twi-ny recommended events

DOWNTOWN DANCE FESTIVAL 2011

Saturday, August 13, and Sunday, August 14, Battery Park lawn, 1:00 – 4:00
Monday, August 15, through Friday, August 19, One New York Plaza, Water St. at Whitehall St., 12 noon – 2:00 pm
Saturday, August 20, Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway (enter on Chambers St.), 8:00
Admission: free (advance reservations needed for August 20)
www.batterydanceco.com

One of the longest-running free outdoor dance series in the country, the Downtown Dance Festival is turning thirty this year with another diverse lineup of performers taking over Battery Park and One New York Plaza. Running August 13-20, the festival, which is hosted by the Battery Dance Company, includes presentations by BALAM Dance Theater, Ballets with a Twist, Dancewave, Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Lydia Johnson Dance, and Murray Spalding Mandalas as well as Malaysia’s Sutra Dance Theatre and Poland’s Silesian Dance Theatre. The festival will head indoors August 20 for its grand finale, with Sutra Dance Theatre, led by artistic director Ramil Ibrahim, and Silesian Dance Theatre, under artistic director Jacek Luminski, teaming up at Dance New Amsterdam; although all of the outdoor shows are first come, first served, the indoor grand finale requires advance free tickets available here.

UPTOWN: TEASER FOR NEW SERIES

Filming now in Washington Heights and based on actual events, the pulse-pounding new series Uptown, created by Ray Acosta, directed by TJ Allan, written by Paris Qualles, and produced by Studio 530, tells the real story of Washington Heights, known for years as the drug capital of the world, during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Look for it coming soon to a TV screen near you, but remember: You saw it here first!

COLIN STETSON / CALLERS

Colin Stetson will be at 92YTribeca on August 12 before going on the road with Bon Iver

92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Friday, August 12, $12, 9:00
212-415-5500
www.92y.org
www.myspace.com/colinstetsonmusic

Stellar sax sideman Colin Stetson has played with Arcade Fire, the Sway Machinery, Laurie Anderson, the Belle Orchestre, Tom Waits, Antibalas, TV on the Radio, and others, but for his second solo album and tour, he’s front and center, highlighting songs from his dazzling new album, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (Constellation, February 2011). The Montreal-based musician brought his alto, tenor, and bass saxophones to Hotel2Tango in his hometown, where producer Shahzad Ismaily and engineer Efrim Menuck set up twenty-four microphones throughout the studio, each one capturing different elements of Stetson’s unique abilities. The recordings were then sent to Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik, where master mixer Ben Frost transformed them into fourteen soundscapes that boggle the mind. Although it often feels like Stetson is playing with a full band, it’s just him and his saxes, with the only overdubs French horn on one song and Anderson and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden contributing vocals to several tracks. The songs range from the spacey “Awake on Foreign Shores” and “The Stars in His Head (Dark Lights Remix)” to the beautifully cacophonous “From No Part of Me Could I Summon a Voice,” “Clothed in the Skin of the Dead,” and “The Righteous Wrath of an Honourable Man” to the mysterious finale, “In Love and in Justice.” Worden adds whispery vocals to Blind Willie Johnson’s “Lord I Just Can’t Keep from Crying Sometimes,” while Anderson does her trademark talk-singing on “All the Colors Bleached to White (ILAIJ II)” and “Judges,” with both women featured on “Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun.” On “A Dream of Water,” Anderson intones, “There were those who knew the rules.” On New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges, the rules are thrown out, resulting in a hypnotic suite of electrifying songs that incorporate avant-jazz, classical, minimalism, folk, blues, and more into a whole new sonic experience. Stetson, whose two-track, single-take solo EP Those Who Didn’t Run is set for release on October 4, will be playing with Bon Iver on their upcoming tour, but first he’s making a stop at 92YTribeca on August 12 on a bill with the Brooklyn-based Callers, a trio featuring Ryan Seaton on guitar, Sara Lucas on vocals, and Don Godwin on drums.

DETROIT COBRAS / DES ROAR / THE BAXX SISI’S

The Detroit Cobras are headlining a raucous triple bill August 12 at the Bell House, with Des Roar and the Baxx Sisi’s (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Bell House
149 Seventh St. between Second & Third Aves., Gowanus
Friday, August 12, $15, 8:00
718-643-6510
www.thebellhouseny.com
www.myspace.com/thedetroitcobras

When last we saw the Detroit Cobras (in August 2010), guitarist Mary Ramirez was doing her best not to get seasick aboard the Half Moon as the Rocks Off Concert Cruise ship teetered and tottered, making it difficult to stand up without holding on to something or someone. Meanwhile, lead singer Rachel Nagy wasn’t about to start the show until things calmed down at least a little bit. And of course, once the seas did calm ever so slightly, Nagy and Martinez, along with guitarist Joey Mazzola, bassist Jake Culkowski, and drummer Kenny Tudrick, ripped into a searing set of hard-driving old-fashioned garage rock that was anything but, well, calm. In their fifteen years together, the Cobras have released a mere four albums, the most recent being 2007’s Tied & True (Bloodshot); there’s been talk of a new album for quite a while now, and we’re hoping they’ll be featuring songs from it tonight at Maxwell’s (with the Booze) or at tomorrow’s hotly anticipated show at the Bell House, with New York City’s Des Roar, whose debut album, Mad Things (December 2009), was a potent combo of surfer rock and 1960s guitar pop and harmonies, and Brooklyn garage punk the Baxx Sisi’s (aka the Back C.C.’s), who might wear dress shirts, jackets, and ties but know how to cut it loose in two-minute bursts of raucous energy.

BROADWAY IN BRYANT PARK FINAL PERFORMANCE

The cast of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT will pull into Bryant Park for free performance on August 11 at 12:30

Bryant Park Lawn
40th to 42nd Sts. at Sixth Ave.
Thursday, August 11, free, 12:30
www.bryantpark.org

The curtain closes on the annual Broadway in Bryan Park summer season this afternoon at 12:30 with live performances from the casts of Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins, Avenue Q, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, giving theater lovers a taste of some of the most popular musicals on the Great White Way. The show takes place on the lawn and runs about an hour, so don’t get there late.

RIVERROCKS: DEER TICK WITH DOM AND TRANSLATIONS

Deer Tick will join Dom and Translations for final RiverRocks show at Piier 54 on August 11

Hudson River Park, Pier 54
West 14th St. & the Hudson River
Thursday, August 11, free, doors at 6:00, concert at 6:30
212-627-2121
www.riverrocksnyc.com

RiverRocks concludes its too-brief summer season on August 11 with another excellent trio of indie bands at Pier 54 in Hudson River Park. Kicking things off is Brooklyn new wave rockers Translations, who play fresh originals like “Pigeon Suit,” “Tarantella,” and “The Wanderer” and a sweet cover of Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It with Mine.” Next up is five-piece glam band Dom, who has earned quite a local name for themselves via groovy shows at the Siren Festival and CMJ, among other appearances. Dom is touring behind their new EP, Family of Love, which features such fun and fanciful tracks as “Telephone,” “Damn,” and “Some Boys,” the last an awesome collaboration with Emma. Headlining is psychedelic folk rock quintet Deer Tick, highlighted by the scratchy vocals of songwriter and guitarist John McCauley. Citing such diverse influences as Dr. Dre, Tom Petty, and Sammy Davis Jr. and keeping a wide range of cover tunes in their arsenal (ranging from the Beatles and Hank Williams to Nirvana and Warren Zevon), the Providence band, which got its name when McCauley found a tick on his scalp, prides itself on its live shows, so expect the unexpected. For a free sampler of bands playing RiverRocks, Beach Party, and Sound Bites, click here.

HOT AND HUMID: SUMMER FILMS FROM THE ARCHIVES — A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Warner Bros. production of Shakespeare play is a bizarre classic

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Max Reinhardt & William Dieterle, 2004)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, August 11, 4:30; Friday, August 19, 4:00
Series runs through September 7
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle’s 1935 adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one freakishly weird flick. In a misty forest, fairies go around sprinkling love potions on sleeping humans, creating mixed-up relationships that even venture out into the realm of bestiality. “The course of true love never did run smooth,” Lysander tells Hermia, and that sums up this star-studded screwball comedy of a sort. Warner Bros. put together quite a lineup for this big-time production, with plenty of strange casting choices that end up working rather splendidly. James Cagney prances about as Bottom, Dick Powell plays Lysander, Olivia de Havilland makes her film debut as Hermia, Joe E. Brown is Flute, Billy Barty plays Mustardseed, and a teenage Mickey Rooney offers a delirious take on Puck, howling at the moon with sheer glee. The wacky movie also features Ian Hunter, Arthur Treacher, Victor Jory, and Anita Louise as the fairy queen Titania. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, and won for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, will be screening August 11 at 4:30 and August 19 at 4:00 as part of MoMA’s “Hot and Humid: Summer Films from the Archives” series, which continues through September 7 with such seasonal dramas as Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A Summer at Grandpa’s, Federico Fellini’s I vitelloni, Ingmar Bergman’s Summer with Monika, André Téchiné’s Wild Reeds, Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.