Weekend Picks III: Dwight Twilley and Josh Berwanger; Girls Rock Lawrence benefit; Kansas Craft Beer Expo; Taproom poetry

Readers, do you have a ticket for the sold-out Kansas Craft Beer Expo in LFK this weekend? We hope you do. If not, however, there are plenty of other equally worthy ways to spend your time (also while drinking beer). Let’s take a look:

She Plays Replay: GRL Benefit, 10 p.m. Friday, Replay

Our pick for Fundraiser of the Weekend is this Replay show, which offers a varied selection of female-centric bands with proceeds going to establish a week-long summer rock camp (Girls Rock Lawrence/GRL) for girls ages 7-12. Tonight’s tunes range from the punk rock onslaught of KC’s The Bad Ideas to the gritty garage duo of Mr. and the Mrs. to La Guerre’s lovely electronic musings to the very unusual “ethereal folk” of the brilliantly-named Ovaries-eez. Visit the Facebook event page here and make sure to be on hand on Friday. Do it for the ladies!

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/feb/27/287568/

Dwight Twilley and Josh Berwanger Band, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Love Garden

As we noted last week, Love Garden is KILLING it on the in-store rock shows in 2015, and this Saturday’s show promises to be the best yet. Tulsa power-pop legend Dwight Twilley will play an acoustic set at 7:30 p.m. followed by LFK/KC’s own Josh Berwanger Band, topped off by a Twilley meet-and-greet and merch-signing. It’s a release show for a Twilley/Berwanger 7″. Find full details on the Facebook event page here.

The show will cost you 10 bucks, which is 10 bucks more than most Love Garden shows, but don’t grumble — it will be worth it. A stage is even being constructed so that people further than 10 feet away will actually be able to see a Love Garden show for the first time ever! A limited number of seats will be available for this one, so get your tickets at the Love Garden quickly.

How will Berwanger’s arena-ready sound work in the confines of Love Garden (LOUDLY, we assume) and will he bring his fog machine? We’ve seen at least one fog machine snafu in Love Garden before, so things could get interesting!

We asked Josh to give us an entertaining account of his background with Dwight Twilley and what to expect at this show:

“Twilley and I first met randomly in Tampa, Florida, where we both just so happened to be at one of our favorite places to eat on the road: Hogan’s Beach, a tropical/wrestling themed restaurant that’s the brainchild of Hulk Hogan. I recognized Dwight at the bar and politely asked what he was doing here. He said he was ordering a (and in unison we both said) “Hogan’s Punch,” which is one of the specialty cocktails the Hulkster has to offer at his very classy establishment. We exchanged cellphones and kept in touch since.

“…When we finish (the Love Garden show), Dwight will take photos, sign autographs, and drink Miller Lights with fans. This event is in celebration of a split 7” we are doing together that comes out on Good Land Records. Good Land is also flying in for the show and will have some fun things to give away. There are also limited edition screen prints made for the show based on the Stull, KS church.

“There will be plenty of beer and Cuervo shots, plus both Love Garden cats will be dressed in tuxedos and will usher people to their seats. Yes! Love Garden will have seats for this event so leave your mouthpieces and jock straps/cups at home: moshing won’t be allowed at this one.”

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/feb/28/287626/

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/mar/03/287754/

Kansas Craft Brewers Expo, Saturday, Abe and Jake’s; That DAM Beer Event at Abe and Jake’s on Friday; Kansas Craft Beer Mixer, Friday, Burger Stand

Perhaps the highest-profile event of the weekend is the very popular Kansas Craft Brewers Expo, returning to Abe and Jake’s on Saturday for two sessions running from noon-3 p.m. and 4:30-7:30 p.m. The event, as in past years, sold out pretty much immediately. No surprise, given that LFK is the seventh drunkest American city.

If you’ve got $50 to spare, Abe and Jake’s is also hosting an event called That DAM Beer Event the night before the Expo. The event features different breweries than the Expo, and beers will be paired with “heavy appetizers” from Merchant’s Pub and Plate (hopefully they have the one that we like to call “cornballs”). Visit the Facebook event page here.

If you missed the boat on Expo tickets and prefer your beer events without a hefty cover charge, you can head to Burger Stand on Friday for its Craft Beer Mixer, where many of the Expo brewers will be on hand. The Facebook event page promises “a raffle for awesome prizes including neon signs, hats, shirts, bags and more” with proceeds going to the Lawrence Humane Society.

Taproom Poetry Series: Jessica Comola, Tim Earley, and Candice Wuehle, 5 p.m. Sunday, Eighth Street Taproom

As proud members of LFK’s notorious PBR Book Club, we are always looking for interesting/unusual new literature. Combine that with our Southern background, and we have to take a few minutes to recommend the poetry of Tim Earley, born in North Carolina and currently holding court in Oxford, Miss.

Earley was recently hailed in the Huffington Post as “a master of anaphora, Biblical rhythms, revelatory testimony, tell-it-slant aggression, and juxtapositive imagery that borrows heavily from the Southern lexicon.”

A friend of ours who knows Earley from Oxford offers this irresistible, and much funnier, description: “Tim practices something he calls postmodern French Appalachian poetry. It’s some wildly good stuff. I don’t understand a word of it.”

Visit the FB event page here for more info on Earley and the evening’s other readers.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2015/mar/02/287700/

” A Raisin in the Sun,” KU Theatre, Feb. 27-March 8/”Clybourne Park,” Theatre Lawrence, Feb. 27-March 8

Another weekend remains to catch the exciting cross-town collaboration between KU Theatre and Theatre Lawrence as they present, respectively, Lorraine Hansberry’s classic “A Raisin in the Sun” and Bruce Norris’ provocative Pulitzer-winning “spin-off” “Clybourne Park.” We wrote about the plays in last week’s column and the LJ-World ran a great feature article as well.

We caught “Raisin” last Sunday and are happy to report that it is beautifully acted and ultimately so warm and welcoming that it easily overcame the slightly drafty and not-so-comfortable Crafton-Preyer Theatre at KU.

We look forward to catching “Clybourne” this weekend in the cozier confines of Theatre Lawrence, where we can laugh at the edgy material with a drink in hand. According to the friendly folks we spoke to at the box office, Clybourne ruffled some feathers within the older community theater crowd during its first weekend, and numerous complaints were leveled. We encourage you to support material like this. Otherwise, Theatre Lawrence will almost certainly retreat into producing the kind of exclusively “safe” musicals and farces that dominate most community theater schedules.

Tweet at us @LarryvilleLife and we’ll see you on the town.