Music Archives — Page 84 of 279 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Pinoy rising

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

June 5, 2012

arts@sfbg.com

FILM Cinema has had a long and colorful history in the Philippines, with a first “golden age” of home-grown product in the 1950s, a turn toward exportable exploitation films in the ’60s, notable new-wave directors (like Lino Brocka) emerging in the ’70s, and so forth — sustaining one of the world’s most prolific film industries despite difficulties political and otherwise. At the turn of the millennium those wheels were wobbling and slowing, however, hard-hit by a combination of too many low-grade formula films, shrinking audiences, and stiffer competition from slick imported entertainments. The commercial sector stumbled on, but as a shadow of its robust former self.

But there’s something percolating beyond hard consonants on the archipelago these days, signs of a new DIY vigor coming from independent sectors juiced by the inexpensive accessibility of digital technology, undaunted (at least so far) by problems of exhibition and income-generating at home. It’s a sprawling, unpredictable, work-in-progress scene that some figure could well become the next “it” spot for cineaste types seeking one of those spontaneous combustions of fresh talent that arise occasionally where you least expect it — like Romania, to name one recent example.

One person who definitely thinks that’s the case is Joel Shepard, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ longtime Film/Video Curator. He’s traveled to the Philippines several times in recent years (once serving on the jury at CineManila), and has previously programmed a few prime examples of the country’s edgy new voices — particularly Brilliante Mendoza, whose notorious 2009 police-corruption grunge horror Kinatay (a.k.a. Butchered) was one of the most hotly divisive Cannes jury-prize winners in recent history. Now YBCA is presenting “New Filipino Cinema,” Shepard’s first “big fat snapshot” — hopefully to be continued on an annual basis — of a wildly diverse current filmic landscape, assembled in collaboration with Manila critic Philbert Ortiz Dy.

Shepard’s program notes call the Philippines “an extremely fascinating country…but the more I learned about the place and its people, the less I felt like I actually understood anything. The truth felt more and more slippery.” One might get a similar sensation watching the films in this expansive (nearly 30 titles, shorts included) sampler, in that they’re all over the map stylistically and thematically — from lyrical to gritty, satirical to anarchistic — suggesting no single defining “movement” or aesthetic to New Filipino Cinema.

Nor should they, since these movies reflect very different cultures, politics, and issues in regions hitherto underrepresented onscreen. After all, Manila isn’t the only place you can get your hands on a digital camera; and Tagalog is primary language for just one-third of all Filipinos.

The series opener has significant local ties: Loy Arcenas is a lauded stage set designer who’s worked frequently with our own American Conservatory Theater. Unavailable for preview, in description his feature directorial debut Niño (2011) sounds redolent of Luchino Visconti and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (as well as, perhaps, 1975’s Grey Gardens) as it depicts a once grand family of Spanish émigrés living in decrepit splendor, diminished over generations by political inconvenience and a proud, fatal inability to adapt.

Their aristocratic pretensions are a far cry from the rowdier real life captured or depicted in other YBCA selections. A bizarre footnote to the United States’ complicated, incriminating relationship with the Philippines is documented in Monster Jiminez’s Kano: An American and His Harem (2010). Its subject is a Yankee Vietnam vet whose military pension allowed him to construct a sort of one-man imperialist paradise centered around his penis. Whether he was a gracious benefactor, a bullying rapist, or both is a puzzle only clouded further by contradictory input from former/current wives and mistresses (even while he’s in prison), stateside relatives who recall a childhood ideal to shape a sociopath, and the authorities who’ve lately kept him in prison.

War is ongoing, marriage an impractical hope in Arnel M. Mardoquio’s impressive Crossfire (2011), whose young lovers in southern region Mindanao must dodge government-vs.-rebel-vs.-bandit guns as well as a rural poverty sufficient to make our heroine vulnerable to being offered as a lender-debt payoff. Their plight is starkly contrasted with the spectacular scenery of countryside few tourists will ever hazard.

Its atmospheric opposite is Lawrence Fajardo’s Amok (2011), whose thousand threads of seemingly free-floating narrative depict life dedicatedly melting down all race, age, class, and economic divisions during a heat wave passage through one of Manila’s busiest intersections. What birth and development keeps apart gets nail-gunned together, however, once this string of naturalistic vignettes hits a plot device that delivers deus ex machina to all with no melodramatic restraint. Fate also lays heavy hand on the junior protagonists of Mes de Guzman’s At the Corner of Heaven and Earth (2011), a crude but honest neo-realist drama about four orphaned and runaway boys trying to eke out a marginal existence in Nueva Vizcaya.

Should this all sound pretty grim, be informed there’s lots of levity — albeit much of it gallows-humored — on the YBCA slate. Jade Castro’s exuberantly silly Remington and the Curse of the Zombadings (2011) finds the funny in homophobia as its crass young hero (a farcically deft Mart Escudero) is “cursed” by an angry queen he’d insulted to become gay himself; meanwhile somebody goes around their regional burg assassinating cross-dressers via ray-gun. Plus: zombies, and the proverbial kitchen sink. Also on the frivolous side is Antoinette Jadaone’s mockumentary Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay (2011), in which the titular veteran screen thespian struggles for recognition after decades playing bit parts and occasional showier ones, notably as witchy folkloric “aswang” attempting to suck the lifeblood from newborn babes. (See aswang-related coverage in this week’s Trash column, too.)

Yet those are but moderately playful New Filipino Cinema exercises compared to the determined off-map outrages practiced by Mondomanila (2011). This gonzo eruption of spermazoidal huzzah! by multimedia Manila punk underground mover Khavn de la Cruz seeks to leave no societal cavity unexplored, or unoffended. Opening with an infamous quote from Brokedown Palace (1999) star Claire Danes, who characterized Manila as a “ghastly and weird city … [with] no sewage system,” it delivers both fuck-you and fuck-me to that judgment via 75 minutes of mad under caste collage. There isn’t much plot. But there’s variably judged arson, pedophilia, yo-yo trick demonstrations, poultry abuse, upscale mall shopping, voyeuristic pornographia, Tagalog rap, rooftop drum soloing, and limbless-little-person salesmanship of duck eggs.

Further complicating your comprehension of a very complex scene, the YBCA series encompasses avant-garde shorts by veteran John Torres and newer experimentalists. There’s also a free afternoon Indie-Pino Music Fest Sat/9, and on June 17 there’s a postscript: Lav Diaz’s Florentina Hubaldo, CTE, the six-hour latest epic in a career whose patience-testing wide open cinematic spaces make Béla Tarr look like Michael Bay.

“NEW FILIPINO CINEMA”

June 7-17, $8

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

701 Mission, SF

www.ybca.org

In the air

Andrew Lam

June 5, 2012

caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE It’s Sunday afternoon and the hosts of Mutiny Radio’s Cannabis Cuts: The Next Generation have effectively commandeered the smoking lounge at SoMa’s Igzactly 420. They are deep into solving the world’s problems.

The crusade may just involve a pictorial calendar featuring sexy men smoking marijuana — a project which hosts Vaperonica Dee and Merry Toppins staunchly resist any attempts to qualify as frivolous. It’s about achieving parity in cannabis imagery, they say — much like their weekly podcast of marijuana news, product reviews, music, and banter.

“If you look at all the ads [for cannabis businesses and products], it’s sexy nurses or girls holding cannabis leaves over their tits,” Dee says between Volcano puffs. The young radio vet didn’t find that image particularly representative of her experience with the medicine (both she and Toppins are medical marijuana patients), so she jumped at the chance to work with DJ Wiid on his marijuana variety show at Pirate Cat Radio.

Merry Toppins and Vaperonica Dee plot their takeover of cannabis media (that’s not their car.) Guardian photo by Caitlin Donohue

Dee stuck with the project through Pirate Cat’s transformation into Mutiny Radio, the shuttering of its cafe and demise of its infamous maple bacon lattes — “I was excited!” she says. “I wanted to be in radio, I didn’t give a shit about the cafe” — and the exodus of her male co-host.

And when DJ Wiid moved onto new projects, it left the door open for an idea that seems nearly revolutionary in an industry filled with men: a platform for women’s perspectives on the cannabis movement.

Toppins was a natural choice as on-air co-host for Dee. The two had met when chef Toppins appeared on Cuts to hype her marijuana-infused olive oil that she had entered into the High Times Cannabis Cup. Toppins’ ebullience is the perfect compliment to Dee’s well-informed on-air tone. They both have natural radio voices, impeccable banter rhythm. “It was so cool to see a chick doing the news on a weed show,” says Toppins of their initial meeting. “I knew right away I’d either be their intern or host my own radio show.”

Listeners are responding. Toppins volunteers the following stats: 5,000 Cannabis Cuts podcast downloads each week, each one yielding an average of an hour spent with the two-hour long show. And though the women express views that aren’t always in lockstep with the cannabis establishment (a February 14 edition of the show highlighted a disempowering experience with Americans for Safe Access activists at a City Hall hearing and the two are candid about the fact that not all their tokes are strictly medicinal), many of the community’s luminaries have lent their support. They count Proposition 215 co-author Dennis Peron and Cannabis Action Network co-founder Debby Goldsberry as personal friends, and have interviewed Peron on the show.

The enthusiasm that has come their way makes sense — the continued strength of activists to improve cannabis access depends on developing and raising awareness about diverse viewpoints within the movement.

“We’re changing the idea that there could be a profile of a standard cannabis activist,” says Dee, who wants the world to know that it’s not just the grey-ponytailed Deadheads who care about access to pot. “Plus, radio doesn’t have that many women involved in it, cannabis doesn’t have that many women involved in it — the two go together.”

Cannabis Cuts: The Next Generation Live podcast every Tuesday, 4pm-6pm. www.mutinyradio.org. Also available on www.stitcher.com and www.medicinalmarijuananetwork.org

Time’s on his side

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

June 5, 2012

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC Nick Waterhouse no longer calls San Francisco home, but the city’s fingerprints are all over Time’s All Gone, his effortlessly fun, debut LP. The retro-minded songwriter-producer crafts perfect little tributes to the punchy 1950s R&B sounds he’s been drawn to since he was a kid, all steeped with an endearing reverence for old-school record culture and recording techniques.

“We cut as live as possible, so a lot of the record is eight people in one room playing at the same time,” he explains. “Everybody’s gotta feel it together, and if they don’t, you really don’t have a song, in my opinion.”

As a Southern California kid growing up in the Costa Mesa area, Waterhouse approached his music listening from a studious angle, soaking up the Van Morrison and John Lee Hooker records of his parents, along with the Descendents and Sonic Youth albums he found. The well-rounded sonic diet can be heard within the frayed edges and garage rock appeal that Time’s All Gone has in spades.

“I listened to everything I could because I wanted to gain as much experience as possible,” he says. “I was the kid staying up for hours with the radio under the covers.”

By 18, Waterhouse had moved to San Francisco and quickly jumped headfirst into the DJ scene, spinning and building a network of like-minded cohorts at the Knockout’s Oldies Night and Saturday Night Soul Party at the Elbo Room, which brought him in touch with folks like Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin. No connection, however, would become as important to him as his relationship with Rooky Ricardo’s, the Dick Vivian-owned oldies-R&B-soul-centric gem of a record store in the Lower Haight.

“Rooky Ricardo’s informed a lot of how I developed as a person, and it’s all in the spirit of the place,” he says. “It’s got that clubhouse feel.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJruQmdlU10

Waterhouse recorded the saxophone-propelled blast of “Some Place” in the summer of 2010, an undertaking that he says was fueled more by a desire to sell vinyl copies to friends and fellow Rooky’s shoppers than to start a full-fledged music project.

“I really had no interest in it at the time,” he explains. “I figured I’d just keep making these 45s for fun and no one would even know who I was.”

After some nagging by friends to put something together for live shows, however, he caved and began recruiting players for the beginnings of what is now the Tarots, his perfectly complementary backing band. Together with Waterhouse’s guitar playing and expressive croon, the group uses horns, piano, drums, and female backing vocals to pay tribute to soulful R&B without ever falling victim to hollow mimicry or self-conscious irony. This is warm music made by passionate people with only the purest of intentions.

When it came time to record an LP, Waterhouse did what anyone who’s heard his music might expect and found an all analog studio in Costa Mesa called the Distillery to work out of. With the use of vintage gear, old ribbon mics, and classic recording techniques, he says that Time’s All Gone was constructed entirely with vinyl in mind.

“I can’t lie and pretend that as somebody born in the late-1980s I haven’t had moments of discovery because of digital music,” he says. And while yes, he has found music digitally over the years, he doesn’t have any vivid, concrete memories of those discoveries, the way he does with physical records. “I can still remember what listening station at Rooky’s I was at when I first heard a record, or what weird flea market I found something at. Having something tangible in front of you helps you associate.”

Waterhouse recently moved back to Southern California due to his quickly escalating, hectic tour schedule, but the plan has always been to officially release his album in San Francisco. In a beautiful bout of planning, Wednesday night’s show will not only mark the release of Time’s All Gone, but will also serve as a celebration for the 25th anniversary of the day Rooky Ricardo’s first opened its doors. Expect the dance party to start early and run late, as Waterhouse has enlisted the help of some of his favorite local DJs to spin before and after his set.

“In my mind, my album was born out of Rooky’s and out of a specific period of time in San Francisco more than anything else,” he says. “So this is my party for all the people and things that really mattered to me there.”

NICK WATERHOUSE

With DJs Carnita, Primo, Matt B, Lucky

Wed/6, 8pm, $12 sold out

Verdi Club

2424 Mariposa, SF (415) 861-9199

www.verdiclub.net

Revival signs

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

June 5, 2012

emilysavage@sfbg.com

MUSIC A few musicians with slick hair and black-frame glasses are seen setting up their equipment in Chicago’s Hi-Style Studio: amps, a mustard Telecaster, glittering gold drums, a huge stand-up bass, and vintage condenser microphones. What year is this?

The drum hits crack and the bass strings ripple with heavy plucks. The finger-snapping beat is unavoidable, almost cloying in its blitheness. Potent vocals reminiscent of Little Richard suddenly overpower it all. It’s Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s JD McPherson — singing so hard a craggy vein in his otherwise smooth forehead bulges — in the video for the single that has brought him this far: “North Side Gal.”

It’s due to be inescapable this summer. “The Chicago Cubs have actually been playing that song at the stadium during games,” McPherson says during a phone call from his car, where the singer-songwriter-occasional vegetarian is waiting on an order of red pepper tofu. “It’s really exciting. There’s really no other team I’d rather have that song associated with. It’s the ultimate old ballpark, underdog team.”

Like contemporaries Nick Waterhouse (who, coincidentally, is also playing San Francisco this week, and un-coincidentally is also profiled in this issue) and Nick Curran and the Lowlifes, McPherson is tackling the invigorating rock’n’roll power and bluesy vocals of early R&B and 1950s rock, exploring retro record-making processes,while nonchalantly dressing the part.

It’s another revival, likely to sell well across the mainstream in the Heartland, but also appeal to the underground listeners throughout rockabilly pockets. Though this is beyond classic rockabilly’s precise replications of the past, past kitsch and overwhelming aesthetics. These band leaders with undeniable guitar skills and a very modern drive have something that can only be described, apologetically, as star power. Out of the smoky clubs and into the mind’s eye.

And while rockin’ McPherson may have the sound, the side-parted hair, and the analog recording process back-story like the others in this current resurgence, his own background is fairly different; if the more soulful California boy Waterhouse is Rat Pack wool suits, McPherson is dusty rolled denim.

McPherson was raised on a cattle farm in Buffalo Valley, Southeast Oklahoma — dutifully feeding the cows before school — but later fell into a nearby punk scene, and met his wife (and mother to his two young daughters) at a new wave-goth club night in Tulsa; wearing a Smiths shirt herself, she approached him to say,”You look like a Smiths fan.” She’s now his biggest supporter, sitting patiently while he runs by new guitar parts or song lyrics. She’s also the original “North Side Gal.”

But before all that, before his interest in punk and new-wave, before the wife and kids, and long before the release of his modern reinterpretation of early rock’n’roll record, Signs and Signifiers, he was just a 13-year-old kid in the Midwest learning to play the guitar.

His much older brothers showed him their ’70s-era Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, and Jimi Hendrix records. He grew obsessed with Led Zeppelin then Van Halen, and later, Nirvana, which led to searches for punk origins records by the Stooges and the Ramones. As a late teen, he discovered early rock’n’roll, the backbeat to all those spinning vinyl dreams.

“I found the Decca recordings of Buddy Holly, and that sort of seemed to marry the exuberance of the Ramones, with the country Arcadian aesthetic that I was growing up around. It made sense…and it got me.”

His teenage punk band began interjecting Buddy Holly’s “Rocking Around with Ollie Vee” into their sets; the sound had a pervasive pull, and he fell backwards, deeper into the roots of rock’n’roll — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, blues artists his Alabama-born dad loved such as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, and early jazz musicians.

He looked to Little Richard in particular, to whom he has garnered favorable comparisons (see the beginning of this story). Because of his style, and, perhaps, his skin color, he’s also seen comparisons to Elvis. “I love Elvis, I mean, I lo-ove Elvis,” he stretches out the “of” sound in the word “love” with an endearingly twangy accent. “I don’t know if there’s a huge musical similarity between us and Elvis, maybe instrumentation-wise, but we’re way more Specialty Records than Sun Records.”

“Little Richard is my favorite recording artist,” he continues, “[I’m] way more interested in Elvis’ black counterparts and predecessors. I do love rockabilly, but we don’t interject a lot of hillbilly sounds into our rhythm and blues the way Elvis did.”

In the ’90s Midwest, pop-country was taking over the airwaves, Billy Ray Cyrus and the like — it’s what all McPherson’s high school classmates were popping in the tape decks. It wasn’t for him. Perhaps this is why he shies away from any hillbilly sounds, those that can lead to psychobilly when mixed with the punk roots. Not that he disparages rockabilly.

“There’s a subculture of all these bands that have no intention of doing anything other than just really faithfully reproducing these sounds, there’s a lot more rockabilly and Western swing bands doing that thing, [yet] these are folks that are putting out quality music.”

But in those scenes and beyond he saw a shortage of the more straight-forward rock’n’roll he loved. That’s why he and musical partner Jimmy Sutton (the gray fox thumping those stand-up bass strings in the “North Side Gal” video) decided to make the DIY, all-analog Signs and Signfiers album in the first place. “So our record basically was almost like an art project, like ‘let’s just make this record and do what we always wanted to do.'”

The drummer on the album was Alex Hall, who doubled as the engineer. Now he’s still “in the family,” often playing keyboards with the band; drummer Jason Smay is on the current tour. During the recording process, McPherson and Sutton would run through a song then Hall would head into the control booth to mix. He’d set the levels, start the tape, run in, then get behind the drums. “That was kind of the magic of it, it was essentially mixed as we recorded it. Real fast, instant gratification. It’s the best way to record.”

Like contemporary Waterhouse noted, McPherson of course has his own connections with modern technology and has used digital recording processes in the past, but he prefers the analog way, to extract that authentic sound. “I’ve seen the amazing things you can do in a digital environment, but there’s some special thing to getting a band live in the studio and recording an actual performance. And then you know, the equipment sounds amazing too.”

While the record was originally released in 2010 on Sutton’s tiny Hi-Style label, the “North Side Gal” single and album have really started picking up this year. With the homemade video as the ultimate calling card, Rounder Records signed the band and rereleased the album this spring. The video has gained half a million views as of press time, and the band’s television debut is tonight on Conan. Despite all that, they’re still relatively unknown in the US, but McPherson and his band have a huge following in the UK — they regularly play sold-out shows and festivals, and have daily rotation on BBC Radio.

During the recording process, and up until the end of the 2011 school year, McPherson was still employed in a local Broken Arrow middle school as a computer and arts teacher (he went to college for fine arts). When he was laid off last summer he says he told the band, “well, I’m getting a paycheck through the summer, so let’s tour and try to make some money while I look for another job.” They’ve been touring consistently ever since.

Perhaps this batch of ’50s-inspired rockers and analog R&B crooners will move beyond the past, and into the future musical pantheon, gaining elusive mainstream success. Or maybe they’ll remain lovable underdogs. Only time will tell. For your McPherson fix now, you could always take in a Cubs game. Check back at the end of summer ’12.

JD MCPHERSON

With Toshio Hirano

Thu/7, 8pm, $21

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885-0750

www.slimspresents.com

Rites of passage

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

June 5, 2012

arts@sfbg.com

FILM It’s commonly said of Nathaniel Dorsky’s films that they are beautiful beyond words. Which is true as far as it goes, but then the same could be said of many poems and they are words. What’s clear is that Dorsky is absorbed with a classical fulfillment of form, and as such his films do better with poetics than interpretation (he has himself supplied a fine entry point with his slim volume Devotional Cinema). Poetics in this context means respecting the mystery and proceeding gingerly with gesture, metaphor, and detail. No one ever says of a Dorsky film, “I liked it the more I thought about it.” Conversely, watching a second or third time one marvels to find the beauty springing to life with the same force, subtler and lovelier now for this trick of renewal. No one ever says of a sunset, “I’ve seen this one before.”

A three-part retrospective at the Pacific Film Archive beginning June 10 retraces the last decade of Dorsky’s work. The Return (2011) and August and After (2012) receive local premieres this weekend, accompanied by the delicate Pastourelle (2010). June 17 brings his “Quartet,” to my mind a signal achievement of the young century. The series concludes June 24 with three earlier films confirming Dorsky’s mastery of an open (sometimes called polyvalent) form of montage: Song and Solitude (2006), Threnody (2004), and The Visitation (2002). How fitting that these films should be spaced out over consecutive days of rest! They will be shown on 16mm because that is what they are (last I checked the museums still show the Old Masters in paint).

It’s our good fortune to share a city with Dorsky: opportunities to see the films with him as a guide come a little more frequently, and the phenomena that supply his visual repertoire are that much more familiar. Here are the blossoms, the Chinatown lanterns, the drifting Muni trains, the ocean skies, and the seasons as we only dare to see them in deepest reverie.

Dorsky began making movies under the influence of people like Stan Brakhage and Gregory Markopoulos, filmmakers who strove for an intrinsic cinematic language (while the auteurists chiseled out an essential cinema, they sought cinema’s essence). After relocating to San Francisco in 1971, he reemerged with Hours for Jerome (1980-1982), a dense exercise in spiritual autobiography culled from pastoral years in New Jersey. The films began arriving with greater regularity after Triste (1998) and continue apace even after the desertion of his beloved Kodachrome.

The silence of Dorsky’s films is lush, providing intoxicating accompaniment to the slowed projection of 18 frames per second which dips the photographic action just out of the flow of representation. The crescendos that surge past the finish of his films invariably leave me surprised that I haven’t been listening to music, as the black of the theater seems clarified in the same way silence is after an expressive composition. Pushing the analogy further, the relationship between movement and stillness in his films is akin to that of sound and rest in music, the two leaved together as intonation. We really need a new word to describe the juddering movement of branches and buds that punctuate Dorsky’s films. “Quiver” is close, but it doesn’t capture the spring in the frame, like dancers on a stage.

A couple of months ago, Dorsky showed something called Kodachrome Dailies from the Time of Song and Solitude (Reel 1) at Lincoln Center: Song and Solitude-era footage in the chronological order in which it was shot. The material had a completely distinct character viewed this way. Dorsky talked of it as a journal. The loose form made it easier to relate to his eye being grasped by something in the world, and yet one missed the justice of the cuts.

If pressed for a defining quality of these films, I would say rightness —each shot developing to its fullness, tuned to what comes before and after. The fact that this formal refinement is itself the focus of the films creates a suspension of time which, after all, is a basic condition of paradise. Certainly the films are colored by experience, as August and After for instance is clearly marked by grief, yet this is never what they are “about.” Trust is placed in the self-expression of the film stock — its luster and dusk.

Dorsky’s films will reintroduce you to what branches make of the sky and how the grass gladdens when the sun reappears from its shade. I think this is what people are talking about when they say the films remind them of childhood. “A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full/hands;/How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any/more than he./I guess it must the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful/green stuff woven.” We could choose many lines of verse to say the same, but Whitman’s will do. There is something mystical in Dorsky’s slightly ajar illuminations of worldly objects and features. And yet so too is there something altogether sensible and almost courtly in their formal arrangements. The shots of dogs make us chuckle because we’re in a position to recognize our own recognition, all too human.

On first viewing The Return struck me as a deeply melancholy work, its darkly reflecting surfaces and doublings bearing the impression of lost sleep. August and After, on the other hand, is more immediate in its effect and a superior example of how Dorsky’s style can serve distinct emotional structures (threnody here). Tender impressions taken near the end of George Kuchar’s life, the filmmaker surrounded by family and friends, are framed in the light of long afternoons. Everything that follows is touched by these pictures of intimacy: two workers sliding down a skyscraper, a distant glass door sweeping a ray of light across a café, agitated steps into bramble. A rhythmic montage focuses on packages and fruits carried down the street, the actual things transfigured into pure color. When the film’s ship finally sails, it does so with such grace as to say love without saying.

“AFTERIMAGE: THREE NIGHTS WITH NATHANIEL DORSKY”

June 10, 17, and 24, 7:30pm, $5.50-$9.50

Pacific Film Archive

2575 Bancroft, Berk.

(510) 642-5249

bampfa.berkeley.edu

Our Weekly Picks: June 6-12

Andrew Lam

June 5, 2012

WEDNESDAY 6

Church of Misery

A preternaturally crunchy, riff-savvy stoner rock band from Tokyo, Japan, whose influences are culled from the back catalogues of ’70s esoterica — think Mountain, Sir Lord Baltimore, and my beloved Captain Beyond, played through the kind of crustified old school black metal sensibilities that seem to inform a number of Japan’s most popular heavy metal exports. There’s also the serial killer thing — the vast majority of Church of Misery’s lyrics treat America’s most infamous murderers and sadists. A sly commentary on our obsession with the vaguely menacing sexuality of our cock rock icons? They do a mean cover of “Cities On Flame with Rock and Roll,” too. (Tony Papanikolas)

With Hail! Hornet, Gates of Slumber

9pm, $18

Elbo Room

647 Valencia, SF

(415) 552-7788

www.elbo.com

Teen Daze

Recalling the Balearic escapism of Air France and the Tough Alliance, Vancouver’s Teen Daze specializes in a blissed-out, beach-bound approach to DIY-electronica. His upcoming full-length, All of Us, Together (to be released June 5 on Lefse Records), sees the producer taking a cleaner, less hazy approach to his chillwavy pop aesthetic than ever before. Laptop-based sets can leave a whole lot to be desired, so let’s hope this one-man project has what it takes to translate its vision to the stage in a compelling way. (Taylor Kaplan)

With the One AM Radio, Giraffage, Slow Magic

8pm, $12

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

THURSDAY 7

“BY Series”

In his new “BY Series,” Robert Moses formalizes a process he has engaged in over the years: inviting other choreographers to set work on his dancers. But why put Molissa Fenley, Ramon Ramos Alayo, and Sidra Bell — who probably have never even shared a cup of coffee, much less a stage — together? Like Moses, they speak with powerful 21st century voices from within the African Diaspora. Fenley spent formative years in Nigeria, Alayo in Cuba, and Bell, the youngest of the three, started her company as a community project in Harlem. Yet these artists couldn’t be more different from each other, and that’s the point. Also on the program will be the world premiere of Moses’ “Scrubbing the Dog.” (Rita Felciano)

Through June 17

Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm, $25

ODC Theater

3153 17th St., SF

(415) 863-9834

www.odcdance.org

The Polecats

Neo-rockabilly legends the Polecats formed in London in the late 1970s, and brought back the ’50s rock genre with classic tunes such as “Rockabilly Guy” and “Make A Circuit With Me.” Although the group fractured for several years, with singer Tim Worman performing with 13 Cats, and guitarist Boz Boorer going on to play guitar and write music with Morrissey, they still find time to reunite occasional and play a show here and there. Don’t miss this rare local appearance, a warm-up gig before the Polecats head south to perform at the Ink-N-Iron Festival in Long Beach this weekend. (Sean McCourt)

With This Charming Band, Texas Steve & the Tornadoes

9pm, $12–$15

Uptown

1928 Telegraph, Oakl.

(510) 451-8100

www.uptownnightclub.com

Sasha

Globe-trotting Welshman Alexander Coe (a.k.a. Sasha) went from underground acid house DJ in the late ’80s to worldwide icon in the early 90’s when he paired with English DJ and producer John Digweed. Sasha and Digweed would go on to become one of electronic music’s most celebrated acts, producing mix albums and performing live together for a decade. The duo broke ground with their ambitious Delta Heavy tour across the US in 2002, proving electronic musicians had gained critical mass stateside. After the pair split, Sasha continued to venture into unchartered territory, becoming among the first DJs to remix tracks during live performances. While he’s bounced around genres throughout his career, his live sets typically carry a 4/4 beat and occupy the space between driving techno and house. (Kevin Lee)

Base Seven-Year Anniversary

10pm, $25

Vessel

85 Campton, SF

(415) 433-8585

www.vesselsf.com

FRIDAY 8

The Shants

Plenty of Americana tunes will be offered at this Starry Plough show thanks to co-headliners the Shants and Sean McArdle. Sit back and enjoy the musical complexity and lyrical beauty of the Shants, then let their faster songs bring you to your feet to dance. Such classically rural sounds as the pedal steel guitar bring their sound a weary and rich twangy soul, and the use of harmonica gets the boots stomping. Their latest album Beautiful Was the Night features Brianna Lea Pruett and Quinn Deveaux on vocal harmonies, as well as violin by Howie Cockrill and horns by Ralph Carney; and in the past they’ve shared the stage with artists such as Canadian alterna-folk autoharpist Basia Bulat. This week they play both the Starry Plough tonight, and the Great American Music Hall Sat/9. (Shauna C. Keddy)

With Paige and the Thousand, Sean McArdle

9:30pm, $7–$10

Starry Plough

3101 Shattuck, Berk.

(510) 841-2082

www.starryploughpub.com

With Dirty Hand Family Band, the Famous, the Rogers, the Hot Pink Feathers

Sat/9, 8:30pm, $13

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885-0750

www.slimspresents.com

This Will Destroy You and A Place to Bury Strangers

Two headliners; two brands of face-melting guitar-rock. Hailing from San Marcos, Texas, self-described “doomgaze” outfit This Will Destroy You is sure to devastate, with its mountains of distortion and extreme dynamic range. A Place to Bury Strangers (a.k.a “The Loudest Band in NYC”) should overwhelm in equal measure, with its suffocating barrage of squalling guitars, insistent basslines, and unrelenting drums. With two distinct walls-of-sound to get lost in, this double-bill should offer up one of the most viscerally affecting evenings of music this town has seen in a while. Bring earplugs… or, don’t. (Kaplan)

With Dusted

10pm, $14

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St., SF

(415) 621-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

SATURDAY 9

“I Call the Shots: New Works By Ben Venom”

Local artist Ben Venom’s signature quilts, stitched from chopped band tees, are spectacular to behold. A featured artist at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ “Bay Area Now 6” exhibit last year, Venom combines traditional hesher motifs (skulls, wolves, Satan, Slayerrr!) with traditional crafting techniques. (As his artist’s statement points out, “even the beasts of metal need a warm blanket to sleep with.”) Venom’s new solo show, “I Call the Shots,” includes wing-themed quilts I Go Where Eagles Dare and War Bird West (you could spend hours staring at each, picking out all the band logos embedded within), plus embroidered jean jackets and pillows suitable for cradling lazy demon heads. And speaking of heads, they will bang: local rockers Hazzard’s Cure and Dalton perform live at the opening. (Cheryl Eddy)

Also featuring work by Adam Feibelman

Through July 7

Opening reception tonight, 7-11pm, free

Guerrero Gallery

2700 19th St., SF

www.guerrerogallery.com

Superman: The Movie

Ever had the urge to watch Christopher Reeve valiantly save a busload of helpless schoolchildren on Golden Gate Bridge… in front of the bridge itself? Well, here’s your chance. In commemoration of the SF landmark’s 75th anniversary, The Presidio Trust and the Walt Disney Family Museum are curating “The Bridge on the Big Screen,” a series of seven bridge-centric films to be screened outdoors over the coming weeks, and Superman: The Movie is the second installment. Stay tuned for Hitchcock’s Vertigo, to be shown next Saturday. And remember to bring a blanket or low lawn chair. (Kaplan)

6pm, free

Main Post Green

Presidio, SF

www.presidio.gov

Corrosion of Conformity

It’s not every band that can wear two hats, or wear them both as well as Corrosion of Conformity. The Raleigh, NC outfit began in 1982 as a frenzied hardcore band before evolving into a slower, fuzzier stoner rock beast, starting with 1991’s Blind. More than 20 years later, though, the frenzy is back, courtesy of a stripped-down, power trio lineup and a new, self-titled album. With bassist Mike Dean taking over vocal duties from guitarist Pepper Keenan (busy playing in Down), COC have returned to their hardcore roots. Expect high tempos and chaos in the pit. (Ben Richardson)

With Torche, Black Cobra, Gaza

8pm, $21

Slim’s

333 11th St., SF

(415)-255-0333

www.slimspresents.com

SUNDAY 10

Sunset Island

Now in its fourth year, this annual “electronic music picnic” from the generous party mavens at SUNSET comes with a fee for the first time. But given the music on offer — including live sets from Magda, the always enticing genre-crossing daughter of Berlin and Detroit, and shadowy UK producer BNJMN, who made a double album debut last year with Black Square and Plastic World — the tickets still are coming at a steal. And that’s not factoring in the possibility of nice weather, a pleasant crowd, and an unparalleled view from one of the best venues/lawns in the Bay Area. Just, uh, remember to pick up your trash. (Ryan Prendiville)

With Eddie C, Galen, Solar, J-Bird

Noon, $5–$15

Great Lawn, Treasure Island

www.sunsetmusicelectric.com

TUESDAY 12

Here We Go Magic

A four-piece band of Brooklynites, Here We Go Magic received a notable nod from one Thom Yorke in the summer of 2010 — he said the act was his favorite at Glastonbury that year. Since then, songwriter Luke Temple and friends have continued making saliently synthy music while touring the globe, and even picked up a hitchhiking John Waters along the way. The indie-poppers are performing in support of their third full-length album A Different Ship, a percussion-driven record that is also purely melodic in its nature. Here We Go Magic at the Independent will be a chance to catch this fast-rising band at a smaller venue before the summer festival season is upon us, and before several high-profile tour dates with Coldplay in July. (Julia B. Chan)

With Harriet

8pm, $15

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

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Film Listings

Andrew Lam

June 5, 2012

Film listings are edited by Cheryl Eddy. Reviewers are Kimberly Chun, Max Goldberg, Dennis Harvey, and Lynn Rapoport. For rep house showtimes, see Rep Clock.

OPENING

Bel Ami Judging from recent attempts to shake off the gloomy atmosphere and undead company of the Twilight franchise, Robert Pattinson enjoys a good period piece, but hasn’t quite worked out how to help make one. Last year’s Depression-era Water for Elephants was a tepid romance, and Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod’s belle epoque–set Bel Ami is an ungainly, oddly paced adaptation of the Guy de Maupassant novel of the same name. A down-and-out former soldier of peasant stock, Georges Duroy (Pattinson) — or "Bel Ami," as his female admirers call him — gains a brief entrée into the upper echelons of France’s fourth estate and parlays it into a more permanent set of social footholds, campaigning for the affections of a triumvirate of Parisian power wives (Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, and Kristin Scott Thomas) as he makes his ascent. His route is confusing, though; the film pitches forward at an alarming pace, its scenes clumsily stacked together with little character development or context to smooth the way, and Pattinson’s performance doesn’t clarify much. Duroy shifts perplexingly between rapacious and soulful modes, eyeing the ladies with a vaguely carnivorous expression as he enters drawing rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms, but leaving us with little sense of his true appetites or other motivations. (1:42) Clay, Smith Rafael. (Rapoport)

Double Trouble When crooks nab a priceless painting from a Taipei museum, two security guards — wannabe hero Jay (Jaycee "Son of Jackie" Chan) and Chinese-tourist-on-vacation Ocean (Xia Yu) — reluctantly team up to recover the piece. A road trip of sorts ensues, laden with petty bickering, wacky melees, bonding moments, mistaken identity, gangsters both comical and sinister, and other buddy-comedy trappings. As expected, there are a few high-flying fight scenes; in the film’s production notes, director David Hsun-Wei Chang reveals he was inspired by the Rush Hour movies. Alas, Chan is neither as charismatic nor as breathtakingly nimble as his father (and, obvi, Xia is no Chris Tucker). It should be noted, however, that one of the slithery art thieves is played by underwear model Jessica C., famed in Hong Kong for her "police siren boobs." So there’s that. (1:29) Metreon. (Eddy)

Elena The opening, almost still image of breaking dawn amid bare trees — the twigs in the foreground almost imperceptibly developing definition and the sky gradually growing ever lighter and pinker in the corners of the frame — beautifully exemplifies the crux of this well-wrought, refined noir, which spins slowly on the streams of dog-eat-dog survival that rush beneath even the most moneyed echelons of Moscow. Sixtyish former nurse Elena (Nadezhda Markina) is still little more than a live-in caretaker for Vladimir (Andrey Smirnov), her affluent husband of almost 10 years. She sleeps in a separate bed in their modernist-chic condo and dutifully funnels money to her beloved layabout son and his family. Vladimir has less of a relationship with his rebellious bad-seed daughter (Yelena Lyadova), who may be too smart and hedonistic for her own good. When a certain unlikely reunion threatens Elena’s survival — and what she perceives as the survival of her own spawn — a kind of deadly dawn breaks over the seemingly obedient hausfrau, and she’s driven to desperate ends. Bathing his scenes in chilled blue light and velvety dark shadows, filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev (2003’s The Return) keeps a detached but close eye on the proceedings while displaying an uncanny talent for plucking the telling detail out of the wash of daily routine and coaxing magnetic performances from his performers. (1:49) Lumiere. (Chun)

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted The animated zoo animals (voiced by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith) join a circus. Hence the clown wigs. (1:33)

Peace, Love and Misunderstanding How is that even as a bona fide senior, Jane Fonda continues to embody this country’s ambivalence toward women? I suspect it’s a testament to her actorly prowess and sheer charisma that she’s played such a part in defining several eras’ archetypes — from sex kitten to counterculture-heavy Hanoi Jane to dressed-for-success feminist icon to aerobics queen to trophy wife. Here, among the talents in Bruce Beresford’s intergenerational chick-flick-gone-indie as a loud, proud, and larger-than-life hippie earth mama, she threatens to eclipse her paler, less colorful offspring, women like Catherine Keener and Elizabeth Olsen, who ordinarily shine brighter than those that surround them. It’s ostensibly the tale of high-powered lawyer Diane (Keener): her husband (Kyle MacLachlan) has asked for a divorce, so in a not-quite-explicable tailspin, she packs her kids, Zoe (Olsen) and Jake (Nat Wolff), into the car and heads to Woodstock to see her artist mom Grace (Fonda) for the first time in two decades. Grace is beyond overjoyed — dying to introduce the grandchildren to her protests, outdoor concerts, and own personal growhouse — while urbanite Diane and her kids find attractive, natch, diversions in the country, in the form of Jude (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Cole (Chace Crawford), and Tara (Marissa O’Donnell). Yet there’s a lot of troubled water for the mother and daughter to cross, in order to truly come together. Despite some strong characterization and dialogue, Peace doesn’t quite fly — or make much sense at its close — due to the some patchy storytelling: the schematic rom-com arch fails to provide adequate scaffolding to support the required leaps of faith. But that’s not to deny the charm of the highly identifiable, generous-spirited Grace, a familiar Bay Area archetype if there ever was one, who Fonda charges with the joy and sadness of fallible parent who was making up the rules as she went along. (1:36) Embarcadero, Smith Rafael. (Chun)

Prometheus Ridley Scott returns to Alien (1979) turf with this sci-fi thriller starring Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Noomi Rapace, and Guy Pearce. (2:03)

ONGOING

Battleship During idle moments before the action revs up, the aliens start menacing, and the deadly razor balls-cum-air mines start rampaging, wrap your noggin around these random brainwaves: can Taylor Kitsch be any better named? Is it possible for Alexander Skarsgård’s glassy eyes to get any deader? Where are all the Hawaiians, Asians, and people of color in this white-bread vision of Hawaii? All matters to puzzle over in this toy franchise hopeful directed by ex-Chicago Hope regular Peter Berg. The 2007 Transformers is the best this gung-ho hybrid of up-with-the-military "Army of One" commercial and alien invasion flick — with plenty of blow-’em-up-real-good explosions and a dab of J-monster movies, but the writing never quite rises to the occasion. Here, an international group of navy folk and their ships are convening in Hawaii for playful war games, though the exercises turn somewhat more serious when alien vessels splash down in the middle of the fun —and some mild, no-investment family drama: Alex (Kitsch) is the screw-up younger brother of stony-faced naval man Stone (Skarsgård) and courting the daughter (Brooklyn Decker) of the fleet commander (Liam Neesom), who seems to hate his guts. The ultimate battle with space invaders, however, promises to turn that all around, as Alex is forced to sailor up and lead crew mates like Rihanna and work with former opponents like Captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano). Here, at least, in the shadow of Pearl Harbor, U.S. and Japanese naval dudes can heal the wounds of World War II and bond in battle against the last unimpeachable interstellar villains who couldn’t give a rat’s ass if you say "I sunk your battleship." But Berg’s muddled direction doesn’t help when it comes to piecing out the chronology and balancing assorted perspectives in this latest effort to equate militarism with the games big and little kids play. (2:11) 1000 Van Ness, SF Center. (Chun)

Bernie Jack Black plays the titular new assistant funeral director liked by everybody in small-town Carthage, Tex. He works especially hard to ingratiate himself with shrewish local widow Marjorie (Shirley MacLaine), but there are benefits — estranged from her own family, she not only accepts him as a friend (then companion, then servant, then as virtual "property"), but makes him her sole heir. Richard Linklater’s latest is based on a true-crime story, although in execution it’s as much a cheerful social satire as I Love You Philip Morris and The Informant! (both 2009), two other recent fact-based movies about likable felons. Black gets to sing (his character being a musical theater queen, among other things), while Linklater gets to affectionately mock a very different stratum of Lone Star State culture from the one he started out with in 1991’s Slacker. There’s a rich gallery of supporting characters, most played by little-known local actors or actual townspeople, with Matthew McConaughey’s vainglorious county prosecutor one delectable exception. Bernie is its director’s best in some time, not to mention a whole lot of fun. (1:39) Embarcadero, Smith Rafael. (Harvey)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (1:42) 1000 Van Ness, SF Center, Sundance Kabuki.

The Cabin in the Woods If the name "Joss Whedon" doesn’t provide all the reason you need to bum-rush The Cabin in the Woods (Whedon produced and co-wrote, with director and frequent collaborator Drew Goddard), well, there’s not much more that can be revealed without ruining the entire movie. In a very, very small nutshell, it’s about a group of college kids (including Chris "Thor" Hemsworth) whose weekend jaunt to a rural cabin goes horribly awry, as such weekend jaunts tend to do in horror movies (the Texas Chainsaw and Evil Dead movies are heavily referenced). But this is no ordinary nightmare — its peculiarities are cleverly, carefully revealed, and the movie’s inside-out takedown of scary movies produces some very unexpected (and delightfully blood-gushing) twists and turns. Plus: the always-awesome Richard Jenkins, and in-jokes galore for genre fans. (1:35) Metreon. (Eddy)

A Cat in Paris This year’s Best Animated Film nominees: big-budget entries Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, and eventual winner Rango, plus Chico and Rita, which opened just before Oscar night, and French mega-dark-horse A Cat in Paris. Sure, Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol’s film failed to cash in on 2011’s Paris craze, but it’s still a charming if featherweight noir caper, being released stateside in an English version that features the voices of Marcia Gay Harden and Anjelica Huston. A streetwise kitty named Dino spends his days hanging with Zoey, a little girl who’s gone mute since the death of her father — a cop killed in the line of duty. Zoey’s mother (Harden), also a cop, is hellbent on catching the murderer, a notorious crook named Costa who runs his criminal empire with Reservoir Dogs-style imprecision. At night, Dino sneaks out and accompanies an affable burglar on his prowlings. When Zoey falls into Costa’s clutches, her mom, the thief, and (natch) the feisty feline join forces to rescue her, in a series of rooftop chase scenes that climax atop Notre Dame. At just over an hour, A Cat in Paris is sweetly old-fashioned and suitable for audiences of all ages, though staunch dog lovers may raise an objection or two. (1:07) Opera Plaza. (Eddy)

Chernobyl Diaries Despite the peripheral input of Oren Peli, who scored big with 2009’s Paranormal Activity, this sorry excuse for a horror movie offers up a sample platter of shit we’ve already seen before: the vacation-from-hell genre, the city-slickers-versus-yokels genre, the don’t-poke-around-in-the-abandoned-nuclear-facility genre. Er, all right. I will admit the setting — spooky ghost town Pripyat, which abuts the Chernobyl reactors — is inspired, which actually makes first-time director Bradley Parker’s film even more of a disappointment. Douchey college kids — characters so one-dimensional their names might as well be "I Will Die First," "I Will Make the Obviously Stupid-Ass Decision to Run Into the Woods in the Direction of Those Strange Noises We’ve Been Hearing," and "I Will Be the Guy Who Starts Screaming Right When We’re Trying to Hide" — get in a rickety van with a sketchy guide for an "extreme tour" of you-know-where. Turns out, in addition to providing backdrops for Facebook-wall photo ops, the ‘Nobe is home to quite the cornucopia of beasties. Suggested alternate titles: Chernobyl Hostel. Wrong Turn (Off Chernobyl’s Only Road). Don’t Go In the Basement (of Chernobyl). Piranha-nobyl. Cujo-nobyl. Night of the Things in Chernobyl That Aren’t Dead. The Chernobyls Have Eyes. (1:26) Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

The Color Wheel Carlen Altman, a nervous comedian who moonlights as a Jewish rosary maker, was doing stand-up in Brooklyn when filmmaker Alex Ross Perry approached her about collaborating on a project. The idea for a brother-sister movie came to be: The Color Wheel, a droll and perverse take on vexed lives in transition, tinged with 16mm. Perry directed, produced, and edited the film while co-writing with Altman. When the film begins, a dopey JR (Altman) shows up at the apartment of her misanthropic brother Colin (Perry). JR convinces him to help move her stuff out of her professor ex-boyfriend’s place. Inevitably, their Northeastern road trip follows other tangents, taking the pair on a hilarious and sad journey that raises more questions than answers about their fraught relationship. They meet a lot of jerks, but no one more so than themselves; their characters, filterless with no desire to grow up or shut up, are far behind everyone they encounter. With all its zeitgeisty humor and lovably awful people, The Color Wheel takes some dark turns — it begins as a charming, dour comedy, but ends up viscerally queasy and pitiful, with its two leads as mixed-up as ever. (1:23) Roxie. (Ryan Lattanzio)

Crooked Arrows (1:45) Metreon.

Dark Shadows Conceptually, there’s nothing wrong with attempting to turn a now semi-obscure supernaturally themed soap opera with a five-year run in the late 1960s and early ’70s into a feature film. Particularly if the film brings together the sweetly creepy triumvirate of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter and emerges during an ongoing moment for vampires, werewolves, and other things that go hump in the night. Depp plays long-enduring vampire Barnabas Collins, the undead scion of a once-powerful 18th-century New England family that by the 1970s — the groovy decade in which the bulk of the story is set — has suffered a shabby deterioration. Barnabas forms a pact with present-day Collins matriarch Elizabeth (Michelle Pfeiffer) to raise the household — currently comprising her disaffected daughter, Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz), her derelict brother, Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), his mournful young son, David (Gulliver McGrath), David’s live-in lush of a psychiatrist, Dr. Hoffman (Carter), and the family’s overtaxed manservant, Willie (Jackie Earle Haley) — to its former stature, while taking down a lunatic, love-struck, and rather vindictive witch named Angelique (Eva Green). The latter, a victim of unrequited love, is the cause of all Barnabas’s woes and, by extension, the entire clan’s, but Angelique can only be blamed for so much. Beyond her hocus-pocus jurisdiction is the film’s manic pileup of plot twists, tonal shifts, and campy scenery-chewing by Depp, a startling onslaught that no lava lamp joke, no pallid reaction shot, no room-demolishing act of paranormal carnality set to Barry White, and no cameo by Alice Cooper can temper. (2:00) Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Sundance Kabuki. (Rapoport)

The Dictator As expected, The Dictator is, yet again, Sacha Baron Cohen doing his bumbling-foreigner shtick. Said character (here, a ruthless, spoiled North African dictator) travels to America and learns a heaping teaspoon of valuable lessons, which are then flung upon the audience — an audience which, by film’s end, has spent 80 minutes squealing at a no-holds-barred mix of disgusting gags, tasteless jokes, and schadenfreude. If you can’t forgive Cohen for carbon-copying his Borat (2006) formula, at least you can muster admiration for his ability to be an equal-opportunity offender (dinged: Arabs, Jews, African Americans, white Americans, women of all ethnicities, and green activists) — and for that last-act zinger of a speech. If The Dictator doesn’t quite reach Borat‘s hilarious heights, it’s still proudly repulsive, smart in spite of itself, and guaranteed to get a rise out of anyone who watches it. (1:23) 1000 Van Ness, SF Center, Sundance Kabuki. (Eddy)

First Position Bess Kargman’s documentary follows a handful of exceptional young ballet dancers, ranging in age from 10 to 17, over the course of a year as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, the world’s largest ballet scholarship competition. Those who make it from the semifinals (in which some 5,000 dancers aged 9 to 19 perform in 15 cities around the world) to the finals (which bring some 300 contestants to New York City) compete for scholarships to prestigious ballet schools, dance-company contracts, and general notice by both the judges and the company directors in the audience. The film’s subjects come from varied backgrounds — 16-year-old Joan Sebastian lives and studies in NYC, far from his family in Colombia; 14-year-old Michaela was born in civil war-torn Sierra Leone and adopted from an orphanage by an American couple in Philadelphia; 11-year-old Aran, an American, lives in Italy with his mother while his father serves in Kuwait. The common threads in their stories are the daily sacrifices made by them as well as their families, whose energies and other resources are largely poured into these children’s single-minded pursuit. We get a vague sense of the difficult world they are driving themselves, in nearly every waking hour, to enter. But the film largely keeps its focus on the challenges of preparing for the competition, offering us many magnificent shots of the dancers pushing their bodies to mesmerizing physical extremes both on- and offstage. (1:34) Opera Plaza, Smith Rafael. (Rapoport)

For Greater Glory (2:15) SF Center.

Headhunters Despite being the most sought-after corporate headhunter in Oslo, Roger (Aksel Hennie) still doesn’t make enough money to placate his gorgeous wife; his raging Napoleon complex certainly doesn’t help matters. Crime is, as always, the only solution, so Roger’s been supplementing his income by stealthily relieving his rich, status-conscious clients of their most expensive artworks (with help from his slightly unhinged partner, who works for a home-security company). When Roger meets the dashing Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of Game of Thrones) — a Danish exec with a sinister, mysterious military past, now looking to take over a top job in Norway — he’s more interested in a near-priceless painting rumored to be stashed in Greve’s apartment. The heist is on, but faster than you can say "MacGuffin," all hell breaks loose (in startlingly gory fashion), and the very charming Roger is using his considerable wits to stay alive. Based on a best-selling "Scandi-noir" novel, Headhunters is just as clever as it is suspenseful. See this version before Hollywood swoops in for the inevitable (rumored) remake. (1:40) Lumiere. (Eddy)

Hide Away Josh Lucas plays a grieving man who buys a substantial sailboat sight unseen (note to self: never do that) and spends months restoring it from decrepitude to a thing of beauty. All while never leaving its Lake Michigan dock — and for a while seeming hellbent on self-destruction via winter cold, alcohol, and cough syrup. Among those witnessing his solitary exile are Ayelet Zurer as a woman keeping an eye peeled from her shorefront diner; and James Cromwell as an old salt (he’s actually billed as "The Ancient Mariner") prone to wearing a kilt, playing bagpipes, and spouting wise groaners like "Sometimes when you get to where you’re s’posed to be, it’s too soon." Peter Vanderwall’s screenplay aims for artful minimalism, but still one might wish there were even less of it — too much of the writing is psychologically undercooked, pretentious, silly, or incongruously over-garrulous. There are too many thankless moments of under-contextualized actor exertion, and narrative elements that do not reward when they need to. But if Smoke Signals (1998) director Chris Eyres’ film is shaky as drama, it still provides aesthetic rewards as an exercise in melancholy poetics, especially via Eliot Davis’ photography of the northern Michigan environ through several seasons, and the persistent keening emotion of Tony Morales and Edward Rogers’ original soundtrack. (1:23) SF Film Society Cinema. (Harvey)

High School (1:40) Metreon.

The Hunger Games Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is a teenager living in a totalitarian state whose 12 impoverished districts, as retribution for an earlier uprising, must pay tribute to the so-called Capitol every year, sacrificing one boy and one girl each to the Hunger Games. A battle royal set in a perilous arena and broadcast live to the Capitol as gripping diversion and to the districts as sadistic propaganda, the Hunger Games are, depending on your viewpoint, a "pageant of honor, courage, and sacrifice" or a brutal, pointless bloodbath involving children as young as 12. When her little sister’s name comes up in the annual lottery, Katniss volunteers to take her place and is joined by a boy named Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), with whom she shares an old, unspoken bond. Tasked with translating to the screen the first installment of Suzanne Collins’s rabidly admired trilogy, writer-director Gary Ross (2003’s Seabiscuit, 1998’s Pleasantville) telescopes the book’s drawn-out, dread-filled tale into a manageable two-plus-hour entertainment, making great (and horrifying) use of the original work’s action, but losing a good deal of the narrative detail and emotional force. Elizabeth Banks is comic and unrecognizable as Effie Trinket, the two tributes’ chaperone; Lenny Kravitz gives a blank, flattened reading as their stylist, Cinna; and Donald Sutherland is sufficiently creepy and bloodless as the country’s leader, President Snow. More exceptionally cast are Woody Harrelson as Katniss and Peeta’s surly, alcoholic mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, and Stanley Tucci as games emcee Caesar Flickerman, flashing a bank of gleaming teeth at each contestant as he probes their dire circumstances with the oily superficiality of a talk show host. (2:22) 1000 Van Ness. (Rapoport)

Hysteria Tanya Wexler’s period romantic comedy gleefully depicts the genesis of the world’s most popular sex toy out of the inchoate murk of Victorian quackishness. In this dulcet version of events, real-life vibrator inventor Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) is a handsome young London doctor with such progressive convictions as a belief in the existence of germs. He is, however, a man of his times and thus swallows unblinking the umbrella diagnosis of women with symptoms like anxiety, frustration, and restlessness as victims of a plague-like uterine disorder known as hysteria. Landing a job in the high-end practice of Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), whose clientele consists entirely of dissatisfied housewives seeking treatments of "medicinal massage" and subsequent "parosysm," Granville becomes acquainted with Dalrymple’s two daughters, the decorous Emily (Felicity Jones) and the first-wave feminist Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal). A subsequent bout of RSI offers empirical evidence for the adage about necessity being the mother of invention, with the ever-underused Rupert Everett playing Edmund St. John-Smythe, Granville’s aristocratic friend and partner in electrical engineering. (1:35) Sundance Kabuki. (Rapoport)

I Wish It’s tempting to hold Hirokazu Kore-eda’s I Wish up to that other kids adventure story in the theaters, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, but that’s a disservice to Anderson: his arch look back at an age of innocence comes off as loftily contrived in contrast to this gently empathetic, ground-level view of children’s dreams and desires, one that falls well short of preciousness, thanks to Kore-eda’s acute eye for a changing Japan. Brothers Koichi and Ryunosuke (real-life sibs Koki and Ohshiro Maeda) are living apart like their two parents: the former bunks with his mother (Nene Otsuka) and grandparents in Kagoshima, where he plots to get his parents together again and frets over the ash-spewing still-active volcano; the latter is busy enabling his laid-back guitar-playing father (Jo Odagiri of 2003’s Bright Future) on the other side of the island, where he grows fava beans, eats takeout, and hangs out with pals like budding actress Megumi (Kara Uchida). These offspring of Peter Pan-like parents, who have had a tough time growing up and fulfilling their own dreams, have been forced to grow up fast — but Koichi is pinning his hopes on something faster: the new bullet train line that will link his town with his brother’s. He gets it in his mind that if a wish is made when the first trains pass each other, a miracle, like his bickering parents’ reunion, will occur. The kids conspire to grab to that magical moment, by hook or crook, and a little help from an elderly couple that might have stepped out of an older, more gracious Japan, as rhapsodized by Yasujiro Ozu. And as with his devastating portrait of abandoned kids eking out a living on their own, Nobody Knows (2004), Kore-eda effortlessly coaxes great performances out of his child actors. Like Nobody Knows‘s Akira, Koichi and Ryunosuke are determined to persevere, post-familial meltdown, through all personal Armageddons, be they triggered by volcano, tsunami, or heartbreak. (2:08) Opera Plaza, Smith Rafael. (Chun)

The Intouchables Cries of "racism" seem a bit out of hand when it comes to this likable albeit far-from-challenging French comedy loosely based on a real-life relationship between a wealthy white quadriplegic and his caretaker of color. The term "cliché" is more accurate. And where were these critics when 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy and 2011’s The Help — movies that seem designed to make nostalgic honkies feel good about those fraught relationships skewed to their advantage—were coming down the pike? (It also might be more interesting to look at how these films about race always hinge on economies in which whites must pay blacks to interact with/educate/enlighten them.) In any case, Omar Sy, portraying Senegalese immigrant Driss, threatens to upset all those pundits’ apple carts with his sheer life force, even when he’s shaking solo on the dance floor to sounds as effortlessly unprovocative, and old-school, as Earth, Wind, and Fire. In fact, everything about The Intouchables is as old school as 1982’s 48 Hrs., spinning off the still laugh-grabbing humor that comes with juxtaposing a hipper, more streetwise black guy with a hapless, moneyed chalky. The wheelchair-bound Philippe (Francois Cluzet) is more vulnerable than most, and he has a hard time getting along with any of his nurses, until he meets Driss, who only wants his signature for his social services papers. It’s not long before the cultured, classical music-loving Philippe’s defenses are broken down by Driss’ flip, somewhat honest take on the follies and pretensions of high culture — a bigger deal in France than in the new world, no doubt. Director-writer Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano aren’t trying to innovate —they seem more set on crafting an effervescent blockbuster that out-blockbusters Hollywood — and the biggest compliment might be that the stateside remake is already rumored to be in the works. (1:52) Embarcadero. (Chun)

Jiro Dreams of Sushi Celebrity-chef culture has surely reached some kind of zeitgeist, what with the omnipresence of Top Chef and other cooking-themed shows, and the headlines-making power of people like Paula Deen (diabetes) and Mario Batali (sued for ripping off his wait staff). Unconcerned with the trappings of fame — you’ll never see him driving a Guy Fieri-style garish sports car — is Jiro Ono, 85-year-old proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a tiny, world-renowned sushi restaurant tucked into Tokyo’s Ginza station. Jiro, a highly-disciplined perfectionist who believes in simple, yet flavorful food, has devoted his entire life to the pursuit of "deliciousness" — to the point of sushi invading his dreams, as the title of David Gelb’s reverential documentary suggests. But Jiro Dreams of Sushi goes deeper than food-prep porn (though, indeed, there’s plenty of that); it also examines the existential conflicts faced by Jiro’s two middle-aged sons. Both were strongly encouraged to enter the family business — and in the intervening years, have had to accept the soul-crushing fact that no matter how good their sushi is, it’ll never be seen as exceeding the creations of their legendary father. (1:21) Bridge. (Eddy)

Marvel’s The Avengers The conflict — a mystical blue cube containing earth-shattering (literally) powers is stolen, with evil intent — isn’t the reason to see this long-hyped culmination of numerous prequels spotlighting its heroic characters. Nay, the joy here is the whole "getting’ the band back together!" vibe; director and co-writer Joss Whedon knows you’re just dying to see Captain America (Chris Evans) bicker with Iron Man (a scene-stealing Robert Downey Jr.); Thor (Chris Hemsworth) clash with bad-boy brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston); and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) get angry as often as possible. (Also part of the crew, but kinda mostly just there to look good in their tight outfits: Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow.) Then, of course, there’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) running the whole Marvel-ous show, with one good eye and almost as many wry quips as Downey’s Tony Stark. Basically, The Avengers gives you everything you want (characters delivering trademark lines and traits), everything you expect (shit blowing up, humanity being saved, etc.), and even makes room for a few surprises. It doesn’t transcend the comic-book genre (like 2008’s The Dark Knight did), but honestly, it ain’t trying to. The Avengers wants only to entertain, and entertain it does. (2:23) Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Sundance Kabuki. (Eddy)

Men in Black III Why not? It’s been ten years since Men in Black II (the one where Lara Flynn Boyle and Johnny Knoxville — remember them? — played the villains), Will Smith has barely aged, and he hasn’t made a full-on comedy since, what, 2005’s Hitch? Here, he does a variation on his always-agreeable exasperated-guy routine, clashing with his grim, gimlet-eyed partner Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones, and in a younger incarnation, a spot-on Josh Brolin) in a plot that involves a vicious alien named Boris (Flight of the Conchords’ Jermaine Clement), time travel, Andy Warhol, the moon (as both space-exploration destination and modern-day space-jail location), and lines that only Smith’s delivery can make funny ("This looks like it comes from planet damn.") It’s cheerful (save a bit of melodrama at the end), crisply paced, and is neither a must-see masterpiece nor something you should mindfully sleep through if it pops up among your in-flight selections. Oh, and it’s in 3D. Well, why not? (1:42) 1000 Van Ness, SF Center, Sundance Kabuki. (Eddy)

Monsieur Lazhar When their beloved but troubled teacher hangs herself in the classroom — not a thoughtful choice of location, but then we never really discover her motives — traumatized Montreal sixth-graders get Bachir Lazhar (Fellag), a middle-aged Algerian émigré whose contrastingly rather strict, old-fashioned methods prove surprisingly useful at helping them past their trauma. He quickly becomes the crush object of studious Alice (Sophie Nelisse), whose single mother is a pilot too often away, while troublemaker Simon (Emilien Neron) acts out his own domestic and other issues at school. Lazhar has his own secrets as well — for one thing, we see that he’s still petitioning for permanent asylum in Canada, contradicting what he told the principal upon being hired — and while his emotions are more tightly wrapped, circumstances will eventually force all truths out. This very likable drama about adults and children from Quebec writer-director Philippe Falardeau doesn’t quite have the heft and resonance to rate among the truly great narrative films about education (like Laurent Cantet’s recent French The Class). But it comes close enough, gracefully touching on numerous other issues while effectively keeping focus on how a good teacher can shape young lives in ways as incalculable as they are important. (1:34) Opera Plaza. (Harvey)

Moonrise Kingdom Does Wes Anderson’s new film mark a live-action return to form after 2007’s disappointingly wan Darjeeling Limited? More or less. Does it tick all the Andersonian style and content boxes? Indubitably. In the most obvious deviation Anderson has taken with Moonrise, he gives us his first period piece, a romance set in 1965 on a fictional island off the New England coast. After a chance encounter at a church play, pre-teen Khaki Scout Sam (newcomer Jared Gilman) instantly falls for the raven-suited, sable-haired Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward, ditto). The two become pen pals, and quickly bond over the shared misery of being misunderstood by both authority figures and fellow kids. The bespectacled Sam is an orphan, ostracized by his foster parents and scout troop (much to the dismay of its straight-arrow leader Edward Norton). Suzy despises her clueless attorney parents, played with gusto by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand in some of the film’s funniest and best scenes. When the two kids run off together, the whole thing begins to resemble a kind of tween version of Godard’s 1965 lovers-on the-lam fantasia Pierrot le Fou. But like most of Anderson’s stuff, it has a gauzy sentimentality more akin to Truffaut than Godard. Imagine if the sequence in 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums where Margot and Richie run away to the Museum of Natural History had been given the feature treatment: it’s a simple yet inspired idea, and it becomes a charming little tale of the perils of growing up and selling out the fantasy. But it doesn’t feel remotely risky. It’s simply too damn tame. (1:37) Metreon, Sundance Kabuki. (Michelle Devereaux)

Piranha 3DD (1:23) 1000 Van Ness.

Polisse Comparisons to The Wire are not to be tossed around lightly, but when the Hollywood Reporter likened Polisse to an entire season of the masterpiece cop show packed into a single film, it was onto something. Director, co-writer, and star Maïwenn (the object of desire in 2003’s High Tension) hung out with real officers serving in Paris’ Child Protection Unit, drawing inspiration from their dealings with pedophiles, young rape victims, negligent mothers, pint-sized pickpockets, and the like (another TV show worth mentioning in comparison: Law & Order: SVU). But Polisse (the title is deliberately misspelled, as if by a child) is no simple procedural; it plunges the viewer directly into the day-to-day lives of its boisterous characters, who are juggling not just stressful careers but also plenty of after-hours troubles, particularly relationship issues. Between heart wrenching moments on the job (and off), the unit indulges in massive cut-loose episodes of what amounts to group therapy: charades, dance parties, and room-clearing arguments, most of which involve huge quantities of booze. Watching Polisse is a messy, emotional, rewarding experience; no wonder it picked up the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. (2:07) Lumiere. (Eddy)

Snow White and the Huntsman It’s unclear why the zeitgeist has blessed us this year with two warring iterations of the Snow White fairy tale, one broadly comedic (April’s Mirror Mirror), one starkly emo. But it was only natural that Kristen Stewart would land in the latter rendering, breaking open the hearts of swamp beasts and swordsmen alike with the chaste glory of her mien. As Snow White flees the henchmen and hired killers dispatched by her seriously evil stepmother, Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron), and traverses a blasted, virulent forest populated with hallucinogenic vapors and other life-threatening obstacles, Stewart need not act so much as radiate a dazzling benignity, weeping the tears of a martyr rather than a frightened young girl. (Unfortunately, when required to deliver a rallying declaration of war, she sounds as if she’s speaking in tongues after a heavy hit on the crack pipe.) It’s slightly uncomfortable to be asked, alongside a grieving, drunken huntsman (The Avengers’ Chris Hemsworth), a handful of dwarfs (including Ian McShane and Toby Jones), and the kingdom’s other suffering citizenry, to fall worshipfully in line behind such a creature. But first-time director Rupert Sanders’s film keeps pace with its lovely heroine visually, constructing a gorgeous world in which armies of black glass shatter on battlefields, white stags dissolve into hosts of butterflies, and a fairy sanctuary within the blighted kingdom is an eye-popping fantasia verging on the hysterical. Theron’s Ravenna, equipped in modernist fashion with a backstory for her sociopathic tendencies, is credible and captivating as an unhinged slayer of men, thief of youth, destroyer of kingdoms, and consumer of the hearts of tiny birds. (2:07) Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Rapoport)

What to Expect When You’re Expecting You needn’t direct what you know, but the first major misstep in this ensemble comedy was tapping a man, Kirk Jones (2005’s Nanny McPhee), to helm. Apparently Nicole Holofcener, Nancy Meyers, and Nora Ephron were too busy — busy making films not based on self-help bestsellers. Instead, What to Expect shows how marginal women can be to certain Hollywood blockbuster decision makers. On the surface, it’s all about the gals and their experiences, as an array of women from somewhat different, if pretty uniformly bourgie, walks of life — fitness star Cameron Diaz, baby store owner Elizabeth Banks, food truck chef Anna Kendrick, and trophy wife Brooklyn Decker — all find themselves knocked up. The odd woman out, surprisingly, is the boho photog played by Jennifer Lopez, who aspires to nest with a baby adopted from Ethiopia. But despite the frantic efforts of Banks, who shoulders the comedy burden here with hormones gone wild and gassy, and the climax, which should choke up all present and wannabe moms, the women are consistently upstaged by the bros, primarily the "Dudes Group" of dads headed up by Chris Rock and Thomas Lennon. Unlike the far-too-prominent, shruggable storyline involving an expectant father and son (Dennis Quaid and Ben Falcone), that crew gets the funniest, and perhaps most perceptive lines, in a baldly patriarchal play to the fellows forced into the cineplexes. Can’t the ladies catch a break, even as their waters are breaking? (1:50) Metreon. (Chun)

Stage Listings

Andrew Lam

June 5, 2012

Stage listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, and Nicole Gluckstern. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

THEATER

OPENING

Aftermath Stagewerx, 446 Valencia, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. $25. Previews Thu/7, 8pm. Opens Fri/8, 8pm. Runs Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through June 30. Theatre, Period presents Jessica Blank and Erik Jenson’s docu-drama, based on interviews with Iraqi civilians forced to flee after the US military’s arrival in 2003.

Lips Together, Teeth Apart New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, SF; www.nctcsf.org. $25-45. Previews Wed/6-Fri/8, 8pm. Opens Sat/9, 8pm. Runs Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through July 1. New Conservatory Theatre Center performs Terrence McNally’s play about two straight couples spending July 4 amid Fire Island’s gay community.

Reunion SF Playhouse, Stage Two, 533 Sutter, SF; (415) 677-9596, www.sfplayhouse.org. $20. Previews Wed/6-Thu/7, 7pm; Fri/8, 8pm. Opens Sat/9, 8pm. Runs Wed-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through June 30. SF Playhouse presents a world premiere drama by local playwright Kenn Rabin.

“Risk Is This…The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival” Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor, SF; (415) 525-1205, www.cuttingball.com. Free ($20 donation for reserved seating; $50 donation for five-play reserved seating pass). Opens Fri/8, 8pm. Runs Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through July 14. Cutting Ball’s annual fest of experimental plays features two new works and five new translations in staged readings.

Vital Signs Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Previews Fri/8 and June 15, 8pm; Sat/9, 8:30pm. Opens June 16, 8:30pm. Runs Sat, 8:30pm; June 22, 8pm. Through July 21. The Marsh San Francisco presents Alison Whittaker’s behind-the-scenes look at nursing in America.

BAY AREA

Wheelhouse TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro, Mtn View; (650) 463-1960, www.theatreworks.org. $19-69. Previews Wed/6-Fri/8, 8pm. Opens Sat/9, 8pm. Runs Tue-Wed, 7:30pm; Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through July 1. TheatreWorks’ 60th world premiere is a musical created by and starring pop-rock trio GrooveLily.

ONGOING

A Behanding in Spokane SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. $20-70. Tue-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 3pm). Through June 30. If Garth Ennis had been asked to write a comic book about a one-handed sociopath with a dark obsession, he might well have written something similar to Martin McDonagh’s A Behanding in Spokane. And admittedly, approached from that angle, a lot of the script’s dramatic flaws are more easily forgiven. There’s not a whole lot of subtle context or languid metaphor to be found in McDonagh’s criminal caper about the little-known “hand-dealing” trade, but as in Ennis’ best known work, Preacher, the pretty girl (Melissa Quine) is the smartest one in the room; the sociopath (Rod Gnapp) is interested in enacting as vicious a revenge on all humanity while spewing as many blatantly offensive invectives as possible; the boyfriend (Daveed Diggs) has some arrested development issues to work out; and the receptionist (Alex Hurt) takes the caricature of man-child to a whole new level. In fact, while all four actors deliver rock-solid performances of their mostly unsympathetic characters, it’s Hurt’s that impresses most. His spooky intensity and goofily tone-deaf determination plays like a combination of Adam Sandler and Arno Frisch, and if there’s a real sociopath in the room, the evidence suggests it’s probably him. Ultimately though the piece relies too heavily on hollow one-liners to remain interesting — a 20-minute farce stretched to 90 minutes — and quite unlike an Ennis comic, it does not leave one wanting more. (Gluckstern)

The Full Monty Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson, SF; www.roltheatre.com. $25-36. Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm. Through June 30. In desperate times, how far would you go to turn a buck? The central premise of the 1997 movie and its namesake musical comedy The Full Monty, the answer to this question is right in the title, which limits the suspense, but amps up the expectations. Set not in Sheffield, England as in the movie, but the similarly economically challenged climate of Buffalo, New York circa the late nineties, the comical romp follows a group of unemployed steel workers who decide, rather optimistically, that spending one night as exotic dancers will solve their immediate financial woes. Banish all notions of a Hot Chocolate sing-along; the soundtrack of the stage musical has little in common with its cinematic predecessor, but there are a couple of toe-tappers, particularly the songs writ for the ladies: a belter’s anthem for their spry but elderly accompanist Jeanette (Cami Thompson), a snarky commentary on male beauty, “The Goods,” for the ensemble. On opening night, Ray of Light’s production ran about 15 minutes long after a late start, and the tempo seemed sluggish in parts, but once it hits its stride, The Full Monty should provide a welcome antidote to the ongoing, we’re-still-in-a-recession blues, red leather g-strings and all. (Gluckstern) Fwd: Life Gone Viral Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. $20-50. Thu/7, 8pm; Sat/9, 8:30pm; Sun/10, 7pm. The internet becomes comic fodder for creator-performers Charlie Varon and Jeri Lynn Cohen, and creator-director David Ford.

100 Saints You Should Know Thick House, 1695 18th St, SF; www.therhino.org. $10-30. Wed-Thu, 7:30pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. Through June 17. Theatre Rhinoceros performs Kate Fodor’s comedy-drama about family love, homosexuality, and adolescence.

Othello Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. $15-18. Thu/7-Sat/9, 8pm. Ninjaz of Drama performs Shakespeare’s classic in a contemporary setting.

Slipping New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, SF; www.nctcsf.org. $25-45. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through July 1. New Conservatory Theatre Center performs Daniel Talbott’s drama about a gay teen who finds new hope after a traumatic breakup.

Tenderloin Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor, SF; (415) 525-1205, www.cuttingball.com. $10-50. Extended run: June 14 and 21, 7:30pm; June 15-16 and 22-23, 8pm (also June 16 and 23, 2pm); June 18 and 24, 5pm. Annie Elias and Cutting Ball Theater artists present a world premiere “documentary theater” piece looking at the people and places in the Cutting Ball Theater’s own ‘hood.

The Waiting Period MainStage, Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Extended through July 7. Brian Copeland (comedian, TV and radio personality, and creator-performer of the long-running solo play Not a Genuine Black Man) returns to the Marsh with a new solo, this one based on more recent and messier events in Copeland’s life. The play concerns an episode of severe depression in which he considered suicide, going so far as to purchase a handgun — the title coming from the legally mandatory 10-day period between purchasing and picking up the weapon, which leaves time for reflections and circumstances that ultimately prevent Copeland from pulling the trigger. A grim subject, but Copeland (with co-developer and director David Ford) ensures there’s plenty of humor as well as frank sentiment along the way. The actor peoples the opening scene in the gun store with a comically if somewhat stereotypically rugged representative of the Second Amendment, for instance, as well as an equally familiar “doood” dude at the service counter. Afterward, we follow Copeland, a just barely coping dad, home to the house recently abandoned by his wife, and through the ordinary routines that become unbearable to the clinically depressed. Copeland also recreates interviews he’s made with other survivors of suicidal depression. Telling someone about such things is vital to preventing their worst outcomes, says Copeland, and telling his own story is meant to encourage others. It’s a worthy aim but only a fitfully engaging piece, since as drama it remains thin, standing at perhaps too respectful a distance from the convoluted torment and alienation at its center. (Avila)

BAY AREA

Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $14.50-73. Tue, Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Wed and Sun, 7pm (also Sun, 7pm). Through June 24. Berkeley Rep presents a world premiere from writer-performer Dael Orlandersmith (a Pulitzer finalist for 2002’s Yellowman).

Crevice La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, Berk; www.impacttheatre.com. $10-20. Thu/7-Sat/9, 8pm. Just in case you were feeling panicked about the persistently recessed state of the economy and what might be your own less than ideal place in it, the Impact Theatre and Playground co-presentation of Lauren Yee’s Crevice might help to put your woes into perspective. That’s because slacker sibs Liz (Marissa Keltie) and Rob (Timothy Redmond) are only slightly exaggerated representatives of Generation Next whose penchant for making lackluster life choices has sentenced them to an indefinite prison term of couch-surfing and Teen Mom marathons in their childhood home. Naturally, they desire change, but it’s not until their mother (Laura Jane Bailey) starts having a hot fling with a younger man that things do. In an egregious breach of the TMI line, it appears that Mom’s orgasms open a “crevice” into an alternate reality that Rob and Liz subsequently fall into. Thus removed from the entropy of their former reality they begin testing the parameters of their new one, quickly coming to the realization that sometimes the alternatives to what you already have are even worse. Getting home again is a convoluted, not fully mapped-out process, but in the interim, their navigation of their erstwhile wonderland offers most of the play’s best lines as well as the uncomfortably effective transformation of Reggie D. White from Liz’s nerdish best buddy to multi-lingual Mafia killer and casual sadist. (Gluckstern)

God of Carnage Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; www.marintheatre.org. $34-55. Tue and Thu-Sat, 8pm (also June 16, 2pm); Wed, 7:30pm; Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through June 17. Marin Theatre Company performs Yasmina Reza’s Tony-winning comedy about two sets of parents who meet after their children get into a schoolyard fight.

The Great Divide Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berk; www.shotgunplayers.org. $20-30. Wed-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through June 24. Shotgun Players performs Adamn Chanzit’s drama about the hot topic of fracking, inspired by Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People.

Not Getting Any Younger Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Extended through June 30. Marga Gomez is back at the Marsh, a couple of too-brief decades after inaugurating the theater’s new stage with her first solo show — an apt setting, in other words, for the writer-performer’s latest monologue, a reflection on the inevitable process of aging for a Latina lesbian comedian and artist who still hangs at Starbucks and can’t be trusted with the details of her own Wikipedia entry. If the thought of someone as perennially irreverent, insouciant, and appealingly immature as Gomez makes you depressed, the show is, strangely enough, the best antidote. Note: review from the show’s 2011 run at the Marsh San Francisco. (Avila)

The Odyssey Angel Island; (415) 547-0189, www.weplayers.org. $40-76 (some tickets include ferry passage). Sat-Sun, 10:30am-4pm (does not include travel time to island). Through July 1. We Players present Ava Roy’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem: an all-day adventure set throughout the nature and buildings of Angel Island State Park.

The Tempest Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda; (510) 809-3290, www.calshakes.org. $35-71. Tue-Thu, 7:30pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also June 23, 2pm); Sun, 4pm. Through June 25. California Shakespeare Theater opens its season with this dance-filled interpretation of the Bard’s classic tale.

The World’s Funniest Bubble Show Marsh Berkeley, TheaterStage, 2120 Allston, Berk; (415) 826-5750, www.themarsh.org. $8-50. Fri, 6pm; Sun/10, June 16, 24, and 30, 11am. Through June 30. Louis “The Amazing Bubble Man” Pearl returns with this kid-friendly, bubble-tastic comedy.

PERFORMANCE/DANCE

American Foundation for Equal Rights benefit Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, Marina at Laguna, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Mon/11, 8pm. $25-50. BATS Improv and Tom Bruett of marriageequalityplays.com present short plays by local playwrights, plus an improvised short play, on the theme of marriage equality.

“Beef Cake Comedy Show” Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF; www.decosf.com. Sun/10, 8pm. $10. Comedy music group Saw Dem Eyes headlines this night of “straight guys telling jokes with their shirts off.”

“The BY Series” ODC Theater, 3153 17th St, SF; www.odcdance.org. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through June 17. $25. Robert Moses’ Kin Dance Company presents work by guest choreographers Molissa Fenley, Ramon Ramos Alayo, and Sidra Bell, plus the world premiere of Moses’ Scrubbing the Dog.

“Elect to Laugh” Studio Theater, Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. Tue, 8pm. Ongoing through Nov 6. $15-50. Will Durst and friends perform in this weekly political humor show that focuses on the upcoming presidential election.

“Elementary, My Dear Watson, It Was Crack” Purple Onion, 140 Columbus, SF; (415) 956-1653. Thu/7, 9pm. $20. Comedian Will Franken performs his latest one-man sketch comedy show.

“A Funny Night for Comedy” Actors Theatre of San Francisco, 855 Bush, SF; www.natashamuse.com. Sun/10, 7pm. $10. Natasha Muse and Ryan Cronin host a comedy talk show, followed by “A Funny Night for Improv” at 9pm.

“Feel the Power of the Dork Side” Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Fri/8-Sat/9, 8pm. $15. Engineering professor by day, stand-up comedian by night: Dr. Pete Ludovice performs his solo show.

“Get In Front” Herbst Theater, 401 Van Ness, SF; www.getinfront.org. Wed/6, 7pm. $35-250. A benefit for Cancer Prevention Institute of California, this event features performances by principal dancers from San Francisco Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, ODC/Dance, and more.

“House of Matter” Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Fri/8-Sat/9, 8pm; Sun/10, 7pm. $15-25. Nicole Klaymoon’s Embodiment Project presents its latest installment of urban dance theater.

“Idina Menzel: Barefoot at the Symphony” Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness, SF; (415) 864-6000. Thu/7, 8pm. $69.50-125. The Tony winner performs a show of Broadway and modern pop songs.

“Kunst-Stoff Arts/Fest 2012” Kunst-Stoff Arts, One Grove, SF; kunststoffartsfest2012.eventbrite.com. Thu/7-Sat/9 (Program One) and June 14-16 (Program Three), 8:30pm; Tue/12, 8pm (Program Two). $15. Program one: Dance Elixir and Kunst-Stoff Dance Company; program two: Silvia Girardi performing multimedia theater work All I Wanted to Say; program three: Bruno Augusto and Meisha Bosma.

“Performance Night at the Strand” Strand Theater, 1127 Market, SF; maryarmentroutdancetheater.com. Fri/8, 8:15pm. Free (donations accepted). Mary Armentrout Dance Theater, Oakland’s Milkbar, and Paz de la Calzada present an evening of site-specific performances and installations inspired by de la Calzada’s mural on the shuttered Strand Theater.

“R16 North American B-Boy Championships” Palace of Fine Arts Theater, 3301 Lyon, SF; www.r16usa.com. Sat/9, 2-6pm. $10-25. Come check out dancers popping, locking, and otherwise vying to represent North America at the Supreme World Championship finals in South Korea.

San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, SF; www.worldartswest.org. Sat/9, 2pm. $15. Artist dialogue with “American Tribal Style Belly Dance” creator Carolena Nericcio, followed by a performance by FatChanceBellyDance. Also Sun/10, 2pm, Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin, SF; www.worldartswest.org. Sun/10, 2pm. Free with museum admission ($7-12). Shamanic dance performace by Korean dance master Il Hyun Kim.

“Sex and the City: Live!” Rebel, 1760 Market, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Tue, 7 and 9pm. Through June 26. $25. Heklina, D’Arcy Drollinger, Lady Bear, Trixxie Carr play the fab four in this drag-tastic homage to the HBO series.

“Talkies” Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia, SF; www.atasite.org. Fri/8, 8pm. $6. Stand-up comedy and short comedic films hosted by Anna Seregina and George Chen.

“Voca People” Marines’ Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter, Second Flr, SF; www.marinesmemorialtheatre.com. Tue-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 6:30 and 9:30pm; Sun, 3 and 6pm. Through June 17. $49-75. A capella from outer space.

“X” Garage, 715 Bryant, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Wed/6-Thu/7, 8pm. $10-20. Australian performer Sunny Drake presents his new show in conjunction with the National Queer Arts Festival.

BAY AREA

“Jazz Hams” Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center, Laney College, 900 Fallon, Oakl; www.brownpapertickets.com. Sat/9, 8pm; Sun/10, 1pm. $10. The plus-sized performers of Big Moves present a new, full-scale production featuring an array of dance styles.

Music Listings

Andrew Lam

June 5, 2012

Since club life is unpredictable, it’s a good idea to call ahead or check the venue’s website to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. Visit www.sfbg.com/venue-guide for venue information. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 6

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Brendan Benson, Young Hines, Howling Brothers Independent. 8pm, $18.

Brian Bergeron Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Bob vs. Greg Zema Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.

Church of Misery, Hail! Hornet, Gates of Slumber Elbo Room. 8pm, $18.

CocoRosie, Tez and the Rajasthan Roots, Sissy Nobby Regency Ballroom. 8pm, $25.

Keith Crossan Invitational Pro Jam Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15. With Terry Hanck.

Rocco Deluca Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $8-$10.

Early Novembers, Wonder Years, Swellers, Young Statues Slim’s. 7:30pm, $20.

Guitar Wizards of the Future, Beatcasso Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $5.

Mansions on the Moon, Deer Tracks, Nouela Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

One Way Station Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

Teen Daze, One AM Radio, Giraffage, Slow Magic Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10-$12.

Nick Waterhouse Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa, SF; www.verdiclub.net. 8pm, $12. With DJs Carnita, Primo, Matt B, Lucky.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Cat’s Corner with Nathan Dias Savanna Jazz. 9pm, $10.

Cosmo AlleyCats Le Colonial, 20 Cosmo Place, SF; www.lecolonialsf.com. 7-10pm.

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Michael Abraham Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Thomas Mapfumo & Blacks Unlimited Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $22.

Candace Roberts 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 7pm.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

DANCE CLUBS

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.

Coo-Yah! Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 10pm, free. DJs Daneekah and Green B spin reggae and dancehall with weekly guests.

Mary Go Round Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 10pm, $5. Drag with Suppositori Spelling, Mercedez Munro, and Ginger Snap.

Megatallica Fiddler’s Green, 1333 Columbus, SF; www.megatallica.com. 7pm, free. Heavy metal hangout.

Obey the Kitty: Yolanda Be Cool Vessel, 85 Campton, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $10.

THURSDAY 7

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Advance Base, Nicholas Krgovich, David Joanna Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $10-$12.

Mickey Avalon, Millionaires, Dirt Slim’s. 7:30pm, $20.

Rick Derringer Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $26.

General 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 7pm.

Grendel’s Claw, Curse Words, Grandma’s Boyfriend, Sweet Bones Knockout. 9:30pm, $6.

Human Condition, Betsy and Beau, Quiet Man Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

Laurie Morvan Band Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

JD McPherson Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $21.

Idina Menzel Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness, SF; (415) 864-6000. 8pm, $69.50-$125.

Misisipi Mike and the Midnight Gamblers, Heeldraggers Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.

Party Owl, T.I.T.S, Burrows Hemlock. 9pm, $6.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Wailers, Gondwana Mezzanine. 9pm, $30.

Greg Zema vs. Bob Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Stompy Jones Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Ned Boynton Trio Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Twang! Honky Tonk Fiddler’s Green, 1330 Columbus, SF; www.twanghonkytonk.com. 5pm. Live country music, dancing, and giveaways.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9pm, $5. With DJ-host Pleasuremaker spins Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.

Base: Sasha Vessel, 85 Campton, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20.

Get Low Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 10pm, free. Jerry Nice and Ant-1 spin Hip-Hop, 80’s and Soul with weekly guests.

Midi Matilda, Young Digerati, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $10-$12.

OneMama & M.O.M. Dance Party and Fundraiser 111 Minna, SF; www.onemama.org. 5:30-11pm.

Supersonic Lookout, 3600 16th St., SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Global beats paired with food from around the world by Tasty. Resident DJs Jaybee, B-Haul, amd Diagnosis.

Thursdays at the Cat Club Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). Two dance floors bumpin’ with the best of 80s mainstream and underground with DJ’s Damon, Steve Washington, Dangerous Dan, and guests.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

FRIDAY 8

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Bob, Joel Nelson, Greg Zema Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm.

Body & Soul Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Concussion, Jack Killed Jill, Ill Content, Bankrupt District Sub-Mission. 8:30pm, $5.

Christopher Cross Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $40; 10pm, $35.

Face to Face, Downtown Struts Slim’s. 7:30pm, $20.

Falsetto Teeth, Zu Zed, Bob Ladue Brainwash Cafe, 1122 Folsom, SF; www.brainwash.com. 8pm, free.

Forward, No Statik, Merdoso, Effluxus Knockout. 8pm.

Hollyhocks Makeout Room. 7:30pm.

Maus Haus, Exray’s, Mwahaha, Devonwho Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.

New Orleans Suspects, Zigaboo Modeliste and the New Aahkesstra Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $15-$20.

Cathy Richardson Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20.

Bob Schneider, Laura Warshauer Independent. 9pm, $20.

Starskate, Hazel’s Wart, Girls In, Wes Leslie and His Deadly Medley Thee Parkside. 9pm, $6.

Tender, DickWolf, Inferno of Joy, Yes Go’s Hemlock. 9:30pm, $6.

This Will Destroy You, A Place To Bury Strangers, Dusted Bottom of the Hill. 10pm, $14.

Tornado Rider, Battlehooch, Kill Moi, Sporting Life Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $13.

Whiskerman, Guy Fox, Tumbleweed Wanderers, Steve Taylor Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $10-$12.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 9pm, $10.

Terry Disely Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 5:30-8:30pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Jay Schraub Coffee Adventures, 1331 Columbus, SF; (415) 441-0301. 11am-1pm, free.

Taste Fridays 650 Indiana, SF; www.tastefridays.com. 8pm, $18. Salsa and bachata dance lessons, live music.

Usual Suspects Acoustic Showcase 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 8pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Forro Brazuca Elbo Room. 10pm, $10. Hottest dancehall music from Brazil.

Future Perfect Public Works. With Jel, GuMMy Bear, Friendzone, Jaycasio, and more.

Glitter DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$20. Techno, tech-house, and electronic dance.

Indie Slash Amnesia. 10pm. With DJ Danny White.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs, shirt-off drink specials.

MartyParty 103 Harriet. 1am, $15.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.

SATURDAY 9

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Bow Wow Regency Ballroom. 8pm, $32.

Christopher Cross Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $40; 10pm, $35.

Corrosion of Conformity, Torche, Black Cobra, Gaza Slim’s. 8pm, $21.

Cut Loose Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Donavon Frankenreiter, Goodnight Texas Independent. 9pm, $21.

Funk Revival Orchestra: A Tribute to Roy Ayers Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $10.

Green Lady Killers, Flexx Bronco Bender’s, 800 S. Van Ness, SF; www.bendersbar.com. 9pm, $5.

Hightower, Pins of Light, Ironwitch, War Child Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.

“Indie-Pino” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Sculpture Garden, Third and Mission, SF; ybca.org/indie-pino. 1-6pm, free. With Savages, Pedro Gil, Golda and the Guns, Jack Lords Orchestra, Good Night Robot.

Maps & Atlases, Big Sleep, Hands Bottom of the Hill. 10pm, $15.

New Orleans Suspects, Zigaboo Modeliste and the New Aahkesstra Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $15-$20.

Julia Nunes Swedish American Hall. 8pm, $15.

Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $22.

Pierced Arrows, Don’t, Abatis Thee Parkside. 9pm, $12.

Randy, Greg Zema, Bob Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm.

Shannon & the Clams, Burnt Ones, Cool Ghouls, In Watermelon Sugar El Rio. 3-8pm, $8.

Spidermeow, Rabbles, Mt. Whateverest Hemlock. 9:30pm, $7.

Tiny Television Riptide, 3639 Taraval, SF; www.riptidesf.com. 9:30pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Bay Area Swing All-Stars 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 7pm.

San Francisco Free Folk Festival Presidio Middle School, 450 30th Ave, SF; noon-10pm, free.

“Twang Bang” Great American Music Hall. 8:30pm, $13-$15. With Dirty Hand Family Band, Famous, Shants, Rogers, Hot Pink.

Craig Ventresco & Meredith Axelrod Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 4-6pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Club Gossip Cat Club. 9pm, free before 9:30pm, $5-$8 after. With VJs Shon, Low Life, Damon, and more.

Cockblock Rickshaw Stop.10pm, $5-$10.

Non Stop Bhangra: LA to the Bay Public Works. 9pm, $15.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.

Pink and Purple Patio Party Cafe Cocomo, 650 Indiana, SF; www.cafecocomo.org. 1-7pm, $10. Queer outdoor dance party with DJs and free barbecue.

Soul Slam 7: Michael Jackson vs. Prince Mezzanine. 9pm, $25.

Tormenta Tropical Elbo Room. 10pm, $5-$10. With Shawn Reynaldo & Oro11, DJ Dodger Stadium.

2 Men Will Move You Amnesia. 9pm.

SUNDAY 10

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, Blank Tapes Rickshaw Stop. 7:30pm, $10.

Elegant Trash, Warbler, Johnny Lowrie Band Hemlock. 9pm, $6.

Green River Ordinance, Jesse Thomas Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Ray Wylie Hubbard, Elliot Randall Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $17-$20.

Patrick Watson, Cat Marino Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $16-$19.

Unknown Hinson Independent. 8pm, $20.

Emily Jane White Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $5-$8.

Still Flyin, Tambo Rays, Trails and Ways Rickshaw Stop. 7pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Josh Klipp Bliss Bar, 4026 24th St, SF; www.blissbar.com. 4:30pm, $10.

Fabiana Passoni & Her All-Star Band Yoshi’s SF. 7Pm, $16.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Balkan Beat Box Israel In the Gardens Festival, 750 Howard, SF; Facebook: Israel in the Gardens 2012. 3pm, free

Lagos Roots Afro Beat Ensemble Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

San Francisco Free Folk Festival Presidio Middle School, 450 30th Ave, SF; noon-10pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Activate! After After Hours Monroe, 473 Broadway, SF; www.monroesf.com. 6am-2pm, $10. With Emanate, James Henderson, Joseph Lee, and Zenith.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. Dub, roots, and classic dancehall with DJ Sep, J. Boogie, Mochi Pet.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2. Raise money for LGBT sports teams while enjoying DJs and drink specials.

La Pachanga Blue Macaw, 2565 Mission, SF; www.thebluemacawsf.com. 6pm, $10. Salsa dance party with live Afro-Cuban salsa band

MONDAY 11

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Catch Hell, Feral Cat, Death By Steamship Rock Loft, 471 Broadway, SF; (415) 846-5124. 9pm, $5.

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Priester’s Cue Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $18.

Sidekicks, Spraynard, Delay, Wild Moth Bottom of the Hill. 8:45pm, $8.

Sticklers, Pony Time, Creepers Hemlock. 6pm, $5.

Y Axes, Tarantula Tango, Scatter Gather, Loud Talker Elbo Room. 9Pm, $6.

Wax Idols, White Lung Knockout. 9pm.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Bossa Nova Tunnel Top, 601 Bush, SF; (415) 722-6620. 8-11:30pm, free. Live acoustic Bossa Nova.

Timmy Igoe Band Rrazz Room. 7:30pm, $25.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Toshio Hirano Amnesia. 9pm.

Pick: Open Bluegrass Jam Amnesia. 6pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-5. Gothic, industrial, and synthpop with Joe Radio, Decay, and Melting Girl.

Krazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop from 1960s-early ’90s with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.

TUESDAY 12

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Alvon Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $22.

Bombshell Betty and Her Burlesqueteers, Fromagique Elbo Room. 9pm, $10.

King Loses Crown, High Society, Parade Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.

Here We Go Magic, Harriet Independent. 8pm, $15.

Leopold & His Fiction, Rusty Maples Hemlock. 9pm, $7.

Merrill Bazaar Cafe, 5927 California, SF; www.bazaarcafe.net. 7pm, free.

Rhapsody of Fire, Voyager Slim’s. 8pm, $27.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Thrice, Animals As Leaders, O’Brother Regency Ballroom. 7:30pm, $25.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Gaucho Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm, free.

“Jazz Voices of Poetry” Yoshi’s SF. 8pm. With Clairdee, Nicolas Beare, Shanna Carlson.

Ben Vereen Rrazz Room. 8pm, $45-$50.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Dustbowl Revival, Devine’s Jug Band St. Cyprian’s, 2097 Turk, SF; www.noevalleymusicseries.com. 7:30pm, $18.

DANCE CLUBS

Eclectic Company Skylark, 9pm, free. DJs Tones and Jaybee spin old school hip hop, bass, dub, glitch, and electro.

Post-Dubstep Tuesdays Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521.10pm, free. DJs Dnae Beats, Epcot, Footwerks spin UK Funky, Bass Music.

Study Hall John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. Hip-hop, dancehall, and Bay slaps with DJ Left Lane.

On the Cheap Listings

Andrew Lam

June 5, 2012

Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 6

Tribute to a radical poet Green Arcade, 1680 Market, SF. www.thegreenarcade.com. 7pm, free. Committed political radical and award-winning writer-poet Marilyn Buck was imprisoned over 30 years for her revolutionary activities, and freed less than a month before her death from cancer at age 62. Join local author Sin Soracco (who has penned Low Bite and Edge City) in celebrating the release of Buck’s posthumous release Inside/Out: Selected Poems.

“Sex Money Power” exhibition Project One Gallery, 251 Rhode Island, SF. www.p1sf.com. Also Thu/7, 7pm-noon, free. This contemporary art show is about the things we all crave — sex, money, and power. Glossy and glamorized paintings by Nick Flatt depict images of these vices using a modern, graphic style.

THURSDAY 7

“Sustainable Catch”: Cooking and wine pairing at NightLife California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse, Golden Gate Park, SF. calacademy.org/events. 6pm-10pm. $12. Celebrate World Oceans Day with food and wine from Sausalito’s sustainable seafood joints, Fish and Ki. Watch as chefs wield their fish expertise and razor-sharp knives as they teach on how to pair dishes with wine. Schmooze with members of local ocean conservation organizations, who will also be in attendance and available to answer all your wet ‘n’ wild questions.

SATURDAY 9

World Naked Bike Ride Justin Herman Plaza, SF. Facebook: World Naked Bike Ride San Francisco. 11am-4pm, free. It’s that time again — time to get undressed to the nines and pedal alongside tens of thousands of nude crusaders the world over, who will be joining similar rides in other cities in protest of global dependency on oil cartels. Naked protests, our favorite.

Maddie’s Matchmaker Adoptathon Various San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa County shelters. www.maddiesadoptathon.org. Also Sun/10. Today, visit 13 Bay Area pet shelters and rescue groups who are offering free canine and feline adoptions — it’s the perfect day to find your new best friend. Whatever shelter you choose will benefit as well — local nonprofit Maddie’s Fund will give each organization $500 to $2,000 for every furry friend that gets taken home.

Beer cooking with Top Chef‘s Ryan Scott Pyramid Alehouse, 1410 Locust, Walnut Creek. www.pyramidbrew.com. 4pm-6pm, free. Arrive early to snag a seat for this live broadcast of Cooking with Ryan Scott on KGO 18 AM. Using his favorite suds, Top Chef‘s Scott will cook and grill, discuss pairings, and explore the beer cocktail. Pyramid will be serving up samples of the ales and infused treats featured.

Urban Agriculture coming of age farm tours Various Bay Area farms. www.iuhoakland.com. 11am-6pm, last tour starts at 5pm, $5 per tour. The urban agriculture movement is expanding and the Institute of Urban Homesteading is inviting you to tour private backyards, frontyards, yards of every size really, to see what established urban farmers in the Bay Area are up to. Take a gander at what productive urban agriculture can look like on a small, medium, large, or extra-large urban lot by signing up for one of these home garden tours.

Writers With Drinks literary night Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St., SF. 7:30pm-9:30pm, $5–$10 sliding scale. Enjoy a spoken word variety show featuring poetry, stand-up comedy, and readings from literature of many genres at an event that raises money for important local causes. Come see why Guardian readers have given it the Best of the Bay award for “Best Literary Night” six years in a row.

SUNDAY 10

Nice Collective sample sale 1999 Bryant, SF. www.nicecollective.com, www.blasthaus.com. Noon-5pm, free. Calling all fashionistas, listen to live DJ sets while you muse over temporary art installations and the modern fashion collections of this local brand. Today’s shopping event includes reduced-price garments from past and present seasons, plus limited edition and prototype items.

Record your story with StoryCorps Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission, SF. www.storycorps.org. 11am-4pm, free. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage in the US — a day that we now honor as Loving Day. To honor this monumental ruling, StoryCorps hosts a special community recording day for multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and mixed heritage individuals, couples, and families. Come share the story of your family — it might be chosen to become one of StoryCorps animated narrations.

MONDAY 11

Bryan Gruley whodunit author reading Book Passage Bookstore, 51 Tamal Vista, Corte Madera. www.bryangruley.com. 7pm, free, $25 for hardcover book. While elderly residents enjoy bingo night in the small town of Starvation Lake, mysterious break-ins plague their homes. Someone is rifling through their financial and personal files, but taking nothing. When the break-ins escalate to murder, worry turns to panic. Follow the protagonist — a journalist forced to investigate the case — as author Bryan Gruley describes his new mystery novel.

Alerts

Andrew Lam

June 5, 2012

FRIDAY 8

Z Room 304, Redstone Building, 2940 16th St, SF. 7pm, $5-10 suggested donation. “Concurrently, the military banned long hair on males; mini-skirts; Sophocles; Tolstoy; Euripedes; smashing glasses after drinking toasts; labor strikes; Aristophanes; Ionesco; Sartre; Albee; Pinter; freedom of the press; sociology; Beckett; Dostoyevsky; modern music; popular music; the new mathematics; and the letter “Z“, which in ancient Greek means “He is alive!“ This is the world of Z, a political thriller about corruption and violence that‘s a thinly veiled take on the events surrounding the assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. The film is French and was nominated for the Oscar for both best film and best foreign language film back when in 1969, but it‘s still relevant, shedding light on the volatile Greece of today.

SATURDAY 9

From police brutality to hate crimes, Humanist Hall, 390 27th St, Oak; www.norcalsocialism.org. 7pm, free. Alan Blueford, and 18-year-old African American man, was killed by police May 6 in Oakland. Just weeks before, Brandy Martell was brutally killed, a victim of anti-transgender and racist violence. Outrage moved thousands to protest after Oscar Grant was killed by BART police, and it was thanks to them that his killer served any prison time, though he was out in mere months. The loved ones of these departed will form a panel to discuss these tragedies and “how to build a movement that can unite the people of Oakland to win justice.” Panelists will include Alan Blueford’s parents, Adam and Jeralynn Blueford; Brandy Martell’s sister, Talishia Massey; and Oscar Grant’s family and friend and outspoken anti-police brutality activist Jack Bryson

World Spring, a Mutiny Radio benefit, In the Works, 3265 17th St, SF; Facebook: World Spring. 6pm, $5-10 suggested donation. Since Pirate Cat Radio got shut down (the FCC won’t let me be) the collective that put out some of San Francisco’s best community radio went legit. Mutiny Radio has been broadcasting for a year now- come celebrate, and donate, at a benefit for the station Saturday. The night of entertainment will include music from Torfi and The Garden Band, The Naked Sun Band, Teresa Topaz, The Real Star Movement, The Naked Sun Band, Bryce Druzin and John Rodogno, and poetry from Val Ibarra, Dee Allen, James Zealous, and of course the beloved soul of Mutiny Radio, Diamond Dave Whitaker.

SUNDAY 10

Occupy U, Modern Times bookstore, 2919 24th St, SF; www.mtbs.com. 6-8pm, free. The University of the Commons just launched its summer session last weekend, and the classes are free, participatory, and relatable for your radical, everyday life. This week, Professor Stardust’s five-Sunday course begins. Entitled “Occupy U: present day strategies for change and their effectiveness,” the “participatory Occupy workshop” will look at past and present movements for social change to figure out what’s working. Other courses from the University of the Commons collective this summer include science literacy, responsive cinema, intro to western music: from Mahler to the music video, the question concerning realism, and history in digital culture.

MONDAY 11

London Breed campaign kick-off, The Independent, 628 Divisadero, SF; www.londonforsupervisor.com. 5:30-7:30pm, $20-500. This fundraiser launches London Breed’s campaign for District 5 supervisor. California Attorney General Kamala Harris will be there endorsing Breed, who is executive director of the African American Arts & Culture Complex. The event will feature, “DJ Sake One, local bands, live painting, cuisine from local restaurants, and creative vendors,” and will be at the Independent—the live music venue owned by Michael O’Connor, a listed host who ran for D5 supervisor in 2003 and was rumored to be mulling another run this year.

Building Groups of Equals, Audre Lourde room, Women’s Building, 3543 18th St, SF; www.occupyforumsf.org. 6pm, free. Award-winning author and activist Starhawk joins the Occupy Forum in their second week of workshops, meant to provide education and discussion for those interested and invested in the equality and justice goals of the Occupy movement. This week, the theme is working together, or “how to move from individualism to collaboration and from hierarchy to affinity-based group.” It’s certainly ironic how egos tend to destroy groups set up to work without hierarchy, so come talk with Starhawk and other like-minded people about how to change that.

O, queso! Delectable slices of Spain and Portugal

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

June 5, 2012

“Don’t. Eat. The. Cheese.”

I kept telling myself this as I stared down at my plate during the Cheeses of Spain and Portugal Class at the Cheese School on May 23. Nine slices of sweating, salty, pungent wonderfulness looked back at me, taunting. Thankfully, there were endless glasses of delicious white wine to drink before the class started.

Juliana Uruburu (imagine this name pronounced with a beautiful Spanish accent) was our teacher for the evening, guiding us through the diverse and tremendous flavors of Spanish cheese. “Cheese chose me,” exclaimed Uruburu, who has been working in cheese for decades and is an obvious fanatic from the way she talks about it. How can you not be a fanatic when you spend your days doting over wheels of cheese like majon — a sheep cheese with cajones! — and visiting Paris every year for the Salon du Fromage, the equivalent of the World’s Fair of cheeses.

Eventually we were able to eat the cheese… but first we had to smell it first, then break it in half, before tasting the creamy subtle center and slowly sampling outwards to the funky rind. Uruburu explained that Spain is one of the most innovative and exciting places when it comes to food. This year at the Salon in Paris, Spain presented over 50 new varieties of cheese. Así que mucha innovación! So much innovation!

Uruburu taught us a bunch of geeky tidbits about cheese-making and tasting. For example, those little crunchy crystals in some cheeses like Manchego aren’t made from salt, but a protein called tyrosine that develops in certain curds. Another fact for gluten-conscious eaters: blue cheese may contain wheat gluten because the culture is often made with moldy bread. Who knew? After devouring a large plate of cheese (and several glasses of wine), there was one queso that stood out the most to me. Cadi urgelia. Soft but stinky.

Four couples in the room had trips planned to Spain, thinking it would be a fun idea to get a little cheese primer first. For me, I was able to satisfy some of my travel lust through this class by letting my palate transport me back to Spain, with their countless tapas bars, colorful flamenco music, and beautiful mid-day siestas.

The Cheese School hosts a variety of fun cheese classes and events, including cheese-making classes with the SF Milk Maid.

Heads Up: 8 must-see concerts this week

Tony Robles

June 4, 2012

It really just so happens that a few of this week’s obligatory shows are at club nights (Jel, Friendzone, and Antwon at Future Perfect, Yalls at Push the Feeling) featured in last month’s post-everything cover story, my article profiling local experimental party curators.

What’s more, there are other shows in this stretch that recall the vibes of those featured: great lineups with weird, beats-plus-chords, hi-fi meets lo-fi, robot with a heart of gold overarching themes (Maus Haus and more at Rickshaw, Owen Ashworth’s Advance Base at Café Du Nord).

And then there are your classic rock’n’rollers; we’ve got some of those for you too – it’s just a banner batch all around this time, folks.

Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:

Tim Cohen
Scruffy singer-songwriter Tim Cohen, of popular local psych-garage band the Fresh & Onlys, is about to release his second full-length under the solo Magic Trick moniker, the lush and folky Ruler of the Night (Hardly Art, June 12) – an album that somehow weaves in synth, surf guitar, back-up vocals from the Aislers Set’s Noelle Cahill and Alicia Van Heuvel, and surreal beats. Plus, this show is totally free. Rather hard to resist.
With Survival Guide, 8th Graders
Tue/5, 9pm, free
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
1710 Mission, SF
(415) 371-1631
www.brickandmortarmusic.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg5zFruYc_E

Nick Waterhouse
“The retro-minded songwriter-arranger-producer crafts perfect little tributes to the punchy 1950s R&B sounds he’s been drawn to since he was a kid, all steeped with an endearing reverence for old-school record culture and recording techniques.” – Landon Moblad
Wed/6, $12 sold out
Verdi Club
2424 Mariposa, SF
(415) 861-9199
www.verdiclub.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJruQmdlU10

Advance Base
Formerly the Bay Area-born solo keyboard entity known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Owen Ashworth ended his longterm project in 2010 to focus all his musical efforts on Advance Base – a less delicate evolutionary step for the lyric-driven, minimalist singer-songwriter/growing family man. Advance Base released debut album, A Shut-In’s Prayer, last month. Ashworth describes the new offerings as “Dreamy waltzes, American folk traditionals, & minimalist electro pop torch songs.”
With Nicholas Krgovich, David and Joanna
Thu/7, 8pm, $12
Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market, SF
(415) 861-5016
www.cafedunord.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyNCaitW96I

Yalls
Yalls – Berkeley’s Dan Casey – sounds like the tape ending, unraveling to the ground, like the world falling apart and then picking itself up, dusting itself off, and rising to the dancefloor. Basically: weird-flowing synth, trippy samples, and twitchy beats with spooky echoing vocals. Here’s hoping he plays the dreamy tracks off February’s Fantasy seven-inch.
Push the Feeling
Fri/8, 9pm, Free with Facebook RSVP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-S1JnP8d1E

Maus Haus, Mwahaha, Exray’s, Devonwho
It’s rare to find a set of bands so thoroughly watchable as this lineup at the Rickshaw Stop. Let’s break it down. There’s Maus Haus (always a futuristic digi-treat), psych-rockers Mwahaha, along with producer Devonwho, who recently remixed “Ancient Thing,” a song by the last piece in this awesome post-modern puzzle: Exray’s. The single is a cut from the upcoming Exray’s dystopian electro-pop record Trust a Robot, out June 26 on Howells Transmitter.
Fri/8, $10
155 Fell, SF
www.rickshawstop.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gFhCqmE7EY

Jel
Anticon-co-founder, rapper, and producer Jel is known for creating drum beats with little or no sequencing – as in, playing the drums live via sampler pads, and killing it. His hands disappear over those illuminated little squares, and fresh beats emerge, seemingly effortlessly (though we all know the precision and sweat likely involved).
Future Perfect with GuMMy Bear, Antwon, Friendzone, Jaycasio
Fri/8, 10pm, $5
Public Works
161 Erie, SF
www.publicsf.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twHhcB4D-po

Corrosion of Conformity
“With bassist Mike Dean taking over vocal duties from guitarist Pepper Keenan (busy playing in Down), COC have returned to their hardcore roots. Expect high tempos and chaos in the pit.” – Ben Richardson
With Torche, Black Cobra, Gaza
Sat/9, 8pm, $21
Slim’s
333 11th St., SF
(415)-255-0333
www.slimspresents.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2I2mK_3_ns

Balkan Beat Box at Israel in the Gardens
An Israeli dude walking along the boardwalk of a somewhat scuzzy coastal beach town — maybe like the dark vision of Santa Cruz in Lost Boys — with a boombox on his shoulder, blasting classic hip-hop and bouncy dancehall beats, passes a world music trio performing Mediterranean and Balkan roots music on percussion and hot brass with a whirling dervish spinning out front. They all collide, and out comes Balkan Beat Box.
Sun/10, 11am festival, 3pm performance; free
Yerba Buena Gardens
750 Howard, SF
www.jewishfed.org
Facebook: Israel in the Gardens 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWbqcV8HqbI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qqwtrd8PzA

Bar of the Week*

Maria Poblet

June 1, 2012

Our Bar of the Week guide profiles taverns, lounges, pubs, canteens, and dives around town to expand your lexicon of bar knowledge. Keep reading to discover your new favorite watering hole.

Abbey Tavern

Neighborhood: Inner Richmond – 4100 Geary Blvd. SF, (415) 221-7767

What you’ll find: A neighborhood favorite Irish Pub and Sports bar that has been serving local Guinness drinkers some of “San Francisco’s Best Pints” since 1997.

What to order: Order the August beer of the month – Newcastle.

Fun Fact: There is live music from local and touring bands on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights, as well as one of the longest running Euro-Disco DJ nights in the Bay Area.

Crowd: Mostly locals – make Abbey your home away from home for world sports!

Drink specials not to miss: Try their famous Sunday bloody mary special.

Wreck Room

Neighborhood: Nob Hill – 1390 California St., SF, (415) 823-2337

What you’ll find: The bar boasts a pool table, Pop-a-Shot, shuffleboard, ten TVs, jukebox, and a super plush women’s bathroom stocked with US Weekly magazines.

What to order: Order one of the daily a drink specials and hit up the hoops or dartboard.

Fun Fact: All of the wood in the bar is salvaged maple from the gym floor at Carlmont High in Belmont.

Greens Sports Bar

Neighborhood: Nob Hill/Russian Hill/Cow Hollow – 2239 Polk, SF, (415) 775-4287

What you’ll find: Aside from the many TVs and sports memorabilia that line the walls, there’s much to like about Green’s including the pool table, video games, and plenty of seating.

What to order: We have a great selection of beers on tap, including Shock Top!

Fun Fact: Greens is the best place to catch a game or ponder life.

Crowd: Happy hour patrons from the neighborhood and rowdy, fun sports fans on game nights.

Drink specials not to miss: We have cheap beer specials – just ask!

Aces Bar

Neighborhood: Tender Nob – l998 Sutter St. in San Francisco, on the corner of Sutter and Hyde.

What you’ll find: We are a neighborhood bar with a little bit of everything, including nine flat screen TVs so you dont miss a game, a brand new golden T, a jukebox that usually has the Rolling Stones or Springsteen coming out of it. We have cheap drink prices, friendly bartenders and clean bathrooms. Home base for all four major New York sports teams as well as the Wisconsin badgers Alumni group.

What to order: Our Favorite order is a BJ, i.e. Budweiser or Bud light and a shot of Jameson for $8

Fun fact: We open at 6 A.M. everyday of the year! Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Years day. No, we don’t serve food and yes we’re serious!

Crowd: Being open 20 hours a day a wide range of characters come in. Midnight shift workers, FiDi people for happy hour, sports enthusiasts, east coasters, and restaurant and bar industry folks.

Upcoming events: We have done bus trips to games, brewerys, and Golden Gate Fields as well as boat trips to McCovey Cove. Best way to stay informed is through our Facebook page.

Drink specials not to miss: Take your pick! Well drinks are $4 everyday from 6am-8pm. Monday’s special is a $4 Jameson shot, and Wednesday is ladies night where women get two-for-one drinks.

Tope Bar

Neighborhood: North Beach – 1326 Grant Ave. in San Francisco.

What you’ll find: When you walk in you’ll notice the old-fashioned lighting, tin ceiling, funky wallpaper, rotating artwork, and the old school back bar. You may also notice the deep and balanced bass urging you to get your groove on, or the unique and expansive selection of draft and bottled beers.

What to order: If creative cocktails are your thing, then try one of our artisinal cocktails. You will appreciate the fresh herbs, fruit compotes, and wide selection of bitters.

Fun Fact: The word “tope” is a verb that means to drink alcohol habitually and in excess. So, get toping!

Crowd: It’s a casual, mixed crowd with locals and tourists alike.

Drink specials not to miss: We have a late happy hour until 10pm every day that includes $3 wells and beers on tap.

Bus Stop Bar

Neighborhood: Marina – 1901 Union Street

What you’ll find: There’s something for everyone – friendly bartenders, pool, Big Buck Hunter, Ms. PacMan, 17 big screen TVs so you will never miss a game, and much, much more.

What to order: Choose from a great selection of inexpensive drinks.

Fun Fact: Bus Stop is one of the oldest bars in San Francisco and was founded in 1900!

Crowd: Casual atmosphere with plenty of big-time sports fans.

Drink specials not to miss: We’re known for our tasty Bloody Marys

Gussie’s Chicken and Waffles

Neighborhood: Western Addition – 1521 Eddy in San Francisco

What you’ll find: True home cooking with a crazy mix of flavors

What to order: Taste of the South fried chicken special.

Fun Fact: Sunday dinner every night!

Clientele/ crowd: casual

Drink specials not to miss: Happy Hour M-F, 4-7:30pm with specials on drinks and 1/2 off appetizers.

Pilsner Inn

Neighborhood: Castro — 225 Church St. in San Francisco

What you’ll find: Since 1980, Pilsner Inn has been entertaining and quenching the thirsts of San Francisco’s gay (and straight!) community

What to order: huge selection of our best draft and bottled beers at unbelievable prices.

Fun Fact: You could say every hour is happy hour here!!

Clientele/ crowd: casual

Drink specials not to miss: Variety of specials on cocktails along with shot specials.

Cable Car City Pub & Cafe

Neighborhood: Downtown- 1 Hallidie Plaza, 5th and Market in San Francisco

What you’ll find: A great place to catch your favorite teams on our 10 tv’s.

What to order: Try our Effen cucumber bloody Mary made with our own bloody Mary mix and fresh basil.

Fun Fact: We have outdoor seating and serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Clientele/ crowd: A mix of locals and out of towners.

Drink specials not to miss: Generous $5 Jameson shots all day and happy hour 3-6 Monday- Saturday.

El Rio

Neighborhood: Mission/BernalHeights- 3158 Mission St in San Francisco

What you’ll find: Organized mayhem under the sky and often involving clowns…

What to order: Something with booze in it!!!

Fun Fact: There’s a bicycle hanging in a tree on the patio, can you find it?

Clientele/ crowd: Freaks, weirdos, loads of queers and some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

Drink specials not to miss: Best one… Come in on your birthday and we will hook you up!

McTeague’s Saloon

Neighborhood: 1237 Polk Street SF, (415) 776-1237, Polk Gulch

What you’ll find: We are currently in the process of our second round of renovations since we opened in 2008. In our first expansion, we added a 2nd bar in the middle “lounge” section. With a few extra flat-screen’s and a pool table.

What to order: We have one of best beers selections on Polk street and we are always trying out new local and other various micro brews from time to time just to mix it up.

Fun Fact: Since we opened our doors in 2008, we’ve been working hard to become a Polk Street institution. Even our name derives from a book about a San Francisco dentist who set up shop on Polk street in nearly our exact same location.

Clientele/ crowd: We are the #1 stop on Polk Street for all your sporting needs, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, English Premier Soccer the list goes on.

Drink specials not to miss: We have weekly & monthly specials and even special free product tastings.

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar on Orson Welles, desert island records, and more

Tony Robles

May 31, 2012

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar on Orson Welles, desert island records, and more

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar is a songwriter’s songwriter, revered within indie rock circles for his dense, erratic lyric sheets, and sharp, confrontational vocal delivery. So, naturally, when he dove head-first into synth-laden yacht-rock on last year’s Kaputt, the Interwebs went abuzz.

The current Destroyer lineup is set to grace the Fillmore next Tuesday, for their second SF appearance since the album’s release. I interviewed Bejar about the upcoming tour over the phone last week, and unsurprisingly, he’s quite a talker. So much so, that my Destroyer feature in this week’s issue only scratched the surface.

For more juice on Kaputt, musings on Dean Martin and Orson Welles, and an impulsive list of desert island records, read on:

SFBG Your lyrics and your vocal delivery on Kaputt evoke this really strong sense of personality and point of view that I haven’t quite heard on another Destroyer record. I’ve read comparisons to Humphrey Bogart, to Bill Murray, to Dean Martin. Any way you cut it, there’s this sense of cool detachment at the center that makes people think of specific personalities. Were the lyrics on Kaputt, written and delivered with an established personality in mind?

Dan Bejar That’s kind of an interesting question. I think of them as kind of the most natural and least constructed lyrics and vocal turns that I’ve ever done. So, it’s funny that they evoke a strong sense of persona, because what I was trying to evoke was as much blankness as possible.

Just like, iterate the words, and try and hit the notes, and leave as much room for the music, you know? And, the sense of space was always very important. There’s probably half the word count that there is on any other Destroyer album.

It’s kinda like… that’s actually the exact opposite of how I picture it, but you never know when your intentions and when the reality of what you’re doing match up. I just tried to keep it real natural and simple. Maybe I am a Dean Martin character and I just don’t know it. Which would be cool, but you’d think someone would have told me by now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puu3IvKnSb4&ob=av2e

SFBG Another big talking point in discussing your career is these transitions, namely Kaputt and Your Blues in 2004. Are there any artists, musicians, you take inspiration from when you’re making a stylistic shift with your career?

DB You mean, like people who have jumped around a lot, and not fallen on their face completely, doing it?

SFBG Right.

DB I don’t know… I don’t really think of it as that, that forest, or like me putting on different Halloween costumes. I just think the traditional rock-band model didn’t really fit, you know? I think, if you look at the career of most singer-songwriter types, any of them who’ve managed to last more than ten years, they’ve probably jumped around a fair bit.

I think, for the most part Kaputt‘s an exception, the writing and the singing is fairly consistent. If you scroll the credits of Destroyer records, all nine of them, you’ll probably find a lot of the same names, you know, but just doing different stuff, or in different formations.

I kind of like the jazz model, where everyone plays on different records, and it’s just more like, session based, as opposed to everyone having to dress up in leather jackets and act like a gang. Most of my inspiration comes from Miles Davis, on a daily basis, anyway.

SFBG There’s a rhythm and a density to your lyrics, that people compare to… Bob Dylan’s thrown around a lot, Joni Mitchell sometimes. But, beyond songwriters, are there any authors, or actors, or public figures, whose patterns of speech and word choice you take inspiration from in your work?

DB Beyond authors?

SFBG Authors included.

DB Oh, authors included. Just beyond songwriters, yeah. There’s too many to choose from. That was the entire project of Destroyer, from the first record up until Kaputt, where the project kind of shifted to become, like I said before, like a singer, and not a chest with poetry.

But, before then, the entire thing was to try and insert words that you would find from outside of a typical rock song, into a typical rock song. That was, kind of, half the thing… Whether it was, like, Orson Welles, or Shakespeare. Or, actually, specifically, Orson Welles’ Shakespeare. That’d be a good one. [Laughs].

Actually, most of Destroyer is inspired by Orson Welles’ take on Shakespeare… [but] I will say that Kaputt is the first record to take most of its inspiration from nonverbal things.

SFBG When you come through San Francisco to tour, hang out, whatever, what do you like doing here?

DB Man, I’d love to have an actual free day in San Francisco, just to walk around. Generally, when I’m on tour, I don’t take too much advantage of where I am. I’m more like a gladiator who paces the bus, or a dank back-room and then is let out of his cage to go onstage. I might hit a bookstore or something.

Finally, Bejar’s impulsive list of five records he finds inspiring, right now. In no particular order:

– The Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Album (1975)
– Bark Psychosis: Hex (1994)
– Charlie Haden: Liberation Music Orchestra (1969)
– The Church: Priest=Aura (1992)
– Cliff Martinez: Solaris OST (2002)

Destroyer
With Sandro Perri, Colossal Yes
Tue/5, 9pm, $25
Fillmore
1805 Geary, SF
(415) 346-6000
www.thefillmore.com

‘Wanted Man’: resurrecting Johnny Cash’s San Quentin concert

Sue Vaughan

May 30, 2012

What did it mean for Johnny Cash to “Walk the Line”? At First Person Singular‘s one night only (May 28) performance of Wanted Man: Johnny Cash at San Quentin at Berkeley’s Ashby Stage, star Josh Pollock argued that we can all relate to the fine line that Cash walked his entire life.

He was never jailed for his drinking or drug problems, but as he performed at San Quentin prison — recorded for his now-classic 1969 album At San Quentin, the follow-up to 1968’s At Folsom Prison — he is said to have looked out at the inmates and thought how close he had been, so many days and nights, to tipping over a precarious edge. June Carter, God, and his guitar kept him on the right side of the law (rock ‘n’ roll fun fact: he was arrested, once, for picking flowers).

Pollock and backing band the East Bay Three did an amazing job capturing the spirit of Cash’s material. Before the show Pollock told me that he was proud to consider this reinterpretation sacrilege, though the audience certainly took nothing but raw pleasure in the performance.

Although the seats were mostly filled with older Cash aficionados, it was a still fairly diverse crowd, and boy did they join in when foot-stomping and hand clapping was encouraged. It was the kind of musical experience where you felt yourself completely enveloped with a feeling of community, and the passion of the music made you forget any trivial problems that had preoccupied your mind earlier that day.

Pollock’s theatrical idiosyncrasies, including some creative hand gestures when he did not have his guitar occupying his arms, were quite entertaining — he was sure giving it his all. The same can also be said for the East Bay Three, comprised of musicians well-known for their other projects.

Violinist Anton Patzner is an Oakland native, and his musical skills have brought him on world tours with the likes of no less than Bright Eyes, including a Late Show with David Letterman performance. His band Judgement Day (with his brother Lewis Patzner) is a “string metal” trio, accompanied by drums.

The Cash show gave Patzner the chance to utilize his violin skills, but he also played such offbeat instruments as a barrel drum (literally a barrel, upright). Watching Patzner bang the hell out of that barrel encapsulated a little taste of the level of fervor I imagine Cash faced, playing before those San Quentin fans over four decades ago.

Laura Weinbach of Foxtails Brigade offered a spitfire interpretation of June Carter, duetting with Pollock on “Jackson”. Weinbach’s inflection and guitar playing were both quite enjoyable. Joe Lewis on upright bass was also fascinating to watch; he played with pluck and great timing. An added treat was that Weinbach’s younger twin brothers made an appearance on trumpet and saxophone — and even had a whistling musical break. Their hand-snapping and dance moves were certainly among the most charming moments of the show.

During his rendition of “Starkville City Jail” — written about that infamous flower-picking incident — Pollock paused to ruminate on how much Cash’s shoes (“I started pacin’ back and forth and now and then, I’d yell/ And kick my forty dollar shoes against the steel door of my cell”) would cost now with inflation (he guessed $200).

Next up for First Person Singular — according to host Joe Christiano, “a performance series that draws from a variety of media to showcase the American voice” — is an all-duets installment of its “Hoot!” open mic night, Sun/10 at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Albany.

Heads Up: 6 must-see concerts this week

Tony Robles

May 30, 2012

How is it already today, today? I mean, how is this week already so present? Long weekends really mess with that standard five in, two out routine, flipping the days on their side, and giving you enough time to buy new shoes and clean out the sock drawer (literally) without feeling like you’re missing out on all that day-drinking at the park. It’s already time to slip on those fresh kicks and catch Kurt Vile, Wet Illustrated, Xiu Xiu, and Mogwai live in venues around this city and its outlying counties.

Last weekend, we as a community fêted the Golden Gate Bridge and all its 75-years-of-burnt-orange glory with super loud fireworks, hidden only partially by rolling fog. We danced in the streets of the Mission for Carnaval. We celebrated tiny sonic explosions with SF Pop Fest. We barbecued tofu and waved flags with the best of ‘em.

And next weekend, friends, is only so close. And there are a whole lot of worthy shows in that short time period in between, up to, and including. Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:

Kurt Vile and the Violators
In asking a friend to recount his recent experience at a Kurt Vile and the Violators show last week up north on this current tour (taking the mumbly, guitar-slinging troubadour and his killer rock’n’roll backing band to SF tonight), I was treated to this concise description: “loud epic jammy amazingness.” Yeah, what he said.
With Black Bananas
Wed/30, 8pm, $22.50
Fillmore
1805 Geary, SF
www.thefillmore.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcg9tA0H0zY

Wet Illustrated
Bay Area garage rock band Wet Illustrated — which features members of Ty Segall’s band, and Lilac — clears a path to so many throwaway descriptors: weirdo, homegrown, pop, punk ethos. Okay, a few more: swirly, moody, silly, psychedelic, Nuggets box set-esque, hip-shaking good times. I’m out of adjectives and buzz phrases. It’s everything.
With the Mallard, Swiftumz, Chris Thayer
Thu/31, 8pm
Verdi Club
2424 Mariposa, SF
(415) 861-9199
www.verdiclub.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcQt6DawrRI

Xiu Xiu
The video for Xiu Xiu’s “Honeysuckle” off recently released LP Always is a rather representative bid into the decade-old Jamie Stewart project. It’s airy and dreamy, art-pop and creepy as hell. Watch the blood pour out of current bandmate Angela Seo’s forbidden fruit and try to eat an apple any time later in the day, I dare you.
With Yamantaka Sonic Tita, Father Murphy
Thu/31, 9pm, $14
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 621-4455
www.bottomofthehill.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYKGR8Er4vM

Little Barrie
For some seriously evil, reverb-drenched surf guitar riffs, try this early Aughts-born UK garage trio, lead by Primal Scream guitarist Barrie Cadogan . And if you’ve yet to catch the Little Barrie wave, check it out recorded pre-show; the band released jangly new full-length King of the Waves — with horrorcore-lite single “Surf Hell” — this spring on Tummy Touch Records.
With Mamas Cookin’
Thu/31, 9pm, $5
Vitus
201 Broadway, Oakl.
(510) 452-1620
www.vitusoakland.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHmsblNnnGM

Mogwai
Classic ’90s post-rock act Mogwai makes ample use of distortion and effects, layering endless swelling guitar instrumentals in a hypnotic, uneasy curtain of fog – maybe rock’n’roll is actually cyclical, because the Scottish quintet still sounds up to that modern-retro slow, pulsating speed. Once upon a time it made for great studying-with-headphones ambiance, tonight it makes for the perfect stoney date.
Fri/1, 9pm, $25
Regency Ballroom
1300 Van Ness, SF
(415) 673-5716
www.theregencyballroom.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHO6pbjQ9ec&feature=fvst

Slough Feg
Named “Best Lord of Metal” in last year’s Best of the Bay awards, Slough Feg’s Mike Scalzi is still at it, still raising classic metal hell, much to the delight of Bay Area metal fans and beyond. All hail the Lord Weird.
With Cormorant, Young Hunter
Sat/2, 9:30pm, $8
Thee Parkside
1600 17th St., SF
(415) 252-1330
www.theeparkside.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxmaOJcASD4&feature=fvst

This Week’s Picks

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 30, 2012

WEDNESDAY 5/30

A Behanding in Spokane

Martin McDonagh, Oscar-winning author of the movie In Bruges and the equally dark hit play Pillowman, brings us another demented fable, already receiving rave reviews from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. All we need to know is that protagonist Carmichael has lost his hand, and although it has been more than 30 years, he is still pissed as hell. Violence and sexually twisted elements are guaranteed in any McDonagh production, and this stage performance includes special effects as gruesome as you could find on the big screen. Do not be too scared off by the talk of gore though — his work is psychologically thrilling as well, and this black comedy brings some fantastic actors to the stage. (Shauna C. Keddy)

Ongoing, through June 30 Tue-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 3pm)

8pm, $30-40

533 Sutter, SF

(415) 677-9596

www.sfplayhouse.org

WEDNESDAY 5/30

Kids on a Crime Spree

These Kids embrace the idea that a simple pop song can be so much more — their music contains darker lyrics hidden under sunny melodies. Their records are captured on analog tape and harken back to the days when Phil Spector was recording bands in New York’s famous Brill Building, and not just a crazy-haired freak. Based on a driving drum line and drenched in reverb guitar, this Crime Spree creates all the messy fun you could ask for, but it’s safe to say you can walk away from this controlled chaos without any trouble with the law. This is not just the sound of kids having some rowdy fun, the Oakland rockers have some truly memorable tunes. (Keddy)

9pm, $5

El Rio

3158 Mission, SF

(415) 282-3325

www.elriosf.com

THURSDAY 5/31

“The Water is Clear and Still”

Liss Fain has always chosen her visual and musical collaborators with great care. A choreographer of uncommon intelligence and taste, every new work is the result of careful deliberations and satisfying for that reason alone. Last year she stepped away from the proscenium stage into an installation format inside YBCA’s Forum. In her new “The Water is Clear and Still,” based on Jamaica Kincaid’s tiny but hugely resonating short stories, she is taking the concept further by using the more complex space of Z Space’s lobby and theater. Again the audience will be invited to wander. Joining Fain’s seven dancers will be actor Delia MacDougall for Kincaid’s text. Longtime collaborator Matthew Antaky has signed on one more time for the lighting and set design. Dan Wool composed the score. (Rita Felciano)

Through Sat/2, 8pm; Sun/3, 2pm; $15–$25

Z Space

450 Florida St., S.F.

(800) 838-3006

www.lissfaindance.org

THURSDAY 5/31

“City Scenes: Installments One and Two”

Owned by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, the circa 1910 Vogue Theatre is, appropriately, a single-screen theater smack-dab in the middle of a neighborhood — no shopping malls need apply. With SFNTF partners CinemaSF at the programming helm, the Vogue shows first-run films, but also hosts unique cultural events you won’t find elsewhere. Case in point: CinemaSF’s new venture with promoters folkYEAH, “City Scenes,” which pairs local musicians with SF-centric films for two nights of rockin’ and movie-watchin’. Tonight, Vetiver curates the 1978 Goldie Hawn-Chevy Chase comedy Foul Play; tomorrow, Chuck Prophet presents Francis Ford Coppola’s tense drama The Conversation (1974). (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Fri/1

8pm (music); 9pm (film), $20

Vogue Theatre

3290 Sacramento, SF

cinemasf.com/vogue

THURSDAY 5/31

Hospitality

One of the highlights at the most recent Noise Pop festival, Brooklyn’s Hospitality is also responsible for one of the best releases this year, its self-titled debut on Merge Records. Amber Papini sings with an appealing lilt and unlocatable accent, and her storytelling style has the punch of Attractions-era Elvis Costello with the tenderness of Belle and Sebastian. Featuring production from guitarist-solo artist-Papini’s husband Nathan Michel and Shane Stoneback (Vampire Weekend, Sleigh Bells), the resulting album is ten tracks of unimpeachable pop, immediately relatable to anyone that’s endured a third decade of ennui, reevaluating friendships and that useless degree. (Ryan Prendiville)

With Waterstrider, Popscene DJs

9:30pm, $13

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

THURSDAY 5/31

2012 San Francisco Nightlife Awards

This is your chance, San Francisco, to throw your tired arms up then bend over and take a vote. More accurately: to celebrate all your creative nightlife creatures, venues, and parties with awards and accolades. The California Music and Culture Association is throwing this second annual meeting of the nightlife minds, where DJs from some of SF’s favorite parties will spin, and all the voting will take place during the actual event. Yes, attendees get in on that hot voting action (Best Live Venue, Best Festival, Best Designer, etc). The winners will then be announced on the spot in a grand ceremony hopefully befitting for such luster. (Emily Savage)

With DJs from Debaser, Future Perfect, Hard French, Lights Down Low

Hosted by Anna Conda and Marke B.

8pm-midnight; Members $5, Non-Members $10

Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

Facebook: 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Awards

FRIDAY 6/1

Annie Bacon and Her OSHEN

Some nights you need to rock out to hardcore, other nights you want sweet and tender vocals over a folk-y melody, the kinds of songs in which the lyrics mean something, and the music carries you right along. Annie Bacon, also known for her “Folk Opera” work, offers that soothing sound you may yearn for at her album release show with Her OSHEN band (for new album Light to See Dark). Think Americana, with an emotionally driven undertone. (Keddy)

With Adios Amigo, Al Lover, the Hates, My Second Surprise

9pm, $10

Cafe Du Nord

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

FRIDAY 6/1

“Reap What You Zoa”

If you’ve visited Oakland Art Murmur — the city’s super-cool monthly art walk, which last month turned into an Occupy-style dance party that took over Telegraph Avenue for hours — then you’ve probably seen the flaming Fluxcycle and its beautiful, stylish crew from Flux Foundation. Wanna go home with them? Mmm, of course you do. You’ll get the chance after this month’s Art Murmur when the crew brings the party back to its home base at American Steel for a rockin’ afterparty to benefit Zoa, its creation for this year’s Burning Man. The event features live music, a gallery show, Chester the Fire Breathing Art Car, the Front Porch, Oaktown Hall, a full bar staffed by the legendary Flash Hopkins, and other artsy surprises, all in a fantastic industrial warehouse. (Steven T. Jones)

With American Nomad

7pm-1am, $10–$20 donation

American Steel

1960 Mandela Parkway, Oakl. (enter on 20th)

www.americansteelstudios.com

www.fluxfoundation.org

FRIDAY 6/1

Omar Souleyman

The prominent ambassador of Syrian folk-dance-party-Dabke music to the US, Omar Souleyman is perhaps known best for his live performances. Releases on the Sublime Frequencies record label — drawing from reportedly over 500 cassettes created over the course of a decade plus, the majority of which were recorded at weddings and parties — has brought increased exposure for the musician and his band, and some ire from more “traditional” world music fans. Souleyman’s style of overdriven, synthesizer-embracing, unrelenting beats and fire-spitting vocals inevitably leads to those who immediately can’t stand it, and those who can’t resist it. Incidentally, this category includes Bjork, for whom Souleyman recently remixed a series of songs including “Crystalline.” (Prendiville)

With DJ Dragonfly, 3 Leafs

8pm, $20 Mezzanine 444 Jessie, SF (415) 625-8880 www.mezzaninesf.com

FRIDAY 6/1

Balam Acab

Tri Angle Records wunderkind Alec Koone, better known as Balam Acab, creates hauntingly beautiful music. The 2011 LP Wander / Wonder solidified Koone as a singular player in the vogue witch house scene. Although the term “witch house” is a four-letter word among some contemporaries, Balam Acab’s music fits all the criteria: inherently electronic, atmospheric, warped, hazy and dragged out. The 20-something Pennsylvanian embarked on a sound that has helped characterize the Tri Angle aesthetic; label mates include Clams Casino, How to Dress Well, Holy Other and oOoOO. Koone made his San Francisco debut with a live performance at Public Works in December. This time around, Elbo Room should prove to be a more intimate experience for fans of his moody music, sure to be set to fog and lasers. (Julia B. Chan)

With S4NtA_MU3rTE, Nako, PLANET DEATH, oOoOO

10pm, $8 Advance

Elbo Room

647 Valencia, SF

(415) 552-7788

www.elbo.com

SATURDAY 6/2

Barn Owl

Barn Owl is often marginalized as a “drone” outfit, but its much too versatile for that description. Evoking the thick-as-molasses stoner sludge of Sunn O))), the astral jazz explorations of Alice Coltrane, and the shimmery moodiness of Can via Future Days, the SF duo has always incorporated the tonal shifts and genre-hopping necessary to keep its hypnosis in check. Having just finished a European tour, in support of its critically acclaimed 2011 album Lost in the Glare, this homecoming appearance ought to be a wild, unpredictable ride through Barn Owl’s veritable maze of sonic influences. (Taylor Kaplan)

With Suishou No Fune, Tone Volt

9:30pm, $7

Hemlock Tavern

1131 Polk, SF

(415) 923-0923

www.hemlocktavern.com

SATURDAY 6/2

Ernest Ranglin

Legendary Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin helped form what would become the ska scene back in the 1950s with his distinctive “scratching” style of playing, and has performed with everybody from Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff to the Skatalites. Fans are invited to help the musical icon celebrate his 80th birthday tonight here in the city with a special concert featuring Ranglin backed by local favorites Vinyl performing hits from his massive back catalog along with selections from his newest album, Avila, which hit stores this week. (Sean McCourt)

With DJ Dukey

9pm, $20–$24

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell St., SF

(415) 885-0750 www.slimspresents.com 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, 71 Stevenson Street, Second Floor, SF, CA 94105 or email (paste press release into email body — no 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.

Destroy build destroy

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 30, 2012

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC “Harsh urban space, with a light misting.” That’s how Dan Bejar describes 2011’s Kaputt, his ninth full-length under the Destroyer moniker; listen to it with headphones, on a foggy day in San Francisco, and you just might agree.

Much has been made of the stylistic shift the Vancouver singer-songwriter has initiated on this record. Awash with fretless bass, lite-jazz sax noodling, and a syrupy synth-haze reminiscent of Avalon by Roxy Music, Kaputt comes across as subdued and wistful, in contrast to the baroque, acerbic tone of his previous output.

Bejar spoke with me over the phone from his home in Vancouver, detailing the second Destroyer lineup since the release of Kaputt, and their renewed approach to the material, as, “more dynamic and muscular than the aesthetic of the production… it’s mostly just a disco band, really,” he explains, with a tinge of sarcasm. “Yeah, hard-rock disco.”

However, while the previous tour was almost exclusively concerned with translating Kaputt to the stage, Bejar suggests that his current octet has, “probably learned twice as much material as any other Destroyer band before it.” The upcoming tour will find Destroyer approaching older, guitar and piano-based songs with trumpet, sax, and mega-synths for the first time. “We’ve not necessarily Kaputtified [the older material],” he explains, “but definitely given things a new sound.”

Kaputtified? Bejar wouldn’t likely be using this word if the album didn’t possess such a distinct, consistent atmosphere. The production aesthetic of Kaputt has inspired countless nerd-debates over the past year or so, largely concerning the merits of tributing a musical era — the early 1980s — that some listeners find questionable these days.

“I think there’s some things on the record that, some people might find repellent,” Bejar observes. “Not necessarily younger people so much as people my age, or a bit older, who maybe lived through the late ’70s and the ’80s, and were kind of just bludgeoned with really bad examples of production techniques and instrumentation that went down.”

That said, Bejar himself is hesitant to slap the “’80s” tag on Kaputt, despite this strong reaction from the blogosphere. “You never know when your intentions, and when the reality of what you’re doing, match up,” he admits, “[but] I always just think the songs are distinct enough that they can just grab hold of whatever style they feel like, and still come out sounding like their own voice.”

Another common misconception about Kaputt is the suggestion that it was written and recorded from a nostalgic perspective. After all, Bejar was a mere nine years of age when Avalon came out. “I don’t think it’s really nostalgic,” he insists. “I’ve always thought of it more as, say, someone on their deathbed, pumped full of morphine, maybe seeing what visions go wafting by.”

This deathbed image sheds some light on what Bejar describes as a “blankness” at the heart of Kaputt‘s songwriting and vocal delivery. “The sense of space was always important,” he contends. “There’s probably half the word count than there is on any other Destroyer album.” This relative economy of words is reflected in Kaputt‘s relaxed, unhurried pacing, which provides a stark contrast to the freewheeling energy of, say, 2006’s Destroyer’s Rubies.

In describing his aesthetic influences, Bejar mentions, “most of my inspiration comes from Miles Davis, on a daily basis, anyway,” Thinking within that context, Kaputt very well might be Destroyer’s In a Silent Way: a deeply transitional affair steeped in lush ambiance, with the ability to go hog-wild, but the class, restraint, and wisdom to keep things at a simmer.

It’s an ideal soundtrack to this city at its grayest. A light misting, indeed.

DESTROYER

With Sandro Perri, Colossal Yes

Tue/5, 9pm, $25

Fillmore

1805 Geary, SF

(415) 346-6000

www.thefillmore.com

Trans-formation

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 30, 2012

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC After touring on 2009’s Words of the Knife with his band Os Beaches, Mark Matos’ world fell crashing from the cosmos. Internal struggles compelled him to fire his producer and his guitarist; Os Beaches’ practice space that doubled as a crash pad burned down (relegating the fresh-off-the-road group back to van sleeping); and Matos began to develop a destructive relationship with drugs.

When I meet up with him over an extremely tall glass of weizen beer at German restaurant Suppenküche, Matos — an eloquent, bearded 30-something who comes off as much like a shaman as the front person of a psychedelic rock collective — explains how he somewhat-recently hit rock bottom; and how psychedelics enabled him to climb out of a debilitating death hole and build a mountain on top of it.

“I was up all night on cocaine. I hate cocaine. I felt it all slipping away. And I was like, ‘I’m going to take the heroic dose’ — five grams of mushrooms,” Matos recalls. “It’s what the shamans of South America say is the proper dose. It’s not fun.”

Matos says after he emerged from his heroic experience, he felt completely reborn. “I didn’t want to do coke. I didn’t care about being famous, and I really, really felt high. I was so high that people thought I was losing it.”

He says his consumption of the heroic dose, coupled with a series of vision quests, spawned the creation of his enlightened self — Trans Van Santos — and drew him toward the concept of communal musicianship.

The Trans Van Santos identity came to Matos during a vision quest in the desert. He remembers big hands lifting him onto a pyramid, and voices beckoning him to embrace his spirit name, Trans Van Santos.

“Santos is my grandmother’s maiden name, and in our [Portuguese] tradition we often take the matriarch’s name. When I think ‘Santos,’ it reminds me to honor the feminine.”

Coyote and the Crosser, Mark Matos & Os Beaches’ recent release, tells the story of Matos’ transformation into Trans Van Santos and his quest for “the ball of light” — a metaphor for illumination and enlightenment. The band will debut the Coyote and the Crosser live show this week at the Rickshaw Stop.

“This show will be a rock’n’roll extravaganza: loud, psychedelic, and very electric,” Matos says. “The album is a malleable rock opera, so it’s a rock opera in a sense that there’s a narrative structure — a group of [six songs] — but there are other [songs] too. There’s a mythological universe coming across, so certain songs of mine fit into that world.”

With the help of Joel Dean (who’s built sets for Phil Lesh and extravagant art pieces for Burning Man), Matos has constructed visually compelling stage props for his performance, including “the Spirit Molecule Sound Chambers with spinning disco balls hovering inside,” eight-foot tall glowing cacti, and a 13-foot tall dream catcher.

“I think having intention in the visual aspect of [Coyote and the Crosser] will bring people to the point where we can have a shared experience,” Matos anticipates.

Matos’ cosmic alter-ego Trans Van Santos will perform at Starry Plough the following night, which should be a calmer, quieter ceremony. Trans, along with his Trans Band, will explore “Americalia”: a synthesis of American folk and Brazilian Tropicalia.

For his Trans Van Santos other self and Trans Band, Matos says he “kept the direction to a minimum, focusing on the spiritual approach to the material. I want to hear the choices these folks make, to feel the spirit of discovery between us.”

Matos’ mystical transformation has compelled him to share his “acid gospel” with the community. “What I am trying to do with my little corner of rock’n’roll is to treat it as a new psychedelic ceremony,” Matos explains. “That and throw a birthday party for the whole galaxy!”

MARK MATOS & OS BEACHES’ COYOTE AND THE CROSSER

With Zodiac Death Valley, Little Owl, Ash Reiter

Fri/1, 8pm, $10

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

TRANS VAN SANTOS

With the Bottlecap Boys, The Know Nothings

Sat/2, 9:30 p.m., $7-10 sliding scale

Starry Plough

3101 Shattuck, Berkeley

(510) 841-2082

www.starryploughpub.com

Tricky sings

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 30, 2012

MUSIC Compared with the smooth operator currently installed in the Oval Office, how nervous Richard Nixon looks now as a representative of America abroad, all stiff grins, rumpled shiftiness, outbursts of awkward rhetoric. Reviewing vintage footage of him recently, I half expected a rappin’ granny to suddenly appear, and goofy Uncle Dick to start “breaking it down.” And yet, 40 years after California’s second-most problematic political progeny (pace, zombie Reagan) went to Beijing to “open China” — ending 25 years of separation and going on to win re-election in a landslide, despite the growing Watergate scandal — might it be time to look past the jerky, jowly image of Tricky Dick and reassess the character of the man and the moment, to keep us on our toes?

“Nixon was an incredibly complicated man, whose intellect constantly got in his way,” Canadian opera director Michael Cavanagh told me over the phone during a wide-ranging interview. “And it’s especially relevant to examine him now in that light, with a certain distance of history. We tend to stop at the jowls, the scandal, and the Republicanism. But it’s often been remarked during this election cycle that there’s no way in hell Nixon would ever be considered for the Republican ballot now. He was too small ‘r’ republican, too centrist. So there’s this complexity to him that confronts lefties with their own stereotypes, assuming most patrons of the arts lean left. That’s something I really like.”

Cavanagh’s complexifying occasion will be his production of John Adams’ 1987 Nixon in China, part of the San Francisco Opera’s nifty-looking summer season. The opera, with a luminescent libretto by poet Alice Goodman and an engrossing, fever-dream score by Adams, whose melodies, time signatures, and musical reference points churn and shift like memory itself, takes us from the moment Nixon’s Spirit of ’76 touches down on the tarmac (Kissinger in tow), through his historic meetings with Chou En-Lai and Mao Tse-Tung, along with First Lady Pat on an eventful factory tour, and finally into the major characters’ bedrooms, memories, and fantasies. It’s a sensually intoxicating work, full of barnstorming arias sung by a multi-ethnic cast (you will have “I am the wife of Mao Tse-Tung” stuck in your head for days) that examines media spectacle, modern myth-making, and cultural difference on a truly, well, operatic scale.

San Francisco Bay Guardian Nixon was Californian, Adams is a longtime Bay Area resident. It’s the 40th anniversary of the China visit, and also an insanely contentious election year. The Bay Area as a huge Chinese population — many families escaped Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Do you feel any particular pressure bringing this production here, now?

Michael Cavanagh I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility, but I also feel a lot of freedom. Of course, the events the opera depicts and its roots in the Bay Area will resonate, and that’s hugely exciting. But this isn’t a documentary, it’s a rumination, more of a poem. As Nixon says in the beginning of the opera, “News has a kind of mystery” — and I feel that’s what Adams and Goodman were really expanding upon with this.

I do think that this production, especially, will bring up memories for a lot of people. I myself had an inkling of this whole thing happening when I was really young — it’s something that a lot of the world shares, a memory of this iconic moment, even if that memory is only a glimpse of pavement or a handshake, kind of like my own. The opera works with that abstraction, those fuzzy frames of memory that overlay images of the past, while still sharpening some of the more historically relevant moments. I hope people can relate to it on all of those levels.

SFBG Twenty-five years separate us from the opera’s premiere in Houston in 1987 — and yet China remains, to use a slightly loaded term, as inscrutable as ever to many Americans, yet as enmeshed in their daily lives as ever. What relevance do you think the opera may hold today?

MC I think it has an eerie relevance. Even back when Nixon in China premiered, China was still remote and threatening to many, and this was before the reform machine revved into life, before China’s emerging economic dominance. In one scene, in Mao’s library, Mao goes off quite poetically about the revolution, and how things were changing, and he plays fast and loose with the concepts of capitalism and communism, almost as if he foresees the necessary reforms ahead, that came to pass.

Beyond that, the opera is very prescient about the evolution of the media — this was one of the first major world events to be broadcast on a global scale, to be covered as the kind of spectacle we base much of our opinions and thoughts on today. We think of Nixon as shifty-eyed, but he was really just trying to figure out where the cameras were most of the time, trying to acclimate to this new kind of fishbowl environment in which political figures were treated like movie characters. The opera records the beginnings of all that, and ends with them reviewing their memories of everything that’s occurred as if it was all this footage, which it is quite actually on stage.

Basically, though, the deepest relevance a work can have is by connecting to the audience through its characters. Take Pat Nixon. We hurt for Pat Nixon. She’s been betrayed. Nixon promised her a simple home life, the comforts of family and a man at home, and here she is traveling all the way to China! She’s bewildered, but as First Lady there’s really no place for that, so she forges her own, I think very American kind of resolve that cracks a couple times, but still gets her through.

It’s a very poignant psychological and emotional study, projected on the world stage, and amplified as only opera can. That’s what opera does better than any other art form: it amplifies life.

SFBG You’re a Canadian — have you caught any flack for interpreting these events that are so associated with the US?

MC You know, despite appeals to the contrary, our two countries really share the same history. This version of the opera was premiered in Vancouver during the Olympic Festival — it’s what Canada chose to represent itself will to the entire world. And when it comes down to it, really, everything you do effects us Canadians just as much. We sleep with the elephant. *

NIXON IN CHINA

June 8-July 3, times and prices vary

War Memorial Opera House

301 Van Ness, SF.

(415) 861-4008

www.sfopera.com

Deep dish

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 30, 2012

SUPER EGO Ooh, she's windy! And everybody knows it. I'm writing you from Chicago, specifically and improbably from the Hard Rock Hotel in the gorgeous old Union Carbide building. It's not so tacky (I'm staying on the Prince Floor, displaying several of his blouses), even though it's brimming with hopefuls for the International Mr. Leather Competition-related "Grabbys," the big annual gay porn awards. Someone please tell their hairdressers that 2005 was seven years ago! No more gay porn cockatoos, please. It is also big, hairy bear week here — officially called Bearpawcalypse 2012, I shit you not — so everything is thuper-thuper-gay.

I'll be back to join you at the following ragers, but right now I'm off to "grabby" me some drinks in the stunning Second City. First stop: a strong sidecar and some live Latin jazz at Al Capone's favorite hang, the Green Mill. Straight mobbin', y'all.

OMAR SOULEYMAN

Are you ready to completely lose it, hypnotic synth-groove hi-NRG Syrian folk-pop style? Even just thinking of how this hyper-energetic, legendary Middle Eastern singer somehow came to be embraced by Western ravers makes me smile — but we'll all be too busy bouncing and trying to sing along to deconstruct all that.

Fri/1, 8pm doors, $20 advance. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. www.mezzaninesf.com

STOMPY 20-YEAR REUNION

The Stompy label, party crew, and music production powerhouse has helped keep the chunky, funky, banging SF house sound alive (DJ Deron, Stompy's honcho, is one of my favorites when I just wanna let loose). To celebrate its second decade, Berlin's sunny tech-house wiz Ian Pooley is joining Jonene, Tasho, Sweet P, and Deron to stomp us good.

Fri/1, 9pm, $10 before 11pm, $20 after. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.stompy.com

DOPPLEREFFEKT

Keepers of the true mad scientist techno flame, this mysterious, essential group — headed by mental lab technician Heinrich Mueller, a.k.a. Gerald Donald, a.k.a. Rudolf Klorzeiger — was all the rage, and one of the actual quality offspring, of the electro clash scene, which is now experiencing a full-blown revival. Dark thoughts and porn dreams burble up through insanely catchy melodies and sci-fi Kraftwerk affect. With C.L.A.W.S., Robot Hustle, Josh Cheon, Caltrop, and the No Way Back crew.

Sat/2, 10pm, $25. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.monarchsf.com

KONTROL GRAND FINALE

What would the city's techno scene be like without Kontrol? Ace new crews like As You Like It and Rocket might not be around if it hadn't been for the seven-year-old monthly blast of live news from the global techno underground. Originally started at the storied Rx Gallery as a clean, minimal-pumping break from all the baroque, bombastic clutter that was techno in the early 2000s (and as a showcase for the burgeoning international touring circuit created by the Internet and advancing digital technology), Kontrol grew at the EndUp into one of our invaluable electronic faces to the world. Now the Kontrollers — Greg Bird, Alland Byallo, Sammy D, Nokloa Baytala, and Craig Kuna — have way too much going on, damn their popular talents! This seventh anniversary event is also the end of the line for the monthly party, although Kontrol will live on in other forms, including, I'm sure, one day, a 21st anniversary party, at which I will be raving in my hover-wheelchair. Berlin master Heiko Laux performs. Danke and aufweidersehn!

Sat/2, 10pm-6am, $20. EndUp, 401 Sixth St., SF. www.tinyurl.com/kontrolbye

WICKED 21-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

After last year's incredible reunion (and a hugely successful world tour) one of SF's original rave crews — the one that brought a tasty touch of pagan British psychedelia to its eclectic productions — gathers again to howl. DJs Garth, Jeno, Thomas, and Markie, plus a signature cast of beloved characters, get devilish all night. *

Sat/2, 10pm-7am, $20. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.mighty119.com

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