WEDNESDAY, AUG. 24 2016: South Sound events + craft beer …
The Valley + The Red Hot = Stickee, Parabola, Helldorado & Rockford
Swing Wine Bar + Northwest Beerwerks = Certified B
Northern pacific Coffee Co. + Dunagan Brewing = community
THE FAWCETTS
You read his music prose in the Weekly Volcano. You enjoyed his espresso skills at Bluebeard Coffee. You ask his opinion behind the counter at Hi-Voltage Records. He’s Rockford Rowley, and he plays guitar in the Tacoma alternative rock band The Fawcetts, which will fill The Valley with original power pop, blues and punk beginning at 8 p.m. Iceland’s Sindri Eldon & The Ways and Etchings will join the ruckus. Nobody rocks like Rockford
PREFUNK: Tonight’s Firestone Walker event at The Red Hot is for those with a curious palate; for those who don’t shudder at the idea of beer with mouth-watering acidity and chewy tannins, or a beer bursting with raspberry perfume and flavor, or a beer with sticky and syrupy texture with notes of bourbon and tobacco. Founded in 1996 by Adam Firestone (aka the Bear) and David Walker (aka the Lion), Firestone Walker Brewing Company began as a small brewery with roots in wine country on California’s Central Coast. Firestone Walker brews exceptional beers and you can taste the crème of the crop at 5 p.m. at The Red Hot: Agrestic Oak Aged Sour, Stickee Monkee Quad, 2015 Sucaba Barley Wine, XIX (Nineteen) Blend, Parabola Russian Imperial Stout, Bretta Rosè Oaked Raspberry Berliner Weisse and Helldorado Blonde Barley Wine.
JAZZ GUITAR
Vince Brown is no stranger to string swing fans in the Northwest. He plays western swing style take-off guitar with Red Brown & the Tune Stranglers; strums guitar and tenor banjo with the gypsy swing band Hot Club Sandwich; he’s half of Red and Ruby — a swing duo project with vocalist LaVon Hardison; performs mandolin and tenor banjoist with the old timey outfit Deaf Lester; and the guitarist with the modern jazz/lounge group The Greta Jane Quartet. Brown’s nimble fingers have delighted audiences for more than 37 years. Catch his solo jazz guitarist downstairs at Swing Wine Bar & Cafe, the converted bungalow overlooking Capitol Lake in Olympia, at 6 p.m.
PREFUNK: Portland’s Hopworks Urban Brewery has sustainability on the brain as much as brewing tasty beers. Utilizing organic malts and a combination of locally-sourced, organic and Salmon Safe hops, the company’s 20-barrel brewery produces 13,500 barrels of beer and cider a year for HUB’s brewpubs — which will include a new 6,000 square foot brewery and restaurant in east Vancouver, Washington this fall — and for distribution throughout the Northwest, including Northwest Beerwerks at 6 p.m. Hopworks is a family-owned and operated business, the first Certified B Corporation brewery in the Pacific Northwest, a gold-level bike friendly business, and is recognized as one of the Best Green Companies To Work For In Oregon. Come celebrate all that goodness at the Northwest Beerwerks while drinking HUB beers on the Olympia bottle shop and taproom’s awesome outdoor hangout.
NPCC OPEN MIC
In the land of the over-stimulated mermaid, the landscape is always the same: the tiny tables crowded with laptap squatters, lost in their ear buds and their private worlds, and the fresh-brewed coffee and eye-candy pastries. You’ll find a similar wireless, caffeine-and-sugar fueled culture at Northern Pacific Coffee Company — until, that is, your eyes start to focus in on the finer details. Sandwiches and coffee, cornerstones of all serious collegiate malingering, are here in force, but the real treat is the book-lined walls, craft beer and Wednesday night open mic. Grab a beer, select a sci-fi romance and enjoy the local musical talent at a new time — 7 p.m.
PREFUNK: Plenty of bars have board games on hand. But when Tacoma Games pairs their board games with alcohol you feel more important while you’re arguing over how to score a play. Tacoma Games drops by Dunagan Brewing Co. at 7 p.m. with their amazing games library. Dunagan will pour $1 “Health” cork popping potions (red beer) for all gamers. We have no idea what that means, but EXCITING!
