Artvoice Battle of Original Music

Friday, January 14

The votes have been cast and counted in our weekly online battle of the bands, yielding the four finalists that have won a spot in this month’s live showdown. This round features Suffolk & Rain, Canoe, Coterie of Stern, and the Funky Beets. They’ve all proven they can impress listeners visiting our Website, but in the context of a live performance, which one will be able to drum up the most votes this Friday (Jan 14) at Nietzsche’s, in order to win a coveted slot in our BOOM Grand Finale? Each person through the door will receive one ballot to cast for his or her favorite band, and by the end of the night we will announce the winner. That winner will join the winner of our first live battle—the Etchings. These shows are consistently well attended, and are a great chance for fans of local original music to come out and experience some of the best bands in town. Think you’ve got a great band? Visit boom.artvoice.com to find out how you can enter, absolutely free. Next month, it could be you in the spotlight. —buck quigley

Pictured clockwise from top left: Suffolk & Rain, Coterie of Stern, The Funky Beets, Canoe

10pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. (886-8539 / nietzsches.com and boom.artvoice.com) $5.

Thursday, January 13

Cirque Noir, Wooden Waves & Black Umbrella

January can be kind of a downer. The holidays are over so you don’t have that to look forward to, and the amount of shows coming to town seems to wane for a little bit. Fear not, antsy Buffalonian! You are fortunate enough to live in a city that provides enough home-brewed talent to keep you warm and entertained through the winter’s dark ages. Strap on the boots and head down to Mohawk Place this Thursday (tonight!) for a local show of the highest caliber. Cirque Noir will impress with their penchant for the theatrical with dark-wave atmospherics, explosive post-punk guitars and hauntingly powerful female vocals. Get caught in their chilly cabaret before being swept away by the Technicolor tsunami that is Wooden Waves. Echoed synth-vocal interplay, kraut-rock drums and a back drop of live manipulated video will give you a show in the truest meaning of the word. Black Umbrella are a band you’ll be hearing more and more about in the coming months, already setting a standard with pop hooks and incredibly detailed song writing. Their dreamy brand of indie rock brings to mind the Go-Betweens and the Smiths while adding a slew of other influences that must mirror a formidable record collection. Black Umbrella are who you need to keep an eye on in 2011. Spinning all vinyl sets throughout the night will be everyone’s favorite Mohawk Place troubadour, DJ Still Bill. —eric kendall

8pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. (465-2368 / www.themohawkplace.com). $5.

Friday, January 14

Queen City Roller Girls presents: The Devil Dollies 3-D Art Show

Ladies and Gentleman, but mostly gentleman, or ladies that loved the movie Whip It. This week you will have the chance to experience roller derby like you never have before. The Devil Dollies of the Queen City Roller Girls, in collaboration with local artists Kevin Bohner and Kyle Wheaton will be presenting a 3-D art show staring all twenty beautiful ladies as well as their coaches. Not only will the viewer be able to interact with the 3-D art using glasses provide for them, but the Dollies will also be on hand to sign autographs and meet with their fans. Not bad considering admission is free! The event also includes raffles, snacks, and a cash bar. Friday (Jan 14) is the day and the Eights Bistro on Main Street in Buffalo is the place to experience every dimension of the Queen City Roller Girls. —rachel good

7pm. Eights Bistro, 888 Main St. Buffalo. Free.

Friday, January 14

"Transformations" by the Buffalo Soundpainting Ensemble

As the always-stimulating Beyond/In WNY exhibition comes to a close, the Buffalo Soundpainting Ensemble will be performing “Transformations” at the Burchfield Penney Art Center on Friday (Jan 14). The performance will be an improvisational exploration into the transformation of human energy, the occult, utopian sources of spirituality and technology, and our evolving vision of the future. The performance will encompass a collision of texts from Charles Brockden Brown, Antonin Artaud, and King Camp Gillette. Soundpainting is a live composing sign language, created by New York composer Walter Thompson, for artists and performers to experiment with improvisational narrative. A composer/conductor leads the performers’ vocal improvisations through a series of gestures. This marriage of body language and audible soundscapes is incredibly fluid and lends itself to performance art in a unique way. Before the performance at 8pm, the Burchfield Penney will host a Happy Hour and live music by the Outlyers from 5:30pm-7:30pm as part of Second Fridays. -jill greenberg

8pm. Burchfield-Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave. (burchfieldpenney.org) $10/Free for Members.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday, January 14-16

Flurrious

It may not be springtime yet, but it’s time to crawl out of hibernation because the ultimate in Buffalo winter festivals is upon us. Flurrious, presented by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, is a two day family friendly winter festival. Visitors can watch the construction of an igloo, ice skate, play any version of snowshoe-tennis, kickball, softball or golf, and even enjoy live local music, featuring the Albrights, Andrew Reimers Country Punk Extravaganza, and more. There will be curling demonstrations as well as blacksmith and lumberjack demonstrations. Kids and adults can rent snowshoes or X-country skies, or drink a cup of hot cocoa while they take a sleigh or carriage ride. Snow sculptors will construct fleets of icy reindeer, while courageous runners and bikers race around Delaware Park’s Ring Road. There will be a rugby match and even a humanized version of a quidditch match, as well as a beer and ice wine tent for the adults. As always, the Parkside Lodge will be open just in case you need to warm up a bit. Flurrious happens Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (Jan 14-16) at Delaware Park. Tickets are available at Wegman’s. If any city in the world knows how to throw a winter festival, it’s Buffalo. —cory perla

Friday 6pm-9pm, Sat 10am-9pm, Sun 9am-9pm. Delaware Park, Parkside Lodge, 84 Parkside Ave. $20 per carload, or $5 for walk ups.

Saturday, January 15

Infringement Festival Fundraiser Show

Circle July 28th 2011 on your calendar. Put a star next to it. Then, draw a line across the next 11 days and write “Buffalo Infringement Festival” in big, sprawling letters. The annual under-the-radar arts festival is back this summer, and promises to showcase even more of the off-beat, unexpected art we’ve come to know and love in the Queen City. It didn’t take long for the Infringement Festival to make noise, growing exponentially in participation since its inception in 2005, with 700 performances in 50 venues across Buffalo last year. Along with the help of dedicated organizers and volunteers, the festival operates entirely on donations. On Saturday (Jan 15), Nietzsche’s is hosting a fundraiser for the 2011 Buffalo Infringement Festival, featuring a jam-packed lineup that’s really a sampling of what Infringement is all about. There will be live painting, festival logo unveiling, and musical acts on two stages from the likes of Cassi Meyerhoffer, The Etchings (BOOM Finalists), and indie-folk outfit Carnindyle, Also on the bill are bluegrass superstars Reverend Soapbox and the Rabblerousers, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Amish Noise among others. If this show wasn’t big enough, there are three dance acts performing as well: the Zombettes, who bring the gore with zombie burlesque, Queen City Swing, and the recently formed Habit Dance Project. Anal Pudding saxophonist Rory McMcormack’s project, Obscene Object, merges saxophone and a Commodore 64, and Jeff Repeater will be on hand to perform his experimental project featuring chaos pads and a Nintendo DS. Your $5 will go a long way in making the 2011 Infringement Festival happen, and with all of these talented artists and musicians sharing the stage at Nietzsche’s on Saturday, it might feel like the festivities have already started. —jon wheelock

9pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. (886-8539 / www.nietzsches.com). $5.

Saturday, January 15

Miss Tess & The Bon Ton Parade w/The Steam Donkeys

“Modern Vintage” is the term used by Miss Tess, a New York City-based singer/songwriter (via Cambridge, MA) to describe her sound. It was also the title of her first release with her nimble band, the Bon Ton Parade. One listen to their music and you’ll agree it’s an apt characterization. Jumping between classic Duke Ellington and Fats Waller standards, and her own contempo tunes infused with a jazzy swing feel punctuated by nifty clarinet solos, you’ll feel like it’s déjà vu all over again, again. At the very least, it’s like catching the Squirrel Nut Zippers in the early 1990s, before that last swing craze flared out. Nouveau Honky Tonk veterans the Steam Donkeys open the show on Saturday (Jan 15) at the Sportsmen’s Tavern with an hour-long set featuring selections from their twenty-year catalog. —buck quigley

9pm. Sportsmen’s Tavern, 326 Amherst St. (874-7734 / www.sportsmenstavern.com) $10.

Tuesday, January 18 (Ongoing)

Buffalo Film Seminars XXII

Whether because they found some previously unavailable prints or were simply inspired in their selections, Buffalo Film Seminar organizers Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian have put together a particularly strong schedule for their 22nd series. It opens on Tuesday (Jan 18) with Metropolis, newly restored to include all of its original footage (minus a few frames) as well as Fritz Lang’s original sequencing. As always, these are films that you just haven’t seen unless you’ve seen them on the big screen. Sometimes that’s because they contain detail you won’t see in your living room, like Busby Berkeley’s still-astonishing production numbers for 42nd Street (Jan 25) or Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (Apr 26). But movies are epic in more intimate ways as well: until you see Greta Garbo (here in Ernst Lubitsch’s Billy Wilder-scripted comedy Ninotchka, Feb 1) filling a room, you’ll never truly understand the fascination she has held for generations of movie lovers. Other highlights include Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (Feb 8); Bob Hoskins in the British gangster classic the Long Good Friday (Mar 15); the Circle, by the recently imprisoned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (Apr 19); and two Jim Thompson adaptations, Bernard Tavernier’s Coup de Torchon (Mar 22) and Stephen Frears’ the Grifters (Apr 12). -m. faust

7pm. Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre, 639 Main St. (855-3096 / dipsontheatres.com)

Looking Ahead: Saturday, February 12

Dancing From the Heart with Storm's Tommy Radon

For those who are looking for a day filled with exciting dance classes and a night of enthralling entertainment, or just something new and fun to try, look no further than “Dancing from the Heart” presented by STORM Buffalo. This is the dance choreography company’s third fundraiser to benefit the Variety Kids Telethon, run by Tommy Radon from Fred Astaire Dance Studios. “Dancing From The Heart” will be returing to the Adams Mark Hotel on Saturday, February 12. Discounted tickets are now available until January 17 for $50, which includes all workshops and the masked ball. After this date tickets can be purchased for $75. Due to the limited amount of tickets, people are encouraged to buy their tickets in advance. Tickets can be purchased online at heart.stormbuffalo.com or at Fred Astaire Orchard Park located at 3459 Amelia Drive in the Quaker Crossing plaza. —vanessa oswald

12pm-11:30pm. Adam’s Mark Hotel, 120 Church St . Buffalo. (845-5100 / adamsmark.com). $50-$75.