Weekend Picks: Final Friday, Comedy Freakout, fundraisers, rock and roll, and two great plays
Readers, we’re still trying to find our footing and figure out our target audience here at our new Lawrence.com gig. Exactly who IS the readership for the site these days? Honestly, we’re not sure. Somehow we suspect the readers may be primarily thirtysomething and fortysomething women looking for fashion advice and recipes for hearty winter soups. But maybe we’re wrong.
Anyway, unlike last week’s mostly mellow and folky picks in our debut column, many (but not all) of this week’s options are geared toward a somewhat younger demographic. We’ve got Final Friday activities, comedy, rock and roll, and theater to consider.
Here goes.
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Red Legger Studios art opening plus three bands, 6 p.m. Friday, Love Garden
Kick off your Final Friday by perusing screen prints and zines from Nick Perry while digging tunes from The Youngest Children, No Cave and Spirit is the Spirit.
Love Garden seems to have upped the frequency of its in-store rock shows so far in 2015. We were recently on hand for a stellar Valentine’s Day show featuring various incarnations of OILS from a two-piece up to a seven-piece.
If Nick’s awesome fliers for this event are any indication, this show should be impressive as well. Visit the Facebook event page here for further details and set times for the bands.
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Comedy Freakout Turns 2!, 10 p.m. Friday, Frank’s North Star Tavern
For two years now, young comedy fans have flocked north of the river to see their favorite comedians perform in what was probably a cockfighting pit long before it became the cozy (if still slightly creepy) basement of Frank’s North Star.
The Freakout draws touring headliners — this edition features Stryker Spurlock and Andrew Mihalevich from Saint Louis — plus local and KC favorites. And the whole freaky affair is hosted by the adorable duo of Peter Lyrene and Chance Dibben, LFK’s answer to Laurel and Hardy (if Laurel and Hardy worked blue and loved poop jokes). The FB event page is here.
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SXSW Bound: I Heart Local Music fundraiser, 9 p.m. Friday AND Saturday, Jackpot
At this time of year, local bands are in full manic preparation mode for the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and I Heart Local Music’s annual fundraiser is a good way to help some of them kick-start their journey while catching a slew of the area’s best local and regional bands.
Acts range from the “beer rock” of LFK’s Gnarly Davidson to the garage pop goodness of St. Louis duo Bruiser Queen to the bearded barbaric yawps of Nicholas St. James and Tyler Gregory. Visit the FB event page here for a full list of bands. Chances are you’ll catch a couple favorites and discover a band or two you haven’t heard before.
Who and the Fks, 10 p.m. Friday, Replay Lounge
Perhaps none of the bands at the Jackpot appeal to you for some reason. Perhaps your genre of choice is “dumpster surf” and you like your bands to be from Oklahoma and have odd names. Then consider Who and the Fks, opening up at the Replay tonight. Of all the shows this weekend, surely this one has the most potential to provoke accidental Abbott and Costello routines:
“Who the fk did you say you’re seeing at Replay tonight?”
“No. Who AND the Fks.”
“Right. That’s what I just asked you. Who the fk are you seeing?”
“No, no, the band is NAMED Who and the Fks.”
Etc etc.
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Rockin’ Comedy Show, doors at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Jazzhaus
Another worthy fundraiser — with all proceeds going to LFK’s Ballard Community Services — is slated for Saturday at the Jazzhaus. The Card Table Productions gang will be performing at 7 p.m. Performing what? We don’t know. But it will be something weird, no doubt. This is followed by music from Thunderkat, performing some “epic ’80s hard rock” at 8:30. The cover is $10 but this sounds like a full evening of shenanigans.
“Raisin in the Sun,” KU University Theatre, Feb. 27-March 8/”Clybourne Park,” Theatre Lawrence, Feb. 27-March 8
A truly special theater opportunity begins this weekend in LFK. KU’s University Theatre is performing Lorraine Hansberry’s beloved 1959 classic “A Raisin in the Sun” while Theatre Lawrence simultaneously performs Bruce Norris’ 2011 Pulitzer-winning “Clybourne Park,” a provocative commentary on race relations that is also an unusual “spin-off” of Hansberry’s play.
For those who need a quick refresher on “Raisin,” the play charts the travails of the Youngers, an African-American family in 1950s Chicago on the verge of moving into all-white Clybourne Park. Norris’ update covers a 50 year span: the first act looks in on the white family in 1959 whose house will soon be occupied by the Youngers while the second act leaps forward to a vision of the same neighborhood in 2009. “Clybourne” can easily stand alone, but knowledge of “Raisin” deepens its thematic resonance and the two even briefly share an overlapping character.
It’s also worth noting that “Clybourne Park” is edgier fare than one usually expects from Theatre Lawrence (or community theater in general), so kudos to them for attempting it. The language is raw and the humor is scathing. The 2013 production we saw at the Unicorn in KC was an entertaining yet bracing experience, so we hope the Theatre Lawrence effort lives up to high expectations.
Visit KU University Theatre here and Theatre Lawrence here for ticket info, and inquire about special discount prices if you are purchasing tickets to both plays.
As always, tweet us @LarryvilleLife with tips for this column or email blurbs and links: larryvillelife@gmail.com