THURSDAY, SEPT. 29 2016: South Sound events + craft beer …
Tacoma Comedy Club + BrewDad’s of Bonney Lake = bleak and Beak Breaks
The Swiss + Harmon Restaurant = south downtown night
Tacoma Arts Month + Farrelli’s Pizza = winners
Harlequin Productions + Three Magnets Brewing = fresh take
COMEDY
To call comedian Joe DeRosa’s perspective on life negative would be a bit of an understatement. Comics are typically a cynical bunch, but the lens through which DeRosa views the world is, even for a comic, uncompromisingly bleak. That said, DeRosa rarely translates his negativity and cynicism into bitterness and fatalism. No, he’s not Bill Hicks offering romantic solutions to grandiose issues, but he’s not George either, telling us why the world sucks and how there’s nothing we can do about it. DeRosa instead rests comfortably in the middle. Catch him at 8 p.m. in the Tacoma Comedy Club.
PREFUNK: Jeff Schons and Mary Jones opened Pelican Brewing Co. 20 years ago as a small, stand alone brewpub in a small town on the Oregon coast — Pacific City. Pacific City is still a small town, but with consistent growth and demand for its products, Pelican sales are up more than 500% from 3,500 barrels in 2013 to 18,000 barrels this year. The company recently doubled its brewing and bottling capacity at its Tillamook facility and opened a new brewpub in Cannon Beach. Pelican also recently won a bronze medal at the World Brew Cup and eight medals including Champion Medium International Brewery at the Australian International Beer Awards. BrewDad’s of Bonney Lake hosts Pelican for a night of beach-born beer such as Seahops IPA, Beak Break 2xIPA, Pelicano Lager, Tsunami Stout and swag beginning at 6 p.m.
LET’S GET FUNKY
While the peak of the jam band scene was arguably reached somewhere in the middle part of the last decade, there are no shortage of bands playing today blending different genres of music together and improvise freely on stage. Tacoma’s newest jazz jam band, The Black Cat Re-A-d, hits The Swiss’ stage at 9 p.m. with Portland jazzy blues rock band Dorado. Check out the through improvisation and exploration over $1 Rainier drafts.
PREFUNK: Harmon Brewing Co. invites diners to answer the call of the lederhosen with its 19th Annual Oktoberfest Dinner at 6 p.m. Held at The Harmon Restaurant in downtown Tacoma, the six-course, seven beer menu features Amber beer cheese and rustic potato soup, country pork sausage terrine, Apple Kuchen and more paired with Harmon beers such as double barrel aged Old John Strong Ale, 52-month-old Shinto Sour Stout, Gindarina Experimental Gin Barrel Reserve beer and on and on. Call (253) 383-2739 for availability.
TACOMA ARTS MONTH
The 15th Tacoma Arts Month kicks off with the annual AMOCAT awards party at 6 p.m. in the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, and continues through October with performances, exhibitions, workshops and the annual studio tour. Tonight, the Tacoma Arts Commission will recognize winners of this year’s city of Tacoma AMOCAT awards — Metro Parks for arts patron, Tacoma Youth Symphony Association for community outreach by an organization and Christopher Paul Jordan for community outreach by an individual, and party with a no-host bar and hors d’oeuvres, a life-sized kaleidoscope installation by Tinkertopia, dance by Barefoot Collective and the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, art exhibits and activities, poetry by Tacoma laureate Cathy Nguyen, a photo booth, juggling, circus and more.
PREFUNK: It’s the perfect time of year to drink Puyallup River Brewing Co.’s Jack O’Lahar Pumpkin Ale and award-winning Mud Mountain Milk Stout, and Farrelli’s Pizza in Lacey knows it. Farrelli’s will host PRB and its beers from 5-8 p.m.
SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare scholars date The Two Gentlemen of Verona at or near the very beginning of the Bard’s body of work. In brief: Proteus (named for the mythical shapeshifter) abandons his lover, Julia, and sells out his best friend, Valentine, before attempting to rape Sylvia, Valentine’s girl. Proteus’ repentance once Valentine gives him an 11-line tongue-lashing. That all concerned forgive his vile crimes instantly? Nutballs! That upon burying the hatchet with his brah, Valentine selflessly offers to hand over Sylvia, who loves him, to Proteus, her would-be rapist? Huh. Harlequin Productions opens this stage production at 8 p.m.
PREFUNK: Most beers are made with dried hops or pellets. That’s understandable, since brewing goes on all year long, though the hop harvest occurs only during a short window in the fall, which is RIGHT NOW! Three Magnets Brewing Company has tapped two fresh, or wet, hops pale ales — Citra Wet Hop and Mosaic Wet Hop — made with the same yeast and malt but obviously different hops from Loftus Ranches in Yakima. Drop by at 5 p.m. for a couple of pints.
