Monday, July 14th, 2025

6-Pack of Things To Do in Tacoma: July 14-20, 2025

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6-Pack of Things To Do in Tacoma: July 14-20, 2025

Welcome, seekers of the strange and sublime, to the sacred scroll of summer offerings—your Peaks & Pints 6-Pack of Things To Do, July 14–20 edition. It’s a week stitched together with orchard ghosts and Broadway dreams, flannel-fueled resurrections and honky-tonk confessions, speed-freak sermons and paint-splattered sidewalk rites. It’s Tacoma, in all its beautifully unhinged glory: cobblestone nostalgia and citrus-laced IPA, 200-mph cinema and ceramic goat planters, all humming in perfect, chaotic harmony. If you don’t find something to love in this lineup, check your pulse—or at least your playlist.

Peaks & Pints Monday Cider Flight | Monday, July 14

Before the condos and breweries, before the concrete silenced the cobblestones, Tacoma’s Fruit & Produce Row thrummed with the sweet industry of the orchard. In the early 1900s, the stretch along Dock Street and Pacific Avenue was a pulpy artery of commerce, where crates of apples, pears, and cherries arrived by train, were packed in sawdust and railcars, and departed by ship to the hungry West Coast. Stamped with names like Wenatchee, Yakima, and Hood River, the fruit flowed through Tacoma like lifeblood—sticky, fragrant, and vital. On Monday, July 14, Peaks & Pints raises a cider-stained toast to this legacy with a fruit-forward cider flight that honors the tart, sweet, and fermented ghosts of Produce Row—orchard to ocean, one pour at a time. (Peaks & Pints, all day, $12, 21+)

F-1: The Movie | Friday, July 18

And lo, the gods of speed and spectacle have bequeathed unto the sleepy lanes of Tacoma’s Proctor District a 200-mph sermon on carbon fiber theology and apex cornering lust. F1: The Movie screams into the gloriously analog womb of the Blue Mouse Theatre this Friday, July 18, where popcorn dreams and gearhead fantasies collide beneath the flicker of cinematic worship. The movie barrels into view with the raw poetry of rubber burning on tarmac and the Zen grace of carbon-fiber panic—a visceral symphony of adrenaline and subtle existential dread, draped in PG‑13 flair but brimming with enough mechanical lust to make your pulse hit redline. Choose your speed: a 3:15 p.m. matinee for the throttle-curious, or the full-throttle 7 p.m. evening showing for those who understand that downforce is a religion and every pit stop is a prayer. Prosthetic neck required. Sensible shoes are discouraged. And if you miss Friday’s tire-squealing sermon, fear not—the cinematic symphony of horsepower and hubris returns for encores Saturday through Monday, same temple, same throttle-blessed screen. (Blue Mouse Theatre, 3:15, 7 p.m., ticket info, PG-13)

Peaks & Pints Cooler Beer Prefunk: And what better pairing for this kinetic hymn to speed than Bear Republic Brewing Racer 5—that old-school West Coast IPA warhorse, all piney bravado and citrus swagger, built with the same unapologetic balance of fury and finesse as a perfectly tuned V8. A beer that doesn’t ask if you’re ready—it assumes you’ve already dropped the clutch and found your line. Racer 5 and F1: The Movie—a union of gasoline and grapefruit, velocity and hops, screaming into the turns and never lifting.

Musical Theatre Adventure Showcase | Friday, July 18

Behold, ye lovers of jazz hands and stage dreams! On the sacred boards of the Tacoma Armory, Friday, July 18 at 6 p.m. sharp (not theatre sharp—actual sharp), a small brigade of fresh-faced Tacoma Arts Live Conservatory students—having marinated for two weeks in sweat, sequins, and the exacting love of professional choreographers, music directors, and acting whisperers—will emerge triumphant in a glittering showcase of Broadway bravado. It’s the privilege of witnessing the next generation of triple threats before they demand Equity rates. (Tacoma Armory, 6 p.m., tickets here, all ages)

Peaks & Pints Cooler Beer Prefunk: And to toast this tap-dancing, key-changing eruption of youthful stage magic? Reach for Untitled Art Raspberry Lemon Crumble—a tart, pastry-flecked smoothie sour that lands like the grand finale of a big-budget number: all zing, no apologies. Bursting with ripe raspberry drama and citrusy high notes, with a rich undercurrent of dessert decadence, it’s a liquid encore for your tastebuds—a curtain call in a can. Like the showcase itself, it’s sweet, bold, and just a little bit over-the-top—in the best possible way.

Honky Tonk Concert | Friday, July 18

Call it a backroom revival for the brokenhearted and the boot-scuffed—Hiram B. Freedom and His Honky Tonk Holy Ghost Revival (pictured) roll into The Valley this Friday, July 18, to lay hands on your whiskey-soaked soul and cast out whatever demons three chords and a steel guitar can reach. With a name like a southern sermon and a sound like Hank Williams crash-landing in a roadhouse cathedral, Hiram’s band leads the charge in a lineup stitched from sawdust and salvation. Doyle Scott and the Lovesick Rodeo bring the outlaw ache—pure diesel-slicked twang and waltzing heartache, the soundtrack to your worst decision at closing time. Haystack Slim, the lone-wolf opener, strums up a dust devil of solo grit, just a man, his guitar, and the echo of barroom confessions. $10 gets you through the door, but redemption, my friend, is earned one honky-tonk hallelujah at a time. (The Valley, 8 p.m., ticket info, 21+)

Peaks & Pints Cooler Beer Prefunk: And what better companion for this sawdust gospel than Everybody’s Brewing Country Boy IPA—a no-nonsense, pine-laced fistful of citrus bitterness that walks into your mouth like it just kicked open the swinging doors of a roadside tavern at golden hour. It’s got the hoppy swagger of a barstool poet and the clean finish of a late-night apology you almost meant, built for jukebox sermons and neon confessions. Sip slow, sing loud, and let the Country Boy carry you home, one righteous swig at a time.

The Grunge Show | Saturday, July 19

Call it a sonic séance, a distortion-drenched resurrection of the flannel gods—The Grunge Show skateboards into Tacoma’s Spanish Ballroom on Saturday, July 19, summoning the sacred ghosts of the ‘90s with all the gravel, sweat, and cathartic howl the genre demands. Jar of Flies channels Alice in Chains with album-perfect precision, dragging you down that beautiful, brooding rabbit hole of Layne Staley melancholy. Outshined delivers a Cornellian thunderclap of Soundgarden riffs, echoing not just Badmotorfinger glory but also Temple of the Dog soul and solo heartache. And Negative Creep? Well, they tear through Nirvana’s catalog like it’s 1991 and the world still made sense in three furious chords and a screamed apology. This is not a tribute show. It’s a rite. (Spanish Ballroom, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, $38.58 advance/$44.37 day of, 21+, photo courtesy of Facebook)

Peaks & Pints Cooler Beer Prefunk: And what better pour to ride shotgun with this feedback-fueled flashback than Vice Beer’s Linoleum IPA—a lush, resinous riot of citrus pith and dank groove that hits the palate like a guitar drop in drop-D. It’s the IPA equivalent of a scratched-up Superunknown cassette left baking on the dashboard—gritty, bright, slightly warped, and totally sublime. With every sip, Linoleum dares you to crowd-surf your nostalgia, howl at the speakers, and remember when music meant wreckage, release, and just enough bitterness to taste like truth.

Art on the Ave | Sunday, July 20

Behold the radiant chaos of Tacoma’s Art on the Ave, a seven-hour kaleidoscope of paint-splattered joy and sidewalk reverie erupting Sunday, July 20, along the city’s beloved 6th Avenue like some glorious Twister of community expression and sun-drenched capitalism. It’s the 25th annual incarnation, no less—a quarter-century of live music, frybread, abstract acrylics, and that inevitable moment when you accidentally buy a ceramic goat planter and suddenly believe in art again. Over 200 artists, food trucks with names like “Holy Crepe,” and beer gardens teeming with sunburned wisdom-seekers—all blessed beneath Tacoma’s July sky and framed by the jubilant hum of a city that knows how to throw a sidewalk symphony. (6th Avenue between Alder Street and State Street in Tacoma’s vibrant 6th Ave Business District, noon to 7 p.m., no cover, all ages)

Peaks & Pints Cooler Beer Prefunk: And what better companion for this sun-drenched swirl of paint and pageantry than Abita Brewing’s Purple Haze—a raspberry-laced lager whispering sweet nothings from the bayou, light enough to sip between artisan soap booths and rogue ukulele solos, fruity enough to flirt with a churro truck. It’s a beer that doesn’t shout, but hums—a lavender breeze through a tie-dye tapestry, a perfect palate cleanser between sculpture envy and sidewalk philosophy. Sip, stroll, repeat.

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