THIS GUY, TONY REED IS A goddamn legend. And, even as an admittedly bastardized music writer, I don’t use that word lightly. Either of them. The term ‘juggernaut’ might also apply here. He’s been writing, recording, playing some of the hardest and heaviest rock in this town, and around the world, for decades. He’s toured Europe many times. His bands have opened for Rush and Judas Priest. He also travels the world to record and produce albums for other bands alongside a constant list of clients, both local and abroad, that he records and produces out of his HeavyHead Recording studio in Port Orchard. He also plays regular local gigs with the bands Mos Generator and Hot Spring Water. You might have seen them live at the festivals on the Bremerton boardwalk this summer. But what you might not know, is that he and Mos Generator bassist Scooter Haslip are getting set to tour Europe as new members of one of the pioneering bands in the heavy metal genre: Pentagram. They’ve got three days to rehearse before they leave for Spain to play to crowds of 5000+. See: Goddamn. But Tony’s not just playing live, he’s also been writing music with the legendary band and producing their first album in more than ten years. See: Legend. Oh, and he’s also got new albums in the works with both Mos and Hot Spring Water. See: Juggernaut. // NICK SLEDGE
CHECK OUT MOS GENERATOR Sept. 7 at Little Devil’s in Port Angeles and Sept. 13 at the Manette. More on the socials @mos_generator and @hotspringwater
THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER. Back to school. The return of the clouds. The impending big dark. Halloween. Football. Crockpots. September is heady month heralded by numerous tradition. One that is sometimes overlooked: it’s a great time to watch movies. September marks the stride of the unofficial local film festival season around here. Beginning with Bremerton’s West Sound Film Festival in August, film festivals within a 30-some-mile radius of this town are booked at a steady clip through November. This month, the Port Townsend Film Festival marks it’s 25th year Sept. 19-22 with more than 50 films from more than 30 filmmakers showing over four days at multiple venues. Later, the Gig Harbor Film Festival will show 84 films over four days Sept. 26-29, including an opening night world premeier of a new documentary ‘The Dawgfather’ about University of Washington Football coach Don James. That same weekend, Sept. 27-29, The Manhattan Film Festival, a nationwide audience voting participation festival, shows at the Bainbridge Art Museum. Next month, the Poulsbo Film Festival enters its third year Oct. 11-13 at multiple venues in Poulsbo and the Tacoma Film Festival runs Oct. 10-13 with special showings of the new Rainier beer documentary ‘Rainier: A Beer Odyssey’ on Oct. 12. And to wrap up the season, if we can call it that, the Bainbridge Film Festival is slated for Nov. 7-10. // JAMES MUNK
EACH FESTIVAL has a website with tickets, schedules and more.
SO YOU’VE SEEN THE NEW mural on the downtown Bremerton parking garage? (Spoiler, that’s not it in the picture.) The downtown mural is the first part of the long-planned, multi-million-dollar, grant-funded Quincy Square Project on Fourth Street. It was designed and painted by a Louisiana artist with the help of local artists and community members to celebrate this city’s African American heritage with a permanent installation. Tucked away on the other side of the Manette bridge, a different kind of community mural is taking place this month, celebrating underground art. This one’s not so permanent. On September 21, the local muralist/graffitti duo Your Local Antagonist is hosting a Graffitti Invitational featuring more than 10 artists, planning to cover the entire massive structure known as the Manette Graffiti Wall in one day. That everchanging concrete canvas has been a sanctioned place for public graffiti for nearly ten years. Filling the entire wall has become an annual tradition alongside the Bridging Bremerton Story Walk. Your Local Antagonist artists/organizers Jonathan Perry and Nathan Friend, known as ‘Fro’ and ‘Nocto,’ have been painting murals for years on this wall, on the walls of local businesses and on other local buildings in their free time. One works as a brewer, the other is in real estate. ‘Two guys trying to paint the world’ their YLA bio reads. They’ve been raising the money to provide the paint for this invitational through grassroots community donations. They’ll be painting from 9 a.m. until it’s finished. And it will only be up until it’s covered up by something new, by nature of the free wall. // BILL MAN
YOUR LOCAL ANTAGONIST Graffitti Invitational, 9 a.m. til finish, Sept. 21, free, all ages at the Manette Graffitti Wall on old Wheaton Way between the bridge and the YMCA. More on the socials @yourlocalantagonist
BREMERTON IS PROJECTED TO add 20,000 new residents over the next 20 years. One big challenge in that is: how are all these people going to get around town? Today in Bremerton, most people travel alone in a private car, which causes traffic congestion and unsafe streets. If the estimated additional residents also mostly travel in their own cars, traffic and street safety will potentially be significantly worse for people driving, cycling and walking streets.The good news is that the city anticipates an influx of street construction money over the coming years. State and Federal dollars totaling more than $40m are already in the pipeline to complete upcoming street projects like the Washington Ave Roundabout, the Warren Bridge and 6th Street. Pandemic-era, federal infrastructure laws promise even more funding over the next decade. All this amounts to a wonderful opportunity to build a multi-modal transportation network that works for drivers and contributes to safer streets. The grassroots group StreetSmart Bremerton (SSB) is working to make that a reality. SSB has three focus areas: safe routes for children walking or biking to schools, walkable streets, especially near commercial areas, and a safe, interconnected bike network in Bremerton and Kitsap County. According to member Heather Pugh, SSB is “a growing group of people who support creative and innovative infrastructure that will shape Bremerton in inspiring ways. Members engage in meaningful, actionable dialog around safe pedestrian and bicycle travel, especially near schools and neighborhood centers.” Founded in 2022, SSB is a coalition of regular people who work collaboratively with the City of Bremerton and other groups on street safety. Early SSB successes include lobbying in favor of a multimodal path on the Warren Avenue Bridge and pushing for Bremerton’s only protected bike lane on two blocks of Washington Ave downtown. SSB’s next target is the planned 6th Street ‘road diet’ which the city is expected to announce construction plans for this fall. // MOLY CHRO
YOU CAN JOIN SSB on the socials at ‘StreetSmart Bremerton’ and contribute input to the city’s 20-year-plan thru email at compplan@ci.bremerton.wa.us
