One of our most mischief-making former employees—fired from here for something, fired from the Times for looking at porn on the job—was once a member of Orkestar Zirconium, Seattle’s very own Balkan-inspired brass-and-drum band. And we think the fact that they’d kept him around for a spell is a good indicator of the band’s spirit and verve. Although we regretfully missed the mobile group’s Capitol Hill pub-crawl this Halloween, now’s a good chance to see them in a dignified (swank, we said) venue, along with Portland’s “cabaret-gypsy-klezmer-jazz” band Vagabond Opera.

Thu., Nov. 8, 8 p.m., 2007