Seattlest Pix 09Nov22
Manifold Motion's Miscellenea II Wraps Up Tonight
Around The -Ists This Week
Seattlest Pix 09Nov23
Can't Miss It: Monday
Do you like book readings but wish they were louder and perhaps featured more music, alcohol, and cigarette smoke? Well, tonight The Stranger and Chop Suey will make your dreams come true, as they host what has to be the best (and free-est) author reading/dance party ever, with Jonathan Safran Foer reading from his new novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Like his previous book, Everything is Illuminated, the story is told from the viewpoint of a remarkably precocious young man. This time it's nine-year-old Oskar Schell, a renaissance boy dealing with his father's death in the 9/11 attacks. The book is a heartfelt, inventive, empathetic, literally colorful, and funny piece of work, which has been fairly well received, even by that curmudgeon John Updike.
Local essayist Charles D'Ambrosio---who The Stranger, for two weeks in a row now, has described as "the best writer within a 1,000-mile radius"---will serve as an opening act of sorts and read some of his own work before Foer does his cute-and-somewhat-socially-awkward-literary-wunderkind schtick, for which he is so very famous. A Q&A and book-signing will follow the readings, and Club Club: Eastern Bloc, a dance party with a Soviet theme, closes out the night at 10pm.
But the part of this evening that Seattlest is most excited about can be summed up in one word, with quotation marks fully intentional and totally tongue-in-cheek: "Awesome."
Everybody knows that Seattle's got a thriving music scene with all kinds of great bands, but none excites us more than this group of sketch comedy guys. We love love love! everything about "Awesome": that they play wearing suits; that their performances are part rock show, part vaudeville act; that they turn office supplies into instruments; that they never met a harmony vocal they didn't like; that they describe their music as "absurdist garage art-pop with indie-prog sensibilities;" that cheering for them by shouting their name is a joke in and of itself.... Alright look, Seattlest could continue listing things we enjoy about this band, but it's just so much better to experience them in person with child-like wonder. To see them is to love them.
And tonight's your chance, as "Awesome" will be serving as the event's de facto MCs, as well as playing a handful of new songs about the authors and inspired by their work. Word is that writer/musician/KEXP DJ/all-around good guy Sean Nelson will be vocalizing with them too. From a literary standpoint, from a musical standpoint, and from a Seattle standpoint, this line-up is unbelievable and cannot be missed.
So you'll be there, right? Doors open at 7pm and the reading starts at 8pm. As it is a free event, it probably wouldn't hurt to get there a little early before the place is completely packed and Chop Suey has to start turning people away at the door. You'll see Seattlest there for sure: we'll be the ones getting kicked out for yelling "Awesome!" everytime Foer pauses to take a breath.
Chop Suey
1325 E Madison St.
324-8000
7 pm doors, 8 pm reading, 10 pm dancing
All of tonight's festivities are free and 21+
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again: "Awesome" is indeed awesome, and it would be awesome if you came to the awesome "Awesome" show. Awesome.