Alaska News

2011: The year that was in Anchorage entertainment

As we barrel through the homestretch of the holiday season, now seemed a good time to jump on the best-of-2011 bandwagon and share some of highlights from the past 12 months. Whether it was new restaurants, concerts, festivals or films, there were a lot of reasons to hit the town in 2011.

Indie influx

With mid-sized venues like Bear Tooth and Wendy Williamson Auditorium and smaller haunts like Tap Root and the Anchor, a lot of indie up-and-comers and some of the scene's big names put Alaska on their touring schedules. A couple teamed up for bills that made Lower 48 friends jealous. Menomena and especially the Antlers impressed on a shared bill at Wendy Williamson, while hip-hop fans were treated to up-close-and-personal sets at the Anchor by underground kingpins Aesop Rock and Murs.

The influx also included Anchorage's indie diaspora. Most recent was Portugal. The Man, who closed a big year with a big-sounding set at Egan Center last week. Another band based in Portland, Ore., with origins in Alaska, the Builders and the Butchers, played two First Taps at Bear Tooth this year, separated by only about seven months. The attendance for the second show almost doubled the first.

But with each of my favorite shows this year, I entered the building a skeptic and left a believer. My indifference to Andrew Bird spanned many years and many albums, but his solo set at the Atwood Concert Hall was great: virtuoso but tasteful skill, adventurous but still musical. In the case of Murder by Death, I wrote them off for a long time because of the band name. It's bad, but the set at Tap Root wasn't -- dark and intense Southern Goth with a Western swing.

My favorite of the year was also one of the least attended: St. Vincent at Wendy Williamson. I knew main-woman Anne Clark wrote quirky, sometimes obtuse songs, but I didn't know how aggressive and challenging that would sound live (in a good way). With her latest album "Strange Mercy" garnering all sorts of year-end accolades, maybe more people will see it next time.

Yucking it up

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While Seth Myers' visit came late in 2010, the ball kept rolling from there, as stand-up comedians were a regular fixture in our weekly Hot Picks. Wanda Sykes, Larry the Cable Guy, Mike Birbiglia, George Lopez, Eddie Griffin, Chelsea Handler and Gabriel Iglesias were just a few of the jokesters who came to town.

But for my money, Patton Oswalt raised the bar out of everyone's reach. It was equal parts absurd, nerdy, crass and insightful. I had an ear-to-ear grin whenever I wasn't belly-laughing.

Hip to the hop

One of the biggest shows to hit Anchorage this year was Mos Def at Moose's Tooth's 15th anniversary party, where Alaska was among the first to learn that the rapper and actor planned to retire his stage name and go by his legal one, Yasiin Bey.

The artist formerly known as Mos Def made that name for himself many years ago as one half of the hip-hop duo Black Star, who recently reformed for a handful of shows and TV appearances. Anchorage didn't get a reunited Black Star, but we did get the other half of the duo, Talib Kweli, who included a couple Black Star cuts in his set at the other Tooth.

Local lens

The Anchorage International Film Festival's Snowdance category has long been a major showcase for local filmmakers, but 2011 presented a few more opportunities for those auteurs to find audiences. The 48-Hour Film Challenge returned for a second year, and the strong attendance and mostly hilarious movies that resulted hopefully means it will keep returning. The inaugural summertime short film and screenplay competition Never Sets Film Festival was another welcomed addition.

Then there were the four Open Projector Nights, which offered a more informal setting to screen works in progress or ideas. Operating on the same idea as an open mike night, the projector was available on a first-come/first-serve basis, and favorites from the ongoing event were screened at a Best of Open Project Night event at Anchorage International Film Festival.

New noise

Of course, locals were active on the music front as well. Anchorage rapper Blaack dropped his new album "Blaack History" after the single "When You Come Home" spent time last year as the top-requested song on radio station KFAT. Second single "One" even featured a verse by Lil Wayne.

On the other end of the sonic spectrum, singer/songwriter and social-media maven Marian Call released her double album "Something Fierce," backing it with a successful campaign on online fund-raising site Kickstarter. And after spending a few years in Portland, Ore., Emma Hill returned to Anchorage and released the EP "Alaska Dear, I'm Coming Home."

Making another big sonic jump, my favorite local disc of the year was the self-titled full-length by hard-core band She, an unconventional mesh of hard-core punk and metal that avoids the cliches that usually plague bands that try to do exactly that.

Bang your head

Speaking of metal, another Alaska homecoming came as part of the Unearth and As I Lay Dying show at the Egan Center. Opening the night was Turbid North, who moved to Texas from North Pole four years ago and released the ripper "Orogeny" this year on Unearth vocalist Trevor Phipps' Ironclad Recordings.

And while not exactly a homecoming, Between the Buried and Me -- the band that released the album "Alaska" six years ago -- made its first visit to the state, bringing down the house at Koot's and Club Millennium.

Feeding frenzy

A number of new restaurants became regular destinations this year, but the big story for foodies was probably the return of the much-loved Peter's Sushi Spot. After the previous location was destroyed by fire in 2008, Peter's returned with a sleek and modern space on Minnesota Drive.

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And in a town that's hardly lacking sushi options, the addition of Jimmy's Sushi and the expansion of Sushi and Sushi made decisions a bit more difficult -- a nice problem to have.

But among the other notable new dining destinations, less sophisticated fare was the course du jour. The comfort food at Table 6 earned high praise from both our reviewers and readers, while Kriner's Diner finally found a way to make the previous no-man's land at 2409 C St. work, thanks in part to a gluttonous burger that probably shouldn't be consumed more than a couple times a year.

By Matt Sullivan

Anchorage Daily News

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