WEDNESDAY
APRIL 27
EVENT
The Right to Be Lazy
You know you want to fight zombies. But how? Perhaps answers are still alive in the reissued book, The Right to Be Lazy, by Paul LaFargue, the Cuban-born son-in-law of Karl Marx. Featuring its editor, Bernard Marszalek, and others, this Shaping San Francisco panel will discuss this book that, according to Marszalek, has been reproduced and distributed more widely than any other Marxist text save LaFargue’s papa-in-law’s commie manifesto. The author is sarcastic, sardonic, and satirical, a necessary combo when considering post-capitalistic visions of abundance and cooperation trumping standard issue toil and sacrifice. Because as anyone who’s walked through the Financial District will tell you, zombies are freakin’ hard to kill. (Kat Renz)
7:30 p.m., free
CounterPULSE
1310 Mission, SF
(415) 626-2060
MUSIC
“Steve Ignorant presents CRASS songs 1977-82, Last Supper”
Is this really Crass? Well, Penny Rimbaud isn’t involved, and originally opposed cofounder Steve Ignorant performing the band’s music. But when you’re talking about anarcho-punks, everyone is their own leader and does what they want. So this is the final Crass run for Ignorant, backed by Gizz Butt, Bob Butler, Spike T. Smith, and reportedly a female vocalist (to handle feminist material from classic album Penis Envy.) Despite being influential, politically-minded figures in 1970s English punk rock, Crass never really toured in the U.S., which means this may be the best opportunity that fans have had to hear the material live, as well as the last. (Ryan Prendiville) With Goldblade
9 p.m., $21
Slim’s
333 11th St., SF
(415) 255-0333
THURSDAY
APRIL 28
MUSIC
Accept
For those of us who learned to throw horns in the early 1990s with the help of Headbangers Ball, we got a healthy dose of contemporary clips along with the classics of the metal genre. This was how I first came across Accept’s “Fast As A Shark” and “Balls To The Wall,” two awesomely shredding tunes — indeed, “Balls” was the German band’s signature song, and its accompanying video was also a favorite on Beavis and Butthead. Get ready for some serious head-banging and sing-along anthems tonight as the band returns to the states supporting its new release, Blood Of The Nations. (Sean McCourt)
With Sabaton
8 p.m., $30
Regency Ballroom
1300 Van Ness, SF
(415) 673-5716
EVENT
“Beatles and Beetles”
Would you bet more people can name the fab four members of the Beatles — or four kinds of beetles, those six-legged insects making up a quarter of the earth’s animal species? But really, why the burden of mutual exclusivity when both are celebrated at this week’s NightLife at California Academy of Sciences? It’s a fortunate homonymity, pairing the museum’s beetle expert David Kavanaugh with live music from Beatles experts in the form of tribute band the Sun Kings. Plus, it’s the U.S. debut of “The Beatles Hidden Gallery,” photos documenting the boys mere months before Beatlemania invaded the land like a blight of beetles. (Renz)
With DJs Aaron Axelsen and Omar
6 p.m., $12
California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse, Golden Gate Park, SF
(415) 379-8000
MUSIC
Sean Smith
Since 2005, virtuoso Sean Smith has recorded numerous albums of solo guitar and collaborations. Taking after the iconic John Fahey, the finger-style guitarist wows audiences with immense technical skill and songwriting — crafting a new American Primitive. Having toured the U.S. extensively, Smith has shared the bill with Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy), Six Organs of Admittance, and Bob Lind, among others. In March 2008, he joined the ranks of Citay as one of the two lead guitarists. Smith leads his electric power trio featuring Spencer Owen and Marc Dantona in selections from his upcoming full length, Huge Fluid Freedom. (Jen Verzosa)
With the Singleman Affair and Mitchell and Manley
9 p.m., $6
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk, SF
(415) 923-0923
FRIDAY
APRIL 29
MUSIC
Mudhoney
Although it never quite attained the levels of fame and fortune of some of their hometown contemporaries, Mudhoney was one of the first (and best) bands to come out of Seattle during the late 1980s and early 1990s alternative rock explosion. With fuzzed-out guitars, heavy riffs, and songs like “Touch Me I’m Sick,” “Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More,” and “Suck You Dry,” the band was the embodiment of what became the “grunge” movement — and it’s one of the only original groups around today, still kicking out the jams to loyal fans on new album The Lucky Ones. (Sean McCourt)
9:30 p.m., $20
New Parish
579 18th St., Oakl.
DANCE
Sean Dorsey Dance
Sean Dorsey Dance has been working on The Secret History of Love (Part 1) for the last two years, and the project itself looks back much further, exploring the ways in which transgender and queer people have forged bonds through the decades. Drawing from extensive research at the GLBT Historical Society and interviews with community members, Dorsey continues to place direct elements of storytelling at the forefront of modern dance. With this show, he focuses on courageous acts of love and protest dating back to Stonewall. (Johnny Ray Huston)
Fri/29–Sun/1, 8 p.m.; $15-$20
Z Space at Theater Artaud
450 Florida, SF
(800) 838-3006
DANCE
Kate Weare Company
Ukuleles, banjos, and fiddles, oh my. Performed to live, onstage music by bluegrass band the Crooked Jades, the Kate Weare Company’s Bright Land addresses American ideals, weaving threads of music, stories, and history represented by transatlantic folk music. With the Crooked Jades’ musical arrangements of traditional Celtic, English, and American songs, Weare’s ferocious artists and passionate choreography reinvent old-world music for the modern age in a layered collaborative form. Performer and composer Jeff Kazor blurs genres with haunting ballads and upbeat dance tunes and Weare’s dancers reveal powerful relationships enacting capsules of history and narrative. The Bay Area is a second home for the dance company — catch them while they visit this coast. (Julie Potter)
Fri/29–Sat/30, 8 p.m.;
Sun/1, 7 p.m., $15–$18
ODC Theater
3153 17th St., SF
(415) 863-9834
SATURDAY
APRIL 30
MUSIC
Debbie Neigher
Art program counselor, member of the San Francisco indie-rock outfit Phantom Kicks, singer-songwriter, and pianist: Debbie Neigher can do it all. While she was DIY-ing her upcoming self-titled full length album, pop-folk icon and owner of Tiny Telephone recording studio John Vanderslice came out of retirement from producing records “in the luckiest freak accident” to work with her. In Neigher’s upcoming album, her silky soprano showcases her versatility in the effervescent “Frames” and the painfully courageous “Pink Chalk.” Neigher was the winner of West Coast Songwriters Best Song competition for the track “What Say You Now”; she was also nominated for SF Deli Magazine’s Emerging Artist Award of 2010. (Verzosa)
With tidelands
7:30 p.m., $7
Make-Out Room
3225 22nd St., SF
(415) 647-2888
FILM
Jaws
When I was a little kid, just thinking of the two-note intro to John Williams’ theme from Jaws was enough to make me want to jump out of the bathtub, let alone the murky waves of the Pacific I frolicked in down at the beach in Santa Cruz. Modern teenage movie-goers may flock to the latest Saw rip-off in search of some cinematic terror, but as the rest of us know, it’s what you don’t see that really scares the shit out of you — and Steven Spielberg made the most of that with his 1975 masterpiece. Just in time for when you would wish all those damn spring breakers would be eaten alive, tonight’s screening (presented as a double-feature with Spielberg’s 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind) will undoubtedly make someone new afraid to go into the water. (McCourt)
2 and 7 p.m., $7.50–$10
Castro Theatre
429 Castro, SF
(415) 621-6120
EVENT
Red Vic fundraiser
Listen up, San Francisco, cause this shit’s serious. The rep house movie theater is on the verge of extinction, and perhaps none are as precariously situated as the Red Vic (also the only collectively-owned movie theater in California). We owe it to our artistic sprits to not let these beloved institutions die out, but that takes more than just a fond thought. It takes patronage. Lucky for us, the Red Vic is making it easy to go and spend a whole day and drop a reasonable wad on “donations” — from a movie poster auction from 1-6 p.m., followed by a triple-header curated by Mr. “Midnites for Maniacs” Jesse Hawthorne Ficks from 7 p.m. on, and concluding with a midnight screening of San Francisco’s favorite cult film The Room (2003), all for way less than you’d spend on some crap IMAX travesty at the Metreon. (Nicole Gluckstern)
1 p.m., $10–$20 suggested donation
Red Vic Movie House
1727 Haight, SF
(415) 668-3994
MUSIC
Blondes
One video has Blondes playing in a laser-filled garage that could be anywhere. Another account has it DJing at the top of the Standard in New York. One listener describes the music as ecstatic, but it’s also been branded “snoozetronica.” Blondes is not another emerging duo in full electro-attack mode. Not “the next” Daft Punk or even the Twelves. It’s two Oberlin-educated guys who see themselves entering a musical landscape where everything may have been done. If the beats they build piece-by-piece seem inclusive — heavy but melodic, driving but not to the point of driving your body down — it’s because they’re looking for leftover limits. (Prendiville)
With Wav Dwgs and DJ Pickpocket
9:30 p.m., $5–$10
Public Works
161 Erie, SF
(415) 932-0955
DANCE
“Dancing in the Park”
The Bay Area celebrates National Dance Week (through Sunday, May 1) in myriad ways, but few are as inviting and comprehensive as the Mark Foehringer Dance Project/SF’s “Dancing in the Park.” The extravaganza takes over the venerable Bandshell in Golden Gate Park for the fifth year in a row. The fun starts with a one-hour young choreographers’ showcase. Sample classes in modern, salsa, improv, and hip-hop will then share the space with more than two dozen professional (including Axis Dance Company, Robert Moses’ Kin, and Amy Seiwert/im’i-jre) and community groups (like Zoha, Sambamora, and SoulForce). At 2:30 p.m., Foehringer’s own dancers offer excerpts from their repertoire celebrating having survived and thrived for 15 years. (Rita Felciano)
11 a.m.–4:30 p.m., free
Music Concourse Bandshell
55 Hagiwara Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, SF
The Guardian listings deadline is two weeks prior to our Wednesday publication date. To submit an item for consideration, please include the title of the event, a brief description of the event, date and time, venue name, street address (listing cross streets only isn’t sufficient), city, telephone number readers can call for more information, telephone number for media, and admission costs. Send information to Listings, the Guardian Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 487-2506; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body — no text attachments, please) to listings@sfbg.com. Digital photos may be submitted in jpeg format; the image must be at least 240 dpi and four inches by six inches in size. We regret we cannot accept listings over the phone.