hello thursday, so much to do so little time.

• Let the SIFF invasion begin. The festival opens tonight with a gala presentation of mediocre opening night entertainment the Illusionist. After the credits roll, the crowd will mill from the Paramount to the soon-to-be MOHAI for snacks, sponsored liquor, a disco dance party, and the possibility of Jessica Biel sightings. [siff]
• the Thermals make lo-fi indie rock that sounds like it was recorded in someone’s garage in Portland. [Ed: it was actually a basement]. Whether the low production values make it better or worse is your guess, but the brilliantly urgent More Parts Per Million was pretty fantastic. They’re equally good live. [crocodile]
• In a sea of wolf and snake bands, Austin’s I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness has one of the best band names in the business. They play guitar-driven broody rock tonight at the University of Washington’s Husky Union Building. The Rogers Sisters open. [ticketswest]
• Everyone’s favorite band of merry mutants return for a third installment of movie magic tonight. X3 opens tonight a minute after midnight, which seems like the best time to see if Bertt Ratner made a mess of what Bryan Singer started. Plus, there will probably be people in costumes, which is always a nice addition to the usual special effects. [cinerama, etc.]