I’m going to be brief here because I’m writing at the coda of a beautiful day. I had a wonderful time with some loved ones and the centerpiece was visiting some departed family members in the Trinidad Cemetery, one of my favorite places. We had our picnic there in the sun, with, counting the dead, three generations of the people I care about most in this world. There were some shadows and maybe even ghosts on the fringe, of course, but that’s only natural, and nobody got haunted or chilled to the point of damage. Just a little distraction really. On the way out we said our fare-thee-wells to Cockeyed Florence as we passed her spot of eternal vigilance and distinction at the borderline back to the land of the living. It’s so great to have a familiar presence observing the downshift in tempo from one tango to another. A coat-check on the way out the door to a reality with a different balance of solemnity and whimsy.
Enjoy your week.
Thursday
The Cowtown Sound is throwing a Honky Tonk Thursday at the Logger Bar tonight. There will be a two-step dance lesson for all comers at 8:30 p.m., with the music starting around a half hour after. No cover at the door, so tip everyone accordingly.
Friday
The Creative Sanctuary jazz folk are putting on another tribute to the greats at the Arcata Playhouse tonight at 7 p.m. This time it’s Duke Ellington and his tight collaborator Billy Strayhorn, author of the inimitable tune “Take the A-Train,” among many other classics. James Zeller, Katie Belknap and the usual suspects will be joined by some players from the Harambe Youth Ensemble, so this should be a fun bit of frisson between some seasoned and up-and-coming musicians. Tickets will run you a sliding scale $15-$30 and the doors open a half hour before the tunes start.
Saturday
Abronia is a Portland band that has gained international recognition for its haunting invocations of the spectral landscape of crossroads converging in the valley of death beyond the western plains of the living. A place where the flesh must be sacrificed in the white heat so a caravan of charred bones can carry the soul through the burning hydrogen heaven of the stars which form the cowboy constellations of our American nightmare. Or something damn close. The group’s fourth record Shapes Unravel came out on Feb. 20 and it is a proper dream-weaver. You can see for yourself at the Miniplex tonight at 9 p.m., where local song trippers Vulture Feather and the ever-fantastic Uncredible Phin Band will be making this show one for the legends. Only $10 for all this magic seems like a hallucination from a different world as well.
Sunday
If you have found your allotment of strange beauty still lacking despite the fine offerings in the entire before this one, fear not: You have two fine options to tickle the pineal gland and pluck the fine cords of motion in the medulla that create the chords of subconscious harmony in the seat of the psyche. First up, there’s a 3 p.m. matinee performance of Brahms’ String Quartet No. 3 in B flat major, Op. 67 by the excellent, globetrotting Balourdet Quartet at the Lutheran Church of Arcata. This wonderful piece of German Romanticism, a recording of which I am listening to right now, is a perfect introduction into the chaotic beauty of spring. The concert comes with a conversation about the piece by the performers, which I am sure will be much more enlightening than anything I could write here, so if you are so inclined, pop over and plunk down your $20 ($5 for students) to have a listen.
A bit later at 7:30 p.m. at Moss Oak Commons, there are some experimental living composers whose music you can enjoy straight from the tap. Arrington de Dionyso plays a wide variety of horns and machines over a wide variety of styles, including what I think of as Javanese lava music or living trance tracks from the spiritual realm around the Ring of Fire. He has once again made the trek from his homebase of Olympia to spread the sounds around, and such wonderful sounds they are. Also on the bill is Brooklyn’s Sandy Ewen, who does things on the electric guitar that can perhaps best be described as multi-dimensional. She uses the instrument not only tonally, but sonically. Textural harmonics and aural colors are a good starting point, but descriptions are always lacking in the pavilion of sound — the mind has another language entirely in that space. Rounding out the bill is another performance by the Uncredible Phin Band, a group that starts with the eponymous Thai mini-guitar and stretches oh-so-much further. There’s a suggested $5-$10 at the door for this one, and with two touring acts, any bit helps.
Monday
Save your ducats for another day.
Tuesday
It’s the last night of March and there are far worse ways to go out like a lamb than enjoying another Tuesday evening of jazz played expertly by the Opera Alley Cats at the Speakeasy. No cover for the show, so show some love for players and pourers.
April Fool’s Day
Wouldn’t it be crazy if this one particular thing that so many people around the world are waiting for with utterly exhausted tension happened today? I mean naturally of course, or by some hilarious accident with enough perfectly ironic splendor to make even the most hardened atheist think — however briefly — that there is some greater power guiding the moral arc of existence with any force other than blind chaos. It would change our relationship to this rather odd “holiday” forever, with the kind of world-shifting alchemy that only a botched gender-reveal party explosion opening up an alien dimension with the firepower of an atom bomb could muster. I’m just speculating here, nothing more, certainly nothing actionable. Purely fictitious humor. But could you imagine?
Anyway, if you’d like to enjoy a variety show with a good “fuck you” message to the police state, come check out the Melt the ICE thingy at Savage Henry Comedy Club tonight at 7:30 p.m. There will be comedians, there will be performers, there will be musicians. Some names of note include Josh Barnes,Jeff Fahey,Jessica Grant,Spellbound and Selina Finesse,A.N.H. and Joe Mallory. Entry costs $20 and a portion of the proceeds go to Centro del Pueblo, which is pretty rad. Have a great day regardless, no foolin’.
Collin Yeo (he/him) finds a great many things funny, but not peace, love and understanding. Those are sacred.
This article appears in On the Matter of Censure.