FRIDAY, JUNE 17 2016: South Sound events + craft beer …
Americana + Gose = pinch of banjo and coriander
Roadhouse blues + summer beers = Sixth and Pine
Hipster music + Bloody Orange Ale = precious aroma
Jazz guitar + Gig Harbor Brewing = Kopachuck Pale Ale
Meaningful movie + Puyallup River Brewing = award winning
Beer Camp + Eastside Club Tavern = Beer Camp at Eastside Club Tavern, duh
KENTUCKY MEETS TACOMA
The Cottonwood Cutups take American music back to your grandmother’s gramophone — that is, if your grandmother listened to old 33s of Kentucky bluegrass and ragtime. The trio — who enjoy Dr. Dre, campfires and the Hoh Rainforest — deliver toe-tapping Americana, tickled by mandolin and banjo, with guitar and an upright bass to root it all down. The Valley is the perfect backdrop — intimate, taxidermy, nice people, warm food and cold beer — for the Cutups Appalachian-rompin’, Lowcountry-stompin’ with John Hamhock and the Rooster Run Band and The Truck Bed Boys at 9 p.m.
PREFUNK: Gose. It’s an old style of beer, somewhat overlooked. It originated along the river Gose, which flows through the town of Goslar in the German state of Lower Saxony. Traditional versions are quite sour and salty. The saltiness in particular likely came from the naturally saline, mineral-rich water from around Goslar and Leipzig that was used for brewing. The style is similar to a Hefeweizen, in that it’s made with high amounts of malted wheat. It has very low hop bitterness. However, this beer can have some dryness and spice from additions of coriander and salt. 7 Seas Brewing brews one of the better Goses, fermented with Lactobacillus in conjunction with the brewery’s house ale strain, and brewed with 35 percent malted white wheat and German Pilsner malt. For local flavor, 7 Seas Brewing added San Juan Island sea salt, and a pinch of coriander as the Gose-style dictates. From 5-9 p.m., 7 Seas will celebrate its Water Chopper Gose can release with a party at its Gig Harbor taproom. Blues musician Billy Stoops will be in the house, as will a bunch of Water Chopper Gose.
ROADHOUSE BLUES
Formed in 2010, James King & the Southsiders reeks of the roadhouses and West Texas honky-tonks that inspired its signature sound. The band is a roller coaster of roadhouse blues interwoven with super-sized helpings of juke joint boogie-woogie and, well, party music. Led by the mercurial and multi-talented King describes his role as lead vocals, blues harmonica, dirty sax and party conductor. The band features the extraordinary playing of Steve Blood on electric blues guitar, David Bruce on bass and Suze Sims on drums and vocals. Catch the band at 8 p.m. in Jazzbones.
PREFUNK: Summer can be the least interesting season for beer drinkers with its sea of watery wheat beers infused with some unholy industrial fruit extract. Luckily, Engine House No. 9 thinks different. Beginning at 11 a.m. and running through the weekend, the Tacoma restaurant and brewery hosts a Summer Solstice party pouring some of the E-9 brewers’ favorite sours and other interesting beers such as Amager Cigar City Orange Crush, Amager Crooked Stave Chad King of the Wild, Amager Grassroots Shadow Pictures, Amager Against the Grain Pocketful of Dollars, Heather Raspberry Rhubarb, Elysian Huckleberry Berliner Weiss, Ichtegems Grand Cru, Mazama Sour Raspberry, Snipes Jackal, Anderson Valley Summer Solstice and 10 Barrel German Sparkle Party.
THE HIPSTERS
It’s sometimes difficult for cover bands to transcend the cheesiness associated with their craft, but The Hipsters make it look easy. That’s particularly remarkable considering they’re covering The Killers, The Kings of Leon, Tonic, Neon Trees, Radiohead and other hipster-loving bands. At 9 p.m. in The Swiss the band takes the big stage; from their first chord, they’ll transport you back to a, um, yesterday. Moments into their set YOU will curse the fact that you didn’t wear faux nerd clothing.
PREFUNK: Plunking a slice of lime, lemon, or orange on the side of a glass of beer is a distinctly American tradition — one Peaks and Pints wishes would kindly die. Not only do oils found in the peels of these fruits hinder head formation and rob you of precious aroma; they’re unnecessary. Brewers are already skilled at incorporating citrus flavors right into a beer, using the fruit to harmonize with similar notes found in hops or to spice up smooth wheat. Reach for Narrows Brewing Company’s Bloody Orange Ale and you’ll never need to waste time cutting orange slices again. This cool brew pours with an orange-y hue and head with subtle notes of citrus and orange rind through the nose and mouth. The Narrows taproom opens at noon.
JAZZ GUITAR
Jazz guitarist Frank Kohl was born and raised in the NYC metro area. He began playing guitar at age 7. He started his journey into jazz by joining his award winning high school jazz band. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1976 with honors. While there, teachers John Scofield, Pat Metheny and Gary Burton had influenced him. One of his greatest influences was at a jazz club in NY called Rapsins. He will perform at 8 p.m. in B Sharp Coffee House. You should go.
PREFUNK: We’ve heard all this before. The death of the supermarket has been predicted since at least 1999, when grocery delivery services burst on the scene and suggested in an annual report that year that e-commerce would provide an alternative to the “mundane and time-consuming task” of grocery shopping in a store. Good one. Grocery stores are alive and well and serving beer. Stadium Thriftway turned heads this year when it began serving craft beer in 32-ounce Crowler cans. The Tacoma Stadium District grocery store also hosts brewers afternoons, hosting local breweries from 4-6 p.m. Today, Gig Harbor Brewing Co. pushes past the melons and pork baby back ribs to pour samples of their citrus Kopachuck Pale Ale and well-balanced Sturdy Gerties DBL IPA.
MEANINGFUL MOVIE
Meaningful Movies Tacoma presents award-winning documentary Roadmap To Apartheid, a provocative film that takes a detailed look at the apartheid analogy commonly used to describe the Israeli-Palestine conflict. South African born Ana Nogueira and Israeli born Eron Davidson, both longtime journalists, co-directed the film that is as much a historical document of the rise and fall of apartheid in South Africa, as it is a film about why many Palestinians feel they are living in an apartheid system today, and why an increasing number of people around the world agree with them. Catch the film at 7 p.m. in the Center for Spiritual Living in Tacoma.
PREFUNK: Speaking of grocery stores, Harbor Greens in University Place will host Puyallup River Brewing and its award-winning beers from 3-6 p.m. don’t be surprised if you can sip We Are The Champions IPA, Mud Mountain Milk Stout, Lahar Imperial IPA, Springtime Brown or Pineapple Paradise Cream Ale before grabbing some Frozen tamales, Saltines, hummus, Riesling in a blue bottle, Virginia Superslim Lights. No, the purple ones, not the burgundy ones, those are regulars. No, those are menthols. Yes, the purple ones, on the left — those, yes … for a friend.
BONUS: Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp Across America 2016 collaboration events are still floating around the South Sound, including at 5 p.m. in The Eastside Club Tavern in downtown Olympia. If you missed last weekend’s Beer Camp festival in Seattle, or haven’t hit up a Beer Camp event in a local drinking hole, don’t miss the chance to sip these six, tasty collaboration beers brewed with Sierra Nevada. Better yet, there will be food pairings to accompany these one of a kind creations.
