FIRST NATIONAL TAPHOUSE Open
Mic—8pm; n/c
GRIDIRON Karaoke—8pm; n/c
HI-FI MUSIC HALL Gregory Alan
Isakov—8pm; indie, folk, $25-
$30
OLD NICK'S Irish Jam—6pm; n/c
SHADOWFOX Soul & Blues
Jam—7pm; n/c
WANDERING GOAT Songwriters
Night (originals only)—7pm;
open mic, n/c
WHIRLED PIES DOWNTOWN Muse
Art Mondays, paint or draw musi-
cians—6pm; $5 don.
TUESDAY 5/2
5TH ST. CORNUCOPIA Jesse
Meade w/Connor O'Shea—
9:30pm; n/c
COWFISH New DJ Revue—9pm;
n/c
MUSIC
CUSH Poetry Open Mic—7:30pm;
n/c
DEXTER LAKE CLUB Acoustic
night w/Brian Chevalier—6pm;
n/c
THE EMBERS DJ Victor—8pm;
Current hits, standards, requests,
n/c
HI-FI LOUNGE Reggae Night—
10pm; reggae jam, n/c
JAZZ STATION Bret Higgins' Atlas
Revolt—7:30pm; jazz, $12
LEVEL UP Karaoke w/Kade—
9pm; n/c
MULLIGAN'S PUB Steve Ibach—
8pm; acoustic, eclectic, n/c
O BAR Karaoke w/Jared—9pm;
n/c
OAKSHIRE Ellis Moore—6pm;
singer-songwriter, n/c
OLD NICK'S Open Mic ft. Dusty
Santamaria—9pm; n/c
ROARING RAPIDS Red Pants
Trio—7:30pm; jazz, n/c
SAM BOND'S GARAGE Bluegrass
Jam—9pm; n/c
SHADOWFOX Cards Against
Humanity—7pm; n/c
WHITE HORSE SALOON Karaoke
w/Slick Nick—9pm; n/c
WHIRLED PIES DOWNTOWN
Acoustic Jams—7pm; n/c
WEDNESDAY 5/3
5TH ST. CORNUCOPIA Karaoke w/
Slick Nick—9pm; n/c
BLACK FOREST Karaoke w/KJ
Powers—9pm; n/c
BREW & CUE Crystal Harmony
Karaoke—9pm; n/c
THE COOLER Karaoke w/Caught
in the Act—9pm; n/c
COWFISH DJ Smuve—9pm; hip-
hop, n/c
HAPPY HOURS Mama Jan’s Blues
Jam w/Brian Chevalier—8pm;
n/c
HI-FI LOUNGE Funk Night—
10pm; funk jam, n/c
ISLAND HUT Karaoke w/Jared—
5pm; n/c
JERSEY'S Karaoke w/Sassy
Patty—8pm; n/c
LUCKEY'S Wednesday Night
Groove Sessions w/The Sunday
Bump—10pm; funk, jazz, open
jam, $3
MAX'S Lonesome Randall—7pm;
n/c
MOHAWK TAVERN Karaoke w/
Caught in the Act—9pm; n/c
MULLIGAN'S Open Mic—8:30pm;
variety, n/c
OLD NICK'S Magic the
Gathering—6pm; n/c
SAM BOND'S GARAGE Brian
Dolanzi—9pm; singer-songwriter,
$5
SHADOWFOX Art Bar, drinking &
creating—7pm; n/c
THE SHEDD Marc Cohn—7:30pm;
$17-$38
SIDELINES SPORTS BAR Karaoke
w/Mike—9pm; n/c
WHIRLED PIES DOWNTOWN
Whirled Music Series ft. Rudolf
Korv—6pm; folk, americana,
blues, rock, n/c
SA Various groups—11am; $10-
$30
SU Various groups—10am; n/c
WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY —
Salem
SU Spring Choir Concert—7pm;
n/c
IMAGINE COFFEE — Corvallis
FR Lost River—7pm; americana
deluxe, n/c
INTERZONE — Corvallis
MO Big Eyes, Dumb Luck, & The
Shifts—7:30pm; punk, power-
pop, $5
CORVALLIS
& THE REGION
RAINSPOUT MUSIC FEST —
Yachats
FR Various groups—6pm; $45
BY MEERAH POWELL
FEMME DIVERSIFIÉE
Siri Vik’s Femme Fatale opens Friday
at The Shedd
F
or some musicians, performing is just stepping
onto a stage, singing into a mic, playing a gui-
tar, hitting a few drums — or whatever else —
and walking off. That’s not the case for singer
Siri Vik.
Born and raised in Eugene, Vik treats her emotive
performances more like musical theater or perfor-
mance art than anything else. But that doesn’t mean
her voice comes second.
Vik, now in her 11th year of teaching voice classes
at Lane Community College, grew up singing opera
until she realized its fiercely structured style was too
constricting.
“To sing classically — it’s such a physical en-
deavor,” Vik says. “You have to be an elite athlete of
the voice.” Her 14-year-old self was too immature to
dedicate the effort that opera requires, Vik says, so she
started funneling her energy elsewhere.
“I just started to turn my attention to musical the-
ater and cabaret, to a grittier vocal expression, a way
of singing that did not depend on the pristine beauty of
the voice. I felt free.”
Although she still incorporates parts of her past
style into her performances, it’s a mishmash of genres
— jazz, singer-songwriter, alternative, cabaret and the
like — where Vik resides.
“For a long time,” she says, “I’ve just been a singer
and performer who doesn’t have a niche. I have some
24
A pril 27, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
skills that cross pretty versatile lines, but that can be a
curse as much as it is a blessing.”
Her art’s diverse nature certainly fits into Femme
Fatale, her upcoming show that runs Friday, Saturday
and Sunday, April 28-30, at The Shedd.
Split into three distinct sets, Femme Fatale is a
multi-faceted production including, of course, Vik’s
singing, accompanied by a seven-piece ensemble as
well as film noir clips and spoken word.
The show’s variety not only spans across media but
within the music itself. Her selection includes older
pieces like “Habanera” from Bizet’s 1875 opera Car-
men but also songs from artists such as Björk, Velvet
Underground, Tom Waits and Laura Mvula.
“That all-over-the-place quality, it has a real pur-
pose here in making connections across genres, in
making connections about Femme Fatale,” Vik says.
The vague idea behind Femme Fatale, she says,
was a complicated one to portray.
“I thought, there’s a lot of room in that subject and
there’s a lot of atmosphere,” Vik says. “Everybody has
an idea of what femme fatale is; it’s sort of incomplete
and at many times misguided.” The French expression
refers to a cultural sterotype of a woman who uses her
charms, sometimes lethally, to control others.
At first, Vik found the idea of this mysterious, al-
luring and fatal female character to be misogynistic.
After digging into feminist theory and film theory and
watching a ton of film noir, she realized that the idea
of the femme fatale is more than just a reusable trope.
Femme fatale can represent a larger critique of iden-
tity, self-projection and the idea of the “Other.”
“She’s almost like a blank canvas that people can
place their ideas onto,” Vik says of the femme fatale.
“That’s what was most interesting to me — how the
desirer of her, or the woman who’s envious of her, is
essentially setting themselves up for the fall because
of what they assume about her in the beginning.”
Watching Vik perform, it’s clear that she immerses
herself into whatever she’s taking on. Whether she’s
belting out vocals from her operatic past or letting an
intimate whisper sneak from her lips to the mic, Vik’s
performances are extremely emotional. But, she says,
what comes off as onstage confidence is more art than
reality.
“Performing terrifies me. It’s hard for me,” Vik
says. “So where I find the freedom is to just dig deeper
and deeper and deeper into the emotion and into the
message. When I try to paste on an impressive — ei-
ther performing or vocal — style, it just doesn’t seem
to work.”
Luckily, authenticity is probably just what the vast,
vague and varied nature of Femme Fatale needs.
Siri Vik and company perform Femme Fatale at 7:30 pm Friday and
Saturday, April 28-29, with a matinee performance 3 pm Sunday,
April 30, at The Shedd. Tickets are $16–$34 at theshedd.org.