Artvoice B.O.O.M! Live Show III

Saturday, February 26

It’s time once again to feature four acts that have collected the most votes in our weekly online battle of the bands in a live show before a packed house of local music fans. This is where the stakes get even higher. Up to this point, Paul Trinca, the Found, Andrw J. Reimers Country-Punk Extravaganza, and the Screaming Jeans have made it this far by submitting a song, a photo, and a brief questionnaire to Artvoice. The rest has been up to the visitors to our website, who’ve cast their votes online. Now these four acts have the opportunity to prove they can move a living, breathing, screaming audience to believe they have what it takes to win a spot in our Grand Finale coming up in May. Here’s how it works at these shows: Each audience member is given one ballot on which to cast one vote for the act he or she prefers. At the end of the night, the ballots are counted, and the act with the most votes wins the night. This Saturday (Feb 26) at Nietzsche’s, one of our four contestants will be that band. They will join the Etchings and the Funky Beets on the bill for our next Grand Finale—where the four winners of these preliminary live shows face off against one another, one more time, live, at the Tralf. The winner there gets $5,000, and the right to call itself Artvoice BOOM Grand Champion. It’s a battle of the bands for the space age, so check out what the fuss is all about this Saturday. And may the best band win. —buck quigley

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

Thrusday, February 24

Mark Broussard

You might have all of soul singer/songwriter Marc Broussard’s albums, but if you haven’t seen him live, then you haven’t truly experienced his music. Although, Broussard will tell you that his latest Atlantic Records release, Keep Coming Back, is the closest he has come to capturing his rhythmic live sound, it is impossible to capture the southern gentleman’s passionate stage presence. In 2002, at the age of 20, Broussard independently released his debut full length, Momentary Setback, on which he merges R&B with soul in a contemporary style. Since then he has released three soulful albums, 2004’s Carencro, 2007’s SOS: Save Our Soul, and Keep Coming Back, which includes bluesy pop hits like “When It’s Good,” featuring LeAnn Rimes. Broussard will appear live at the Tralf on Thursday (tonight!) with Memphis singer/songwriter Drew Holcomb. —cory perla

7pm. Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. (852-2860 / tralfmusichall.com). $19 advance, $23 day of show.

Friday, February 25

Patrons of Sweet EP Release Party

This Friday (Feb 25), Patrons of Sweet unleash an eight song beast of an EP titled A Coping Mechanism. This Rock trio, consisting of Vic Lazar, Matt Lavin, and Dave Borden are as adept at conjuring ghosts of 1990’s past as well as revolutionizing what we think of indie rock nowadays. Angular, heavy, and dissonant while boasting forward thinking lyrics that run the gamut between politically charged commentaries to sardonic observations on everyday working class life. Punk at heart and prog in delivery, Patrons Of Sweet continue to hone a balance between intensity and complexity. A Coping Mechanism proves to be the tightest representation of that balance you’re likely to hear for some time. Opening the show will be local indie rockers Here Come The Comets and the Clockers. Doors are at 8pm and admission is free. —eric kendall

8pm. Club 55 (55 Main St. Tonawanda). FREE.

Saturday, February 26

Emarosa / Chiodos

Post-hardcore, perhaps unfairly, is often associated more with edge and attitude than with progressive vocal prowess. On Saturday night (Feb 26) at Xtreme Wheels, Emarosa and Chiodos co-headline a show that will transcend expectations and prove that hard-rocking music can be as beautiful as it is untamed. Emarosa, from Lexington, Kentucky, are soulful and searing with Motown-influenced vocalist Jonny Craig taking alternative rock to the candy store. Superficially sugary, Emarosa hide lyrical razor blades beneath their confections, losing no bite or substance in their successful attempts to make a typically exclusive music scene more accessible and less pigeonholed. Chiodos advance their genre in a far different manner, creating acrobatic songs that bounce around the musical spectrum unpredictably in wild vacillations. Working in an expansive range with an intense approach, Chiodos recently welcomed a new lead vocalist, Brandon Bolmer, for their latest album, Illuminaudio. Go Radio, fronted by Jason Lancaster (formerly of Mayday) and newcomers Decoder will open the concert, revealing even more directions that alternative music can travel in. Come join these innovative artists in their travels and let them lead you on a sonic tour across the post-hardcore landscape. —ryan wolf

5pm. Xtreme Wheels, 356 Hertel Ave. (893-2900 / www.AfterDarkPresents.com). $13 in advance, $15 day of show.

Sunday, February 27

Stephane Wrembel & The Django Experiment

This Sunday (Feb 27) French guitar master Stephane Wrembel, and his band, the Django Experiment will return to Buffalo for two performances. They will take the stage at the newly renovated Sportsmen’s Tavern at 4pm and at 8pm they will help debut a new listening room behind Allen St. Hardware Café called the Back Room. Alongside Wrembel will be percussionist David Langlois on a homemade washboard instrument with pots and pans using metal thimbles on his fingers. Each venue will offer a different performance because they will feature different members of Buffalo’s own gypsy jazz group Babik. Wrembel has spent years travelling and studying with gypsy jazz masters, was recently featured on the soundtrack for Vicky Christina Barcelona, and has performed with Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, and the Ryan Montbleau Band. Wrembel’s central influence, Django Reinhardt, was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who was born into a family of Romani gypsies. Reinhardt invented a new style of jazz guitar that has influenced musicians from Carlos Santana to B.B. King to Jimi Hendrix. Wrembel draws on Reinhardt’s swinging jazz guitar style as well as world music from the Middle East, India, Africa, South America, and Spain. “One of the main characteristics of my music is that it’s for everybody,” said Wrembel. Tickets can be purchased at the Sportsmen’s Tavern or Gallery 464 (464 Amherst St.). —jill greenberg

4pm. Sportsmen’s Tavern, 326 Amherst St. (874-7734 / www.sportsmenstavern.com). $10. 8pm. The Back Room at Allen St. Hardware Café. $10.

Monday, February 28

Portraiture in Queer Experimental Cinema

Ed Halter is a critic and curator whose art- and film-themed writing has been featured in a number of publications since the 1990s, including Artforum, Cinema Scope, and the Village Voice. In 2009, he received a Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for his work. His critically acclaimed book From Sun Tzu to Xbox, published in 2006, thoroughly examines the relationship between video games and today’s military culture. Halter is a graduate of Yale, who currently lives in New York City and teaches at Bard College in the Film and Electronic Arts Department. He founded and directs Light Industry in Brooklyn, which is a forum that holds weekly events featuring film and electronic artists. He has organized a variety of screenings and exhibitions over the years and arranged and oversaw the New York Underground Film Festival from 1995 to 2005. Monday (Feb 28), Halter will be curating Portraiture in Queer Experimental Cinema, an exhibit of film and video from queer artists sponsored by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The exhibit will feature work spanning half a century and will examine portraiture as it appears within various forms of experimental cinema. The screening will be held in the UB Center for Fine Arts Screening Room (CFA 112). —amber gerrity

7:30pm. UB Center for Fine Arts Screening Room (CFA 112). (645-5200 / genderin.buffalo.edu/events.php).

Wednesday, March 2

A Rare Evening with Award-Winning Poet Irving Feldman

On Wednesday (March 2), Just Buffalo & The Center for Inquiry will present A Rare Evening with Award-Winning Poet Irving Feldman. A distinguished and canonical poet, Feldman’s collections of poetry include Collected Poems 1954-2004, Beautiful False Things, The Life and Letters, All of Us Here, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and New and Selected Poems. Widely known and respected, the Brooklyn-born Feldman now lives in Buffalo and is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has previously taught at the University of Puerto Rico, Universite de Lyon in France, and Kenyon College. Feldman has received an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Ingram Merril Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. His book Works and Days won the Kovner Poetry Prize of the Jewish Book Council and his books Leaping Clear and The Pripet Marshes were finalists for the National Book award. —krysta zagorski

7:30pm, The Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Rd., Amherst. (636-4869 / justbuffalo.org). Free.

Thursday, March 3

Conspirator

Conspirator isn’t just a Disco Biscuits side project anymore. The band has taken on a life of it’s own. The duo, consisting of Biscuits’ bassist Marc Brownstein and keyboardist Aron Magner, have added a full band for their nationwide tour. The band includes guitarist Chris Michetti of progressive rock group RAQ, and a rotating class of top notch drummers like Darren Shearer of the New Deal and Mike Greenfield of Lotus, who will accompany the band when they perform at the Town Ballroom on Thursday (March 3). Conspirator is fast-paced electronica music. Though the Disco Biscuits combine electronic sounds with their jam band style, the tone of these two groups differs greatly. With songs like “Liquid Handcuffs,” a flowing and dripping electronic dance track, from their latest release, Key CD, the band can definitely get the crowd moving. —cory perla

8pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / townballroom.com) $20 in advance, $23 day of show. 16+ with ID.