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These 8 music festivals will rock Seattle this fall

Michael Rietmulder, The Seattle Times on

Published in Entertainment News

SEATTLE — We tend to associate “festival season” with open air and sunscreen — summer vibes. Those are in short supply as the leaves change and the air crispens, but music festivals, it seems, are not.

The big outdoor concert venues have shut down in preparation for what headline-writers chasing scare-clicks have termed “The Big Dark.” (Don’t let those umbrella-clutchers fool you. This is not a thing.) Regardless, the shows must go on inside and there are enough music festivals on the calendar to make fall feel like a secondary festival season.

Here are some of the seasonal bonus fests that belong on your radar.

Earshot Jazz Festival

The Seattle jazz event of the year returns with a two-week stretch of stellar boundary-pushing shows in various venues, led by the fest’s artist in residence and hometown sax wiz Skerik. One is a somewhat rare Seattle date with revered pianist Vijay Iyer (at least as the sole bandleader), who plays Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall in a grand trio with bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Jeremy Dutton on Halloween.

Other Earshot highlights include Shabaka Hutchings (Oct. 25, Town Hall) — a catalyst of London’s vibrant progressive jazz scene, who ditched his sax-blasting ways in favor of non-Western flute instruments on his latest solo album — and pianist Myra Melford with her Fire and Water Quintet of all-star avant garde-ists (Oct. 27, Town Hall).

Also worth circling on your calendars: a homecoming date with The Westerlies trumpeter Riley Mulherkar (Oct. 24, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute), who released his debut solo album earlier this year, and a doubleheader with South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini (Nov. 2, Raisbeck Auditorium), who just released his second album for Blue Note Records, “uNomkhubulwane.”

Besides the shows, the fest features the launch of the Jackson Street Jazz Trail — a self-guided walking tour chronicling Seattle’s historic jazz district (Oct. 19), which stretches just over a mile from King Street Station in Chinatown International District to Washington Hall in the Central District.

Oct. 17-Nov. 3; times, locations and prices vary; earshot.org

Live From Our Living Room

In the tradition of the DIY “pay-the-rent” party, Seattle’s essential all-ages venue/youth-driven nonprofit Vera Project has put together a four-day blowout at its Seattle Center digs and Black Lodge to help fund its myriad programming and other causes.

The benefit bash starts with a week-early Halloween cover show (Oct. 24, Vera) followed by a Friday night “costumed extravaganza” headlined by Midwest emo pillars Algernon Cadwallader (Oct. 25, Vera). The main bill-paying event is the Generator Gala (Oct. 26, Vera), a punk-rock house party and variety show, which includes dinner and an open bar, with music from Mega Cat, featuring members of Seattle luminaries (and distinguished Vera homies) Smokey Brights.

Oct. 24-27; Vera Project, 305 Harrison St., Seattle, and Black Lodge, 429 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle; times and prices vary; theveraproject.org

Rat City Recon

A mark-your-calendar extravaganza for Seattle’s headbanging underbelly, regardless of who’s playing, Rat City Recon roped one of its bigger headliners in recent memory with stoner metal sultans High on Fire. The annual punk/metal bash with twin stages is held at everyone’s favorite rock ‘n’ roll skating center, Southgate Roller Rink, in White Center. The single-night fest also features Seattle heavy-music heavyweights Sandrider, Great Falls and Lorbo (featuring Skerik and Wild Powwers drumsmith Lupe Flores), alongside L.A. punk aggressors CNTS and many others. Presale tickets to the lace-‘em-up mini fest are long gone, but a “very limited” number will be available at the door, according to Southgate’s website.

4 p.m. Oct. 26; Southgate Roller Rink, 9646 17th Ave. S.W., Seattle; 21-and-older; advance tickets sold out, general admission $45; southgaterollerrink.com

Madrona Fest

A startup roots music festival toasting “the good life in the great outdoors” is coming to Pierce County’s Key Peninsula this month. Backed by Washington-based rural lifestyle publication Yonlander, the free all-ages fest features a day full of home-state Americana favorites, including folk-country craftsman Dean Johnson, indie-roots staple Sera Cahoone, bluegrasser Eli West, psychedelic alt-country standout Alessandra Rose and more.

 

Noon-9 p.m. Oct. 26; Key Peninsula Civic Center, 17010 S. Vaughn Road N.W., Key Center; free with required ticket registration; madronafest.com

Cumbia de Muertos

This annual Día de los Muertos event is put on by Martín Selasco of local electro-cumbia band Terror/Cactus and local promoter Going Left Music, with the support of KEXP’s Latin music show, El Sonido. Now in its third year, Cumbia de Muertos expands to three Ballard Avenue venues, with Sunset Tavern joining the party alongside its Tractor Tavern home base and cocktail den Percy’s & Co.

This year’s headliner is Pahua — a Mexico City singer/producer/percussionist who deftly blends electronic music with traditional Latin rhythms. Pahua guested on the sterling new album from Seattle’s like-minded electro-cumbia wiz Terror/Cactus (also performing). Philthy Dronez, Dreckig, Espina Letal and others perform, while Percy’s & Co. hosts a slate of vinyl disc jockeys.

8 p.m. Oct. 31; various locations; 21-and-older; $25-$30; tractortavern.com

Freakout Festival

The cumbia kids aren’t the only ones plotting a Ballard takeover this fall. Over the past decade, Freakout Festival has become a quintessential Seattle experience that belongs in tourist-pamphlet itineraries somewhere between peeping the Space Needle and watching those market vendors chuck the fish. Actually, maybe not. The cultural-bridging club fest with a psychedelic undercurrent is not exactly your mainstream tourist-brochure festival.

The four-day event splattering 100-plus artists across eight venues instead specializes in underground garage/rock heroes like the Black Angels, A Place to Bury Strangers, Black Lips and Suicide’s Martin Rev, with heavy doses of PNW and Latin American talent of all genres. The Ballard bash spills over to Fremont with Seattle favorites Shabazz Palaces and Reignwolf headlining Nectar Lounge gigs Nov. 8 and 9, respectively.

Nov. 7-10; times and locations vary; 21-and-older; $71-$277; the-freakout.com

Cloudbreak Festival

Unlike Freakout, this monthlong “festival” is actually designed to appeal to tourists and music-loving staycationers. Cloudbreak is the product of a deal-striking initiative from Visit Seattle, King County and Seattle’s Office of Economic Development with a host of venues and hotels. Book a room at a participating downtown Seattle hotel and get a free “live music pass” good for a number of shows during your stay, including some of those Freakout performances.

Highlights include a kickoff album release show with Seattle rockers Naked Giants (Nov. 7, Crocodile), a solo Pedro the Lion gig at The Rabbit Box theater in Pike Place Market (Nov. 14) and an early evening Sunday show with country-soul powerhouse Cassandra Lewis (Nov. 24, Vermillion), who dropped her enchanting new album, “Lost in a Dream,” this summer.

Nov. 7-27; times and locations vary; cloudbreakmusicfest.org

Rain City Doom Fest

Another one for the metalheads, this seasonally appropriate headbangers’ ball takes over Seattle metal hub El Corazón/Funhouse, putting 10 bands on the venue’s twin stages. Hometown doom lords Bell Witch and Year of the Cobra lead a bill that also includes melodic prog metal Witch Ripper, Portland’s Slow Goat, Ape Machine and more.

6 p.m. Dec. 14; El Corazón, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., Seattle; 21-and-older; $25; elcorazonseattle.com


©2024 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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