Announced earlier today, the next John in the Morning at Night will take place Friday, March 7th at Neumo's. The lineup so far is the jagged blues-leaning Britrock of The Duke Spirit, the swagger-heavy post-punk of The Voom Blooms (above), and the solid psych alt-country of Tulsa. The latter two bands have never played Seattle before, so this is your first chance to catch 'em live. And who knows? When it comes to KEXP......

Billionaire balloonist Richard Branson is finally doing something to get us closer to the Sun. His Virgin America airline begins cut-rate service to San Francisco starting March 18, and Los Angeles starting April 8, reports the Times' Carol Pucci. In an effort to beat Virgin to the punch, Alaska Air is adding more, cheaper flights to the Bay Area. Other airlines are matching Virgin's fares: weekend round trips of $175 to San Fran and......

The only thing more sad and lame than a cover band is a tribute band. (Usually.) Well, even worse is a tribute band that plays the music of an another band that still exists. No, wait—a tribute band that plays songs from a one-off band’s one-off album … whose members live on. That’s truly scraping the musical barrel-bottom. Okay, okay. Worser yet is a national tour of three tribute bands that run this lamentable......

Oh Seattle, you make us feel so old. It was maybe a year ago and some, while we were wallowing in the mud at Sasquatch, clutching our $8 cans of Budweiser, when we finally said to ourselves, "You know what? Outdoor festivals suck." And then we recoiled in horror. Hating festivals is the very definition of getting old, isn't it? Really. There's an accepted narrative explanation of this phenomenon at pseudo-hipster bastions like The......

We weren’t the biggest or most dedicated of PGMG fans; we didn’t know what Andrea Zollo (the only member we knew by name) was singing most of the time and couldn’t say things like, “Yeah! Speakers Push the Air!” two seconds into the song. But damn, we liked the band’s punky, catchy, jump-around syncopation. We liked that Andrea, when we’d seen PGMG live, was a wilder Liza Minnelli, a tamer Karen O. So on Saturday......

The presale started yesterday am, ends tonight at 10pm, general public can buy tix beginning tomorrow at 10am The code you need to buy tickets before the unwashed masses do is SAMSTOWN. Image courtesy of amy-wong.com......

The folks over at Edge.org, a small corner of the interwebs filled with some of the most surprisingly literary smarty-pants science types, asked their Question of 2007: What are you optimistic about? Not that we were asked, but Seattlest is optimistic that someone will figure out that whole time-travel business, so we can go back and see James Brown in 1964. We did not see him the two times he performed in Seattle since we......

The Husky men's basketball season spurts to life this weekend with games in three consecutive days: Sunday vs. Pepperdine, Monday vs. Nicholls State, and Tuesday vs. Northern Iowa. All three games begin at 7:30. You'll get two games for the price of one if you show up at 4:30, since each day is a doubleheader as part of the Basketball Travelers Classic. Here's the full schedule. You can buy tickets here . We'll probably just......

Tuesday 17th >>> Beirut at The Croc. This 20-year-old wunderkind from Albuquerque is the latest entrant into Who Wants To Be a Gypsy Rock Star Millionaire? 9pm;$10 >>> The Secret Machines at The Showbox. The sonically huge psych rockers will be performing tonight in the round, each member of the trio on an elevated platform on the venue floor. If nothing else, it's something different. 8pm doors; $14adv/$16dos. All ages Wednesday 18th >>> The......

You can't buy tickets for the next Seattle Erotic Art Festival until January -- the show isn't until March -- but there is one thing you can do to get ready: Paint your horny little heart out. SEAF '07 is officially accepting submissions: The CALL FOR ART is now open. Artists 18+ are invited to submit work that explores the diversity of erotic art - explicit, subtle, unconventional, beautiful, shameless, and beyond - to SEAF's......

Seattlest learned a very important lesson Saturday night: always look at your press pack before the end of the second intermission. If you wait until then, you may miss out on intermissing in the press room. Ah well. More important than any press room gathering was the reason we were at McCaw Hall in the first place: Macbeth, Verdi’s 9th opera and 1st Shakespearean remake. The opera preserves the play’s drama, but seems to streamline......

Last Friday, Seattlest spent an enjoyable evening at the Columbia City Theatre. We were there to see the new Black Box Opera production, “Sondheim, Newman and Weill.” It’s a cabaret show made up of songs by, not surprisingly, Stephen Sondheim, Randy Newman and Kurt Weill. We especially enjoyed the ensemble approach the company used. The four singers and the pianist created mini-scenes for each song, giving the whole show a comfortable continuity. In this way,......

Few people can make spousal abuse laugh-out-loud funny, yet that's what Noel Coward did with Private Lives. (Though maybe Yanni should get an honorable mention for musical abuse.) "Certain women should be beaten regularly," proclaims Elyot Chase, with conviction, "like a gong." Last night's audience erupted with laughter, as if they'd never seen Sleeping With The Enemy. The trick is to make it tasteful. When the curtain rises on the art deco, fairytale hotel where......

Seattlest isn't exactly rolling in 'N Synch money, but we're pretty convinced that we'll be looking down on the state of Washington from space one day. Yeah, we met a Russian guy the other day who knows a guy who knows a guy and, long story short, he says someone's cousin works for the caterers who pack up the freeze-dried piroshky and could totally get us stowed away in a space box of them. If......

National Champs!: The UW women's volleyball team swept favored Nebraska three games to none in the NCAA Championship game. The Huskies didn't lose a game the entire tournament--becoming only the second team to achieve that feat. First-round bye: The Seahawks survived a revitalized Steve McNair and came back to beat Tennessee 28-24, securing the franchise's first-ever first-round bye in the NFL playoffs. The Hawks can clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with one win in......

This month at the Screenwriters Salon, it's noted local filmmaker Brian McDonald at the mic. Seattlest has this freaking eterna-cold that's going around now, so we're still deciding whether or not to infect the goings on with our presence. It's a tough call, because McDonald's take on story structure in film is particularly insightful and grounded. Since it's the holidays, his talk, It's a Wonderful Script!, covers why Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life......

Sonics Lose Opener: The season got off to rather poor start, after the Sonics did everything wrong in the final few minutes of last night's opener, and lost to the Los Angeles Clippers of Anaheim 101-93. Not very promising, it was of course only the first of 82 games, and last year the Sonics started their season by getting blown away by the same Clipper squad. Steve Kelley, however, says it is time to panic.......

When Howard Schultz bought the Sonics, he spoke of a five-year plan to win a championship. It started out fine with a year-one trip to the playoffs, then the second and third year--nothing. Last year the team made the leap and finished as a third seed in the West, taking the eventual champion Spurs to six games in the conference semi-finals. The off-season also started out well with the re-signing of Ray Allen. Everything was......

If you've been feening for a film festival since SIFF ended, and you didn't make it to Toronto, New York, or Vancouver, you can catch a movie at one of the upcoming area fests. First off, the new and improved Northwest Film Forum is hosting the 8th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival, which opens tonight and runs through next Wednesday, the 12th. With Local Sightings, Northwest Film Forum opens its cinemas every year to showcase......

Saturday night offered quite the dilemma for indie rock fans: Should one buy tickets for the KEXP Benefit show at Neumo's or Franz Ferdinand at the Paramount? Luckily, Franz was also playing the following night, which allowed Seattlest to attend both shows and not miss a thing. The KEXP Benefit show featured six acts, so it started early---doors at 5, first act at 6:30pm early. Had that first act been anybody but Math and Physics......

As far as live music this weekend, may we recommend the crazy (or crazee, if you will) the Black Keys at Neumo's tonight. If you like the Liars or any noise rock band, etc, then they are for you. Tomorrow, Mercury Prize winner Antony & the Johnsons are playing at the Triple Door. Antony & the Johnsons have one of the most unique sounds you can imagine. Back in the day we saw them back......

We are huge Mariners fans, and so it is somewhat sad that ---as the Mariners are playing a September series against a team in their own division---we are not paying attention or even thinking about it. It turns out the Mariners won the last two games against the first place Angels. September in Seattle is our favorite time of year, because of the leaves changing, the air getting crisper, and the seemingly longer sunsets over......

While we haven't got anything against Notre Dame (nor little fellas with big hearts), we don't much care for local barbershop chain Rudy's. Seattlest has never gotten a cut or color there---we already know where our hair loyalties lie---but even our brief encounters with Rudy's staff have not been good. Look: we've got a very low tolerance for snide, hipper-than-thou attitude from people who spend their days sculpting fauxhawks and sweeping up hair. Though it......

Thanks to all of the social in-justice in the world residents of Berkeley have many things to talk about. In fact there is nothing they love more then trying to one up each other with tales of misery and woe from around the globe. Then they pay eight dollars for an organic tomato, drive their bumper sticker covered Volvo home, and email Congress about whatever MoveOn.org tells them to. However, because of their local collegiate......

Recall elections are awesome. A few years ago we were lucky enough to go through one in California. It turned an ordinary fall into a non-stop free for all of stump speech watching action. In the end we got a new governor who knows a little something about excitement, and the American political process got a little gooder. Now the Washington State Supreme Court may give the good people of Spokane a chance to hold......

As a classically-trained musician, Seattlest often looks to classical music to get us through the rough times. We all have our crutches, right? Well, we're happy to say that tomorrow will bring a perfect opportunity to sit around and emote with the music. Seattle Chamber Music Society has been performing this month at the Lakeside School, and they wrap up their Lakeside series tomorrow night. (You can buy tickets here.) Perhaps you're thinking, "That Seattlest!......

It’s summer, or at least it is practically everywhere else in the country, and every classical musical group in this town and towns nearby seems to be taking a summer hiatus. Seattlest thinks a lot of people are heading out of town this weekend anyway, so perhaps this break is a good business move for the classical folks. We’d love to be able to tell you about upcoming attractions, but many groups have yet to......

There isn’t a team Seattlest enjoys watching the Mariners beat more than the Oakland A's. Geographically, the A's are the Mariners' closest rival. Historically, one or both of the teams have been contenders. 2005 is an exception. Let's just say time hasn't been kind to these franchises. Even though this match-up is no longer a modern day Clash of the Titans, there are still many reasons to hate the A’s. Their fans should be......

Political moments come and go pretty quickly in Seattle, but more often than not they are etched in vinyl on fender years after their time in the sun. Read the city's bumper stickers and you'll know that Seattle was feeling Howard Dean even if all the meetup.com hysteria is in the past. Remember the Democrat you were way back a year ago when you, full of hopes and dreams, slapped that sticker on the back......

We have been spoiled by the decandent amount of sun recently, so we have decided not to go outside until it stops raining. Since we have a cable modem and free time, we would like to point out some free and legal downloads for your listening pleasure. The Bloc Party is a big buzz-y band garnering tons of press, including a blurb in the famed judge of cool, 'Newsweek.' Download a remix of their single......