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News Arts Editor Jeff Simon and Pop Music Critic Jeff Miers answered your questions about books, movies, television, music and more directly into the camera.
Rock artist Uncle Kracker, known for such hits as "Drift Away" and "Follow Me," will perform at 8 p.m. March 16 in the Rapids Theatre (1711 Main St., Niagara Falls). Sonia Leigh and Ty Stone will open the show.
Tickets go on sale at noon Friday (Jan. 13) and are $12 advance, $15 day of show and are available through the box office, online at www.ticketmaster.com or charge by phone at (800) 745-3000. For more information, call or visit www.rapidstheatre.com.
Pioneering British blues-rockers, the Yardbirds, along with Vanilla Fudge, will perform a show beginning at 8 p.m. on Feb. 1 in the Tralf Music Hall (622 Main St.).
The current lineup of the Yardbirds is original drummer Jim McCarty, plus guitarist Ben King, bassist David Smale and vocalist Andy Mitchell.
Tickets are $37 advance and $42 day of show and are available through the box office, online at www.ticketmaster.com or charge by phone at (800) 745-3000.
For more information, call 852-2860 or visit www.tralfmusichall.com.
Tony Lorenzo, Sons of Azreael/Ritual Quarantine guitarist and Western New York heavy music legend, was shot while walking in the Elmwood Village near his home in October. Though he survived the attack, Lorenzo remains in the hospital, paralyzed from the chest down. Friends and fans of the acclaimed guitarist will convene on Club Infinity (8166 Main St., Clarence) for two days of benefit concerts this weekend.
The concerts -- starting at 6 p.m. today (Jan. 7) and Sunday (Jan. 8) -- will find two classic aggro-metal outfits reforming in order to aid Lorenzo and his family during a time of serious need. Beyond Death -- featuring its original lineup, with members of Cannibal Corpse and Deicide in-house -- will be joined by Tirant Sin (also featuring members of Cannibal Corpse, as well as Malevolent Creation, Leviathan and Hellwitch) for Saturday’s show. Long Island death—metal legends Suffocation will headline Sunday. The full lineup is as follows: Beyond Death, Tirant Sin, Avulsion, Abdicate, Demented Dream States and Seplophile on Saturday; Suffocation, Embalmer, Seplophile and Cain on Sunday.
Admission for each show is $15. Tickets can be purchased through InfinityConcerts.com. PayPal donations are also being accepted, via helpingtony@gmail.com.
-- Jeff Miers
In her collages and drawings, Megan Greene fuses familiar images into unfamiliar shapes. In a memorable exhibition of drawings on black paper at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in 2008, Greene combined things like ram’s horns and medical devices to create extremely disconcerting objects that were impossible to look away from despite their potential to disturb.
A new and somewhat less menacing body of work by Greene goes on view in Buffalo Arts Studio today (Jan. 7), along with work by Buffalo artist Esther Neisen and Brooklyn-based artist Balint Zsako. Greene’s new pieces take their cue from the illustrations of John James Audubon, the naturalist and painter whose depictions of America’s birds remain popular today. In her new work, Greene has combined collage and colored pencil to create strange forms, sometimes "camouflaging the birds into oblivion," according to BAS artistic director and curator Cori Wolff.
Neisen’s sculptural work feeds on her fascination with insects, while Zsako uses ink and watercolor to create "dreamlike narratives that could easily take place in either utopia or hell."
The exhibition opens with a reception at 7 p.m. today (Jan. 7) and runs through March 10. Call 833-4450 or visit www.buffaloartsstudio.org.
-- Colin Dabkowski
"328," a mixed-media work by Megan Greene, part of an exhibition opening Jan. 7 in Buffalo Arts Studio.
Works by Mark Freeland are on display through Jan. 18 in 464 Gallery.
On June 14, 2007, when news came that Buffalo musician, artist and all-around cultural dynamo Mark Freeland had died, Buffalo’s arts and music communities came together to mourn the loss of one of the city’s most beloved and eccentric creative sprits.
That spirit lives on, as Freeland’s many friends, fans and disciples continue to celebrate his life and work in festivals, concerts and exhibitions. The latest of these opens tonight in 464 Gallery (464 Amherst St.), which will exhibit a collection of Freeland’s work through Jan. 18. Louis Grachos, director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which featured an exhibition of Freeland’s work in 2005, praised his talent and continued importance.
"Mark Freeland’s playful and unique images were an extension of his creative life experiences, his music, his poetry and his love for his native Buffalo," Grachos wrote. "Freeland’s inventive signature characters and insightful narratives beautifully captured and interpreted the world around him."
The show, which features a range of paintings, sculptures and collages by Freeland, opens with a reception at 6 tonight (Jan. 6). For more info, call 983-2112 or visit www.464gallery.com.
-- Colin Dabkowski
Works by Mark Freeland are on display through Jan. 18 in 464 Gallery.
Peter Palmisano, left, and Saul Elkin perform in the Kavinoky Theatre production of "Black Tie." Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News
After spending some time exploring the grand manner of the great Katharine Cornell ("The Grand Manner") and reimagining Buffalo as Casablanca ("Screen Play"), Buffalo-born playwright A.R. Gurney is back to his old tricks.
With his latest play, "Black Tie," opening tonight (Jan. 6) in the Kavinoky Theatre (320 Porter Ave.), Gurney returns to a form he has rarely left, namely the cozy world of Buffalo’s erstwhile aristocracy. This time, the story hinges on the upcoming wedding of a well-intentioned young WASP (Patrick Moltane), whose father (Peter Palmisano) is continually pestered by the persnickety ghost of his deceased grandfather (Saul Elkin).
Writing on his website, Gurney said the play was uncommonly easy for him to write.
"I found myself returning to so many of the themes I have wrestled with before," he wrote. "There I was, wrestling with a father-son relationship, an offstage social gathering of some importance, and cultural and generational conflicts within a particular family."
The show runs through Jan. 29. Tickets are $36. For more info, call 829-7668 or visit www.kavinokytheatre.org.
-- Colin Dabkowski
"Black Tie" opens tonight (Jan. 7) in the Kavinoky Theatre. From left is Peter Palmisano as Curtis with Josphenine Hogan as his wife Mimi and Morgan Chard as his daughter Elsie. Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News
Newly reformed rock act Van Halen is coming back to Buffalo.
David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen (Eddie's son) will perform at 7:30 p.m. March 9 in the First Niagara Center. Kool & the Gang will open the show. Tickets are $149.50, $79.50, $49.50, $29.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. on Jan. 14 at the box office and through Live Nation and by calling (888)223-6000.
The band made the tour announcement Thursday night during a gig in Cafi Wha?, a small New York City Club owned by Roth's uncle, Manny Roth. "This has been a really long time coming," Roth told the audience, according to an Associated Press report.
Van Halen will release the new disc "A Different King of Truth" on Feb. 7, its first studio album with Roth since 1984. The album's first single, "Tattoo," will be released Jan. 10. The tour will include new songs as well as classics like "Running With the Devil," "Jump" and "Hot for Teacher."
-- Toni Ruberto
David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen perform in Cafi Wha? Thursday. Photo by Associated Press
"1957-J, No. 2," a painting by Clyfford Still that was recently damaged by a Denver woman. Photo courtesy Clyfford Still Museum.
The art of Clyfford Still, the abstract expressionist master whose work is well represented in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, has been known to evoke strong reactions from viewers. But this one might be a first:
On Dec. 29, according to the Denver Post, an "apparently drunk" 36-year-old Denver woman dropped her pants in front of Still's mammoth painting "1957-J, No. 2" at the city's newly opened Clyfford Still Museum. She then reportedly punched the canvas, rubbed her posterior on it and finally urinated on herself.
The museum, the Post reported, estimated the damage to the $30 million painting at $10,000.
Look for our coverage of the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum in Sunday's Spotlight section.
--Colin Dabkowski
