Music in the Park: MarchFourth

By Molly Walsh Portland band MarchFourth boasts a visually powerful set, with 20 onstage performers that do it all from guitar to vaudevillean dancing, acrobatics to trombone. A supernova of color and carnival chic, MarchFourth gets people of all ages clapping hands and stomping feet. Breaking the barriers between musical and visual performance, the troupe …

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Music on the Estuary Brings a Party to Hood Canal

By Molly Walsh Belfair – home to a population of about 4,000 – boasts quite an art scene, with the Salmon Center being no exception. As the headquarters for non-profit organization Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group, the 38-acre Salmon Center is a certified organic farm and hub of environmental education and art for North Mason …

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Sharon Stearnes and the Wonderful Wurlitzer

By KAREN LUNDE Back in the mid-1920s, the Liberty Theatre, a vaudeville house, contained a Wurlitzer 2/9 theater pipe organ. After a renovation in 1948, the Liberty became the Olympic Theater. In the 1980s, it was completely rebuilt and evolved into The Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Throughout the building’s evolution, the mighty Wurlitzer …

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Los Lobos: Yes, They Can!

Celebrated band Los Lobos (Spanish for “The Wolves”) is coming to Olympia for a concert that’s sure to sell out.

Jammin’ at the Jamboree

By JONAH BARRETT Steamboat Island isn’t known for its boisterous antics, but that changes every spring as it bursts with a variety of melodies. The fifth-annual Steamboat Stringband Jamboree, occurring the last day of May and first day of June, is hosted by Olympia bands The Oly Mountain Boys and The Pine Hearts. The jamboree’s a celebration of …

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Tiny Holes

By ­Adam McKinney Tiny Holes seemed destined for underground music fame, if they hadn’t disbanded so quickly. The Olympia band only had a few months over the course of 1980 and ’81, in which to spread their delightfully inscrutable New Wave and art-rock stylings, before going their separate ways, with no full-length album ever released. …

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A Year of Growth for Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia

By LUCY VOLKER Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia (SOGO) provides musical education, technical training and performance opportunities for aspiring, young musicians. The group offers a variety of intensive classes and training programs for elementary, middle and high-school-aged youth. SOGO aims to prepare students for careers in classical music. Its programs focus on artistic development, ear …

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Ben Moore’s Space Set to Transform into ‘Percival Place’

By Billy Thomas South Puget Sound Community College announced that it has partnered with the City of Olympia to transform the former Ben Moore’s restaurant into Percival Place at Ben Moore’s. The special event location will provide the college the opportunity to return to downtown Olympia, bringing with it its mission of education and workforce …

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A Glittering Night of Art at The Center Salon

By Alec Clayton Washington State’s Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna offered up a fitting end to a glittering night of art at the Washington Center‘s “Center Salon” on Friday, April 12. Castro Luna called her suite of poems “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” as inspired by the Tina Turner song of the same …

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Rise Up’s Moving Call to Action

By Todd B. Gruel Rise Up is a tribute band with a purpose. The Seattle-based ensemble performs music from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s acclaimed Hamilton, a Broadway musical which has scored 11 Tony’s, a Grammy and even a Pulitzer. Not bad for hip-hop theater performance about one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Alexander Hamilton. …

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