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January 5, 2015 at 7:51am

5 Things To Do Today: James Coates, Polar Plaza, Jerry Miller, Bucharest Drinking Team ...

James Coates performs at Smoke + Cedar tonight.

MONDAY, JAN. 5 2014 >>>

1. Club hopping can be overrated, especially when the weather is a snarling blast of rain and cold that makes one think twice about even leaving the couch. Some nights we like to stake out a place at a venue and hang out for a while, maybe have a meal, a few adult beverages and listen to music that doesn't invite itself into our head with an axe handle. Smoke + Cedar fits that bill Monday nights with its new music series. Tonight, venerable singer-songwriter James Coates will perform at the restaurant.Arrive at 7:30 p.m. to catch this gentleman armed with only an acoustic guitar and a whole lot of heart, who generates all sorts of comparisons to Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams. (Hey, no pressure, James, OK?)

2. Bundle up, pinch your cheeks until they glow and strap on a pair of silver skates, Hans Brinker, for a glide across the frozen expanse at Tollefson Plaza. The Franciscan Polar Plaza, located on the corner of Pacific Avenue and South 17th Street, is open from 4-9 p.m.

3. Moby Grape was one of the most versatile San Francisco rock bands to emerge out of the summer of love. 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 Jerry 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 performs at 8 p.m. in The Swiss.

4. Olympia's Rhythm and Rye will host two of its favorite honk bands at 8 p.m. - The Bucharest Drinking Team and Artesian Rumble Arkestra. The Bucharest Drinking Team, a band that borrows stylistically from great Balkan brass bands such as Fanfare Ciocarlia and Boban Markovic, mixes in a liberal shot of Romanian folk music and a penchant for '80s disco from behind the Iron Curtain to bring you a high-proof Eastern Bloc Party, complete with dancing, drinking, and music. The utterly delightful punk marching band Artesian Rumble Arkestra play a variety of jazz standards and atypical covers reflecting the broad diversity of its members' favorite music: samba, rock, Balkan, New Orleans, gospel, reggae and pop. This will be a sight to see ... and hear.

5. Rockaraoke at Jazzbones will either be your novel opportunity to act as frontman, or be completely intimidating. Perpetually packed with people, Rockaraoke boasts a unique twist for karaoke in Tacoma: instead of a backing track, you get a three-piece band playing behind you. Check it out at 9 p.m.

LINK: Monday. Jan. 5 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

January 4, 2015 at 4:33pm

Words, Photos & Video: The Oly Mountain Boys live at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink

The Franciscan Polar Plaza ice-skating rink crowd enjoyed awesome bluegrass and cold temperatures Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner

The best music has never been about noodling around, proving what a virtuoso one is as a player, or simply trying to fill up one whole side of an album with a 22 minute plundering of one marginally interesting idea. No, the good stuff pushes the fringes of what had been heretofore accepted within the realms of popular music, thrusting it as far as possible into the arena of legitimate art. Like Brian Wilson did on Pet Sounds. Like The Beatles did on Sgt. Pepper. Like Ray Davies did on Village Green. Like The Oly Mountain Boys did on White Horse. Nothing like White Horse had existed prior to its release. The Olympia bluegrass quintet produced the first bluegrass concept album, the life and hard times of Charlie McCarver in Washington state during the early 20th century. White Horse gallops to traditional bluegrass influenced by the music of Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley and Earl Scruggs. The album, The Oly Mountain Boys' fourth, draws from the mildew and forlorn, straight from the Olympic National Forest. This is the best brand of bluegrass: energetic and thoroughly heartbroken.

Last night, The Oly Mountain Boys performed live at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice-skating rink in downtown Tacoma. The concept of their concept album didn't sink in with the skaters. Why would it? The band didn't perform it front to back, but instead teased with six White Horse songs, among songs off their other albums and several cover songs. The skaters didn't carry Charlie McCarver's fall from grace on their shoulders. No, they skaters were busy falling themselves ... over and over and over. But, unlike McCarver, the skaters were able to pick themselves back up and continue skating in circles to the complex and melodic bluegrass these five chaps have mastered.

The Olympia-based band performed at the ice-skating rink as part of the Weekly Volcano's "Rhythm & Ice: Down Home Holiday Hoedown" music series. The Tacoma Art Museum asked us to produce the live music stage at the rink every Saturday night during its run. In conjunction with the "Art of the American West" exhibit across the street at TAM, we booked seven Saturday nights of bluegrass, country rock and old-timey bands. The Oly Mountain Boys wrapped up the series in fine style ... cowboy hats.

I shot a little amateur video last night, which features "Sky Fell Down," "Chased Away" and "It Rained For Forty Days," all off White Horse. The video also includes an intermission at neighboring Indochine.

The Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink at Tollefson Plaza is open to public ice-skating sessions across the street from TAM daily through Jan. 11.

Enjoy a few photos and a video (above) from The Oly Mountain Boys live at Polar Plaza Jan. 3, 2015. ...

SEE ALSO

Words, photos and video from Forest Beutel's live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and video from Dixie Highway's live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and video from The Rusty Cleavers' live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and video from Shotgun Kitchen's live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and video from SweetKiss Momma's live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and a video from The Cottonwood Cutups' live performance at the Polar Plaza ice rink

The backstory and band schedule for the Weekly Volcano's Rhythm & Ice music series at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink

January 4, 2015 at 9:13am

5 Things To Do Today: Jazz brunch, Puyallup Home & Garden Show, Zoolights, Sleepy Pilot ...

The Kareem Kandi Band kicks of the Museum of Glass' Sunday Music Series at 11 a.m.

SUNDAY, JAN. 4 2015 >>>

1. What is brunch doing to jazz? Must I resign to hearing second-rate elevator music as I nibble smoked salmon and sip Bloody Marys? This thought seems too horrible to accept, so I'm thrilled to announce the Museum of Glass debuts its Sunday Music series with the Kareem Kandi Band in the house, beginning at 11 a.m. When Kandi put his sax to his lips, I hear evidence he's devoted years of his life listening to Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt and Joshua Redman. The Kareem Kandi Band owns the "Best Jazz Group" in the Weekly Volcano's annual Best of Tacoma issue. Jazz this hip will fit perfect in MOG's Grand Hall. Brunch and beverages will be available for purchase from Choripan, the Museum's café, during the performance.

2. The final day of the Puyallup Home & Garden Show runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The show offers garden displays and vendors with opportunities to shop at participating nurseries, as well as exhibitors demonstrating the latest in home remolding, building, decorating and improvement techniques. It's all there, from windows to doors, bathrooms to kitchens, decks to roofing and furniture to spas. Northwest leading experts will be presenting home ideas for 2015.

3. Tonight is the last night to check out Zoolights, the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium's holiday light show and extravaganza, offering a stroll through more than half a million lights, crafted whimsically throughout the zoo from 5-9 p.m. A Sunday evening would be a nice time to take the family out and see some bright shiny things.

4. Tacoma record label Maurice the Fish Records presents another Sunday Session concert with Sleepy Pilot and Negative Inside taking the Jazzbones stage at 7 p.m.

4. Jay Hollingsworth is one "big dude" (those are his words, as are "I'm six-eight. I weigh right around twoooo much") who tells some big-ass jokes. He was born in Portland, moved from Seattle to Los Angeles and happily refers to himself as "Big Irish." He's a fixture on podcasts including Doug (Benson) Loves Movies and his own HollingsWorthless. Louie Anderson calls him "a great joke writer," and we agree. Catch his show at 8 p.m. in the Tacoma Comedy Club.

LINK: Sunday, Jan. 4 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

January 3, 2015 at 8:25am

5 Things To Do Today: The Oly Mountain Boys on Ice, Lakefight, The Twang Junkies, The Spazmatics ...

The Oly Mountain Boys perform live at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice-skating rink from 7-9 p.m.

SATURDAY, JAN. 3 2015 >>>

1. You've been waiting for tonight. You have questions. You've dissected The Oly Mountain Boys' epic concept album White Horse every which way. You've played it backwards. You've synced it to the Wizard of Oz. You are certain you can hear "Paul (Williams) is Dead" in the lyrics. You need to ask this quintet of Olympia bluegrass musicians if there's more to this concept album about a man named Charlie McCarver and his rough life in Washington state during the early 20th century. If you like your bluegrass complex, melodic and focused on weighty matters, then catch The Oly Mountain Boys at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice-skating rink from 7-9 p.m. If you like your bluegrass with high-energy drive and a Pacific Northwest bent, mixing traditional tunes with revolutionary original bluegrass compositions, then lace up.

2. Grab a seat in one of the vintage school desks scattered haphazardly about Tacoma Art Museum's spacious Weyerhaeuser gallery and prepare to be immersed in desolate beauty as Mary Lucier's five-channel video installation "The Plains of Sweet Regret" takes you to another time and place not so far away - the plains of North Dakota in the recent past.

3. Lakefight are a concentrated blast of jittery energy. The amount of churning forward momentum produced by the trio is a bit bracing at times. Comprised of guitar, drums and keyboard, the sound maintains a spry lightness, even as it barrels ahead like a runaway train. Citing influences ranging from the black heart of evil in the world, the redeeming powers of pizza and Blue Velvet's Frank Booth, Lakefight may seem scattered and, well, they sort of are. Still, it's this manic dot-connecting that colors the best aspects of their music, with torrents of yelped lyrics running roughshod over top of blazing instrumentation. Catch the band with the Pecos, Cradle Cap and the Variety Hour at 8 p.m. in Bob's Java Jive.

4. The country genre nowadays often seems to favor superstar pop-artists, and one can also admit that it has lost a lot of original flavor and a great amount of heart and soul. The Twang Junkies are loaded with original flavor and soul. The Tacoma band will mosey up to the bar with Cash, Haggard, Hank and Earle on one side and Jagger, Lennon, Bowie and Gibb on the other, then take The Spar stage at 8 p.m. with their own blend of alt-country: a Southern twang bass with a hint of indie rock.

5. Children of the '80s need to squeeze into your old 501s and Members Only jacket (good luck!), embiggen your hair and motor your bitchin' self to Jazzbones at 9 p.m. The Spazmatics are in town, dude! - with gnarly covers of all your '80s favorites, including "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Take on Me" and a pitch-perfect "Bohemian Rhapsody" (technically 1975, but shut up). It's a totally awesome, high-energy song-and-dance show that'll have you, like, stoked to the max. Cool beans, McFly!

LINK: Saturday, Jan. 3 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

January 2, 2015 at 7:49am

5 Things To Do Today: Puyallup Home & Garden Show, Sea Of Misinformation, Jay Hollingsworth, Smart People ...

Celebrate flower power at the Puyallup Home & Garden Show Jan. 2-4.

FRIDAY, JAN. 2 2015 >>>

1. It's winter (duh!) and Green Thumbs have a bad case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. For these folks, artificial won't do; it's just a countdown to spring. Ah, but there are a few plants that flourish indoors during the cold months to keep Green Thumbs smiling - and they're not plastic. Green thumbs hanging out at the Puyallup Home & Garden Show from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. know which plants flourish indoors. The show will feature garden displays and vendors with opportunities to shop at participating nurseries. Green Thumbs will dig lectures given by Certified Sustainable Landscape Professional Bill Peregrine. The show will also feature exhibitors demonstrating the latest in home remolding, building, decorating and improvement techniques. It's all here, from windows to doors, bathrooms to kitchens, decks to roofing and furniture to spas. Northwest leading experts will be presenting home ideas for 2015. If Green Thumbs are mad about keeping up with the Joneses, then this congregation of home and garden exhibitors will inflame their covetous inclinations.

2. Formed by Ryan Giffin in support of his original material written for both studio and the stage, Sea Of Misinformation - a 2012 Seattle Wave Radio Jammin' Challenge Top 4 finalist - will celebrate the release of their second album, North Star, at 7 p.m. in Louie G's Pizza.

3. The innovative genre-bending double bassist Ethan Jodziewicz and award-winning Appalachian fiddler and singer Tatiana Hargreaves will present passionate and virtuosic acoustic music at 8 p.m. in Traditions Café.

4. Jay Hollingsworth is one "big dude" (those are his words, as are "I'm six-eight. I weigh right around twoooo much") who tells some big-ass jokes. He was born in Portland, moved from Seattle to Los Angeles and happily refers to himself as "Big Irish." He's a fixture on podcasts including Doug (Benson) Loves Movies and his own HollingsWorthless. Louie Anderson calls him "a great joke writer," and I agree. Catch his show at 8 and 10:30 p.m. at the Tacoma Comedy Club.

5. Tonight's "Smart People" DJ dance party, organized by Tacoma's Mr. Melanin and hosted by Gallery of Ambition's Neon Dion, features Mr. Melanin, DJ Midnight Mike and DJ SlimRock spinning R&B, electronica, indie rock, house and disco in an improved setting of coolness. Dancing is awesome, but you'll catch yourself gazing at the turntable skills. It's OK. It really begins at 9:55 p.m. at The New Frontier Lounge.

LINK: Friday, Jan. 2 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

December 31, 2014 at 7:11am

5 Things To Do Today: New Year's Eve, First Night Tacoma, Jon Reep, Austin Jenckes ...

Woohoo!

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 31 2014 >>>

1. Yeah, right, like you need the Weekly Volcano tonight. However, there's that thing you told yourself you were going to investigate or learn about or take a class to study further, and yet you've never really gotten around to it. Oh sure, you bought that book two years ago and had a fascinating conversation with that guy who is sort of already doing the thing you would love to learn about, but that was last year, and you were a bit drunk and so was he. So here you are just looking at your shoes going, "Hmm, another year and I still don't know squat about Taoist philosophy/chakra bingo." Now 2015 is looking you right square in the Forever 21 T-shirt and saying, "All right then, so what have we here? Are you ready to make the best of me and take me out and ply me with wine and soft and gentle yet commanding words, or shall I just shrug and sigh and watch you wither and whimper and say hey maybe next year for sure?" Or simply hie thee to the Weekly Volcano's listings, honeychile, scan our nightlife calendar, peruse of NYE party list and then party away your paltry ideals.

2. Of course, the big NYE party is First Night Tacoma. To wit ...

3. Oh, sure, the South Sound breweries like to party on NYE ...

4. Stand-up comedian Jon Reep is best known as the "That thing got a Hemi?" guy in Dodge commercials, and more recently as the winner of the fifth season of Last Comic Standing on NBC. He's spending his NYE at the Tacoma Comedy Club.

5. New Year's Eve is all about letting go of the past and embracing the future. Jazzbones certainly isn't letting go of its blues, jazz and rock live music past, but it's embracing country music tonight. After making it all the way to the top 10 in the 2013 version of The Voice, Duvall, Washington, native Austin Jenckes has been touring the nation. The big, bearded dude with a soulful, charismatic voice will join Enumclaw country music heroes Aces Up for a big hoedown at 8 p.m. in Jazzbones.

LINK: Wednesday, Dec. 31 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

December 30, 2014 at 1:35pm

A many-splendored New Year's Eve First Night

Ben Union hits the First Night Main Stage at 8:45 p.m.

What does New Year's Eve mean to you? If you're anything like us, it used to mean glum tequila shots among strangers, followed by blurry staggers home and migraine-enriched New Year's Day mornings. There was room, shall we say, for improvement. Luckily, Tacoma offers vastly superior options. The best of these options is clearly First Night, as it offers so many wonderful sub-options. To wit:

The music alone lasts well beyond the stroke of midnight. Brazilian drum and dance ensemble VamoLá takes the outdoor main stage at 6:30 p.m., in a clatter of maracatu percussion and a rainbow of Carnival-type outfits. It's super fun. The group is followed by the Sherman Family of fuzz-rockers in the Pantages at 6:45, and by rock quartet Loser Dog on the Mountain House stage at 731 Broadway. Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Kye Alfred Hillig will entertain the Blue Couch lounge at 920 Broadway, and the Boneyard Preachers drop serious blues on the library at 742 Broadway. And that's the first 15 minutes! We haven't even made it to world-renowned flautist Gary Stroutsos, Ohana Ukulele, or Owl Parliament - all of whom arrive during the 7:00 hour! We'd be remiss, however, if we failed to mention the 8:05 Rialto appearance of Baby Gramps, an artist so inimitable the Village Voice observed, "If you feel like being amazed, he's a better bet than most."

Now let's dive into the realm of utter fantasy. Suppose you hate music - that's bizarre, but whatever. Maybe Chuck Berry said mean things about your mom once. In any case, you still have a full afternoon and evening of live performance ahead of you, starting with portrait art by the members of C.L.A.W. (Cartoonists League of Absurd Washingtonians) at 6:30 in Brooks Dental Studio, 732 Broadway. Also, be sure to catch Metro Arts Theatre Company's presentation of The Hysterical History of the Trojan War at Theater on the Square at 7, and the "incendiary dance" moves of Pyrosutra and L Lisa Lawrence of Wild Celtic Rose. At 8:30 on the main stage, First Night will attempt to set a Guinness world record for, of all things, the most people (male and female) blowing bubbles while dressed in wedding gowns-and yes, you are invited, nay, entreated to dress up and participate.

Or hey, maybe you're nuts about free stuff. Who isn't? Starting at noon, New Year's Eve is your chance to enjoy free admission to the Museum of Glass, Tacoma Art Museum, and Tacoma Children's Museum, plus free skate rental at Franciscan Polar Plaza. That's a whole lot of something for nothing, amigo. There's literally too much on the schedule to tell you about here in defensible detail, which is why we said nothing about the insane Day-of-the-Dead-themed Alice in Wonderland extravaganza at 9. You may even decide to go whole hog and spring for the Hotel Murano package deal, which includes not only event tickets but also a specially-priced room to collapse in at oh-dark-30.

See you there ... unless, of course, that fifth shot of tequila kicks in, in which case our eyes may not be focusing properly. Uber?

FIRST NIGHT TACOMA, starting noon Wednesday, Dec. 31, 9th and Broadway, Tacoma, free to $15, FirstNightTacoma.org

Filed under: Arts, Community, Music, Holidays, Theater, Tacoma,

December 30, 2014 at 7:36am

5 Things To Do Today: Orden Mundial, Sassparilla, DJ Li'l Mascara, Old School Jam ...

This could happen tonight at Le Voyeur in downtown Olympia. Photo courtesy of Facebook

TUESDAY, DEC. 30 2014 >>>

1. The Spanish hardcore outfit Orden Mundial lay everything out on the line in their recent LP, Obedienca Debida, with 10 tracks that almost never make it past a minute and a half. Still, within these unfathomably tight structures, Orden Mundial find compelling melodies and enough crunch to satisfy those that normally blanch at hardcore punk. There's a ferocity to the vocals that almost upstages the instrumentation, creating a roaring drive akin to a train barreling down on you. Catch the band with Combat Knife and Spetsnaz at 7 p.m. in Le Voyeur.

2. Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter (James Caan) and his wife (Mary Steenburgen), a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady (Chloë Grace Moretz). The mysterious young princess enthralls all who encounter her - but ultimately she must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime. What? Oh, wait ... it's the animated film The Tale of The Princess Kaguya screening at 2:30 and 6 p.m. in The Grand Cinema.

3. Maybe you're the type who is thinking "Hey, let's do something Tuesday" and stay in and cuddle New Year's Eve away from the madding crowds. Tonight would, in fact, be a good time to take in Portland blood-jug holler band Sassparilla, complete with washtub bass, cigar-box guitar, washboard and a dude with about 50 different harmonicas in his vest, at 7:30 p.m. in the Olympic Club Theater.

4. DJ Li'l Mascara will spin punk beginning ta 9 p.m. in Obsidian in downtown Olympia. The waffles are delicious.

5. DJ Freshwell and DJ Dirty White host "2x4 Old School Jam" after the comedy show at 10:30 p.m. in Jazzbones. Warning: It's also Brandon Escovedo's bachelor party ... so there goes your New Year's Eve plans.

LINK: Tuesday, Dec. 30 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

December 29, 2014 at 8:06am

5 Things To Do Today: Model Train Festival, "The Butterfly Effect," Surf Monkeys, Maria Joyner-Wulf ...

Remember to look both ways before crossing, and keep your pennies to yourself at the Washington State History Museum today.

MONDAY, DEC. 29 2014 >>>

1. Just so you know, you might miss the train today - seeing as how it's scaled down to one and a half inches. Get it? At the 19th Annual Model Train Festival, every floor of the Washington State History Museum features model trains of all sizes and eras, landscapes, train experts plus the museum's permanent HO-scale 1,700-square-foot model railroad layout that portrays Tacoma and surroundings in the 1950s. The wee ones will go nuts over the Model Train Festival. Slip your budding trainiac a couple candy canes along the way and their little heads will practically explode. The trains run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

2. The Thurston County Family & Juvenile Court is not a place people are likely to go with the intention of viewing art, but the court is open to the public and there is a lot of exciting art to be seen. "The Butterfly Effect" is a new permanent installation in the stairwell of the court house that was created by stringing together many hundreds (probably more than a thousand) butterflies cut out of plastic juice pouches, the work of nearly 700 students. Read Alec Clayton's full review of the art at the Thurston County Family & Juvenile Court in the music & Culture section.

3. Franciscan Polar Plaza is the place to be once winter hits. Think you can find something better to do than busting out some ice skates? Yeah, good luck with that. Polar Plaza is on its fourth year of setting up an ice-skating rink decked out in wintery goodness at Tollefson Plaza, just across from the Tacoma Art Museum in downtown Tacoma. With three fabulous years behind them, the Plaza folks put their heads together and found a few key ways to make this ritzy rink even better for 2014. Skate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. today.

4. Our ears perked up and our stomachs flipped a little when we heard the phrase "ultra cool spy themes." It sounds dangerous and sexy. Blues, that most American of musical forms, will receive a dose of spy music, as well as surf tones, at The Swiss' Monday Blues Night at 8 p.m. Seattle guitarist and singer Chris Stevens will fill the downtown Tacoma watering hole with electric blues lines via a big Gibson archtop. Taking their unusual name from a song title by legendary blues guitarist Freddy King, Stevens' back band, the Surf Monkeys, keep a firm footing in the blues while stretching the boundaries with "ultra cool spy themes," reverb drenched surf twang and Chris' own "blues on the edge of jazz" originals.

5. Jazz drummer Maria Joyner-Wulf performs with many groups in the region including Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Senators and Bevy. She's also a music educator, band leader, composer and multi-instrumentalist. She'll join pianist Reuel Lubag, bassist Wayne Bliss and saxophonist Cynthia Mullis for Rhythm and Rye last jazz night of the year, beginning at 8 p.m.

LINK: Monday, Dec. 29 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

December 28, 2014 at 4:50pm

Words, Photos & Video: Forest Beutel live at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink

Forest Beutel brightened spirits at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink in downtown Tacoma Dec. 27. Photo credit: Pappi Swarner

Americana music owes its existence to the collision of post-punk insurgency with a modern take on the often rude sounds of old-time country, blues and bluegrass, with singer-songwriter fetishes thrown in for good measure. If that sounds like a mouthful, it's meant to be: Americana covers a pretty wide range of styles and performers, and last night Forest Beutel covered all aspects of Americana.

Tacoma musician Beutel performed at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice-skating rink in downtown Tacoma as part of the Weekly Volcano's "Rhythm & Ice: Down Home Holiday Hoedown" music series. The Tacoma Art Museum asked us to produce the live music stage at the rink every Saturday night during its run. In conjunction with the "Art of the American West" exhibit across the street at TAM, we have booked seven Saturday nights of bluegrass, country rock and old-timey bands.

Beutel - a fixture of Tacoma's bluegrass scene, playing banjo for The Barleywine Revue, punkgrass outfit The Rusty Cleavers and matching Julie Campbell's fierce fiddle in Dixie Highway - picked at his banjo, blew his harmonica, pumped his bass drum and hi-hat, performing a mix of high-energy bluegrass, down-tempo blues and introspective lyrics for the skaters going in circles. Beutel held an ice-skating trick contest throughout the night, pointing out potential candidates in between songs off his new solo CD, If You Label Me, You Negate Me.

I shot a little amateur video last night, which features Beutel's songs "Don't Know No Other Way" and Good Ol' Boy" at the rink, and "Angus' Romp" during my intermission session at The Social Bar & Grill.

The Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink at Tollefson Plaza is open to public ice-skating sessions across the street from TAM daily through Jan. 11.

The Weekly Volcano's last Rhythm & Ice: Down Home Holiday Hoedown bluegrass concert stars The Oly Mountain Boys 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 3. The quintet from Olympia will, no doubt, play tunes off their new bluegrass concept album, White Horse, which tells the story of a man named Charlie McCarver and his rough life in Washington state during the early 20th century. If you like your bluegrass complex, melodic and focused on weighty matters, then ice skate to this show Jan. 3. In the meantime, enjoy a few photos and a video (above) from Forest Beutel live at Polar Plaza Dec. 27.

SEE ALSO

Words, photos and video from Dixie Highway's live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and video from The Rusty Cleavers' live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and video from Shotgun Kitchen's live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and video from SweetKiss Momma's live performance at Polar Plaza

Words, photos and a video from The Cottonwood Cutups' live performance at the Polar Plaza ice rink

The backstory and band schedule for the Weekly Volcano's Rhythm & Ice music series at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice rink

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