Wardance 

This week's title song comes from the debut album of one of my favorite bands as a kiddo, Killing Joke, so don't come to me about the spelling. Welcome to autumn, and also football season, our national performative war dance ritual, other than our too-long election cycles. I'm not going to spiral about the actual wars we are at this very moment helping expand, but I do want to share a sorta famous bit from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, a novel written from inside the skin of the deep machine running the death cult of our state:

"Don't forget the real business of war is buying and selling. The murdering and violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It serves as spectacle, as diversion from the real movements of the war. It provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared for the adult world. Best of all, mass death's a stimulus to just ordinary folks, little fellows, to try 'n;' grab a piece of that Pie while they're still here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of markets."

That last line really says it all, screaming through the decades since the novel's 1973 publication, a piece of prophecy expanding outward from its main setting around World War II back to our origins and forward to our extinction like a V-2 rocket hitting our central humanity, loaded with THE nuclear A-bomb.

Changes are coming. Let's hope they're mostly seasonal around here, and massively redemptive elsewhere.

Enjoy the colors.

Thursday

A cool, early-hour experimental music night is happening at the Miniplex at 6 p.m. Australian/Los Angeles duo Stevie Richards and Mike Meanstreetz bring the traveling sound to the stage, where they will be supported by two local acts, synth-popping maestros Elegant Humanoid and sound-blaster, tone bender IDYL. $5-$10 sliding scale, and if you stick around after, there will be karaoke.

An hour later, the Arcata Playhouse is the place to be if you are in the mood for a different sort of sound from Australia. Bobby Alu is a multi-instrumentalist who has devised his own style of island soul music, drawing heavily from roots reggae and laid-back folk traditions. ($23, $21 Playhouse members).

Friday

The mighty Zepparella is back in town, hosted, once again, at Humbrews, a good venue for this act. What is this act exactly? It's pretty simple, really. An all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band, focusing on a lot of the power of the erstwhile band's bombastic sound which has more or less ruled the world of rock since its heyday in the 1970s. If you are one of the band's many fans, come see what sorcery this quartet can cook up in its honor. 8 p.m. ($30, $25 advance).

Saturday

Two ensemble shows, each at roughly the same time, and within walking distance of each other. First up at 7:30 p.m. at the Outer Space, talented rock duo Silver and Nails will be joined by "adult contemporary soft metal" act Throw me the Whip, which I can only assume is a reference to the Raiders of the Lost Ark, as well as one man star cowboy act Mister Moonbeam doing T. Rex covers. ($5-$20 sliding scale).

Over at the Basement at 8 p.m., Greensboro, South Carolina's spoken wordster Moody Black will be performing, along with a coterie of fantastic local talent in the rap and hip hop scene, including Emani Eternal (on a return swing after moving away last year), Kemistree, ruffIAN & Beige Radio, Zera Starchild and more, along with grooves by DJ Pressure and live painting by Jullia Finkelstein. Quite a night of rhymin' in time for only $10.

Sunday

It's the 21st anniversary of the formation of Portland's premier marching band MarchFourth and over years of high energy shows and steady touring, this now 15-person line-up has forever minted its legacy as the dance show to go to as though the circus is in town. They'll be spiking up the tent, so to speak, at Humbrews tonight at 8 p.m., and if you haven't seen the show yet, you're in for the treat. If you already know, I'll stop jabbering. ($30, $25 advance).

Monday

Though many things have changed since the height of COVID, some things have come trickling back, often with a new paint job to complement rather than cover up the old familiar faces and feelings. One such joint is the Ocean Grove just north of Trinidad, where I am happy to say, not only have the doors been re-opened for a while but Dancehall Mondays are back in swing, with DJ Chuck on the ones and twos. Expect roots reggae, hip hop, afrobeat and everything in between. The wax starts spinning at 10 p.m. and $10 gets you inside the joint.

Tuesday

Four-plus decades since its formation and one name change that is the antithesis of the original, San Francisco's Lazy Giants has a sound that hits a lot of the right spots for me. Martial drums over moody, melodic bass lines and space-punk guitar sounds with a great vocal mix up in front of the fray, this group has found the melting point for a lot of different genres and made a beautiful thing in the process. The Disheveled opens. Doors at 8 p.m., tickets go for $15 ($12 advance), and it's also Taco Tuesday at the bar, which is a definite win. At the Miniplex.

Wednesday

I'll make this short and sweet. A film that created a confusion of feelings inside me when I first saw it as a kid is kicking off the horror season and playing at the Arcata Theatre Lounge tonight. I'm talking about Brian De Palma's 1976 Stephen King adaptation Carrie, a movie that ignited in me a youthful desire to seek revenge via telekinesis, as well as an unnatural attraction to a young Sissy Spacek, even — or perhaps especially — when covered in her bully-poured veil of blood. Everything goes wrong for our poor heroine but there are no flaws in the flick itself, just a perfect tension knot of wounded teenager outsiderness. Tickets are $6, $10 with a poster, there's a pre-show raffle, and the show usually starts around 7 p.m. Remember to get there early enough to find good seats or they're all gonna laugh at you.

Collin Yeo (he/him) is in awe of a species capable of engineering its own extinction through optimism and motivated thinking. He is a member of that species, and unable to break the Fourth Wall. Yet.