6-Pack of Things To Do In Tacoma — Oct. 6–12, 2025
Because Tacoma this week isn’t merely alive — it’s foaming, humming, and borderline combustible, a city in full creative possession of itself: playwrights whispering truth in half-light, poets spilling confession across bar tops, guitars testifying in backrooms, wheels spinning beneath cathedral ceilings, and artists flinging color like divine shrapnel. It’s a seven-day fever dream of ink, music, motion, and malt — proof that whatever Tacoma’s making this week, it’s not playing small.
Script Readings With Tacoma Arts Live + Northwest Playwrights Alliance | Monday, Oct. 6
This week opens in the Armory’s Roosevelt Room, where Tacoma Arts Live and the Northwest Playwrights Alliance unveil The Rest of Us by Amy Tofte — raw theater in its larval form: a circle of high-school girls, an after-school detention turned confession, the moment words on a page discover a pulse. No sets, no spotlights, just language trembling toward life and an audience invited to shape it. Undercover: New Play Readings by PNW Playwrights, doors 5:30 p.m., reading 6:30 p.m., Tacoma Armory Roosevelt Room, free (donations encouraged), tacomaartslive.org
Peaks & Pints Cooler Postfunk: When the dialogue fades and your mind still hums, reach for E9 Brewing All Too Well. It’s Tacoma craftsmanship in a can — crisp yet brooding, malt and citrus trading lines like actors mid-scene. Sip slow, let the bitterness linger, and toast to the fact that both beer and theater taste best on the edge of becoming.
Creative Colloquy Crawl | Tuesday, Oct. 7
Once a year, Tacoma turns into a living sonnet, and Creative Colloquy Crawl is the spark that ignites it. From King’s Books to Doyle’s, bars and bookstores become sanctuaries of ink and caffeine where poets, storytellers, and dreamers spill everything worth saying. It’s part pub crawl, part poetry séance — neurodivergent bards, witchy wordsmiths, love-letter scribes, and ex-poets laureate weaving incantations through autumn’s damp breath. By night’s end, the city reads like one vast, unruly poem, sealed with a pint at Doyle’s Snug. Story crawl 6–9 p.m., multiple venues, after-party Doyle’s Public House, free (21+ some venues), creativecolloquy.com
Peaks & Pints Cooler Prefunk: Prime your muse with Bottle Logic Order of Combat, a mocha-dark stout forged for those who duel in words. Cocoa, coffee, and a sly vanilla whisper make each sip a rallying cry for the brave and the verbose. Drink deep, sharpen your tongue, and step into the night ready to spar with syntax and swagger.
Rocky Sandoval: Live at The Eleanor | Friday, Oct. 10
If silk had a voice and heartbreak wore cologne, it would sound like Rocky Sandoval. Tacoma’s R&B son returns for one night of slow-burn soul — falsetto shimmer, sweat-slick confession, and beats that ache in all the right places. Presented by Tacoma Arts Live, the Roosevelt Room becomes a velvet-lit lounge where every lyric feels handwritten. Concert 8 p.m. (doors 7), Tacoma Armory Roosevelt Room, $23.75, tacomaartslive.org
Peaks & Pints Cooler Postfunk: When the final note still trembles in your ribs, crack Oskar Blues Ten Fidy — jet-black, espresso-laced, dangerously smooth. A stout that drinks like heartache wrapped in chocolate, the encore you didn’t want to end.
Billy Stoops & The Dirt Angels | Friday, Oct. 10
If Tacoma had a house band for its battered, beautiful heart, it’d be this one. Billy Stoops has led more local lineups than most folks have hangovers, his Telecaster slinging grit, grace, and redemption by the pint. The Dirt Angels back him with swamp swagger, slide-guitar shimmer, and harmonies rising like smoke. Expect blues stomp, honky-tonk ache, and the kind of sweat that makes a bar feel holy. Concert 8–11 p.m., The Valley, 1206 Puyallup Ave., 21+, no cover.
Peaks & Pints Cooler Prefunk: Before that first riff rattles the windows, open Vice Beer Man in the Van Fresh Hop IPA. Sticky Yakima citrus, pine grit, and road-trip malt — a traveler’s beer that’s finally found its way home. Bright enough for an encore, grounded enough for a homecoming.
Tacoma Studio Tour | Saturday & Sunday, Oct. 11–12
For one luminous weekend, Tacoma becomes less city, more living organism — its veins running with paint, clay, ink, and sawdust. The Tacoma Arts Month annual Studio Tour flings open 60-plus studios, inviting you straight into the sacred chaos of creation. Watch glass breathe, pigment find purpose, and artists laugh in the glow of new work. No tickets, no gates — just families, wanderers, and curious souls colliding in a citywide hymn to making. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. both days, citywide studios (map at tacomaartsmonth.org), free, photo courtesy of Tacoma Arts Month
Peaks & Pints Cooler Prefunk: Sip Monkless Belgian Ales Meet Your Maker before you meet Tacoma’s. Caramel, fig, clove, and quiet transcendence — a beer that blurs the line between abbey and atelier. A liquid meditation for witnessing art in its purest mess.
Sunday Open Skate | Sunday, Oct. 12
When Tacoma decides to spin instead of stroll, it rolls to the Armory — that vast echo chamber where beats bounce and gravity loosens its grip. Sunday Open Skate is half disco, half meditation, all joy: families and first-timers gliding together like constellations in motion. No experience required, just the willingness to wobble toward grace. 1–6 p.m., Tacoma Armory, $11.50, all ages.
Peaks & Pints Cooler Postfunk: Cap the glide with RaR Brewing Liberty Cheesecake, a stout that tastes like blueberry pie crash-landing in a milkshake — creamy, decadent, and shamelessly perfect after five hours of roller-rapture.
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