"Hey, Fred!" 01/26/15-02/01/15 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five

This is the most popular feature (within the very relative confines of that word as it relates to this). A look at things I want to shine some light on - not everything I'm going to do, and not quite (as the old version was) everything I'd do if money and time were no object.

These are my top 5 suggestions for the week in question - named for my great pal Fred Pfening and named long before it was born, by A., who suggested "Rick's going to have a blog called 'Hey, Fred! Here's what's coming to town...' - whatever media strike my fancy. It could be all theater one week, it could be all films or all readings or all gallery shows, but most weeks will include some if not mostly music - I hope to spark some conversations and get people excited about what I'm excited for. If you read this, let me know what would make this more useful to you. As well, if you get any value out of this, please send me links/invite me on Facebook/send up a carrier pigeon to let me know about your events.

Visual Art

Various Artists, Sitter. Canzani Center at CCAD, 60 Cleveland Ave. I missed this opening last week but with so much going on it would've been hard to shoehorn this into last week anyway. Over the last 7-8 years, the Columbus College of Art and Design has stepped up their gallery game immeasurably to the point where they're one of our preeminent modern art institutions. The new group show, Sitter, is a look at how portraiture changes and is used to what ends in contemporary photography and the list of artists is mind-boggling. Including Dawoud Bey, Leigh Ledare, Nan Goldin, and my favorite Catherine Opie, this is a great opportunity to take the temperature of modern photography. Runs through March 25, 2015.



Literary

January 26: Siaara Freeman. The Poetry Forum, Bossy Grrl, 2598 N High St. The longest running poetry series in Columbus has one of its best, most diverse seasons in quite some time. I've already missed (by all accounts) fantastic sets by Scott Woods and Charlene Fix this year but this week is one of the most promising younger voices on the scene, Siaara Freeman. I saw Freeman read at the MeatGrinder Poetry Slam a few months ago and her work blew my hair back. Do not miss this. Starts at 7:00pm. No cover.



Music

January 29: Pete Mills' Side One Series - Eddie Harris, The In Sound. Natalie's Coal-Fired Pizza, 5601 N High St. Pete Mills is one of the finest tenor sax players and educators in town and his periodic repertory shows delving into a particular record are always enlightening. Eddie Harris was one of the great Chicago tenors and one of jazz's finest composers in the soul-jazz era and while I have a personal bias toward the rawer Vee-Jay albums, The In Sound, being paid tribute to, is one of those perfect records, nailed down by the unstoppable rhythm section of Cedar Walton on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums, and kicked off a marvelous run for Harris on Atlantic Records. Mills' 5tet usually consists of Erik Augis on piano, Andy Woodson on bass, Cedric Easton on drums often with special guest Rob Parton on trumpet in from Chicago. I haven't seen word on who's in the quintet for this performance but expect it to be players who know this sound-world inside and out. Starts at 9:00pm. $7 Tickets available at Vendini.


January 29: The Sidekicks. Ace of Cups, 2619 N High. The Sidekicks have been bubbling under for a while, honing their craft, and it's finally paying off with a rock-solid pop-punk record Runners in the Nerved World on the biggest label for that kind of music, Epitaph Records. Razor sharp playing, good time bouncing grooves, and undeniable hooks. This serves as the local record release show. Check out this interview of theirs on The Runout: http://therunout.com/post/88962672326/the-sidekicks-throw-out-the-rulebook-for-new-album Locals All Dogs, also getting a lot of righteous buzz and praise, open along with Connections and LVL. Starts at 9:00pm. $6 cover.



January 31: Herzog. Spacebar, 2590 N High St. Herzog from Cleveland are a blast of catchy, jittery rock and roll energy who were the brightest spot at the Diarrhea Planet show at Skully's last year and I can't wait to see them again, especially at Columbus's finest new rock venue. Check out this feature on Agit Reader: http://www.agitreader.com/features/herzog-01.31.html Washington Beach Bums, Columbus's principal dissectors and inciters of the party, host them and headline. Locals The Sweet S open. Starts at 10:00pm. $5 cover.

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"Hey, Fred!" A Biased, Idiosyncratic Top Five for the Week of January 19-25, 2015

This is the most popular feature (within the very relative confines of that word as it relates to this). A look at things I want to shine some light on - not everything I'm going to do, and not quite (as the old version was) everything I'd do if money and time were no object.

These are my top 5 suggestions for the week in question - named for my great pal Fred Pfening and named long before it was born, by A., who suggested "Rick's going to have a blog called 'Hey, Fred! Here's what's coming to town...' - whatever media strike my fancy. It could be all theater one week, it could be all films or all readings or all gallery shows, but most weeks will include some if not mostly music - I hope to spark some conversations and get people excited about what I'm excited for. If you read this, let me know what would m ake this more useful to you. As well, if you get any value out of this, please send me links/invite me on Facebook/send up a carrier pigeon to let me know about your events.

Film

National Gallery directed by Frederick Wiseman. Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N High St. Frederick Wiseman's documentaries get you the closest to the reality of a situation you will ever see on film. His dedication to getting it right in a way that's not sensationalized is a wonder and very, very rarely equaled in any medium. At 85, he's still doing riveting work you could get lost in, and I can't wait to see this exploration of London's National Gallery. An interview with Wiseman on Lumiere: http://lumiere.net.nz/index.php/an-interview-with-frederick-wiseman/ A New Yorker review:  http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/frederick-wisemans-relentless-museum-talk

Screens on January 24, 2015, at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. $8 Tickets available at the Wexner Center website.

Theatre

January 25: Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players, Isolde. Thurber Theatre at Drake Center, 1849 Cannon Drive (presented by the Wexner Center). Richard Maxwell, who makes theatre unlike almost anyone else and has for 25+ years bring his take on the wrenching, epic love story of Tristan and Isolde to town under the auspices of the Wexner Center. I'm not saying much about this here because I'm writing a full preview for Columbus Underground which I'll link to here when it posts, but nothing this week gets a higher recommendation from me. A titan. To tide you over, a an interview with the New Yorker and a review from Hyperallergic. 8:00pm. Tickets available at the Wexner Center website. 


Music

January 20: Zola Jesus. Skully's Music Diner, 1151 N High St. Zola Jesus (real name Nika Rosa Danilova) returns to town after what seems like a protracted absence bringing her shuddering, restless, sultry songs and one of the richest, most resonant voices you'll hear live. She's broadened her scope through relentless collaboration and in the last few records exploded the songs with fascinating arrangements by the likes of J.G. Thirlwell (with Versions) and Tuba Joe (on Taiga). Taiga, the newest record of hers, was a bolder grab for pop music but it still sounds inimitably like her and there are great songs throughout. Angel Deradoorian from Dirty Projectors opens with her captivating baroque folk. Doors at 8:00pm. $20 tickets available at Ticketweb.

January 23: Margo and the Pricetags. Ace of Cups, 2619 N High St. Margo Price, formerly of  Nashville rock band Buffalo Clover, brings her classically-styled honk-tonk five piece The Pricetags to town with a fresh voice and a quiver of great, great songs. Where too much alt.country (or whatever you call it now) settles for monochromatic depression, Price remembers that the great weepers like Lefty Frizzell and Ernest Tubb also had more than a few dance numbers and could even keep you dancing and crying at the same time. Locals Meagan and Milan from the Alwood Sisters and cough-syrup country Drift Mouth open, and local singer-songwriter Chad Williams, who runs the DJ night Whiskey Jukebox, spins records between bands.. Doors at 9:00pm. $5 cover.

Pharmakon.  The Summit, 2210 Summit St. It took me a while for Pharmakon to make an impression. I didn't quite get it with her first record and her opening slot for Swans here in town. But her second album, Bestial Burden, and a 15 minute set I saw at PS1 for Return of Schizo-Culture burned the cataracts off my eyes. Her new work is some of the most moving, gripping composition about the dread and horror of knowing your own body can turn against you at any moment. It's a deep, cathartic, pulse-pounding music that doesn't give you any quarter in understanding. Locals Corrina and Slavehouse, along with Lafayette, Indiana's, Rev//Rev, open. Starts at 9:30pm. $10 cover.

Still Running

Visual Art

Esther Ruiz: Neon Dreams. Glass Axis, 610 W Town St.  Brooklyn artist Esther Ruiz is presenting a solo exhibition of her minimal futuristic landscapes that use glittering, shiny surfaces to conjure a vibration down the viewer's spine. I can't wait to see this work in person.  Opening Friday, January 9 from 5:00pm-9:00pm. On view through February 22, 2015. More information: https://glassaxis.org/neon-dreams-an-exhibition-featuring-esther-ruiz/

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"Hey, Fred!" A Biased, Idiosyncratic Top Five for the Week of January 12-18, 2015

This is the most popular feature (within the very relative confines of that word as it relates to this). A look at things I want to shine some light on - not everything I'm going to do, and not quite (as the old version was) everything I'd do if money and time were no object.

This is my top 5 suggestions for the week in question - named for my great pal Fred Pfening and named long before it was born, by A., who suggested "Rick's going to have a blog called 'Hey, Fred! Here's what's coming to town...' - whatever media strike my fancy. It could be all theater one week, it could be all films or all readings or all gallery shows, but most weeks will include some if not mostly music - I hope to spark some conversations and get people excited about what I'm excited for. If you read this, let me know what would make this more useful to you. As well, if you get any value out of this, please send me links/invite me on facebook/send up a carrier pigeon to let me know about your events.

Theatre

Available Light Theatre Presents Next Stage Initiative 2015. Riffe Center - Studio Two, 77 S. High St.  8:00pm Thursday-Saturday, January 8-January 17. Pay What You Want at the door.  One of my favorite Available Light events and one of my favorite theatrical events in town becomes a tradition with its second year. Next Stage Initiative is a mixture of workshops of plays so new they're still damp and tryout readings of plays that have been produced with some success elsewhere that are being considered for future production. This is the best place in town to see and hear new and fascinating voices that might not get a reading of this caliber anywhere else. I only made it to one show in its first weekend but in this, its second and final weekend, I have every intention of seeing all three. The three productions this time are:

• January 15: The Burden of Not Having a Tail by Carrie Barrett. Actor/writer Barrett's play is a one-woman look at the onrushing apocalypse that had a production n 2013 by Chicago's Sideshow Theatre. Interestingly, the director of this reading is Karie Miller who performed in the original Chicago production.There is a talkback with the cast and crew after this performance.
• January 16: Rust on Bone by Bianca Sams. Actor/writer (and Ohio University MFA) Sams' Rust on Bone has been wracking up prestigious readings including at Gulfshore Playhouse and Manhattan Theatre Club and her website describes her work as "violent intersections that force audiences to confront their own complex love affair with misery." This might be the play I'm most looking forward to in this year's Next Stage Initiative, directed by Yolanda Board.
•  January 17: Queens of tbe Ring by Max Glenn. Actor/writer Glenn did a fascinating turn in Camille Bullock's Southern Cross the Dog in last year's Next Stage Initiative and has been working behind the scenes with AVLT in the intervening year, most recently as Dramaturge on She Kills Monsters and this workshop reading of his play is directed by frequent AVLT collaborator Whitney Thomas Eads who has been doing stunning work as an actress of late. 

Literary

January 13: Writing Wrongs Poetry featuring Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib. Ruby Tuesday, 1978 Summit St. Columbus expat Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib created a thriving pocket of the scene in his years shepherding Travonna coffee house's poetry night and also appeared on stages with every other great poet in town and better than held his own. One of the most fluid voices and incisive wits I've ever seen. He's relocated to Connecticut so this rare local feature should be really special, plus one of the livest open mics in town. Starts at 8:00pm. $5 cover, $3 for students. 

 

Music

January 13: Mishka Shubaly. Ace of Cups, 2619 N High St. Mishka Shubaly used to come through Columbus regularly, as a solo act and in bands like Beat the Devil. He's spent the last few years focusing on a fantastic second career as a prose writer but I, for one, am very glad to see he's bringing his great lived-in Replacements style songs around the country again - his performance at Larry's 10 or more years ago is still one of my favorite singer-songwriter evenings ever at my favorite bar in Columbus. Seattle-based singer-songwriter Star Anna opens and local singer-songwriter Lou Poster, of Grafton, The Ferals, and Drift Mouth, closes the evening. Starts at 9:00pm. $5 cover.

January 15: Weyes Blood. Cafe Bourbon Street, 2216 Summit St. Weyes Blood is the new project of Natalie Mering from Jackie O Motherfucker and it's less unhinged but in a similar blood-dark vein of weirdo Americana concerned with the world as body and the body as the world. The newest record, The Innocents, came out late enough I didn't really hear and absorb it before 2014 ended but it's already nagging at me and I can't wait to hear those songs live. Ryan Jewell's folk/krautrock band Mosses along with the fragile, damaged, haunting electronics of Pretty Pornos, and Thunder Thighs, with whom I'm not familiar yet, open. Starts at 10:00pm. $5 cover.

January 16: Nox Boys with The Hexers and New Gentle Soul. Spacebar, 2590 N High St. The Hexers, whose two-guitar lineup has both gelled and injected some harder bluesy edges to their girl group stomps and garage swings, are one of the most consistently entertaining and righteously rocking bands in town with a slate of songs that make old forms feel as fresh as the sweat on your brow. They're bringing their Get Hip label mates, teenage adrenaline-fueled garage rockers Nox Boys, in from Pittsburgh for this show. And make sure you show up early enough for New Gentle Soul, the merging of Travis Kokas from The Cusacks on guitar and vocals, Tutti Jackson from The Patsys and Action Family on bass and vocals, Matt Benz from The Sovines, The Beatdowns and Sin Shouters, on lead guitar and backing vocals, and Gene Brodeur from The Sovines and Bubba Ho-Tep on drums, doing some of the finest spiky '60s sunshine pop with a dark and bitter tang of anyone in town. Doors at 9:00pm. $5 cover.

Still Running

This is a section for things that I recommended in earlier weeks still ongoing and I still recommend

Theater


Warehouse Theatre Company presents This is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan. Madlab Theatre, 227 N Third St.  This play chronicles 24 hours in the life of three young people adrift in early '80s Manhattan. When it premiered in the mid-'90s, it helped cement Lonergan as a keen vivisectionist of the American neurosis. Warehouse Theatre Company returned to the Columbus scene last year after an almost 10 year absence, and I reviewed this for Columbus Underground. More info: Interview with playwright Kenneth Lonergan occasioned by last year's Broadway revival: http://www.details.com/blogs/daily-details/2014/09/kenneth-lonergan-interview.html. Interview with the cast and crew about this production in the Columbus Dispatch: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2015/01/01/1-play-follows-three-slackers-on-bumpy-road-to-adulthood.html. Preview at 8pm January 7, 2015. Performances at 8pm Thursday-Saturday, January 8-January 14; at 2pm and 7pm on Sunday January 11, 2015. More information and tickets: www.warehousetheatre.org/#!this-is-our-youth/c1gl

Visual Art

Esther Ruiz: Neon Dreams. Glass Axis, 610 W Town St.  Brooklyn artist Esther Ruiz is presenting a solo exhibition of her minimal futuristic landscapes that use glittering, shiny surfaces to conjure a vibration down the viewer's spine. I can't wait to see this work in person. On view through February 22, 2015. More information: https://glassaxis.org/neon-dreams-an-exhibition-featuring-esther-ruiz/

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"Hey, Fred!" A Biased, Idiosyncratic Top Five for the Week of January 5-11, 2015

This is the most popular feature (within the very relative confines of that word as it relates to this). A look at things I want to shine some light on - not everything I'm going to do, and not quite (as the old version was) everything I'd do if money and time were no object.

This is my top 5 suggestions for the week in question - named for my great pal Fred Pfening and named long before it was born, by A., who suggested "Rick's going to have a blog called 'Hey, Fred! Here's what's coming to town..." - whatever media strike my fancy. It could be all theater one week, it could be all films or all readings or all gallery shows, but most weeks will include some if not mostly music. I hope to spark some conversations and get people excited about what I'm excited about. If you read this, let me know what would make it more useful to you. As well, if you get any value out of this, please send me links/invite me on facebook/send up a carrier pigeon to let me know about your events.

Theatre

Available Light Theatre Presents Next Stage Initiative 2015. Riffe Center - Studio Two, 77 S. High St.  8:00pm Thursday-Saturday, January 8-January 17. Pay What You Want at the door.  One of my favorite Available Light events and one of my favorite theatrical events in town becomes a tradition with its second year. Next Stage Initiative is a mixture of workshops of plays so new they're still damp and tryout readings of plays that have been produced with some success elsewhere that are being considered for future production. This is the best place in town to see and hear new and fascinating voices that might not get a reading of this caliber anywhere else. In its first weekend, the plays are as follows:

• January 8: The Death of Captain Hero by Amy Crider.  This play, written by Crider, an alumna of Second City and Chicago Dramatists, won the Chameleon Theatre Circle's New Play Contest, and is about the head writer of a 1970s children's show trying to honor the death of its star by giving the character the heroic death his actor didn't get but running into FCC restrictions. Directed by David Glover who has been a shining star since joining the AVLT troupe last year. There is a talkback, including the playwright, after this performance.
• January 9: Quixote: A Radical Adaptation by Jen Schleuter.  Jen Schleuter's deconstructionist approach to one of the great novels of the Western world has a full production scheduled later in the season, but this is a chance to see it in its embryonic stage and even give some feedback. Directed by Matt Slaybaugh, who will also direct the final production. Last year's Leaving the Atocha Station adaptation went through this same process and it was a fascinating look at the bones of a piece coming to life for a theater lover. There is a talkback with the cast and crew, including the playwright.
• January 10: After by Brett Beach.  This is a workshop staging of a brand new play from former OSU MFA student and writer Brett Beach, directed by Francesca Spedalieri, who's doing killing work with the OSU Theatre department. I don't know anything about this, but it's a key example of what makes this project AVLT embarks on so exciting. There is a talkback with the cast and crew, including the playwright.

Warehouse Theatre Company presents This is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan. Madlab Theatre, 227 N Third St.  This play chronicles 48 hours in the life of three young people adrift in early '80s Manhattan. When it premiered in the mid-'90s, it helped cement Lonergan as a keen vivisectionist of the American neurosis. Warehouse Theatre Company returned to the Columbus scene last year after an almost 10 year absence, and I have great memories of their productions of Assassins, Yasmin Reza's Art, and more, so expectations are high. Interview with playwright Kenneth Lonergan occasioned by last year's Broadway revival: http://www.details.com/blogs/daily-details/2014/09/kenneth-lonergan-interview.html. Interview with the cast and crew about this production in the Columbus Dispatch: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2015/01/01/1-play-follows-three-slackers-on-bumpy-road-to-adulthood.html. Preview at 8pm January 7, 2015. Performances at 8pm Thursday-Saturday, January 8-January 14; at 2pm and 7pm on Sunday January 11, 2015. More information and tickets: www.warehousetheatre.org/#!this-is-our-youth/c1gl

Visual Art

Esther Ruiz: Neon Dreams. Glass Axis, 610 W Town St.  Brooklyn artist Esther Ruiz is presenting a solo exhibition of her minimal futuristic landscapes that use glittering, shiny surfaces to conjure a vibration down the viewer's spine. I can't wait to see this work in person.  Opening Friday, January 9 from 5:00pm-9:00pm. On view through February 22, 2015. More information: https://glassaxis.org/neon-dreams-an-exhibition-featuring-esther-ruiz/

Music

Tuesday, January 6, 2015: Sapphic with Sex Tide, Katherine, and Phases. Double Happiness, 482 S. Front St.  Grand Rapids band Sapphic are mining a similar vein of Joy Division-esque growly swing spun through with explosions and swirls of noise and echo as fellow Michigan band the heavily buzzed Protomartyr, but Sapphic have a fresh-sounding live approach that should be perfectly suited for the tight confines of Double Happiness. Locals Sex Tide - really finding their own as a two-piece and tightening their songs - and Katherine - a bass/drums queer punk duo who are a much needed shot in the arm to Columbus's scene - open, along with Indiana's Phases.  Doors at 8:00pm. $8 cover. 


Wednesday, January 7, 2015: Bobby Floyd Trio. Natalie's Coal Fired Pizza, 5601 N. High St.  One of Columbus's finest jazz piano and organ players, Bobby Floyd plays with a gospel-infused fire and a harmonic imagination that's second to none. Since he's been on the tour with Dr. John he doesn't play in town nearly as often these days and it's a special treat to see him in a small listening room like Natalie's. He'll be backed by two of his long-running compatriots, Derek DiCenzo on bass (and possibly also guitar) and Reggie Jackson on drums, and the simpatico relationship among these three borders on the telepathic. Starts at 9:00pm. $10 tickets available at Natalie's. 

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