The Seattle Thunderbirds met with the Portland Winterhawks at the ShoWare Center in Kent this weekend. While most games at the new facility have been mostly full, it could have been the 2010 Hockey Challenge that made the building electric. Or perhaps people had Olympic hockey fever and decided to catch a local game for around $25 instead of paying almost 500 times more for a ticket to Sunday’s gold medal game. Either way, Saturday night was a packed, fun-filled night of hockey.

Seattle has not had the best season this year, but played a really close game with Portland. The game went into an overtime shootout, which Portland won on their last shot. A heart-breaker of a game for any Thunderbirds fan.

I had a great time shooting some picture of the game, both on the ice and off. You can see some of my favorites after the jump, or visit my whole set on Flickr.

A Thunderbirds game is a great way to spend an evening. And I would even say the drive to Kent is worth the fact that you don’t have to watch a game in a half-empty Key Arena. Do IT!

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, Dec 29th) you can catch Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine at Neumos. Doors are at 8 and entry will cost you at least $17. If you don’t know, Jello Biafra was the frontman of punk legends The Dead Kennedys. Rumor has it he still plays some of the old material along with his new stuff. Regardless, you can be sure the show will be filled with politically charged punk rock. How can you say no to that?

I <3 Sunrises by J. Kraemer

Right after the fire in Hooverville Bar [by divide via our Flickr Pool]

Fans of Hooverville rejoice! According to their website; A Bar Called Hooverville reopens today at 2pm after months of remodel following a fire that gutted the place. Just about everyone I work with in SoDo is heading over there this afternoon to enjoy a drink to welcome Hooverville back.

While I can’t make it tonight, I will soon. Welcome back Hooverville. I’m sure many glasses will be raised to you in the coming weeks.

Hooverville is located at 1721 1st Ave S. and is open daily from 2pm until 2am

Eddie Vedder during Pearl Jam’s sold out Key Arena show last night

Wow what a show. Not only does Pearl Jam still have what it takes to kill it at a huge venue like Key Arena, but they can do it for over 2 hours. Above all it was just a good old rock show. No fancy screens or effects, just some nice stage lighting and Pearl Jam doing what they do best. The songs were a nice mix of old and new, along with a couple from their newest album, “Backspacer”. (Speaking of “Backspacer”, if you have Rock Band you can download the entire album to play in the game as of today.) As of this morning there were still some tickets left for tonight’s show. If you are still thinking about going though you should act fast!

Here is the full set list from last night. Sounds like people are split 50/50 about what the set is going to look like tonight. I’m guessing they change it up and play a lot of older/obscure stuff along with the songs from the new album.

Set List: Long Road, Corduroy, Gonna See My Friend, Got Some, Hail Hail, Amongst The Waves, Daughter, Even Flow, Johnny Guitar, Unthought Known, World Wide Suicide, Small Town, Off He Goes, Down, Save You, The Fixer, Life Wasted

1st encore: Just Breathe w/the Octava String Quartet, The End w/ the Octava String Quartet, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror

2nd encore: Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Better Man, The Real Me (Townshend) w/ the Syncopated Taint Horn Quartet, Indifference, Alive

For many many more pictures I took at this show, keep reading after the jump…

John Vanderslice, the nicest man in indie rock.

John Vanderslice is no stranger to the Seattle area. He has played just about every area venue, festival, and record store in support of his 7 studio albums. He even once played a special secret show on the Fremont Bridge after performing at Capitol Hill Block Party, which is what the picture above is from. His latest album; “Romanian Names” is yet another accomplished record and well deserving of your ears.

John kicked off a small Pacific Northwest tour yesterday in Vancouver, BC and will be playing tonight in Seattle at The Crocodile. The show only costs $14 if you buy advance tickets. I’ll assume somewhere around $15-$20 if you pay at the door. Either way, a good deal for some great music.

Personally I’m really excited for this show. John Vanderslice is easily one of my favorite artists of the last 10 years. I’m also interested in seeing the inside of The Crocodile for the first time since it was reopened.

The lineup tonight is:

John Vanderslice
The Pink Mountaintops
Mimicking Birds

The Crocodile (2200 2nd Ave in Belltown)
8pm
$14 adv
21+

However, I do want to share some of the photos I took for your enjoyment. These are my favorite pictures from the 3 acts I enjoyed the most. Jason Webley, Truckasauras, and Metric.
My favorites from each: (many more after the jump)

Jason getting the crowd “wasted” for his final song of the set before the parade out to the fountain.

Truckasauras playing in front of the MASSIVE digital screen at EMP’s Sky Church

The stage lighting of the Broad Street Stage where Metric played was pretty terrible, but I like how this photo came out. Metric killed it. I’m actually surprised Metric did not play the main stage.

Jason Webley

Truckasauras

Metric

Solace Room in the new City Hostel Seattle

If you don’t feel like driving or busing all the way up to Greenwood for art tonight, also consider the happenings in Belltown.
- City Hostel Seattle (2nd Ave and Battery St.) will once again have it’s doors open to to public to check out the uniquely painted rooms, all of which were done by local Seattle artists. They are all worth a peek into, and most will make you wish you could stay the night in them. Seriously something not to be missed. But hurry up, word has it this is the last month the rooms will be open. After this the art shows will be restricted to just the hallways.
- The Whisky Bar (2000 2nd Ave) will feature artist 179′s new show along with live painting and plenty of booze.
- Schmancy (1932 2nd Ave) has a show by Portland artist team APAK who has also created a line of plush dolls exclusively for Schmancy. (special thanks to PowFox for the heads-up on this show)
- Roc La Rue (2312 2nd Ave) has a show by Jim Blanchard that is opening and looks like something not to be missed.
- Halogen Gallery (2316 2nd Ave) has a show featuring the art of Justin Hilgrove, Ninjagrl, Soopajdelux. Always good stuff from these three artists!

100+ MPG Prius

High mileage cars are (thankfully) becoming more and more popular. The Toyota Prius is still one of the hottest cars on the market, especially in the Northwest. However, did you know you can extend the gas mileage of the Prius even further? That is where A123Systems and their Hymotion battery come into play. The Hymotion system is basically a giant laptop battery with the purpose of augmenting the Prius’ stock batteries. This gives the car more electric power and allows the driver to move around in just electric mode, as long as you stay below Toyota’s 33mph limit for electric only driving. I’m not exactly sure why the limit is BELOW 35, but it is. However, even if you are going 40 down the road with the gas engine on, you are still getting over 100mph. This works because the Hymotion battery is still helping power the car through the electric motor.

I got a chance to drive one of these cars for a weekend. It was pretty cool to actually see how my driving style affected the car’s overall mpg. I found myself changing how I accelerated in order to get better mileage. The Prius has a pretty sophisticated computer in the dash, but the Hymotion still needs another readout screen because the Prius’ built-in system can only report up to 99.9mpg!

The Hymotion does come at a price though, and a rather hefty price at that. $10,395 will get the system installed in your existing Prius by The Green Car Company in Bellevue. They also can sell you a new Prius already outfitted with the Hymotion system.

If you are interested in knowing more; The Green Car Company is having an event this coming Saturday from 10-4. If you go, you can test drive a plug-in Prius and see what is involved in the conversion. The Green Car Company is located at 345 106th Ave NE. Bellevue, WA 98004.

And hey, there is even a tax rebate for converting your car to plug-in electric.

Triptych of the performance: On Hiding An Elephant In Plain Sight: A Performance Of Private Acts

Last night I stopped by Occidental Park in Pioneer Square to check out the Free Sheep Foundation’s art performance entitled “On Hiding An Elephant In Plain Sight: A Performance Of Private Acts.” This performance is described by the artists as:

D.K. Pan, NKO and Holly Brown explore the intimate relationship between reader, author and text. Featuring the words of Haruki Murikami’s “Wild Sheep Chase” (NY Times Book Review – http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/14/specials/murakami-sheep.html), two ‘authors’ transcribe the novel as it is read aloud: one pens on the exterior of the box truck (which serves as stage and ‘literary vehicle’), the other types the text on an endless roll of paper. The reader will be stationed atop the box truck, audible via a PA system. Accompanying the performance will be the Hanley Family Elephant Ear stand providing deep-fried goodness.

This overnight, endurance performance serves to highlight and expose the intensely private acts of reading and writing along with the conflicting desires they engender. The relationships of voice, hand, and typewriter become intertwined in the act of imprinting memory onto a public site. A silent transformation occurs, unnoticed. A box truck becomes an elephant, text escapes the confines of its pages; we awake from a dream and find ourselves at the beginning of a journey. Murikami’s tale of search, longing, and reconciliation serves as the point of departure for this performance action.

A woman checking out the truck during the break.

It was the perfect night for it too. The rains had passed and the temp was just cool enough to be comfortable in a hoodie. When I first arrived I was greeted with them taking a break, but it gave me a chance to chat a bit with NKO and DK Pan. The box van was already mostly covered with NKO’s distinctive and beautiful handwriting, DK was rubbing his wrists in an effort to relieve the pain from the pressure of hitting the keys on his vintage typewriter, and Holly looked like she was already tired of reading a book at a snail’s pace. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect once they started back up again 30 minutes later…

A Wild Sheep Chase [by Lunge via Flickr]

Once they did start back up again though, it was both beautiful and surreal at the same time. I sat there listening the Holly’s voice reading the words over the PA system, every once in a while coughing or yawning, all the while glancing up at DK to check on his progress. While this was going on, NKO was around the front of the truck, scrawling as fast as he could over spots already written on and creating wonderful patterns of text. All of this was underpinned by the clak-clak-clak-DING of DK’s typewriter. Moments after they started up again more and more people started walking through the park. It was clear these were Mariners fans just getting out of the game. Most were confused, but some were interested enough to stop and watch for a moment or two. One guy was even overheard muttering “what’s this shit about?” as he stood there with the plastic bottle of beer he had smuggled out of SafeCo Field, proving that he was a especially classy kind of jerk. But that is the joy of an evening in Occidental Park.

This performance is part of the Murakami in the Park project through the ArtsParks program.

I shot a short video of the performance, which does it way more justice than my words ever could. However, if you have a chance to get over there before 3pm today, I urge you to do so. Once they are done with the last page of the book, that is it.

Click through to Flickr to view the video.