WEDNESDAY 11/30
Photography/Music: Not Fade Away
A musician herself during her ’30s youth in Indiana, Jini Dellaccio became a sympathetic portrait photographer when documenting Seattle’s rock bands of the early to mid-’60s. The Sonics, the Wailers, et al. knew they were far from New York and L.A. The Beatles had just broken, and the hippies hadn’t really emerged. The new music scene wasn’t codified yet. As a result, when Dellaccio posed these musicians, often on her rural property near Gig Harbor, the fashions and lack of rock-star attitude don’t really mesh with our received notions of that decade. Short hair is the rule. The bands wear cardigan sweaters, pegged trousers, and Beatle boots. Dellaccio puts them in trees, has them frolic on the beach, and even walk a small lapdog on a leash (yes, humiliating). There’s a lightheartedness to these large black-and-white photos, an informality between the subjects and Dellaccio. (A few color shots from later in the decade are also included in the show, Rock & Roll.) And though she, at 94, still takes pictures, there’s a certain melancholy to the lost music—perhaps preserved on vinyl on some collectors’ dusty shelves—of forgotten bands like The Daily Flash, The Emergency Exit, the Bards, and the Raymarks. In her portraits is the innocent suggestion that the Mersey Beat could somehow be transported to Puget Sound. There’s also a visual echo of Astrid Kirchherr’s Hamburg-era photos of the Fab Four. Coincidence, or did Dellaccio see them? Maybe the vibe was something she heard on a 45 and recreated with her Rolleiflex. (Through Dec. 16.) Photo Center NW, 900 12th Ave., 720-7222, pcnw.org. Free. Noon–8 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
THURSDAY 12/1
Dance: The Score Made Visible
Mark Morris has been a musician for as long as he’s been a dancer and choreographer. In his work, the score and the movement reinforce each other, so that a body swooping from a leap to the floor makes you hear the rush of a descending scale, and the delicacy of a plucked string seems to make a dancer catch their breath. The two pieces his Mark Morris Dance Group are performing have very distinct scores: Johann Hummel was a student of Mozart, and his piano trio used for Festival Dance has that classic lyrical clarity. Jumping forward a few centuries, Violet Cavern swings along with improvisational jazz from The Bad Plus. The music may be different, but the musicality is the same—Morris lets us see what we hear, and hear what we see. (Through Sat.) The Moore, 1932 Second Ave., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org. $25–$82. 7:30 p.m. SANDRA KURTZ
Dance: Cracked Into a Whole
If all Zoe Scofield did was dance, we would still pay rapt attention. Her evolving style, combining the spidery articulation of ballet with a kind of animal intelligence (where backs and knees are as expressive as faces and hands), would still suck us in. But her collaboration with visual artist Juniper Shuey takes that choreographic gift and makes a whole world for it to inhabit. There, ghostly crowds walk past the living performers onstage, and translucent screens are both chalkboards for action drawings and windows into memory. A Crack in Everything has been long in development, and Seattle audiences have seen bits and pieces several times, but this complete work looks to be much, much more than the sum of its parts. (Through Sun.) On the Boards, 100 W. Roy St., 217-9888, ontheboards.org. $20. 8 p.m. SANDRA KURTZ
SATURDAY 12/3
Music: Holiday Buffet
In 2010, Portland’s Pink Martini released the album of holiday music many had been longing for—one that eschewed shiny pop trends in favor of warm nostalgia. Like Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart, Martini’s Joy to the World was intended to remind us of the past, when Bing Crosby, Eartha Kitt, and Jackie Gleason brought holiday cheer, not Justin Bieber. In typical Martini fashion, yesterday’s sounds are buoyed by multidenominational nods, from the Chinese New Year (“Congratulations”) to Hanukkah (“Elohai, N’tzor”). Martini is kicking off its holiday tour in Seattle, notably augmented by the Seattle Symphony, but it also marks the return of singer China Forbes, who has been on leave recovering from surgery on her vocal cords. Watching them should feel like Christmas in the ’30s or ’50s—a suave salon orchestra with a torch singer capable of performing anything, whether it’s “White Christmas” in Japanese or a rousing “Auld Lang Syne” bubbling with Brazilian Carnival flavor. The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org. $41.25–$121.25. 8 p.m. BRIAN J. BARR
SUNDAY 12/4
Food: Free Soup for You!
Other than SmartWool socks and Pendleton sweaters (see our music-section gift guide, “Rock ‘n’ Wool”), few things combat cold, dank Seattle winters like a bowl of soup and a pint of porter. You’ll find plenty of wool and porter every night of the week at the workingman’s bar that is Big Al Brewing‘s tasting room in White Center. And on Sunday afternoons, they bring in the soup. Or rather, you do. The community of drinkers that makes the spot a second living room in these parts hosts a weekly soup competition that all are welcome to enter (this week’s variety is gumbo). Or you can simply come to taste, with the only fee being your vote. There is no prize money, only bragging rights. Which, at this back-slapping brewery, is worth more than a few bucks. Big Al Brewing, 9832 14th Ave. S.W., 453-4487, bigalbrewing.com. Free. 4 p.m. CHRIS KORNELIS
Comedy: Droll Variety
As host and curator of the monthly oddball omnibus known as Weird and Awesome With Emmett Montgomery, the titular emcee has a delicate task. On the one hand, Montgomery must be funny, which he reliably is, with a deadpan style honed during many years at the People’s Republic of Komedy. But he also has to share the stage with an array of drop-by musicians, visiting comics (sometimes national headliners), skits, and animation (a green, multi-eyed monster called Sweet Pea is often featured). The evening is less stand-up than vaudeville—an assortment of entertainments with Montgomery providing the segues. And, yes, he also tells jokes. Acting as his Ed McMahon (or Andy Richter, if you prefer) is Barbara Holm, who affects a dingbat persona that nicely complements Montgomery’s tie-wearing grown-up lounge entertainer; they’ve got a little bit of a Burns-and-Allen vibe. Both performers, one suspects, spent most of their childhoods parked in front of the rec-room TV, studying Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enduring those Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethons. Montgomery calls his show “a two-hour, booze-soaked awkward show-and-tell.” And since there are plenty of Cap Hill bars nearby where you can pre-function, he says of his hosting duties, “It’s much easier with drunk people.” (Repeats first Sunday of every month.) Annex Theatre, 1100 E. Pike St., 728-0933, annextheatre.org. $10. 7:30 p.m. BRIAN MILLER
The Sonics pose al fresco.
