Tuesday, October 18

David Sedaris’ wit, frequently described in write-ups like this one as “sardonic,” will be put on display when he speaks at University at Buffalo’s Center For The Arts this Tuesday (Oct 18). Discovered in a Chicago club by Ira Glass for his show on Chicago Public Radio, Sedaris began a career that would lead him to The New Yorker and make him one of the most recognizable voices on NPR. His books, including Me Talk Pretty One Day and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, have sold over seven million copies around the world. While Sedaris’ prose is lean and certainly enjoyable to parse through, his readings allow him to stretch out his essays and give them the accompanying smirk that’s impossible to convincingly relate through text. A quick pass through Youtube shows him sharply dressed in a suit and tie behind a music stand, reading his essays to a rapt audience with his dry and well-timed delivery. Much like A Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor, Sedaris’ stories deal with a lot of universal experiences, from world travel to discussion of that boil you should really get taken care of. Born in Binghamton and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Sedaris now lives between Paris and London. He’s an expatriate who expresses amusement at comically overpriced chicken and the earned ability to pass as a native even if only for that moment before you open your mouth to speak. His most recent book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary—a series of fables subbing in overheard dinner conversations between old human friends with everything from cats to a crow—was published last year. Be sure to bring in your favorite Sedaris novel on Tuesday, as a book signing will follow his reading. —nicholas torsell

7:30pm. Mainstage Theatre, UB Center for the Arts, 103 Center For The Arts (654-ARTS / ubcfa.org). $38.50.

Saturday, October 15

Clutter: An Indie Flea Market

If you’ve ever been to Brooklyn on a Saturday afternoon you probably know that one of the great and underrated urban experiences one can have is picking through the endless bins of records, old tattered books, and somewhat tangled handmade jewelry of a street flea market. Though Buffalo has a few regularly occurring flea markets, it is one thing the Elmwood village lacks. On Saturday (Oct 15) the local creatives and entrepreneurs of Sugar City will bring a taste of Williamsburg to Buffalo for an independent flea market modeled after the Brooklyn Flea. Curated local vendors will set up shop inside Sugar City at the corner of Wadsworth and Allen Street to share their collections and creations; everything from vintage clothing, LPs, jewelry, linens, zines, screen printed poster art, and more. Much of this stuff will be recycled and repurposed material, embracing the idea of creating treasures from clutter. Check out Clutter: An Indie Flea Market from 12pm to 6pm this weekend at Sugar City. —cory perla

12-6pm. Sugar City, 19 Wadsworth in Allentown (buffalosugarcity.org).

Saturday, October 15

Project / Object

When Frank Zappa passed away in 1993, he left us with a legacy that didn’t just include an insane amount of albums. He was also an inspiration to musicians around the world, and this Saturday (Oct 15), New York-based Zappa tribute band Project/Object will take the stage at Nietzsche’s to pay tribute to the late musical innovator. They will be joined on this performance by Ike Allen and Ray White. Allen and White were part of Zappa’s band from 1976 to 1988, and played pivotal roles on albums such as Joe’s Garage, Zappa In New York, Tinsel Town Rebellion, and You Are What You Is. Project/Object is considered one of the country’s top tribute acts. This is not their first time collaborating with Willis, as in the past they worked together on the first live performance of Joe’s Garage. The band believes that Zappa is one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, and they are dedicated to keeping his music and his legacy alive. A big part of their show is the ability to strike a perfect balance between staying true to the original studio albums, but also embracing the “live” element of the shows, as Zappa was so skilled at doing. They will be joined at this show by Buffalo-based group Peanut Brittle Satellite, one of city’s premiere experimental rock groups. Their progressive, experimental sound certainly could draw some comparisons to Zappa, so they should be right at home in at this show, which figures to be a strong performance that not only illuminates the work of Frank Zappa, but also showcases this up-and-coming band at the top of their game. —john hugar

>9:30pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. (886-8539 / nietzsches.com). $20.

Saturday, October 15

Third Annual Comics Fest

The Watchmen, The Walking Dead, V For Vendetta, and basically the entire Marvel universe are just a fraction of the world of graphic novels adapted to film. This is a world of creativity, from which Hollywood drains the best and most popular ideas (Sometimes against the will of the author. Case in point; popular graphic novelist Alan Moore claims he purposefully wrote books like the Watchmen to be un-filmable. Mission failed.) But not all great graphic novels are films, and therefore much of mainstream culture is blind to this, arguably, dying medium. Books like the dark and ruthless Sandman and the fantastically bleak Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth still lay waiting on the racks for any 12 to 30-year-old boy or girl to discover for the first time. If you are a part of this world then you probably already know about the third annual Comic Fest at the downtown Central Library on Saturday (Oct 15). This free and public festival is an all-ages event showcasing the fun and fascinating world of comics and graphic novels. This year’s Comics Fest features award winning illustrator Nicholas Gurewitch who will speak on the “Art & Business of Comic Syndication”; noted comic historian and educator Mike Lavin who will talk about comic history and censorship, and Andrew Russo, who will forecast the future of comics in the online world. Sessions on illustrating and making costumes will also be presented. Be prepared for an epic light saber duel as well, because the North Ridge FanForce, Buffalo’s local Star Wars fan club, will be on hand, slicing off hands. Dress for the occasion, but be original, you know the Joker is taken. —cory perla

10am-4pm. Downtown Central Library, 1 Lafayette Square. (858-8900 / buffalolib.org). Free.

Saturday, October 15

Polar Bear Club

Amid occasionally tepid crowds, their fair share of stock negative reviews and other expected difficulties of being a relatively unknown name in the professional music scene, New York-based punk band Polar Bear Club have showed their true mettle in recent years, with a burgeoning reputation for high-octane shows and songs that fuse corybantic punk rock with elements of catchy, anthemic pop-punk. It’s not hard to see that Polar Bear Club are well on their way to making a name for themselves both in and out of the United States, having completed a European tour with the Gaslight Anthem and Frank Turner in 2009. Their third studio album, Clash Battle Guilt Pride, was released just about a month ago, and in a week’s time, Polar Bear Club will be making their way back to New York, bringing their energy to Buffalo on Saturday (Oct 15) at Mohawk Place. Vocalist Jimmy Stadt sings of his attachment to the Empire State in “I’ll Never Leave New York,” a stirring number off of Clash Battle Guilt Pride, so fans may be justified in expecting a worthwhile show. —max soeun kim

7pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. (465-2368 / themohawkplace.com). $13.

Sunday, October 16

Drop The Lime

Luca Venezia wears many hats. In addition to his sombrero as front-man for New York City-based break-core troupe Drop the Lime, there’s his musicians hat, his record executives hat, his DJ hat, his electronic producers hat, his remixologist hat, and even his label-founders hat; Luca founded the Trouble and Bass dance label in the latter half of the ought decade. For a man as busy as Luca, it’s no surprise that he named his second and most recent full-length album We Never Sleep. Receiving quiet praise critically, the album’s grimey, dub-influenced beats are enough to keep hips wiggling on even the slipperiest of gin-soaked dance floors. Drop the Lime’s latest single, “Hot as Hell,” is a rockabilly showcase, touting guitar riffs that have the hard-boiled familiarity of an Elvis song on ecstasy played in reverse. Luca cites 1950s doo-wop and 1960s soul as sources of inspiration in his music. Regarding his non-typical influences, Luca stated in an interview with Chain D.L.K. that “I definitely like to dip into genres…even the non-electronic stuff like Northern Soul and Doo Wop. It’s more interesting to mix things together and get something new.” You can graze the entire crop of this steadfast urbanite’s beats when Drop the Lime hits Soundlab this Sunday (Oct 16). —brett perla

9pm. Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (440-5907 / bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab). $12.

Tuesday, October 18

Memoryhouse

According to a recent update on OccupyWallstreet.org, in April 2011, the Chinese government prohibited all media containing alternate reality or time travel, hoping to eventually eliminate their citizens’ capacity to dream. In a world becoming so black and white, it’s dream-pop bands like Canadian’s Memoryhouse that are breaking this rule and keeping our capacity to dream at large. In fact, everything about Memoryhouse takes form in a humble shade of grey. Their soft yet obscure vocals, washed out sounds, lowly-exposed band photos, and even their blog font set to grey, follows the same up-in-the-air, aquatic vibe that contradicts the black and white. The boy-girl two piece formed in Guelph, Ontario was originally intended to be nothing more than a multimedia project combining lead singer Denise Nouvion’s knack for photography with songwriter/guitarist Evan Abeele’s neo-classical compositions. When it became known that Nouvion had a captivating singing voice, the two quickly evolved their project into a powerful dream-pop duo and released their debut EP, The Years, in 2010. Their debut seemed to be released at an opportune time, their tracks quickly topping the indie-kid’s playlist around the same time other chillwave groups like Washed Out and Beach House were rising on the scene. On Tuesday (Oct 18), Buffalonians will get to dream bigger than ever before with Memoryhouse, when they sweep their way into Soundlab to perform their ever-so-breezy set with Buffalo’s own Love Scenes. —emilie hagen

8pm. Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (440-5907 / bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab). $10.

Wednesday, October 19

Jeffrey Haas: The Assassination of Fred Hampton

Today’s 99 percenters—the demonstrators in New York City and Boston and Buffalo and other cities—could learn a lot from Jeff Haas about the lengths to which the establishment will go to preserve itself. In 1969, with three other lawyers and two law students, Haas opened the People’s Law Office in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood to represent Black Panthers, Young Lords, SDS, and antiwar activists who ran afoul of the law. His 2009 book on the assassination of the young Black Panther leader Fred Hampton is an insightful account of the long pursuit of justice for the families of Hampton and Mark Clark (the other Panther killed in the December 4, 1969 raid by Chicago police), and for the Panthers who survived the raid. The book’s exposure of corruption in the courts and law enforcement and government at every level, as well as the exceptions to that corruption, is both enraging and inspiring. Haas comes to town next Wednesday (Oct 19) to speak at Burning Books, the new bookstore for radicals on Connecticut Street. —geoff kelly

7-9pm. Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St. (881-0791 / burningbooksbuffalo.com).

Thursday, October 20

Spin Doctors performing Pocket Full Of Kryptonite

Do you remember that time when a jam band crashed into the pop charts? It was the kind of thing that could have only happened in the early 1990s; those heady days when alternative rock of all kinds hitchhiked its way out of college radio and clubs and into the mainstream. New York City-based quartet the Spin Doctors issued their debut Pocket Full Of Kryptonite (Epic Records) in the summer of 1991 and though it took almost a year to catch fire, it made bona fide rock stars out of singer Chris Barron, drummer Aaron Comess, guitarist Eric and bassist Mark White. The tracks “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”—with its unmistakable groove—and “Two Princes”—an infectious, concise pop nugget that proved a surprise from a band best known for stretching songs out on stage—became ubiquitous on radio and MTV. The Spin Doctors earned Grammy and AMA nods, a Rolling Stone cover, and even a Sesame Street appearance while continuing to release albums. Still, most of all they toured incessantly, staying true to their core belief: being a great live band. 20 years and five million plus copies on, Pocket Full Of Kryptonite remains a classic and to celebrate it, the Spin Doctors, with the complete original lineup intact, will perform it live on Thursday (Oct 20) at the Town Ballroom. —gore petersen

7pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / townballroom.com). $20 advance, $24 day of show.