this week in music

FIRST SATURDAYS: LIGHT UP THE SEASON

James Tissot, detail, “Jesus Goes Up Alone onto a Mountain to Pray,” opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, 1886−94

Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, December 5, free after 5:00 (some events require advance free tickets available an hour or two before showtime)
718-638-5000
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly First Saturdays program welcomes in the holiday season with a flurry of free activity tonight, much of which surrounds the James Tissot exhibition “The Life of Christ,” including a rare screening of LA VIE DU CHRIST (THE LIFE OF CHRIST) (Alice Guy Blaché, 1906), a concert of liturgic music by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and a Young Voices gallery talk about the Tissot show. In addition, Pete Fornatale will discuss his new book, BACK TO THE GARDEN: THE STORY OF WOODSTOCK, in conjunction with the “Who Shot Rock & Roll” photography exhibit; there will be live performances by a trio of Dutch groups, Michael Varekamp’s Caribbean jazz ensemble, EveNi, and Lee-Ursus Alexander, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s travels to New York; the Hands-On Art workshop will teach participants how to make a stained-glass window; Beatlemania continues with a screening of Richard Lester’s 1964 classic comedy A HARD DAY’S NIGHT; and Soul Summit hosts the hot and sweaty dance party. There really is nothing quite like First Saturdays, an energizing mix of art, music, film, literature, dance, and more, held the first Saturday of every month to an ever-growing crowd.

ART AND LITERATURE

Salman Rushdie will participate in special presentation at the Cooper Union on December 1

GREAT EVENING IN THE GREAT HALL
The Great Hall at the Cooper Union
7 East Seventh St. at Astor Pl.
Tuesday, December 1, free, 6:30
212-353-4195
www.cooper.edu/month.html

The Cooper Union’s 150th anniversary celebration continues with a special free evening of art and literature with an all-star lineup. Writers Tony Kushner, Salman Rushdie, and Siri Hustvedt will read from their own works, while Isaiah Sheffer and Olympia Dukakis will read selections from W. H. Auden and Mark Twain. Dynamic vocalist Capathia Jenkins and guitarist Louis Rosen, who have set music to poems by Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou, will also perform. The exquisite evening will be directed by Michael Unger.

I SLEPT WITH JOEY RAMONE

Leigh and McNeil will discuss Joey Ramone in B&N conversation on December 1

MICKEY LEIGH / LEGS McNEIL
Barnes & Noble TriBeCa
97 Warren St.
Tuesday, December 1, free, 7:00
212-587-5389
www.books.simonandschuster.com
www.store-locator.barnesandnoble.com

No, I SLEPT WITH JOEY RAMONE (Touchstone, December 1, 2009, $26) is not a juicy tell-all about the late, beloved leader of punk progenitors the Ramones. Instead, it’s an intimate family memoir written by Jeffry Hyman’s brother, Mickey Leigh, with the legendary Legs McNeil. “Jeff was as happy a kid as you could find in Forest Hills in the 1950s: rolling down the grassy hills laughing; standing up, spinning round and round in circles with his long gangly arm outstretched; then falling over like a drunken monkey,” Leigh writes in the first chapter, “I Slept with Joey Ramone – and His Mother Too!” He continues, “Jeff would coax me to join him but warned, ‘Don’t throw up on me.’ I did both of the above.” The book includes an eight-page black-and-white insert of photos dating back to 1952 and even showing Joey with McNeil back in the day, with Ramone reading a TWILIGHT ZONE book and Legs delving into a copy of Billboard. Leigh and McNeil will be sharing their memories of Joey and talking about the book at the TriBeCa B&N on December 1 at 7:00.

WINTER’S EVE AT LINCOLN SQUARE

Revelers kick off the holiday season at the annual Winter's Eve celebration in Lincoln Square (photo by Greenberg)

Broadway from 59th to 66th Sts.
Monday, November 30, free, 5:30
www.winterseve.org

The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District is celebrating its tenth year of presenting Winter’s Eve with another fun, frolicking holiday kickoff party along Broadway. The tree lighting itself — a twenty-five-foot Balsam Fir — will take place in Dante Park at 63rd Sts., hosted by Joy Behar. The great Brooklyn Afro-funk group Antibalas (Main Stage, 64th St., 6:30 & 7:45) headlines a slate of entertainment that also includes God’s Generation Choir (Dante Park, 5:30 & 6:00), the Flaming Idiots (Dante Park, 5:30 & 6:45), the Harlem Samba Band (Richard Tucker Park, 66th St., 6:00, 7:00, 8:00), the Andy Akiho Foundry Percussion Trio (Richard Tucker Park, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30), Alice Farley Dance Theater (Boradway & 65th St.), and Chinese Lion Dancers and the Hungry March Band, both of which will be marching all over the place. In addition, jazz composer and cellist Ben Allison will be playing two special sets at the American Folk Art Museum, “Songs from Think Free and Others” at 6:30 and a special Neil Young birthday tribute at 7:30. Other events are scheduled for the Time Warner Center and the local Barnes & Noble and Apple Store. There will also be ice sculpting demonstrations, AcroYoga, holiday singalongs, children’s activities, special discounts at area stores as well as $1-$5 food tastings from Asiate, Bar Boulud, Josephina, Landmarc, Picholine, Rosa Mexicano, Sushi a-go-go, and other restaurants. Be sure to bring a can of food to donate to the City Harvest truck at Dante Park to help others usher in the season.

FUCK BUTTONS

Hung and Power ride into Union Hall on November 27

Market Hotel
1142 Myrtle Ave. at Broadway
Friday, November 27, 8:00
www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons
www.myspace.com/markethotelnyc

Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung are touring behind their latest album, TAROT SPORT (ATP, October 2009) . Better known as Fuck Buttons, they will be playing with Growing and Eric Copeland of Black Dice at Union Hall on November 27. Although we still can’t get the lovely, ultrasweet “Sweet Love for Planet Earth,” from last year’s STREET HORRRSING, out of our head, we’re looking forward to seeing the British experimental duo take on their unique electro-techno from the new disc, from the ten-and-a-half-minute opener, the space-age “Surf Solar,” to the nine-and-a-half-minute closer, the fully airborne “Flight of the Feathered Serpent.” Along the way, Fuck Buttons makes interstellar stops at the heavy “Rough Steez,” the hypnotic “Lisbon Maru,” and the lilting, percussive “Space Mountain.” Get ready for a long, strange trip.

JOHN FOGERTY

John Fogerty and the Blue Ridge Rangers will ride into the Beacon on November 24 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Beacon Theatre
2124 Broadway between 74th & 75th Sts.
Tickets: $39.50 – $99.50
212-465-6500
www.johnfogerty.com
www.beacontheatre.com

Okay, back in August we alerted you to a rare free gig by John Fogerty, who played Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport on September 2. This time around, it will cost you a little more to see the classic rock-and-roller at the Beacon, where he brings his Blue Ridge Rangers on November 24. At the pier, Fogerty and his crack band filled the beautiful night with beautiful music, concluding the summer-long free Seaport Music Festival in a majestic way. Fogerty, touring behind his latest disc, the grammatically challenged THE BLUE RIDGE RANGERS RIDES AGAIN, played a heart-tugging mix of CCR oldies, bluegrass and country classics, and solo gems over the course of ninety exuberant minutes as a gorgeous moon rose over the rolling river behind the stage. Wearing a black cowboy hat, Fogerty kicked things off with the Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved,” followed by a swampy “Born on the Bayou,” the first of many songs on which he showed off his guitar virtuosity. (Later he shredded through a ten-minute “Keep on Chooglin’.”) Other covers from the new disc included John Denver’s “Back Home Again,” Buck Owens’s “I Don’t Care (Just as Long as You Love Me),” Delaney and Bonnie’s “Never Ending Love,” and John Prine’s “Paradise,” played with a fine eleven-piece backup band that featured Billy Burnette, Hunter Perrin, and Buddy Miller on guitars, Jason Mowery on fiddle, and Kenny Aronoff on drums

Fogerty pulled out a baseball-bat-shaped guitar for a sharp rendition of “Centerfield,” which he performed solo at the Yankees’ home opener back in April. Among the Creedence hits that got the mostly older crowd hopping were “Green River,” “Looking Out My Back Door,” and the killer three-song finale: “Bad Moon Rising” (including the oft-misheard line “There’s a bathroom on the right”), “Fortunate Son” sounding like the angry punk anthem that it is, and the sing-along “Proud Mary.” Fogerty was in good spirits throughout the night, often commenting on how much he loves his wife — and even adding, “Heck, I love your wife!” One curious decision was not to have spotlights on Fogerty when he solo’d at the front of the stage, instead casting him as a dark, shadowy figure. Artists usually request that when they don’t want the audience to see what they really look like as they age, but from our up-close angle, the sixty-three-year-old Fogerty looked and sounded great.

ELLIOTT BROOD

Superior gothic country trio won't be bringing anyone down at Union Hall

Union Hall
702 Union St.
Tuesday, November 24, $10, 7:30
718-638-4400
www.elliottbrood.ca
www.unionhallny.com

Once again, we find ourselves featuring an up-and-coming band that has recently experienced problems on the road; this time, it’s Toronto’s Elliott Brood, whose van was broken into in Montreal. But the Gothic country trio has soldiered on, scheduled to pull into Brooklyn tonight for a gig at Union Hall, headlining a bill with Bryan Scary & the Shredding Tears and the Black Hollies. Recently nominated for a Bucky award for best live band in Canada, Elliott Brood features Casey Laforet on bass and guitar, Stephen Pitkin on suitcases and percussion, and lead singer Mark Sasso on various stringed instruments, including banjo, guitar, and ukulele. The group is at the tail end of its North American tour, celebrating the U.S. release of MOUNTAIN MEADOWS (Six Shooter, October 2009), a terrific album containing thirteen songs that display the threesome’s bright, jangly feel-good alt country Americana roots rock, from the majestic, epic “Fingers and Tongues” to the sweet “Miss You Now.” In between is such fine tunage as “Without Again,” “Garden River,” and “The Valley Town.”