MONDAY, MARCH 3 2014 >>>

1. Look, at this point the Pacific Northwest - not to mention the current pop landscape in general - is choked with folk-rock revivalists. Bands like Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers and even American Idol winners (good lord, Phillip Phillips) have taken to appropriating folk and bluegrass and imbuing with a palatable sheen. While I'm not enough of a scold to say that there's something inherently wrong with this (appropriation is almost synonymous with pop music by this point), but it can get somewhat tiring. Joshua Powell and the Great Train Robbery aren't reinventing the wheel, in this regard, but there is something to be said for a band that sounds as vibrant as they are capable of sounding, even in this tsunami of banjo-ified pop music. You know what you're getting with Joshua Powell, but that's not always a bad thing. Catch the band at 7 p.m. in Tacoma's Metronome Coffee.

2. Joe and Paula McHugh present "The Green Fields of America," a journey through history using storytelling, folk music and paintings to make a rich and complex saga of America come alive at 4 p.m. in the Lacey Timberland Library.

3. Enjoy traveler Pat O'Connor's pictures and stories from his recent trip to Manitoba at 7 p.m. in the University Place Pierce County Library. He photographed polar bears as they prepared to depart on the ice floes of Hudson Bay for the winter. 

4. Seagull Invasion list their music as "funk slip slop slurp," and that's as good a place to start as anywhere. From the rubbery first beats of their song, "Oop," it's clear that Seagull Invasion are approaching everything from a skewed angle. Drum machine clatter is engulfed in elastic guitars and synthesizers, creating a manic energy that flirts with dance and funk, but somehow comes out the other side as weirdo pop. Elsewhere, Seagull Invasion temper their mania and approach ambient electronica, but they're never far away from some glitchy detour. The bill they're on is packed with art-rock provocateurs, from the industrial surge of Doctor Sleep to the queer freakout of Hot Fruit and the performance art freak folk of Mary Ocher. It'll be a show where leaving preconceptions at the door will be a necessity. Check it out at 8 p.m. in Le Voyeur.

5. The New Frontier Lounge isn't The Five Spot on Cooper Square. Then again, it doesn't sit in the East Village of the 1950s either. But, grab the corner bar stool on a Monday night at The New Frontier, nurse a double bourbon, close your eyes and let pianist Nate Dybevik, bassist Arneson Cameron and drummer Peter Tietjen take you to the famous New York City jazz club over the din of the drinking Tacoma crowd. It as it should be: hearing a cool jazz jam in a comfortable, no-pressure environment. It launches at 9 p.m.

LINK: Monday, March 3 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area