Pick of the Day 8/14: Black Klansman
He’s back…and better than ever. Spike Lee is putting an historical mirror up to our present day faces. A lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same. Black Klansman, winner of the 2018 Cannes Film Festiva lGrand Prix, is at Amherst Cinema tonight; here’s the synopsis: “It’s the early 1970s, a time of great social upheaval as the struggle for civil rights rages on. Ron Stallworth (John David Washington)...
Pick of the Day 8/13: Eighth Grade
If you’ve been through eighth grade, then you know how AWKWARD life can be. It’s no different for Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher), the subject of You Tube star Bo Burnham’s directorial debut, also called Eighth Grade. Kayla is the average kid who makes You Tube videos about being confident–which she’s not. “In the final week of a thus-far-disastrous school year—and with high school looming on the...
Pick of the Day 8/12: Sweet Crude at the Iron Horse
If you have doubts about the beauty of all the different ethnic and cultural nooks and crannies in America, this act may well erase them. Sweet Crude is straight out of Louisiana and they proudly sing out in French and in English. As a matter of fact, one of their desires is to preserve the relevancy of their beautiful French language in the arts. Fun, energetic, bayou-y, and just plain talented, Sweet Crude is at the Iron Horse...
Pick of the Day 8/11: Punk Prom at the Flywheel Arts Collective
It’s not an ordinary lame prom at the Flywheel. Western Mass punks unite wearing their best alternative formal wear as they jam to local favorites, pose in a photobooth, and stop by a temporary tattoo station. The musical lineup for the evening includes pop punk band Nanny, alternative fuzz pop group Kindling, math metal punk band OroborO, atl-country meets punk group Julie Cira & the Wake, and Brinna Dessert. The Flywheel Arts...
The Frost Heaves and Hales on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
The frost heaves and hales perform as a psych folk duo with one-minute songs about birds and other animals on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage. Interview with The frost heaves and...
Pick of the Day 8/10:Colorway at Luxe Burger Bar in Springfield
Colorway is awesome. They blew us away during their Advocate Sessions performance and I’ve gotten to see them here and there since then. Here’s a chance to catch them at a no cover, all ages show in Springfield. Luxe Burger Bar, 1200 West Columbus Ave., Springfield. 413-785-5893.
Pick of the Day 8/9: The Chalet at Mass MoCa
Tonight and every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. until the end of August, Mass MoCA sets up The Chalet. The Chalet is an art installation created by Dean Baldwin and serves as a riverside bar and beer garden in Building Eight. Live music starts up at 8 p.m. and visitors can roam around the bar, the performance space, and outdoor courtyards. Tonight: Dirty Bird with Eliza Edens. 1040 MASS MoCA WAY, North...
Stagestruck: End-of-summer shows in the Berkshires — food for fun and thought
When Shakespeare & Company first set up shop in the Berkshires, their mainstage was a greensward before a wooded glade at the Mount, Edith Wharton’s Lenox estate, with the audience seated on folding lawn chairs. That tradition has lately been revived, with outdoor performances at their present home in Lenox, as well on the grounds of the Mount, just down the road. The productions are generally the Bard’s comedies that have some...
Pick of the Day 8/8: Concert for George
It’s hard to believe that George Harrison of the Beatles shuffled off his mortal coil almost twenty years ago. But, alas, it’s been that long. If you’re feeling like you want to reminisce, check out Concert for George, the 2002 performance tribute in his honor. Held at London’s Royal Albert Hall and featuring Harrison’s songs and the music he loved, the concert includes rock luminaries Eric Clapton, Joe...
Staff Picks 8/9- 8/15
Punk Prom at the Flywheel Arts Collective // SATURDAY, AUGUST 11 It’s not an ordinary lame prom at the Flywheel. Western Mass punks unite wearing their best alternative formal wear as they jam to local favorites, pose in a photobooth, and stop by a temporary tattoo station. The musical lineup for the evening includes pop punk band Nanny, alternative fuzz pop group Kindling, math metal punk band OroborO, atl-country meets punk group...
Pick of the Day 8/7: BSO at Tanglewood
One of the finest reasons to live in western Mass is our proximity to great art. So get out there and lap it up! It’s a day of musical activities for the entire family at Tanglewood and the whole shabang ends with an 8 p.m. concert featuring all the festival’s orchestras performing together. Tanglewood on Parade: 12 p.m. – 10 p.m. Tanglewood Music Festival, 297 West St.,...
Local Calendar: Monday 8/6 – Wednesday 8/9
MONDAY 8/6 MUSIC 43rd Annual Vermont Jazz Center Summer Jazz Workshop: 4 p.m. The Putney School, 418 Houghton Brook Rd., Putney. Berkshire High Peaks Music Festival: $12 – $50. The Berkshire School, 245 N. Undermountain Rd., Sheffield. 800-843-0778. cewmusicinfo@aol.com. Plainfield Concert Series: 7 p.m. Free. Donations are accepted. Plainfield Congregational Church, 356 West Main St., Plainfield. 413-634-0025....
Arc City Angels on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Arc City Angels is a three piece hard rock band from Holyoke that combines metal, pop, and punk together for an eclectic mix. Interview with Arc City...
Pick of the Day 8/6: The Berkshire High Peaks Music Festival
So what’s happening in Sheffield? Yes, Sheffield, Massachusetts. You know that small town out west in the Berkshires and home to Big Elm Brewing. Well, the Berkshire High Peaks Music Festival is happening, that’s what. French Baroque, Russian piano, and Moonlight Sonatas. August 6-16: $12 – $50. The Berkshire School, 245 N. Undermountain Rd., Sheffield. 800-843-0778....
Pick of the Day 8/5: Dangerous House
The Williamstown Theater continues it summer run with a new play called Dangerous House. An aspiring black South African footballer named Noxolo moves to London for a fresh start. But she’s drawn back when Cape Town becomes host to the World Cup and she discovers her ex-lover (played by Emmy nominee Samira Wiley of Orange is the New Black) may be in danger. Will Noxolo risk everything to confront the secrets of a life she swore to...
Pick of the Day 8/4: Valley Showgirl
The Valley Advocate’s own Valley Show Girl columnist Jennifer Levesque is curating a lineup of local acts at the 13th Floor Music Lounge in Florence, which includes guitar and synth driven duo Fire Letters, progressive synth sorcerer John Trudeau, Grey Matter, led by ex Sebadoh member Eric Gaffney, and doom folk songwriter Celseigh. 99 Main St., (Above JJ’s Tavern), Florence. 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. 18+, $7. We love you, Jen! Keep on...
Stagestruck: Dancing down Hubbard Street— 40 years young
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is a frequent and popular visitor to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. This year, celebrating its 40th season, the company presents a quartet of works showcasing its history and its current 16-member troupe, one of the most technically accomplished ensembles I’ve seen. The program, running through Sunday on the Pillow’s Ted Shawn mainstage, begins with “Decadance/Chicago,” excerpts from Israeli...
Western Mass Millenials Find Fitness in the Extreme
Think of a gym. Muscle-bound men do tricep curls while women in spandex pedal endless miles on exercise bikes. Now forget all that. Those things may still happen, but you’re more likely to see it with people over 50. Those in their 20s and 30s, known as millennials, have something different in mind. Nicole Harvey, the manager and a certified personal trainer at Asylum Fitness in Palmer, said their clients range in age from 12-92,...
Pick of the Day 8/3: Blondie!
Deborah Harry (and her boys) aka Blondie are rockin’ the Berkshires tonight. Yeah, boy! Call me nostalgic, I don’t care. She and her bandmates are at Mass Moca playing the greats and making the world a new wave paradise once again. And the Kids open up for this legendary late 70’s/80’s joy ride. Catch it if you can! 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. $55 advanced, $65 day of, $75 preferred. MASS MoCa, 1040 MASS MoCA...
Local Calendar: Thursday 8/2 – Sunday 8/5
THURSDAY 8/2 MUSIC Amherst Downtown Beats – Flathead Rodeo & Colorway: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Free. The Amherst BID’s Downtown Beats Summer Concert series continues with a performance by Flathead Rodeo and Colorway.Kendrick Park, East Pleasant St., Amherst. 413-345-2945. ann@amherstdowntown.com. An Evening with Pat Metheny: 8 p.m. $45 – $95. Pat Metheny with Antonio Sanchez, Linda Oh& Gwilym Simcock. Mahaiwe...
Pick of the Day 8/2: The Amendments
Thanks to the Northampton Arts Council, The Cardboard Sea Theater presents The Amendments. It’s a play about the sorrows of death and embattled family relationships. Judith and and her estranged brother Gabe’s father die; Judith just wants one thing from his estate. Gabe, however, lays claim to what Judith wants and he’s got an amended will to back him up. “As the night stretches on, Judith is forced to...
Stagestruck: Three in the Hills
A trio of two-character plays now running in the Hilltowns and Berkshires offer a summer-season variety of subjects, styles, and even venues – a black-box theater, a converted town hall, a church sanctuary. Pauline Productions is dedicated to “producing and creating theatre with a focus on strong roles for women onstage and behind the scenes.” The Roommate, running till Saturday on a purpose-built stage in the Ashfield Congregational...
The Beerhunter: Invisible Flavors
Hermit Thrush Brewing hunts the hills for wild yeast Many brewers rely on websites, blogs, and social media to follow the latest craft beer trends. But lately Christophe Gagné, the bearded Vermont dweller who runs Hermit Thrush Brewing, seems more interested in following deer. The opportunity doesn’t arise much in downtown Brattleboro, where Gagné and his team opened their brewhouse and tasting room on High Street in 2014. There is...
Staff Picks Week of 8/2 – 8/8
Valley Show Girl Presents at the 13th Floor Music Lounge // SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 The Valley Advocate’s own Valley Show Girl columnist Jennifer Levesque is curating a lineup of local acts at the 13th Floor Music Lounge in Florence, which includes guitar and synth driven duo Fire Letters, progressive synth sorcerer John Trudeau, Grey Matter, led by ex Sebadoh member Eric Gaffney, and doom folk songwriter Celseigh. 99 Main St., (Above...
Pick of the Day 8/1: Joe Purdy at the Iron Horse
Firstly: Welcome to August! We have now entered the eighth month of 2018 and it’s kind of hard to believe! Anyway, folk rocker Joe Purdy is in Northampton tonight. Purdy is prolific; he’s released fourteen albums over the last fifteen years. His music is the kind you find on a Kia commercial or in the background of a show or movie. Purdy also made his film debut as the lead in American Folk; it has a 79 percent Rotten...
Local Calendar: Tuesday 7/31 & 8/1
TUESDAY 7/31 MUSIC Alceste: 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. 12 Senior/$14 General. Opera based on heartbreaking story narrated by Euripides: King Admetus is dying and his wife, Alceste offers Apollo her own life in exchange for that of her beloved. $South Hadley’s Tower Theaters, 19 College St., South Hadley. 413-533-3456. info@towertheaters.com. Greenfield Military Band Concert: 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Free. Energy Park, 50 Miles St.,...
Pick of the Day 7/30: Sorry to Bother You
Okay, I have a funny feeling and a sneaking suspicion that there are going be some serious laugh out loud moments in Sorry to Bother You, a new movie about race, money, politics, and morals. This is what the Amherst Cinema site says: “In an alternate reality Oakland, California, telemarketer Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) finds himself in a macabre universe after he discovers a magical key that leads to material glory. As...
Stagestruck Abroad: Shakespeare’s Haunts, Part 2 — Stratford
Nowadays, Stratford-upon-Avon feels not so much like a town as a gift shop. The once-sleepy hamlet where William Shakespeare was born some 450 years ago, which he abandoned for a life on the London stage, has become a mercantile monument to Stratford’s most famous son – which must seem ironic to the “anti-Stratfordians” in the Shakespearean authorship controversy, who can’t credit the notion that an uneducated bumkin from a provincial...
Riley Duggan on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Riley Duggan is a poetic folk singer-songwriter with heartfelt melodies. Interview with Riley...
Stagestruck Abroad: Shakespeare’s Haunts, part 1 — The Globe
When I was in England earlier this month, I saw four plays at the two venues most closely associated with William Shakespeare – his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon and the Globe playhouse on London’s South Bank. At the Globe, there was a gender-switching Hamlet and a time-switching Winter’s Tale, and on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s two Stratford stages, a bloody Macbeth and a revenge tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, by Shakespeare’s...
Pick of the Day 7/27: Elliot Street Block Party in Brattleboro
If you’re in Brattleboro, Elliot Street is the place to be on Friday. Celebrate food, the arts, and the shops with your green mountain neighbors. Get your grub on at the international food crawl, take your little ones to a concert for kids, and do your grown up thing with some music by Pinedrop, and M.O.D. featuring Molly Steinmark and Parker McQueeney. Elliot Street will be closed from the intersection of Main to the crosswalk in...
Local Calendar: Thursday 7/26 to Sunday 7/29
THURSDAY 7/26 MUSIC A Little Night Music: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church will present “A Little Night Music” every Thursday during the month of July at 6:00pm. Free, donations accepted for all food items. Trinity United Methodist Church, 361 Sumner Ave., Springfield. 413-737-5311. Alex Johnson: 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Alex Johnson of Colorway, formerly of the Drunk Stuntmen. Luxe Burger Bar, 1200 West Columbus...
Pick of the Day 7/26: Corazon de Granada
Ready to heat things up? Check out Corazon de Granada tonight as they bring their impeccable Flamenco music and dance to New City Brewery in Easthampton. You can expect “a passionate evening … steeped in tradition,” the event hosts promise. Corazon de Granada made its U.S. premiere in last year at the Kennedy Center in DC. 180 Pleasant St. (12 Rear), New City Brewery,...
Pick of the Day 7/25: We the People
In this time of political chaos and division, it makes sense to go back to the beginning to determine exactly what the Great Experiment was all about. But We the People can’t be put in a box; not only because it’s outside on the farm in Ashfield Double Edge calls home, but because their vision is larger than an a mere examination of the meaning of democracy. Artistic Director Stacy Klein says in a Greenfield Recorder...
VIDEO: Riley Duggan on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Riley Duggan is a poetic folk singer-songwriter with heartfelt melodies. Check out a teaser for Duggan’s upcoming Advocate Sessions performance, which will be released this...