SATURDAY, MARCH 28 2015 >>>

1. From 6:30 to 10:30 p.m., the Museum of Glass is hosting its 4th Annual Slider Cook-off, which means seven Pacific Northwest grub go-tos (mostly hailing from Tacoma) are bringing their culinary prowess into the ring in the hopes of coming out on top and being awarded with a sweet glass-blown burger slider trophy and bragging rights. This year, the majority of contenders are newbies to the slider cook-off, which should prove to be entertaining for returning nibblers' taste buds. We connected with participating restaurants to see what attendees could expect while noshing.

2. There are hundreds of barleywines, probably thousands, in the world, but it seems like many are extremely limited and hard to find on a regular, year-round basis. That's one of the reason's why you can barely find an inch of space at the ParkWay Tavern's annual Barley Wine Fest, which will launch at the Tacoma tavern at 10 a.m. Pappi Swarner has the scoop in his New Beer Column.

3. Tacoma- and Puyallup-based Southern rock band SweetKiss Momma, hot off their winter European tour, will perform along with the Kim Archer Band at the Tacoma Rainiers Pre-Season Party from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cheney Stadium. Play ball!

4. It's been 11 years since Maroon 5 smashed into the public consciousness with "This Love" and "She Will Be Loved," though "Harder to Breathe," the first single from that same album, actually reached #18 two years earlier. (Overnight success is a funny thing.) Since then, Adam Levine's distinctively high-pitched tenor has been ubiquitous on iPods and radio dials around the world. The band's fifth - or sixth, if we're counting Kara's Flowers - studio album, V, boasts three top-five singles thus far. Now its tour marches triumphantly into the Tacoma Dome at 7:30 p.m. Will the arena be full of screaming admirers, swooning each time Levine flexes his narrow but yoga-toned frame? Our Magic 8 Ball says, "You may rely on it." After all, Levine is People's Sexiest Man Alive. Will the encore include "Moves Like Jagger?" The Magic 8 Ball says, "Signs point to yes."

5. The Rangehoods have been a Western Washington staple since the band permutated from The Heats (when is the Heats reunion going to be, anyway?) around 1984. Steve Pearson, Pat Hewitt, Tony Lease and Don Kammerer took a twang approach to the breakneck wave of the Heats and moved on. It was a big deal when the Rangehoods played The Swiss in the ‘90s. At 7:30 p.m. in The Valley, Hewitt's 60th birthday will be celebrated while The Rangehoods, Twang Junkies, Stone Pony and special guests rock the joint. Cancel Sunday.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25 2015 >>>

1. Moby Grape was one of the most versatile San Francisco rock bands to emerge out of the summer of love.  While they were rooted in psychedelia, they injected elements of folk, blues and country. Unlike the jam bands of the time, Grape possessed a meticulously unique sound by way of multilayered triple guitar arrangements - Jerry Miller on first guitar, the melodious Peter Lewis on second, with weirdo Skip Spence on third. Sadly, through a combination of inner turmoil and bad management decisions, the mighty Moby Grape broke up in 1969. However, their debut album is still considered one of the best of all time by many critics, in part because of the nimble fingers of guitarist Miller. Miller was named one of the top 100 guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone above Eddie Van Halen, Johnny Winter and Randy Rhoads. The Tacoma native has enjoyed a rich career sharing the stage with countless musicians including members of the Doobie Brothers and Carlos Santana. Miller now performs with his trio, the Jerry Miller Band, as well as host jam and open mic nights around town, including Tuesday nights at Dave's in Milton. Miller and crew will perform at 8 p.m. in The Swiss. A pre-show Full Sail Brewing Brewer's Night will help everyone ride the snake.

2. Pint Defiance Specialty Beers & Taproom has killer Brewer's Nights. Their recent Facebook post reminded us of such fact: "one where we had a line out the door at start time, or that one where we broke the randall, we've had a history of kegs emptied in record time, and tons of great prizes given away." From 5-7 p.m., Ninkasi Brewing Company and rep. Josh Russell will be in the house with an eye on reaching Pint Defiance's Number One Brewer's Night Of All Time, with hoppier beers, more enthusiastic high fives and kitten-themed prizes, as well as the latest R&D (Rare & Delicious) release, Rich's Double Belgian IPA, "This Is Why I'm Hop" IPA, the original Total Domination IPA and Spring Reign Pale Ale.

3. SideWalk is a local organization on a mission to end homelessness in Thurston County. They combine volunteerism and intensive community engagement with data-driven, evidence based methods to accomplish their mission. The Olympia Downtown Association will be hosting a benefit house party for SideWalk from 5-8 p.m. at The Washington Center. Besides a performance by local band Blue Laces, and food and wine from several local restaurants, program will feature words from WCPA Executive Director Jill Barnes, ODA Executive Director Vida Zvirzdys-Farler and Sidewalk Executive Director Phil Owens. This is a free event for our community, with an opportunity to donate directly to Sidewalk during the evening.

4. Comedy open mics are where comedians cut their teeth, develop their chops and other folksy idioms meaning "possibly suck to get better." Polish is traded for rawness. Comedians nervously testing out premises they thought of while parking. It wouldn't be a true comedy open mic without a few rookies floundering or even some industry veterans filling the room with crushing awkwardness, but Tacoma Comedy Club's Open Mic Night features some damn good performers who more than balance it out. Check out the free performance at 8 p.m.

5. Deathgrave and Augurs, two Oakland, California, bands that have made grindcore and downtuned sonic aggression a way of life, will join The Vatican band for total auditive devastation at 9:30 p.m. in Obsidian.

TUESDAY, MARCH 24 2015 >>>

1. Oakland trio Religious Girls is gospel music for noise. Praising everything both beautiful and abrasive, Religious Girls are fascinated with taking clattering and chanting and making it a main character. Eardrums are pummeled, pupils are dilated, and minds are expanded to the place where they can receive that glut of input being ejected from Religious Girls. Above all else, the drums become the frontman for Religious Girls, shoving and cajoling the music into places it wouldn't otherwise have gone. Catch the band with Saul Conrad, Joseph Hein and the Breakfast Cowboy at 8 p.m. in Deadbeat Olympia record store.

2. Tim Burton's film Big Eyes reunites him with the writers of Ed Wood, his best-ever film. It stars the red-hot Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. It will screen at 2 and 6:40 p.m. at The Grand Cinema.

3. Broken Spoke on Hilltop Tacoma hosts a Brewer's Night honoring breweries 21st Amendment, Hopworks, Hop Valley and Oskar Blues Brewery. Expect the release of two new beer cans, swag giveaways, taco truck and a lot of talk about bicycles, from 7-10 p.m.

4. There's a sport for everyone. Whether it's video football or dangling from great heights by little ropes, you have enjoyed at some point the principles of fair play, hard work, achievement, etc. Well, so did many folks in 1936. History professor Chad Moody wants to tell you all about the intersection of sport, spectacle and fascist ideology ... for free at 6:30 p.m. in the Gig Harbor Library. You game? Well, run like hell (you are an athlete, after all) to the Gig Harbor Library tonight. Learn about Jesse Owens, German athletes and Hitler during the 1936 Olympics. Bring friends and make the lecture some sort of sport. There's a sport for everyone.

5. With a voice that is influenced by old soul-singers such as Otis Redding, but also spiced with some folk sensibilities, Kurt Lindsay knows how to evoke emotion and have full control of every song he explores. Lindsay's voice, like Jeff Buckley's, is simultaneously full of bravado and wounded timidity. It quivers with feeling, though it might be noted that Lindsay's voice often comes across as more lost, searching, which adds a nice element to what is largely music that errs toward modern rock, with some detours to friendly mixers like R&B and folk. Catch him at 7:30 pm. in Smoke + Cedar.

SATURDAY, MARCH 21 2015 >>>

1. We knew the traditional fifth anniversary gift was the astoundingly lame "wood," and, of course, the 25th anniversary is the silver and 50th golden. We're pretty sure the 75th is either oxygen tanks or pre-chewed food. Apparently, the first anniversary is the kickass music anniversary, because downtown Olympia music and whiskey venue Rhythm and Rye is celebrating its first year in operation with bands Hillstomp (punk blues) and The Oly Mountain Boys (bluegrass), the two bands that officially opened the venue last March 21. The show begins at 9 p.m.

2. You spend hours wandering around consignment stores, yard sales, and nothing. Break the cycle. Rethink your thought process. Antiques - The older they are the better. And, unlike the average retail giant's merchandise, you can sometimes get a deal. So come check out the Women's League Annual Flea Market and peruse more than 60 vendor booths of previously owned antiques and collectibles, sporting goods, home furnishings, clothes, books and more from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the University of Puget Sound. It's the University of Puget Sound Women's League's 47th flea market to fund student scholarships. A silent auction runs throughout the day. Not so silent? You when you happen across mannequin legs! 

3. The Gig Harbor Rotary presents Taste of Gig Harbor from 5:30-10 p.m. at the Tacoma Narrows Airport. Weekly Volcano foodie Jackie Fender has the scoop here.

4. If we need to tell you who Amy Schumer is, you must not own a TV. Her Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer was nominated for an Emmy. Both Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone praised it as one of last year's best series, especially a firecracker of a sketch about a Call of Duty-type video game. Schumer wields one of the 21st century's most distinctive, vital, quotable comic voices, and it's won her gigs from Cosmo to Fox News to a slot in the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot. That's right, Amy Schumer will soon be given her very own proton pack. For a comedian in her 30s, that's like being named one of the apostles. Catch her at 8:30 p.m. in the Emerald Queen Casino.

5. The Fucking Eagles reminds one of a '50s sock hop mixed with a backwoods roadhouse show of the same era. It's fun as hell. Catch the band with The Wimps and Vibrating Antennas at 9 p.m. in The New Frontier Lounge, as part of the Bleak Outlook Vol. 3 festival.

FRIDAY, MARCH 20 2015 >>>

1. Fargo, North Dakota native Jonny Lang has had five albums in the Billboard top 50. He recorded his first blues guitar album, Smokin', at the tender age of 14. Two years later came Lie to Me, an album that went multi-platinum and earned raves from major critics. After a Grammy nomination for Wander the World in 1998, he won the award for Turn Around. He's toured with Aerosmith, Blues Traveler, B.B. King, the Stones, and other iconic artists. Lang's most honest testimonial came from fellow singer and guitarist Jimmy Thackery, who admitted, "He plays so good I want to break his fingers." Yowza. Catch his show at 8:30 p.m. in the Emerald Queen Casino.

2. In college, Scott Cossu immersed himself in the music of Ecuador, living in the Andes Mountains and Chota Valley while furthering his ethnomusicology studies.  He then alchemized his amassed knowledge into records with shamelessly cheesy titles like Emerald Pathways, Stained Glass Memories and, simply, Mountain. Cossu's a laudable pianist, and his compositions have a playful precision to them. While his lite jazz isn't for everyone, in some circles such as the South Puget Sound Community College, Cossu's type of music is seeming less and less like a guilty pleasure, and more like an unexpected muse. Cossu performs at the college's "An Evening of Fine Jazz and Northwest Cuisine," featuring chefs Treacy Kreger and Christine Ciancetta, at 6:30 p.m. Stottle Winery will provide the wine for the evening. It's going to rock. Softly.

3. Olympia Family Theater presents Our Only May Amelia, adapted from the Newberry Award winning novel by Jennifer L. Holm, at 7 p.m. It is the coming of age story of a 13-year-old who is being raised on an isolated farm as the only girl in a family of seven brothers. In 1899, life on the Naselle River in Southwest Washington was hard for anyone, but especially for 13-year-old May Amelia Jackson, the only girl in all of the Naselle settlement. There is not another girl in her neck of the woods with whom to play or commiserate.

4. Wingman Brewers will introduce the Old Plank Pils to the world at 8 p.m., a beer head brewer Ken Thoburn and crew brewed especially for Tacoma punkgrass band, The Rusty Cleavers, who will perform at 8 p.m. during the beer release party. For full details, check out our New Beer Column.

5. Mahnhammer was a stalwart in the Tacoma metal/rock scene, but in 2014, they switched things up by swapping out their drummer and changing their name to something equally thunderous: Ex-Gods. Catch the band with Griever and Strange Wilds at 9 p.m. in The New Frontier Lounge as part of the Bleak Outlook Vol. 3 festival.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18 2015 >>>

1. We miss slumber parties. We should start a sleepover revival, complete with pajamas, gossip, manicures and pedicures, Truth or Dare, and, of course, liquor-cabinet raids. Sleeping would be completely off-limits, at least until sunrise. Harlequin Productions' acclaimed improv comedy troupe is on it. Something Wicked takes the stage in Something Wicked Has A Slumber Party, where the slumber party is chalk full of wild improvised stories. The improv troupe takes to the Historic State Theater stag eat 8 p.m. So who's bringing the horror flicks?

2. Weekly Volcano visual arts critic Alec Clayton has always thought Dale Chihuly's drawings were more impressive than his glass creations, but he has never seen enough of his drawings to say so until now. "Chihuly Drawings" at the Museum of Glass makes the case quite emphatically. One hundred and eighty-six drawings fill the main gallery at MOG, and the impact is overwhelming. Read Alec Clayton's full review of "Chihuly Drawings" in the Music & Culture section, then check out the exhibit from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

3. If you cross over to Oregon, you must first drive past a statue of John Harris on the Interstate 5 Bridge. Wait, what? How could the man who perfected the recipes for some of Oregon's most iconic brews - including Deschutes' Black Butte Porter, Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Jubelale and Obsidian Stout as well as McMenamins' Hammerhead - not have a statue? Harris spent three decades working under others, most recently at Full Sail. Now, he's his own boss, running Ecliptic Brewing in a colossal former auto-body shop in Portland. Drop by Pint Defiance from 5:30-7:30 p.m., discuss the statue thing, maybe also his love for astronomy, or even his awesome beers, with the man himself.

4. Little Bill Engelhart a legendary Northwest blues musician and perhaps the Godfather of rock 'n' roll in Tacoma. He formed a band with some of his teenage friends and had a national hit when he was just 19 titled "I'm in Love with an Angel." The Washington Blues Society has awarded him numerous awards, including best band; best bass player, best blues writer and lifetime achievement award. See him at 8 p.m. in The Swiss.

5. The 21st installment of the Vomity Open Mic Comedy night at Le Voyeur features Sarah Adam, who hails from Olympia, who blends self deprecation and too-much-information into hilarious stories. As always, a bunch of other comedians will fight for time slots at the very popular comedy open mic, which begins at 9 p.m.

TUESDAY, MARCH 17 2015 >>>

1. After nearly a week of celebration at Doyle's Public House, your liver is more than ready for St. Patrick's Day. After hosting the Nolan Garret Band, Fields Under Clover, Ethan Tucker, Staxx Brothers and Positive Rising all day Saturday in the ginormous outdoor tent, today's official 3 p.m. to close St. Paddy's throwdown with Dixie Highway, Ockham's Razor and The Rusty Cleavers at Doyle's should cap off your week of greenness with an authentic Irish bang - which (spoiler alert!) usually includes a blackout.

2. For a few edible St. Patrick's Day recommendations in Pierce County while getting good and snockered, click here.

3. We're hardworking, tax-paying citizens (most of us any way), and we deserve the right to wear our finest green attire and down a pint every bit as much as anyone who's authentically Irish. Click here for a few spots to grab a beer on St. Patrick's Day.

4. Classes crash in Paolo Virzi's lashing satiric drama Human Capital, along with bikes and SUVs and the fortunes and dreams of the haves and the wanna-have-mores. Virzi's stylish, sometimes funny tale screens at 1:40 and 6:30 p.m. in The Grand Cinema.

5. The famous Irish Drinking Day falls on Tuesday this year so Rock The Dock Pub & Grill's official Irishman Dustin Lafferty will be doing a jig and drinking green beer while he hosts his weekly open mic. Tonight's 7 p.m. Irish version will include tons of drink specials. Lafferty will write you a doctor's note for tomorrow.

SATURDAY, MARCH 14 2015 >>>

1. In the late '60s and into the '70s, there was a sea change in the world of country music. Rather than drawing from the glut of radio-ready folk and country that dominated the airwaves, a new class of country singers came up through the ranks, bringing with them a more progressive world-view and a more idiosyncratic sound. People like Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson would become the face of progressive country, lending a more personal sound to a genre that had grown complacent with cookie-cutter artists that were as interchangeable as they were popular. Eventually, this scene would spawn even more disparate artists and influences, creating the slippery genre known as alt-country. At the forefront of this developing genre was Joe Ely, whose immersion into the scene was through the most circuitous of routes. Read Rev. Adam McKinney's interview with Joe Ely in the Music & Culture section., then catch Ely with Ruthie Foster and Paul Thorn in the Southern Troubadours in the Round show at 7:30 p.m. in the Pantages Theater.

2. Lucky Eagle Casino and Hotel is dealing themselves in the beer festival game hosting their first annual Beer and Wine Festival from 1-5 p.m. For $25 at the door, you will receive a commemorative pint or wine glass, eight drink tickets and a straight line to Dick's Brewing Co., Hi-Fi Brewery, Mt. St. Helens Cellars and others.

3. Some people really can't wait until St. Patrick's Day to don oppressive shades of green and drown themselves in Guinness. Celebrate four days early at Doyle's Public House Pre-St. Patrick's Day Bash. The outside tent is up and beginning at 3 p.m. Nolan Garrett, Fields Under Clover, Ethan Tucker and The Staxx Brothers will fill it up.

4. Northwest Sinfonietta will present a reunion between Cuban jazz pianist Aldo López-Gavilán and his brother, Ilmar Gavilán, along with The Harlem Quartet - for the first public performance of the brothers in the U.S. - at 7:30 p.m. in the Rialto Theater. The Gavilán brothers grew up in Cuba as prodigies of a robustly musical family. Ilmar won several prestigious violin competitions before becoming a founding member of the trail-blazing Harlem Quartet, while Aldo pursued a phenomenal solo career as a Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist and composer.

5. Dark Palms music is a barbaric, pulsing, yet nuanced and nimble band based out of Olympia. The type of band that proves that modern post-punk sounds can still hold pop sensibilities - that musically you can still see what's in your rear view while looking forward. The band performs with Radio On, Josh Duhamel the Band and Dirty Malkovich at 9 p.m. in Bob's Java Jive.

TUESDAY, MARCH 10 2015 >>>

1. Science Café of Olympia meets each month on the second Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Orca Books. It provides an informal atmosphere where people with and without scientific background can meet to deepen their understanding of interesting topics in science and technology. After a presentation by an expert in the field, the meetings are opened for discussion. Tonight, a big brain will discuss cutting edge electron microscopy. The electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a beam of electrons to create an image of the specimen. It is capable of much higher magnifications and has a greater resolving power than a light microscope, allowing it to see much smaller objects in finer detail, like our imagination in creating this paragraph.

2. Part of The Grand Cinema's Tuesday Film Series, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night continues the trend - as epitomized by Only Lovers Left Alive - of the "vampires hanging out" film genre. The Iranian/American film centers around a ghost town in Iran called Bad City, and the lonely vampire that haunts it. If it's anything like the sumptuous Only Lovers Left Alive, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is not to be missed. Catch it at 1:15 and 6:25 p.m.

3. This St. Patrick's Day, whether you choose to celebrate with a more authentic Irish Lamb Shepherd's Pie, or with the traditional American-style Corned Beef and Cabbage, Chef Treacy has you covered. He'll take you step-by-step through the preparation of these dishes so you can make them at home for family and friends on March 17. As a fine accompaniment to the meal, his soda bread biscuits are a fun twist on the standard recipe. Grab $55 and reserve your 6 p.m. spot at the Bayview School of Cooking.   

4. If you're curious how California's Stone Brewing Company grew from a small startup brewery into one of the largest craft breweries in the world, then drop by Rainier Growlers from 6-9 p.m., get in a Stone groove, maybe win a raffle prize and enjoy Stone's Go To IPA, Green Tea IPA, Quadrotriticale and Old Guardian brews.

5. Jerry Miller was named one of the top 100 guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone above Eddie Van Halen, Johnny Winter and Randy Rhoads. The Tacoma native has enjoyed a rich career sharing the stage with countless musicians including members of the Doobie Brothers and Carlos Santana. Miller hosts an open jam at 7 p.m. in Dave's of Milton.

SATURDAY, MARCH 6 2015 >>>

1. Recycling is a way of life in western Washington, but do you wonder if you're truly making a difference? The trick to sustainability is knowing what works and what doesn't. That's where the South Sound Sustainability Expo comes in. A team of Pierce County higher-educational institutions first organized this event in 2006. Four years later, the city of Tacoma formed an Office of Environmental Policy and Sustainability, which partnered with area colleges. The expo is now held in the Tacoma Convention Center, where it's grown to include over 90 companies and nonprofits from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Among vendors present at this year's event are American Red Cross, Citizens for a Healthy Bay, Metro Parks Tacoma, Nisqually Land Trust and Tacoma Farmers Market, which hosts a Kids' Corner with a functioning mini-market. Much of the expo's financial support comes from Goodwill, Pierce County, Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union and Tacoma Public Utilities.

2. This seems like a fun idea. Narrows Brewing Co. in partnership with Families Unlimited Network will host a Smoke on the Water Chili Cook-Off from noon to 5 p.m. Expect eight different varieties of local amateur and professional chefs' homemade chili, and each member of the crowd will have their opportunity to vote for their favorite. Proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to the support of Families Unlimited Network and their food bank.

3. Maria Jost approaches art from the viewpoint and experience of a scientist: "Don't worry I'm a scientist. I am a product of scientific training, I make the measurements, crunch the numbers and compile the data," she has stated in past art shows. But she's also an artist - an illustrator to be more precise. Jost's drawings in ink and collage are highly decorative and amazingly precise. She has produced a limited run of prints of her botanical illustrations called "Apothecary Botanicals," and will host a reception from 2-4 p.m. at Hilltop Kitchen.

4. The Harlem Renaissance produced some of the swingin'est, jazziest, cool cattin'est music of the 20th century. The black musicians that came out of New York in the period between 1919 and the early 1930s made a massive impact not only on jazz, but on American music in general. You'll hear the sound of the Harlem Renaissance in Ain't Misbehavin': The Fats Waller Musical, a musical revue and tribute to musicians of the era featuring beloved songs by Fats Waller by five great Northwest performers at 7:30 p.m. in the Pantages Theater. Encapsulating the mood of the era and the humor of his music, the show sparkles with Waller's stance that life is a journey ... for pleasure and play. This musical homage includes jazz classics like "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," "Honeysuckle Rose," "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" and others.

5. Travis Barker, the "Boar" to Kristen Wenlock's "Elk" in the twangy Tacoma duo Elk and Boar will perform with his band at 9:30 p.m. in Doyle's Public House.