Pawtucket calling
The Pawtucket Arts Festival kicks back into gear with the 2nd Annual Open House at the Hope Artiste Village. Over the next few weeks, the vibrant arts community will be inviting 11 live/work tenants and a handful of new retail and studio businesses to the village. Festivities on Friday will run from 6 pm to midnight, showcasing resident, local, and regional artists in a gallery-style show. There will also be some good tunes, with ZOX headlining the venue’s music stage, along with HEATHER ROSE & THE DRAMA and HEAVY WEATHER. There will also be a Stone Soup Folk Festival with performances on Saturday by the DAVE ROWE TRIO, MAGNOLIA, and SANTA MAMBA. Sunday’s bill includes MINOR SWING, JERIMOTH HILL, and FOREVER YOUNG: THE NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE BAND, with BECKY CHACE, JOHN FUZEK, DAN LILLEY, PETE VENDETTUOLI, and MARK CUTLER in the round playing individually and together. All have particular empathy with Young’s material and come at the songs from different, satisfying angles. The music can be heard at Slater Park in Pawtucket. Stone Soup is also sponsoring a blood and marrow drive with the Rhode Island Blood Center and the National Marrow Donor Program. For more information, go to www.pawtucketartsfestival.org. Incidentally, Stone Soup is opening its 27th season on Saturday with LUCY KAPLANSKY and CHRIS CAPALDI, which means acoustic music fans may gorge from a full plate all weekend long. Head to www.stonesoupcoffeehouse.com for more details.
Wandering eye
On Saturday at the Blackstone in Pawtucket, it’s KILLING PABLO, SHAWN WATERS & GROUPTHINK, and THE PROPELLERS. Call 401.726.2181. There’s a big all-ages show at the Living Room on Saturday featuring POORLY DRAWN PEOPLE (Storm Davis/Reason/Dox/DJ Sterbyrock), PROLYPHIC, RADIX, LABELESS ILLTELLIGENCE (CasUno/ESH/DJ Al Bums), NEED NOT WORRY, JDO, and BIG CITY. Doors open at 9 pm, the cover is $10, and the first 100 people will receive a free sampler with new and unreleased music from various acts on the bill. Call 401.521.5200.
Becky Chace returns to the Vanilla Bean Café in Pomfret, Connencticut, on Saturday at 8 pm. Chace is preparing a new CD and is poised to embark on an East Coast tour next month. Hit www.VanillaBeanCafé.com.
Psychedelia will be oozing from Firehouse 13 on Saturday. New Bedford’s TEMPLE OF BONMATIN will perform before embarking on a European conquest. XERXES GUTTERHELMET (the duo of Redfearn and McLaren) and CRUDE HILL (with Forcefield’s Leif Goldberg and Urdog’s Erin Rosenthal) join the melee. CHRIS MOON (local head honcho of the record label Last Visible Dog) tops it off with visual mayhem. Go to www.myspace.com/fh13 for more input
E-mail me at bobgulla@verizon.net.
