Can't Miss It: Thursday

FREE BUSH: Get your mind out of the gutter. We're talking about Gavin Rossdale. He's in town today to put on a free show at everyone's favorite new venue Showbox SODO. Get there early, because we imagine there'll be a line for blocks to get into this thing. We hope he does some solo acoustic versions of all the Bush classics.

8:30 p.m. doors; 9:30 p.m. show // Showbox SoDo // Free!

SHOW US WHAT YOU'VE GOT: Columbia City Theater is a fine performance venue down there in Columbia City, and every Thursday is open mic night. Grab your guitar (or whatever you play...spoons?) and head down to show off what you've got. Give us your best Johnny Cash, do a tap dance, recite a poem, or just go to watch other people put it all out there.

7:00 p.m. // Columbia City Theater // Free

HORSES HORSES HORSES HORSES: Seattlest isn't quite a "horse girl," but we do love all things equine, and we also love books that tell us about all the historically significant minutiae about some random item (corpses, salt, orchids, cotton). So, this would be the perfect reading for us if we weren't planning on holing up and watching Katee win SYTYCD. Those of you without shameless addictions to reality television, though, should head to Elliott Bay Books for a reading from Horse: How the Horse Has Shaped Civilizations.

7:30 p.m. // Elliott Bay Books // Free

"Enumclaw Horse," courtesy of Seattlest Flickr user Joseph Peter