WEDNESDAY 3
“Pacific Limn”
A Seoul-based collaboration between visual artist, Young-hae Chang, and American expat poet, Marc Vogue, the duo has been creating Web art since 1999. Though the genre’s title evokes something that mirrors the complexity of the Internet-age, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries gains much of its power from its odd and affecting simplicity. Using Monaco typeface, flash animation, and text narratives often set against jazz music, the artists create pieces that seem to easily define that undefinable but often-employed thing called postmodernism. At the “Pacific Limn” exhibition, YHCHI presents three works from its residency at Kadist. (Laura Kerry)
Through April 28
5pm, free
Kadist Art Foundation
3295 20th St., SF
(415) 738-8668
Shark Week
Not heading to Cancun or Daytona Beach with the throngs of drunken college students for the school break? Why not head down to Aquarium of the Bay, where they are celebrating “Spring Break with our Sharks,” a fete featuring shark talks, feedings, and more. Top it off this evening with a hilarious “bad movie night” screening of Shark Week, an ultra-cheesy horror flick that follows a group of people trying to escape a madman’s island, pushed into navigating through the waterways and encountering a series of deadlier — and more outrageously poorly-rendered — CGI sharks. Ticket price includes a drink, popcorn, and admission to the aquarium. (Sean McCourt)
7:30pm film; 6pm doors for aquarium, $16
Aquarium of the Bay, Bay Theater
Pier 39, SF
(415) 623-5300
Mac DeMarco
Mac DeMarco has written seven albums and EPs on a guitar that he bought for 30 Canadian dollars. He uses effects pedals that he claims no serious musician would be caught dead with. He’s self released four albums and coined a new genre — “jizz jazz.” Listening to DeMarco’s jangling, blissed-out pop tends to be a pleasant, laid-back experience, more reminiscent of surf pop than jazz. His calming baritone, soft and velvety, sounds like a less depressed Ian Curtis. Compared to his summery sound, DeMarco’s live shows, full of lewd humor, nudity, and scaling stage equipment with wild abandon, provide a sharp contrast. If you are easily shocked or offended, this may not be the show for you. But if you can appreciate a true performer and genuine entertainment, there’s no better place to be on a Wednesday night. (Haley Zaremba)
With Trails and Ways, Cocktails, Calvin Love
8pm, $12
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
(415) 861-2011
THURSDAY 4
“Assault on Vortex 13” The Vortex Room is back with another series of vintage genre obscurities, this time in a “B” action vein. Things kick off tonight with the 1972 Alistair Maclean-adapted thriller Fear Is the Key and the wildly stunt-driven 1989 Action U.S.A. Don’t miss next week’s pairing of chick/karate/blaxploitation chestnut TNT Jackson (1974) with the prior year’s wondrous The Doll Squad — whose avenging angels include Tura Satana from Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and whose psychotronic auteur Ted V. Mikels was subsequently convinced he’d been ripped off by Charlie’s Angels. (Dennis Harvey)
Thursdays through April 25; 8pm, $13 donation
Vortex Room
1082 Howard, SF
Facebook.com/groups/VortexRoom
The Coo Coo Birds
In the 1947 cartoon short, The Coo Coo Bird, Woody the Woodpecker’s efforts to go to bed early are thwarted by a series of distractions, including a rhythmic cuckoo clock that causes his body to move against his will. One gets the sense that if Woody just lightened up, he’d get some sleep — and maybe even have some fun in the meantime. The San Francisco band with the same name teaches a similar lesson. Playing distorted psychedelic tunes that don’t take themselves too seriously, Coo Coo Birds create rock that asks its audience to lighten up. So if you find that their show at Slim’s is keeping you awake, it’s best to just let your body move. (Kerry)
With Galaxxy Chamber, David Frieberg
8pm, $12
Slim’s
333 11th St., SF
(415) 255-0333
FRIDAY 5
“The Flow Show”
In Western dance, props for the most part are frowned upon. Not so in the myriad of culturally specific, often very old dance forms: ribbons in China, hoops among Native Americans, bamboo poles in the Philippines, and swords among belly dancers. There always is an element of daring and bravura involved in the use of instruments, but unlike circus acts, here the necessary skills are grounded in an expressive content. That’s the tradition that “The Flow Show” plugs into. Its 20 performers are offering a synthesis of dance theater, circus skills, and poetry. New this year is the diabolo, a.k.a. “Chinese YoYo”. What you’ll see is decidedly contemporary performance yet with roots that run deeper than just pure fun — though there is plenty of that as well. (Rita Felciano)
Fri/5-Sat/6, 8pm; Sun/7, 7pm, $20
Dance Mission Theater
3316 24th St., SF
brownpapertickets.com/event/32419
Rock/See: A Concert for the Roxie Theater
In the grand tradition of Live Aid, Farm Aid, and Kidney Now! (that last one might have been fictional), musicians in SF are stepping up to help something they care about: the Mission’s beloved Roxie Theater. The event is to support the Roxie’s campaign to renovate and upgrade its smaller theater, the Little Roxie. As the theater explains , “While many nonprofit arts organizations are joining forces with corporate entities…[we’re] partnering with members of San Francisco’s indie music community.” The Rock/See benefit boasts live performances by favored Bay Area lo-fi/garage rockers Thee Oh Sees, Sonny and the Sunsets, Future Twin, and Assateague. Being that this is for a movie hub, local filmmakers and artists are also getting in on the support: the event includes projections by Barry Jenkins, Jim Granato, and more.
(Emily Savage)
8:30pm, $25
Verdi Club
2424 Mariposa, SF
SATURDAY 6
Opening for José Ramón Lerma retrospective
José Ramón Lerma’s work contains a personal history. He’s been practicing art for more than 60 years, and in that time, has moved through styles and imagery from a darker abstract expressionistic painting to a more absurd and surrealist genre that includes sculpture and collage. And because the 60 years of his art have occurred in the Bay Area, his oeuvre reveals a history of his setting, too. Lerma began among the Beats and winds down his career in a culture that is, well, different. ArtZone 461 pays much deserved tribute to this Bay Area gem with a month-long retrospective that will put its multiple histories on display. (Kerry)
Through May 5
12-6pm, free
ArtZone 461
461 Valencia, SF
(415) 441-8680
“Roman Polanski Live at the Roxie”
Although certain key details had yet to be finalized at press time, this event is too monumental not to get a plug: Oscar-winning filmmaker (and controversy magnet) Roman Polanski is gonna be appearing at the Roxie! OK, so it’s via Skype from Paris, but he’ll be conversing with Oscar-winning Chinatown (1974) scriptwriter Robert Towne, who will be there in person — and his presence alone should be reason enough to attend, quite frankly. The weekend also features screenings of classic Polanski flicks (including Chinatown, natch). Check the Roxie website for updated times and titles. (Cheryl Eddy)
Through Sun/7 (Skype conversation Sat/6, time TBD), $6.50–$11
Roxie Theater
3117 16th St, SF
Polkacide and Fuxedos
Crafting the perfect show lineup isn’t easy, and all too often at least one of the bands feels somewhat shoehorned in. But sometimes, sweet serendipity steps up to create a lineup so stunningly perfect you can’t believe it’s true. That pretty much sums up the upcoming Polkacide and Fuxedos co-headlining gig, with the imitable Borts Minorts along for the ride as opening act. Individually, each band is well-worth the price of admission alone. You’ve got your punk rock polka, your post-punk, big band, nihilistic freakout (plus props) — and your avant-garde alien lifeform wields his dangerous dance moves and a bass made from a ski. And the prospect of watching them collectively take over the stage at Bottom of the Hill like a three-headed Cerberus of gleefully psychotic fun? Priceless. (Nicole Gluckstern)
9:30pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St, SF
(415) 861-1615
TUESDAY 9
Nick Cave
Where to start with this man? There is practically nothing that Nick Cave hasn’t tried, conquered, or revolutionized. He’s a musician, a screenwriter, an author, an actor, and a performer. He has fronted experimental gothic punk band the Birthday Party, the rockabilly-industrial Grinderman, and the savagely indefinable Bad Seeds. Cave’s haunting, growling baritone voice and slim spectral body, generally clad all in black, add a delicious wild mystery to everything he touches. Bad Seeds albums don’t come out that often, and North American tours are even rarer for the Australian artist. Hyperbole is impossible in this context — the man is a living legend. Don’t miss out on one of the best performances you’ll ever see. (Zaremba)
With Sharon Van Etten
8pm, $59.50
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
99 Grove, SF
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