his annual take on Oktoberfest, called Maltoberfest at 7 p.m. inside Bob's Java Jive. It doesn't take much detective work to figure out that Maltoberfest celebrates that most dubious of concoctions: malt liquor. Now in its eighth year - and with the ridiculous subtitle of "Maltoberfest 8: Menace II Sobriety" - the event brings together all of Tacoma's rabble-rousers for a night of punk, hip-hop, German nonsense and many dozens of forties of Old English, Mickey's, and Steel Reserve. Read Rev. Adam McKinney's full feature on Maltoberfest 8: Menace II Sobriety in Music and Culture section.

LINK: Saturday, Oct. 19 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

SUNDAY, OCT. 20 2013 >>>

1. The Tacoma Cult Movie Club hosts another 7 p.m. screening at Tacoma's Acme Grub Cage. Appropriately, this month's theme is vampires. While Rev. Colin doesn't release the titles of the gems he'll screen, if we know Rev. Colin, he'll bust out the British Vampyres, the story of a lesbian pair that battles when one of them falls for a man they've kidnapped while hitchhiking. Next, we suspect he'll turn more European, with Daughters of Darkness finding another femme fatale duo (led by French New Wave dame Delphine Seyrig) that welcomes the wife of their latest kill into the fold. It's a crapshoot really, except the popcorn and zany prizes. You can always count on the popcorn and raffle.

2. In your desperation to design your Walter and Jesse Halloween costumes, you might overlook Dia de los Muertos. The Day of the Dead, Nov. 3, is seen by many as Mexico's most important holiday, a time to honor family members, friends and mentors who have passed on in a loving, respectful way. However, it is not too early to appease your indignant kin. Centro Latino leads community groups and Stadium High School students in the installation of several ornate ofrendas (altars) commemorating the deceased at the Tacoma Art Museum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The altars will be laden with offerings of food and drink to honor loved ones. Local artist Fulgencio Lazo and his team of professionals and volunteers fill the Marie A. Helmer Lobby with a colorful tapete (large sand painting). 

3. The Weekly Volcano will join all those who worship Thor, Odin and other Norse gods from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. when the Sons of Norway's annual Lutefisk Dinner hits Normanna Hall. While loaded with vendors selling clogs, sweaters, Sigvat jewelry, Viking ships in bottles, ABBA records, pewter Norse gods and Kongetinn wine goblets, we attend the festival for the food.  We will dive in to some big slabs of yummy jellied pressed Lutefisk, meatballs and baked goods while reading from the Rigsbula: The Lay of Rig from the Poetic Edda. Afterward, we'll take a nap and dream of large sledgehammers and cute pointy helmets and enormous women shaped like huge pomegranates belting out Wagner.

4. Head over to see Tacoma City Ballet performance of Haunted Theatre: Backstage Tour and Eerie Dances at 3 p.m. inside the Merlino Arts Center. Walk behind the scenes in an old ballet studio and see what kind of chills, thrills, and arabesques lurk as Tacoma City Ballet dancers perform spooky Halloween ballets complete with bats, marionettes, ghosts, monsters, mummified Egyptian cats, pumpkins, skeletons and witches.

5. Guitarist Jeffrey Hamilton Steele and pianist Monica Steele will perform pieces from Bach, Rodrigo and Barrios at 3 p.m. in the Antique Sandwich Company.

LINK: Sunday, Oct. 20 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

MONDAY, OCT. 21 2013 >>>

1. Before folk and bluegrass became a vigorously polished commodity with acts like Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers rising to take over the world, these were genres of lowly real people. These were songs of the masses, honest to a fault, and raggedly charming. Ex-Cowboy is a band that lets these tattered edges not only show, but shine. An errant discordant twang from a guitar string here, a missed beat there, a cracked voice on a high note - these imperfections add up to create something immeasurably more affecting than any plastic honky tonk Mumford & Sons could drum up. Influences from the likes of Sufjan Stevens and DeVotchKa make their presence known in the music of Ex-Cowboy, without detracting from the humble purity of the band. Catch the band with Joe Capoccia at 10 p.m. in Le Voyeur.

2. The 71 drawings in Marilyn Frasca's "Like This" at Childhood's End are stunning. Each picture tells a story, be it the story of Squaxin Indians recreating an historic canoe trip or depictions of Native American legends, be it a tender rendition of people with their animals, or art about the horror of war and the events of Sept. 11, 2001. They are memories and events real and imagined, created with sensitivity to form, balance, texture; and each picture, no matter how real or how detailed, began with what the Surrealists called automatic writing - marks on a surface derived from the artist's unconscious. There is power here. And love. And humanity. Read Alec Clayton's full review of Marilyn Frasca's "Like This" in the Music and Culture section.

3. Dean Reichert's soulful voice carries in it the history of American popular music: There's the down-home rhythm and testifying punch of gospel-based R&B, the snarl of the blues, the mournful rumination of honky-tonk, sultry jazz and the up-front sexuality of funk. Oh, and he's a talent guitar player, too. Reichert heads to The Swiss at 8 p.m. for the Tacoma joint's longstanding blues night.

4. Pianist Nate D., bassist Cameron and drummer Peter T. host a jazz jam exploring straight ahead, funk and space. Not all gigs qualify as a hang, but this one has the precise alchemy that could draw the area's best players: a high level of musicianship, a relaxed atmosphere and a sympathetic intergenerational crowd. It goes down at 8 p.m. in The New Frontier Lounge.

5. Want to feel like a rock star without all the pain and annoyance of having to be a  fire-breathing demon that bleeds from the mouth? Then hit Jazzbones at 9 p.m. for Rockaraoke, where you can belt out songs like Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again," Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me," Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You" and enough INXS tunes to make you feel like you're on a reality show, and other hits from the days when you made mixtapes by recording the radio, all backed by a live band.

LINK: Monday, Oct. 21 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Sixth Avenue in Tacoma has established itself as a dining destination, lined with nationally recognized restaurants and award-winning bars. As the notable restaurants and bars on the street continue to excel, others must rise to the occasion ... and that's exactly what North China Garden intents to do.

North China Garden manager BriAnn Hein tells me of changes the establishment will be undertaking in the following months, including menu updates as well as an interior overhaul.

"We are delighted to introduce an MSG free menu that you can choose between five MSG free entrees served from 4 to 9 p.m. including a combo meal that we are really excited about. All appetizers and soup will be MSG free. And we now serve brown rice as a substitute for steamed rice."

Other menu updates will include a selection of desserts featuring compelling flavors thanks to their friendly neighbor Dirty Oscar's and some changes in the price structure.

The interior updates include a wine bar and local art. Hein also tells me the new decor will "... have an East meets West feel. Bringing the garden in our name to life in the restaurant. Dark chocolate chairs and booths paired with vibrant red table clothes will be added soon. ... "We're also enclosing in the dining room to give it more appeal as some people have felt they are sitting in a cafeteria."

Renovations are expected to be complete by mid-December.

Fun fact: North China Garden is one of the sole Chinese fare establishments that offers delivery within a 3-5 mile radius with a minimum $20-$30 order.

NORTH CHINA GARDEN, 11:309 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday, noon to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, 4-9 p.m. Sunday, 2303 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.5106

The north end of Pacific Avenue has become a hub of food, drink and play with the likes of the Matador, Tacoma Cabana, Meconi's, The Office and Dorky's all within a traffic cone's throw. When Paddy Coyne's Irish Pub, a neighbor to the aforementioned joints, closed its doors earlier this year, questions began to arise. What will take its place? What will happen to the magnificent wooded back bar?

I have one of those answers. I stumbled upon the space's new owner, Tim Mellema, as he was exiting the building Sunday. Yes, the very same Mellema who currently operates the Forum in Puyallup with business partner Geoff Kaylor, an operation that opened its doors over the summer.

Mellema tells me he received the keys Friday and has begun renovations inside. He's projecting to have to doors open in 60 days or so, hopefully.

Interestingly enough, the original Forum was intended to have an Irish pub theme, but veered. Instead they serve up a hearty menu primarily comprised of sandwiches and appetizers with a bar full of spirits and a decent tap list that includes local finds.

I, for one, am excited to see the Forum breathe new life into the void on Pacific Avenue.

Listen to us, the children of the night. What music we make! This is Nerd Alert, the Weekly Volcano's recurring events calendar devoted to all things nerdy. I myself am a Star Wars fan, mathlete, and spelling bee champion of long standing, so trust me: I grok whereof I speak.

I've been a fan of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game (though not his far-right politics) since I was in high school. So why am I so dubious about the movie, which opens Nov. 1? Is it because Harrison Ford has been on Ambien since 1990, or because Ender's trailer boasts the best visual effects of 2006? Let's hope director Gavin Hood displays the mastery he brought to ... uh ... X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Uh-oh.

FRIDAY, OCT. 25

This may seem a tad self-serving, but OM effing G, I'm so geeked out about my weekend plans! Why? Because I'm one of the actors in Lakewood Playhouse's live, radio-style revival of Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds! Not only will we be performing the 1938 radio drama live before your ears to commemorate its - and the Playhouse's - 75th anniversary, but you'll also get sound effects created to order. That's not even the best part! No, we'll also be paying tribute to a certain expat Kryptonian Boy Scout for his silver birthday, plus a horror short called "The Giggler." You can hear me as a deranged German and Gott knows what else by the time our triple feature is through. (I was this close to playing Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen!) It's a fun night out, but beware: you only have two nights to catch it. And stay away from that crater in Grovers Mill! There's something not at all right about that place.

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 25 and Saturday, Oct. 26, Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood, $20-$25, 253.588.0042

SATURDAY, OCT. 26

The only down side to being in War of the Worlds is I'm missing this year's Night of the Living Tribute Bands, which is a sobbing shame because They Might Be Giants, you guys! We're talkin' Triangle Man hates "Particle Man." Get old with "Ana Ng." "I Palindrome I," you son of a bitch! If that doesn't put a little "Birdhouse in Your Soul," then I don't know what ... other than to note that the Beasties, Iron Butterfly, the Pixies, Queens of the Stone Age, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Specials will all be on the line-up as well. So yeah, it's pretty much pop-rock paradise for Gen X-ers.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING TRIBUTE BANDS, 8:30 p.m., Capitol Theater, 206 5th Ave. SE, Olympia, $8-$10, 360.754.6670

TUESDAY, OCT. 29

If you're the age of our typical reader, then you grew up with Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. They and their fellow Gryffindors at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have become part of the Muggle world mythology; still, that doesn't mean we can't have a few laughs at their expense. Comedians Daniel Clarkson and Jeff Turner send up all seven Potter novels and stage a live match of Quidditch in only 70 hysterical minutes in Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience.  We're talking 300 characters, many female, with a variety of accents from Beauxbatons in France to the highlands of Scotland. Oh, and what the hell, let's throw in a fire-breathing dragon - live on stage. The show opens on a Tuesday, so you have literally nothing better to do that night.

POTTED POTTER: THE UNAUTHORIZED HARRY EXPERIENCE, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29-Saturday, Nov. 2, also 9:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1 and 3 p.m. Nov. 2-3, Rialto Theater, 310 S. Ninth St., Tacoma, $38-$59, 253.591.2013

Thursday, Oct. 31 is All Hallow's Eve, so check out the Rutledge Corn Maze in Tumwater (302 93rd Ave. SE), the high-tech Hell's Gateway in Tacoma (202 Fawcett Ave.), Lacey's My Morbid Mind haunted mansion (4548 Marvin Rd. SE) and Halloween Hellmouth in Lakewood (8415 Lawndale Ave. SW). Or you could just build and activate a Speak & Spell radio with your pet alien.

Until next week, may the Force be with you, may the odds be ever in your favor, and may your enemy's gate always be down.

Here's a quick thing for you: Tacoma stonercore maniacs Cody Foster Army has a new video, and it involves a purple drummer Reno Dave mouthing something. The Ripple Music label trio says the "Built Up, Knocked Down" video was Cody Foster's concept; the band did all the filming and lighting; Killiam Lord edited it and the video was shot in the band's lair otherwise known as the "Bro-Op." That's all fine and dandy, but what the hell is Reno Dave saying? Judge for yourself: