this week in music

LOWER EAST SIDE PICKLE DAY

Orchard St. between East Houston & Delancey Sts.
Sunday, October 27, free, 12 noon – 5:00
www.lowereastsideny.com

What’s better than getting pickled on a beautiful fall afternoon? On October 27, more than a dozen picklers will be on hand for Lower East Side Pickle Day, including Rick’s Picks, MacDonald Farms, McClure’s Pickles, Adamah, Guss’ Pickles, Divine Brine, the Pickle Guys, Mama O’s Premium Kimchi, Grillo’s Pickles, Pickleña, Sour Puss Pickles, Mrs. Kim’s Kimchi, Brooklyn Brine, Horman’s Best Pickles, and others. If pickles ain’t your thing — a whole lot more than just cucumbers can be pickled, you know — you can get food from Pop Karma, Souvlaki GR, Georgia’s Eastside BBQ, Brooklyn Taco, the Meatball Shop, Russ & Daughters, Cheeky Sandwich, Mi Case es Su Casa, Tiengarden, Grazer, Mission Chinese, Saxelbee Cheesemongers, Spur Tree, Goodfella’s Pizza, Ni Japanese Deli, Grey Lady, Roasting Plant, Lush, Luca & Bosco, and Sweet Buttons. But if you eat too much, you might not fit into chic duds from David Owens Vintage Clothing, Old Hollywood, the Hoodie Shop, Grit N Glory, By Robert James, Urban Cricket, Quinn, and Yaf Sparkle, all of which will also have booths at the event. In addition, there will be a kids Halloween costume contest, free yoga lessons, a fitness challenge, badminton, urban croquet, face painting, a kids craft table, and a home pickling contest, featuring celebrity judges Nell Casey, Melissa Gaman, Niki Russ-Federman, Helen Rosner, and Claudia Sidoti. Live performances kick off at 12:30 with deejay Bruce Tantum and continue with DJ Deja NYC at 1:30, guitarist Joshua Micah at 2:45, comedian Fantasy Grandma at 3:20, and deejay, musician, and producer Anton Bass at 4:00.

QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Sineglossa’s REMEMBER ME is part of second Queer New York International Arts Festival

Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
October 23 – November 3, free – $18 (many shows $10 suggested donation)
212-598-0400
www.queerny.org
www.abronsartscenter.org

In a 2012 Huffington Post blog about the first Queer New York International Arts Festival, artistic codirector André von Ah wrote, “Queerness, in perhaps its barest and most basic concept, is about breaking the rules, shaking things up, and challenging preconceived ideas.” The second QNYIA continues to shake things up with twelve days and nights of performances, panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, and other events at such venues as Abrons Arts Center, the Invisible Dog, La MaMa, Joe’s Pub, and New York Live Arts, but sadly, it will be proceeding without von Ah, who curated this year’s programming with artistic director Zvonimir Dobrović but sadly passed away suddenly last month, still only in his mid-twenties. This year’s festival, which is dedicated to von Ah, opens October 23 with the U.S. premiere of Ivo Dimchev’s P-Project at Abrons Arts Center, the Bulgarian artist’s interactive piece that uses words that begin with the letter P to investigate societal taboos. Italy’s Sineglossa uses mirrored screens in Remember Me, based on Henry Purcell’s opera about Dido and Aeneas. Audience favorite Raimund Hoghe pays special tribute to von Ah with An Evening with Judy, in which he channels Judy Garland, Maria Callas, and others. Poland’s SUKA OFF investigates skin shedding in its multimedia Red Dragon. Brazil’s Ângelo Madureira plays “the dreamer” in his contemporary dance piece Delírio. Croatia’s Room 100 presents the U.S. premiere of its dark, experimental C8H11NO2. Dan Fishback offers a concert reading of The Material World at Joe’s Pub, the sequel to You Will Experience Silence; Fishback will also participate in the October 26 panel discussion “Creating Queer / Curating Queer” at the New School with Carla Peterson, Tere O’Connor, TL Cowan, Susana Cook, and Dobrović. The Club at La MaMa will host the New Music Series, featuring M Lamar, Shane Shane, Enid Ellen, Nath Ann Carrera, and Max Steele. The festival also includes works by Bojana Radulović, Elisa Jocson, Guillermo Riveros, Daniel Duford, Bruno Isaković, Gabriela Mureb, Heather Litteer, CHOKRA, Antonia Baehr, and Antoni Karwowski, with most shows requiring advance RSVPs and requesting a $10 suggested donation.

A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN

Mary Bridget Davies channels Janis Joplin in disappointing Broadway musical (photo by Joan Marcus)

Lyceum Theatre
149 West 45th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through March 30, $28- $140
anightwithjanisjoplin.com

Mary Bridget Davies was seemingly born to play Janis Joplin. When she was a teenager in Cleveland, she dressed as Joplin for Halloween. Later, she toured as a singer with Joplin’s band, Big Brother and the Holding Company. And now she has the lead role in the Broadway musical A Night with Janis Joplin. Davies looks like Joplin, she moves like Joplin, and, most impressive, she sounds like Joplin. Unfortunately, writer-director Randy Johnson barely glosses over the personal aspects of Joplin’s life, never really delving into necessary details, instead concentrating ad nauseam on her love of the blues and her musical influences. The show is arranged as a one-night concert in which Joplin, backed by a trio of singers and a live band, blasts out classic songs, with in-between patter that quickly grows repetitive. As she talks about her heroes, they take the stage and perform, including Bessie Smith (Taprena Michelle Augustine), Nina Simone (De’Adre Aziza), Aretha Franklin (Allison Blackwell), Etta James (Nikki Kimbrough), and Odetta (Aziza again), but these numbers seem to be an excuse for Davies to rest her voice, as they add nothing to the Joplin legend. In fact, A Night with Janis Joplin occurs in a vacuum, set in no particular time period. There is no mention of the civil rights movement, sex, drugs, alcohol (Davies does take a single swig from a bottle, sans commentary), Monterey Pop, Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix, or Jim Morrison, although F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald show up twice, even once projected onto a screen in the back. The setlist is, of course, sensational, although too many songs are heard in incomplete versions: “Summertime,” “Down on Me,” “Piece of My Heart,” “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder),” “Cry Baby,” “Ball and Chain,” etc., in addition to the unfortunately prophetic “I’m Gonna Rock My Way to Heaven,” which Joplin was working on when she died and has never been previously performed or recorded. Set and lighting designer Justin Townsend fills the stage with dozens of lamps of all shapes and sizes, along with a row of vertical fluorescent lights in the back and yet more long, narrow fluorescent bulbs arranged askew around the front, but it’s not exactly clear why. But it does fit in with the general feel of the production, which ends up being a whole lot more style than substance. Johnson has claimed that this is not a tribute show, but it would fit in better at a venue such as B.B. King’s Blues Club, which hosts regular tributes to the Beatles, James Brown, Motown, Simon & Garfunkel, the Doors, Santana, Bruce Springsteen, and others, than at a Broadway theater, where a lot more depth is expected.

CMJ 2013: DAY FIVE

One of our favorite breakout bands of 2013 is Heliotropes, the Brooklyn foursome whose debut record, A Constant Sea, (Manimal, June 18), is one of the best of the year. Bassist Nya Abudu, drummer Cici Harrison, vocalist and tambourine player Amber Myers, and lead singer and guitarist Jessica Numsuwankijkul put on a fab show at this summer’s 4 Knots Music Festival at the South Street Seaport, and now they’ll be playing a pair of gigs on the last day of the 2013 CMJ Music Marathon, October 19, at Spike Hill at 12 noon and later on at 9:00 at Grand Victory for the BreakThru Radio showcase (on a great bill with Eternal Summers, EULA, and the Meaning of Life).

Wild Honey Pie: Deirdre & the Dark, 1:20; How Sad, 2:00; Highs, 2:50; Wilsen, 3:40; Belle Mare, 4:30; TV Girl, 5:20; Little Daylight, 6:10; Hockey, 7:00; Empress Of, 7:50: French Horn Rebellion, 8:50; Caveman, 9:50; Joywave, 11:10, Cameo Gallery, 93 North Sixth St.

Green Room Music Source: Benjamin Cartel, 3:00; Blue Eyed Son, 4:00; Pete Donnelly, 5:00; Freedy Johnston, 6:00, the Living Room, 154 Ludlow St.,

BreakThru Radio: the Meaning of Life, 7:00; EULA, 7:40; Heliotropes, 9:00; Eternal Summers, 10:00, Grand Victory, 245 Grand St., Brooklyn

Happy Fangs, 7:00; the Last Kiss AKA Fuka Lata, 8:00; the Novocaines, 9:00; Highly Suspect, 10:00; Bad Cop, 11:00; the Demos, 12:00, Trash Bar, 256 Grand St., Brooklyn

L Rock Entertainment Presents: Peter Chance & Chapter 3, 7:00; Loren Benjamin, 8:00; Midnight Spin, 9:00; Mike Scala, 10:00; Animal Years, 11:00; the Young Things, 12 midnight; Shake the Baron, 1:00; BELT, 2:00, the Bitter End, 147 Bleecker St.

MezzoForte Productions + Brixton Agency Present: the Attic Ends, 7:00; Marmalakes, 8:00; Gemini Club, 9:00; Wild Adriatic, 10:00; Black Taxi, 11:00; Hockey, 12:00; Misun, 1:00; No Way Josie, 2:00, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston St.

Heart Bleeds Radio Showcase: Duke Evers, 7:30; the Brooklyn What, 8:30; Slothrust, 9:30; Radical Dads, 10:30; the Planes, 11:30; My Teenage Stride, 12:15, Matchless, 557 Manhattan Ave.

International Rescue Artist Development + Drunken Piano Dub Pies Present: Eternal Summers, 7:00; Dream Shake, 7:45; Oscar Key Sung, 8:30; the Suzan, 9:15; Weird Womb, 10:00; the Shackeltons, 10:45; Ghost Wave, 11:30, Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Father John Misty “Solo,” Kate Berlant, 9:00, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth St.

CMJ 2013: DAY FOUR

You’d be wrong wrong wrong not to catch Eleanor Friedberger at this year’s CMJ festival, as she continues her Fiery Furnaces hiatus with her second solo album, the wonderful Personal Record (Merge, June 2013). Friedberger will be at Judson Church on Thursday at 12 noon as part of the KEXP Live Broadcast (free and open to the public, no CMJ badge required), followed by an 11:00 show at Bowery Ballroom. Below are more recommendations for a wide-open Friday night, including some of our other local favorites, Heliotropes and Tall Tall Trees.

HMG PR & Ear Candy Present: Arms, 12 noon; Jacob Snider, 12:45; Charlene Kaye, 1:30; Lapland, 2:15; the Donnies the Amys, 3:00; the Spring Standard, 3:45; Pearl and the Beard, 4:45, Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2, 196 Allen St.

Monarch Artists: Mainland, 12 noon; the Adversary, 12:50; Dynasty Electric, 1:40; Maya Vik, 2:35; My Midnight Heart, 3:25; White Prism, 4:20; Bright Light Bright Light, 5:15, Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery

Planetary and the Great Escape Present: Wildlife, 1:20; Tigertown, 2:00; Hermitude, 2:40; Tops, 3:20; Blind Boys of Alabama, 4:00; the Preatures, 4:45; Sheppard, 5:25, Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Fuck Buttons with Mystery Skulls and Lichens, 6:00, (le) Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St.

Distiller Promo: DJ Neal Sugarman, 6:00; Sunwolf, 7:00; Cub Sport, 7:40; Diane Coffee, 8:30; Heliotropes, 9:20; Bad Cop, 10:00; the Can’t Tells, 10:50, Union Pool, 484 Union Ave.

Big Picture Media: NGHBRS, 7:00; Sol Cat, 7:45; Maria Taylor, 8:30; Sheppard, 9:15; Quiet Company, 10:00, Sullivan Hall, 214 Sullivan St.

Baeblemusic Presents the Launch Pad: Flagship, 7:00; Duologue, 8:00; the Darcys, 9:00; Misun, 10:00; Claire, 11:00; the Ceremonies, 12 midnight, Spike Hill, 186 Bedford Ave.

Champion: Promised Land Sound, 7:30; Okta Logue, 8:00; Kan Wakan, 9:00; Reuben and the Dark, 10:00; Eleanor Friedberger, 11:00; the Long Winters, 12 midnight, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St

Craft Services: Weaves, 8:00; Victory, 8:50; HSY, 9:40; Rey Pila, 10:30; Odonis Odonis, 11:20; Saul Williams & the Dragons of Zynth, 12:15, Santos Party House, 96 Lafayette St.

Tall Tall Trees, 11:00 pm, Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1, 196 Allen St.

ENZO AVITABLE MUSIC LIFE

Enzo Avitable and Jonathan Demme team up for charming music documentary set in Naples

ENZO AVITABILE MUSIC LIFE (Jonathan Demme, 2012)
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway at 63rd St., 212-757-2280
Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston St. at Mercer St., 212-995-2570
Opens Friday, October 18
www.enzoavitabilemusiclife.com

About six years ago, Jonathan Demme was driving in his car toward the George Washington Bridge when he heard a song on the radio that changed his life. It was by a Neapolitan musician he had never heard of before, Enzo Avitable. A few years later, producer Davide Azzolini invited Demme to be a special guest at the Naples Film Festival, and Demme agreed to attend, as long as he got to meet Avitable. Not only did Azzolini arrange the meeting, but they all decided to work together as well. The result is the charming documentary Enzo Avitable Music Life, in which Demme captures the always smiling and positive Avitable playing in a beautiful Baroque church with a stellar group of musicians from around the world, showing off his cluttered apartment (along with photos of him with James Brown, Tina Turner, and other superstars he has performed with), and visiting his childhood town of Marianella. As with such previous Demme documentaries as Stop Making Sense, Storefront Hitchcock, and Neil Young Trunk Show, the focus is on the music, as Avitable discusses his classical training and composing methods, pontificates on his love of jazz, and participates in wonderful jam sessions with various combinations that include Cuba’s Eliades Ochoa, Iraq’s Naseer Shamma, Spain’s Gerardo Núñez, Pakistan’s Ashraf Sharif Khan Poonchwala, India’s Trilok Gurtu, Sardinia’s Luigi Lai, Italy’s Zi’ Giannino Del Sorbo and Bruno Canino, Iran’s Hossein Alizadeh, Mauritania’s Daby Touré, and Palestinian singer Amal Murkus. Avitable is seen playing saxophone and unusual stringed instruments and singing lyrics that range from traditional folktales to abstract poetry to overheated sociopolitical commentary, believing in the power of music to make a difference. The scenes in the church have a kind of magic that is reminiscent of Davis Guggenheim’s It Might Get Loud, which documented a historic jam session between Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White. And things get sweetly personal when the ebullient, curly haired Avitable returns to Marianella and meets up with some old friends — and their parents, who remember him well from when he was just a kid. The film is not merely a celebration of Avitable and his music but a tribute to his beloved Napoli as well.

CMJ 2013: DAY THREE

Australia’s City Riots continues its nine-shows-in-ten-days New York assault at the CMJ Bulldog Gin Party at the Raven on October 17 and the CMJ Aussie BBQ on October 19 at the Delancey. Featuring songs from their debut album, Sea of Bright Lights, which can be streamed here, Ricky Kradolfer, Matthew Edge, Dan Kradolfer, and Matthew Stadler will also be hosting a record listening party at Klimat Lounge on October 18, then play Rockwood Music Hall on October 21, Pianos on October 22, and Bowery Electric on October 23. Below are more of our CMJ recommendations for Thursday.

Flux Studios Presents: Bridge City Hustle, 12 noon; Julian Peterson, 1:00; Banda Magda, 2:00; Cyrille Aimee, 3:00; Jeff Campbell & Megan Stankard, 5:00; Mark Wilkinson, 6:00; Landshapes, 7:00; Badboxes, 8:00; Lily & The Parlour Tricks, 9:00; Aaron Lee Tasjan, 10:00; Aabaraki, 11:00; Mandolin Orange, 12 midnight, Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1, 196 Allen St.

Menomena, the Helio Sequence, Pattern Is Movement, 6:30, Webster Hall, 125 East Eleventh St.

The Texas Takeover Party: Wild Child, the Tontons, Ishi, Emily Bell, Megafauna, the Migrant, 7:00, Tammany Hall, 152 Orchard St.

Mideau, 7:00; Fan-Tan, 7:45; Magic Bronson, 8:30; Trumpeter Swan, 9:15; Tan Vampires, 10:00; Steel Phantoms, 10:45; Top Less Gay Tekno Party, 11:30; holychild, 12:15, Leftfield, 87 Ludlow St.

L Rock Entertainment Presents: Bobby McGrath, 7:30; I’ll Be John Brown, 8:30; 2/3 Goat, 9:30; the Morningsiders, 10:30; Danielia Cotton, 11:30, the Bitter End, 147 Bleecker St.

The Deli: Heeney, 8:00; Dead Stars, 8:30; Slonk Donkerson, 9:00; People’s Champ, 9:40; Sway Machinery, 10:40; EMEFE, 11:35; Mammal Dap, 12:30, Spike Hill, 186 Bedford Ave.

Panache: Big Ups, 8:00; Homeshake, 8:50; Calvin Love, 9:40; Ex-Cult, 10:30; Hunters, 11:30; Speedy Ortiz, 12:30, 285 Kent, 285 Kent Ave.

PledgeMusic: holychild, 8:00; Firehorse, 9:00; 10:00pm Here We Go Magic, 10:00; DJ set by Nicole Atkins, 11:00, the Heath at the McKittrick Hotel, 542 West 27th St.

New West Records: Ruby the Rabbitfoot, 9:00; New Madrid, 9:50; Wild Moccasins, 10:50; Yip Deceiver, 12 midnight; White Wiolet, 1:10, the Living Room, 154 Ludlow St.