Hey, Brandi Carlile Is Playing Cupcake Royale On Capitol Hill Tomorrow. Get There Early!

Brandi Carlile plays a free in-store at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Capitol Hill's Cupcake Royle (1111 E Pike St).

A couple months ago I received a very friendly note (yes, hand-written!) from Cupcake Royale proprietor Jody Hall. I enjoyed it so much I have it affixed to the cork board in my work space. It begins: "Chris: I'll trade you $500 in Whiskey Maple Cupcakes for a 3-day pass to Coachella!"

If I could have gotten my hands on a pair of passes, I'd have made the trade in a heartbeat. That said, I thought Jody was joking. Then I ran into her at SW's Voracious Tasting Event last week at The Paramount. Turns out, she's a Coachella regular, who spent the long weekend in a rented house not far from the Polo Fields. If only I had a Sasquatch! roomate who knew how to churn out hundreds of cupcakes daily ...

At any rate, Ms. Hall and her cupcaking crew have landed local do-gooder Brandi Carlile for an in-store tomorrow afternoon at their Capitol Hill shop. Carlile will be stumping for her live record, Live at Benaroya Hall With The Seattle Symphony, which drops tomorrow as well.

If the Cupcake Royale in-store is anything like the Easy Street set she played in 2009, be advised that you'll want to get there at least an hour early. Yeah, there are worst places to kill an hour before a free in-store than a cupcake bakery.