6-Pack of Things To Do in Tacoma Jan. 26–Feb. 1, 2026

This is a week that looks winter dead in the eyes, flicks ash into a snifter, hands a pencil to your restless fingers, invites plants to explain the apocalypse politely, unleashes a multi-genre dance-floor riot, and then seals the whole fever dream with chapel blues, live jazz, and velvet-black stout—proof that Tacoma doesn’t hibernate so much as ferment, improvise, and glow in the dark.

Drinks & Draw at Peaks & Pints | Monday, Jan. 26

Monday night quietly slips off its shoes and becomes something gentler as Tacoma Drinks & Draw settles into Peaks & Pints like a low-stakes art salon for the chronically creative-curious. This is not an art class or a critique circle—it’s a come-as-you-are invitation to bring a sketchbook (or a napkin), order a beer or cider, and let your hands wander while your brain finally unclenches. Pens scratch, pencils whisper, conversations drift, and suddenly the bar feels like a living room full of softly focused strangers who are all pretending they didn’t secretly need this exact thing. Some people draw seriously. Some doodle gloriously badly. Some just sip and absorb the ambient glow of collective making. All of it counts. No theme unless the theme is “whatever showed up in your head today,” no rules beyond basic decency, and no expectations beyond curiosity. Community art without velvet ropes, creativity without performance anxiety, and a reminder that winter nights get better when you give your hands something gentle to do. Creative hang and casual art night, 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 26, Peaks & Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, free to attend, all skill levels welcome

Plants as Teachers, Messengers and Climate Partners | Wednesday, Jan. 28

Tacoma Tree Foundation hosts a quietly radical lunch-hour rethink of everything you thought you knew about “weeds,” with ecological restoration practitioner Michael Yadrick serving as your gentle tour guide through a warming, stubbornly alive landscape. This isn’t about scolding nature into obedience; it’s about learning to read what plants are already telling us as they show up in disturbed soils, pivot under heat and water stress, and do first-responder work for ecosystems the rest of us are still arguing about. Yadrick reframes habitat care as climate adaptation, trading the tired good-versus-bad species binary for sharper questions: what is this plant doing here, what signals is it responding to, and how can it help cool and steady our green-and-blue neighborhoods? Expect practical insight, poetic perspective, and a permission slip to love the scrappy survivors—the same attention ethic that powers The Daily Outside, where noticing becomes a civic act.
Climate adaptation talk, 12–1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, presented by Tacoma Tree Foundation; ISA CEUs available for credential holders who attend the full session (register by Jan. 25)

Zeta-Maya Xtravaganza | Saturday, Jan. 31

Some nights politely offer you a single mood and a two-drink minimum; this one kicks the door open and dumps comedy, live music, and a DJ booth onto the same dance floor, daring you to keep up. Zeta-Maya Xtravaganza storms the Tacoma Armory as a many-headed celebration of club energy, produced by Tacoma’s own Zeta-Maya Entertainment and engineered for people who refuse to pick just one vibe per evening. The night opens with VIP chaos-lite—a meet-and-greet plus Taco Street food—then slides into laugh-first mischief with comedian Simon Kaufman before United Soulz detonates a genre-blending live set anchored by Raj Punjabi, the original drummer for Green Day, proving punk DNA travels surprisingly well into modern hybrid sounds. From there, the structure dissolves into glorious excess: rotating DJ showcases helmed by DJ Dirty Harry, DJ Vinny Mac, DJ VK, DJ Tony H, and DJ Apocalypse, plus extra performances from Lex P, JJ Hudson, and ThaArtist Kali, carrying the Parade Floor deep into the 2 a.m. hour where time loses its grip and bass becomes a language. Maximalist by design, proudly unserious, and unapologetically loud. Zeta-Maya Xtravaganza, 5 p.m.–2 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, Tacoma Armory Parade Floor, VIP entry 5 p.m., general admission 6:30 p.m., tickets $30 GA / $60 VIP, 18+, bar for 21+, chaos enthusiastically included

Peaks & Pints February Stout Month: The Seven Stoutdoms | Sunday, Feb. 1

February doesn’t arrive so much as loom, and Peaks & Pints answers the seasonal dread with a full-blown dark-beer mythology: The Seven Stoutdoms, a month-long descent into roasted, oaked, caffeinated, smoked, and velvet-black bliss. For 28 days, stouts, imperial stouts, and barrel-aged beasts rotate across the cedar tap log like rival kingdoms, each realm rising and falling with its own mood—milk stouts drifting in like hug-shaped fog, coffee stouts buzzing with breakfast bravado, smoked and spiced oddities smoldering at the edges, nitro pours cascading like liquid theater, rare stouts whispering from secret corners, and classic dry stouts standing firm like ironclad elders who’ve seen some things. Guiding it all is the quietly judgmental Stoutkeeper, opening the gates each week and silently clocking your life choices based on which pour you reach for first. Flights, rare bottles, cheesecake pairings, stout-built sandwiches, and at least one “how is this even legal” barrel-aged moment punctuate the month, all leading to a finale of secret kegs, staff picks, and ceremonial overindulgence. This isn’t a wellness retreat or a musical. It’s winter meeting roasted malt and refusing to apologize. February stout celebration, daily through February 2026, Peaks & Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, no cover, dignity options

The Kareem Kandi World Orchestra | Sunday, Feb. 1

Sunday evening at Peaks & Pints slips into that rare, perfect jazz hour where daylight lingers, conversations soften, and the room quietly agrees to listen. The Kareem Kandi World Orchestra arrives not as background music but as a living groove engine led by Tacoma’s own Kareem Kandi—saxophonist, composer, educator, and longtime steward of this city’s jazz soul. This is jazz that knows its lineage but refuses to sit politely in a museum case: tight ensemble passages blooming into spontaneous solos, blues and funk threading through classic swing logic, originals brushing up against reimagined standards, all of it unfolding with that delicious sense that something unrepeatable is happening right now. Live jazz performance, 5-8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, Peaks & Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, 21+, no cover

Blues Vespers 2026: Harmonica Showcase | Sunday, Feb. 1

Blues finds a special kind of honesty when you invite it into a chapel, where notes don’t echo so much as confess. Blues Vespers returns to Kilworth Chapel with a Harmonica Showcase that treats the humble harp like a truth-telling instrument—small in the hand, enormous in feeling. Stacey Jones, Joe Cook, and Jonathan Pittman take turns bending air into testimony, laughter, ache, and release, backed by a band built for patience and pulse: Tim Sherman’s guitar holding the line, Mark Dalton’s bass steady beneath, Conrad Ormsby’s drums letting the room breathe. Hosted by the University of Puget Sound Chaplaincy and Pastor Dave Brown, this isn’t a sermon and it’s not a show in the usual sense—it’s a gathering where blues does what it has always done best, stitching community together with sound, silence, and the occasional perfectly placed wail. Harmonica-forward blues vespers, 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, Kilworth Chapel, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, free and open to the community, originally scheduled for Jan. 25, but, you know, Seahawks

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