The Must List: Bumbershoot, Counter-Couture at BAM

Must Rock
Jam Out at Bumbershoot
(9/5 to 9/7, times vary) It’s time once again to rock out with big famous folks (Ben Harper, Built to Spill, The Weeknd) and stellar local bands (Smokey Brights, Grace Love and the True Loves, The Cave Singers and Chimurenga Renaissance among them). Good news: it looks like the weather will clear long enough that you don’t have to lug an actual bumbershoot around the grounds.

Must Go East
BAM Presents Counter-Couture: Fashioning Identity in the American Counter Culture
(9/4 to 1/10/2016, times vary) Curated by Seattle fashion designer Michael Cepress, this exhibit celebrates the DIY vibe of hippie style during the 1960s and ’70s. Expect wildly hand-beaded jackets and boots, embroidered garments and hand-tooled accessories, all of which put a daisy in the gun barrel of corporate fashion.

Must Get Dark
Animals Lurk in the Shadows at Roq La Rue Gallery
(9/3 to 9/26, times vary) Based in Montreal, Evergreen State College grad Brad Woodfin paints deep, dark canvases in which animals linger in the shadows and beckon viewers closer.

Must See
Sound Takes the Stage at ACT Theatre
(9/9 to 10/4, times vary) Martha’s Vineyard was once known for its unusually high percentage of deaf residents–so much so that Alexander Graham Bell, whose mother was deaf, did research there in search of a cure. Playwright Don Nguyen intersperses Bell’s story with a modern-day tale about a deaf father on the island who doesn’t want his daughter to get cochlear implants.

Must Hear
Jonathan Franzen Reads at Town Hall
Wednesday (9/9, 7:30 p.m.) The award-winning and often controversial author Jonathan Franzen will read from his latest book Purity: A Novel, in which the main character crosses continents and generations while struggling with family history and personal identity.