Thao with the Get Down Stay Down opened the show with a set culled mostly from the stellar album, "We Brave Bee Stings and All." Thao Nguyen has an aching and jerky vocal style reminiscent of early Cat Power. The trio of Thao, bassist Adam Thompson, and drummer Willis Thompson cruised through a breezy set of stripped down pop gems. The performance had a ramshackle, rockabilly quality, infectious and fun, complete with handclaps and an unexpected beat box interlude (She explains, "I learned it in middle school when I had no friends, and I really wanted them.") "Bag of Hammers" was a syncopated high note, and "Beat (Health, Life And Fire)" was an instant crowdpleaser, even for those presumably seeing her for the first time.

After a short wait, Jonathan and Tommy step on stage with much fanfare. The reverent crowd hung on his every word. Jonathan has a disarming presence which calls to mind Andy Kaufman's comedy routines. He stared at members of the crowd for an uncomfortable length of time while mugging dramatically. He alternates between technically perfect guitar playing and purposely off kilter chords, an affectation I fell in love with, but it put me off at first. Halfway through the opener, "When We Refuse to Suffer," a clunker off his latest album, I was ready to back toward the door. Having seen him once before, I remembered a generous performer who had an instant rapport with the crowd. This seemed like a put-on, a test to see if people would eat it up. And they did. But once he blasted through three songs straight without stopping for applause, I realized this performance was another one to cherish.

While Ruby Re-Usable remains the diva of the Olympia Dumpster Divers, there are some truly talented trashettes showing off their stuff, and we finally got some pics to show you what Olympia High School students Lily Smith and Teasha Feldman have on display at the Capitol Theater in the space where Ruby had her art installation (I love the fact that they reused my wire to hang their plastic bag clothes!).

Go check out Trashion Fashion at OFS and elsewhere for the full story. Comments are enabled there. 

photo by enpen

photo by enpen

photo by enpen
mouseover photo by enpen

Photo by dreamsjung via flickr:

The Capitol Theater downtown recently got some nice paint splashed upon it following the tear down of the old (yet dangerous to people) marquee. 

The marquee removal and the painting were taken care of by a local company, Olympia Construction, owned by brothers Mike and Dan Auderer.

Like a lot of people who grew up in Olympia, both Mike and Dan have fond memories of the theater. Dan took dozens of trips to the Capitol Theater as part of the Junior Programs... uh... program in elementary school.

Choosing the colors was an important step. "We hired a designer that used a palate of original colors for historic theaters," Dan said this morning.

The paint job will be extended to the building next door where the Tea Lady is housed, which is owned by the same person.

The entire painting project took four days, with yesterday spent cleaning the graffiti off the terra cotta window wrappings.  "A lot of people think that the windows are marble, but its actually terra cotta on the window wraps," Dan said.

"The building's owner is really motivated, he's passionate about the theater," Dan said. "He's been down to some OFS events and sees how many people enjoy it, so that's why he's doing cleaning up the building."

A new marquee and awning for the building are in the works. The possible new marquee with have to be custom fabricated and will be a replica of the orignal one.

photo by enpen

photo by enpen