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See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of featured events, including our editor's pick for the week: the 7th Annual Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, this Saturday & Sunday at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum at Porter Hall.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out our full events calendar on-line for complete event listings, a location guide to find your way about the city, restaurant reviews, and more.

7th Annual Buffalo Small Press Book Fair

Saturday April 6 & Sunday April 7

Around the country, small presses are doing big things, helping to expose the fresh and innovative voices of writers and artists who might otherwise go unnoticed. Once you delve into the small press arena, you’ll find a whole community of independent book-related arts operations, ranging from bookbinding and zine-making to letterpress and book art, all driven by the DIY spirit from passionate people that truly embrace their craft. Now in it’s 7th year, The Buffalo Small Press Book Fair celebrates these writers, artists and cultural workers from WNY and beyond, giving them a platform to share ideas, promote their trade, and sell their work. This Saturday and Sunday (April 6 & 7), the beautiful Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum will be buzzing with small press activity. There’s really nothing small about the BSPBF, with 110 vendors and nearly 3,000 participants last year, organizer Chris Fritton of the WNY Book Arts Center expects to eclipse those numbers this year with 140 vendors and 4,000-5,000 participants. The growth and popularity of the BSPBF has allowed Fritton to expand the event to two days What you’ll find is a walking bazaar of vendors with a variety of materials ready for tender. Buffalo’s own Rust Belt Books, Starcherone Books, and BlazeVOX [books] will all be setting up shop, in addition to vendors hailing from Montreal, Detroit, Toronto, Milwaukee, and beyond. If you venture to the upstairs of the library, open readings will be taking place throughout the day on Saturday, as well as free workshops on Sunday. The BSPBF is more than just a weekend affair, so don’t forget to check out the pre-fair events and readings including the launch of Issue 31 of Block Club Magazine on Friday (April 5) from 6-9pm at the Block Club Office (731 Main St.). The issue is titled “Quality/Quantity” and the event includes an exhibition of artwork produced in collaboration with the Western New York Book Arts Center as well as music by ABCDJ. There will also be events at the Western New York Book Arts Center (468 Washington St.) on April 4th and 5th, including the “All Poetry is Small Poetry Reading” on Friday night at 8pm, and the BSPBF “7 at 7 at 7” after party at Sweetness_7 (220 Grant st.) at 7pm on Saturday. For a full list of vendors and events occurring throughout the week, visit buffalosmallpress.org.

- jon wheelock

Saturday 12-6pm, Sunday 11am-5pm. Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, Porter Hall, 453 Porter Avenue (buffalosmallpress.org) free

Thursday, April 4

Datsik

Styles of electronic music appear and vanish, but dubstep has a deep, booming, presence that is too big to be pushed away. “I think dubstep has become so huge because it’s a complete bastardization of electronic music,” says producer Datsik, who will be shaking the foundations of he Town Ballroom and energizing concertgoers on Thursday (tonight!). The dark, futuristic electronic music that Datsik whips out also carries elements of rap, inspired by his early interest in the Wu-Tang Clan. The contorted, bass heavy noises permeate deep into the listener’s earthly vessel, causing them to move uncontrollably across a future-tech dance floor. Dubstep has been around for a while, but it is still alive in alien ways, as if space invaders had invented the peculiar genre. Datsik keeps the energy and darkness of the sound stylish and heavy, with a dash of hip-hop. “It’s important for me to have my own style,” he says, “I will always have a strong hip hop element and be heavy as fuck, but it’s always going to sound like the future.”

- tom etu

7:30pm Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / townballroom.com) $20

Friday, April 5

Masta Ace

The Brownsville section of Brooklyn has always been a tough neighborhood. It’s also been home to many notable celebrities like Wu Tang Clan members GZA and RZA, boxer Mike Tyson, and 1990s hip hop star Masta Ace. When you live in a poor neighborhood like Brownsville, you have to be creative, so it’s no wonder that this place has given birth to such productive individuals like Masta Ace, who released several hit singles in the mid-1990s including “Born to Roll,” “Me & The Biz,” and “Sittin’ On Chrome.” With a biting lyrical style and raw rhyming rhythm, Masta Ace is considered to be one of the most underrated rappers of the 1990s despite his nearly 30 singles across six albums including his solo debut Take A Look Around, released in 1990. His latest record is 2012’s MA Doom: Son of Yvonne, a modern take on golden-era 1990s hip hop featuring beats by none other than MF Doom. Though Masta Ace and Metal Fingers didn’t collaborate directly, the legendary producer signed off on tracks like “Agrimony,” from his Special Herbs collection, which became “Nineteen Seventy Something,” the highlight track from MA Doom. Buffalo will get a little taste of Brownsville when local record label Nickel City Records brings Masta Ace to Duke’s on Friday (April 5), joined by EMC members Stricklin and Wordsworth. Nickel City Records hip hop collective Natural Ingredients open the show alongside DJs LoPro and Charlie the Butcher.

- cory perla

10pm Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar, 253 Allen St. (240-9359 / dukesbohemiangrovebar.com) $10

Saturday, April 6

Watsky

Straddling the line between silly and serious, rapper Geroge Watsky, better known simply as Watsky, is gaining steam. In 2007 the young West Coast rapper, who got his start as a slam poetry artist, was featured on the final season of HBO’s “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry” while still a Freshman in college. The show opened the door to many opportunities and later that year Watsky released a jazzy hip hop record with his band Invisible Inc, before going solo and releasing his debut, Watsky, in 2009. At only 26, and with mixtapes out with titles like A New Kind of Sexy and Guilty Pleasures, it might be easy to dismiss Watsky as a sort of Justin Beiber of hip hop, but his 2013 studio album, Cardboard Castles might prove that he’s more than just a goofy white kid with a mic. Watsky makes his first stop in Buffalo at the newly opened Waiting Room this Saturday (April 6) with support from Short with Koolie High, Ando, and Network.

- cory perla

8pm The Waiting Room, 334 Delaware Ave (852-3900 / townballroom.com) $15

Sunday, April 7

Dee Adams and Her Band

Being compared to legendary singers Bonnie Raitt, the Indigo Girls, and Sheryl Crow is certainly something to be proud of. Dee Adams, a local here in Buffalo, has conquered the acoustic and jazz scene. In 2011 Artvoice readers voted her the Best of Buffalo’s “Best Acoustic Act.” Limiting her to one genre is nearly impossible. With a long list of influences from the Grateful Dead, to Aretha Franklin, Adams creates a sound all her own. In addition to her range of musical talents, she also can perform as a front woman of a large piece band, as well as a solo acoustic artist. Dee Adams’ powerful and punchy lyrics are something to be heard. She can make her largest of crowds at 1,800 feel just as intimate as a show with no PA and few people. After many years of hard work, her appropriately titled album Mile Marker is set to be released Sunday (April 7) at the Sportsmen’s Tavern. It is a summary of life, and loss, with each song placing the listener into a small glimpse of the life of the artist. With such a raw undertone, it is hard not to get hooked on this textural album. Appearing on Mike Marker is Dave Kimball on electric guitar, Charlie Gannon on bass, Ray Hangen on drums, with guest appearances by Paul Ceppaglia and Helen Butler of McCarthyizm, as well as Rob Falgiano and Holly Adams on harmony vocals. Dee Adams and Her Band will be sharing their journey when they perform at the Sportsmen’s Tavern on Sunday so come celebrate the release of years of hard work.

- kendra sornberger

2pm Sportsmen’s Tavern, 326 Amherst St. (874-7734 / sportsmenstavern.com) $5

Tuesday, April 9

_way_

Bay area poet Leslie Scalapino (1944 – 2010, pictured) published more than 30 books in her lifetime. Her magnum opus was _way_, a book-length poem of angst and alienation that won the Poetry Center Award, the Lawrence Lipton Prize, and the American Book Award. The narrator circles around a series of events in an unnamed city—a car crash, the corpses of homeless vagrants being pulled out of the bay, a frustrating sexual encounter—shifting and changing the context to vary the perception of the experience. Experimental filmmaker Konrad Steiner (who appeared at the Hallwalls program “The Cinema Cabaret” in March 2010) spent 10 years building a film to accompany a recording of Scalapino reading _way_. He will screen a 35mm print of his completed work at the University at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts Screening Room on Tuesday (April 9) as a presentation of the Poetics Program and the Center for Global Media. The program is free and open to the public.

- m. faust

5:30pm Center for the Arts, Screening Room, Rm. 112, at University at Buffalo, North Campus (ubcfa.org) free

Tuesday, April 9

Jimmie Vaughan

There are a few events in everyone’s life that are catalysts to major change. Regardless of whether the result is positive or negative, the cause is sometimes obvious upon looking back. Such is the case with Jimmie Vaughan who had a football injury at age 13 and was given a guitar while he healed up. That guitar altered not only Jimmie’s life, but also his younger brother’s and anyone who has listened to blues in the past 30 years. Within two years of receiving the guitar, Jimmie started his very first band and began playing shows in his hometown of Dallas. Also during that time, he sparked the interest of his younger brother, Stevie Ray, who wanted to emulate everything Jimmie did. By the mid-1970’s, Jimmie had formed the band that he became famous for, the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The band’s run would last through the 1980’s and contribute to the rebirth of the blues. As the Fabulous Thunderbirds were on their last leg, Jimmie and Stevie recorded an album together called Family Style. It was just a few weeks prior to the album’s release that Stevie was tragically killed in a helicopter crash. Since then, Jimmie has gone on to record numerous solo albums and continues to tour to this day. Next Tuesday (April 9), Vaughan will perform at The Tralf with openers, Dive House Union. This is a great opportunity to see a blues legend who continues to use his simplistic approach to share his deeply personal music.

- jeremiah shea

7pm The Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. (852-2860 / tralfmusichall.com) $28 advance

Thursday, April 11

Neglia Ballet's Giselle

The collaborations between Neglia Ballet Artists and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra are an extraordinary treasure—proof again, as if any more were needed, that Western New York grows richer in culture every year. Next Thursday (April 11), Neglia and the BPO present Giselle at Shea’s, the perfect venue for a full production of one of the most romantic ballets in the classical repertoire. It’s the story of a peasant girl who falls in love with a handsome young villager, who is hiding his true identity as a nobleman; when Giselle learns that Albrecht is engaged to marry another, she dies of a broken heart. The title role is performed by Silvina Vaccarelli, who hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina; her young nobleman is performed by Sergio Neglia, the company’s artistic director and principal dancer. “Albrecht is a wonderful role to perform,” says Neglia. “He is a complicated character. At first his intention is to have some fun, but he falls in love with Giselle and causes this terrible tragedy. It really is heartbreaking.” These collaborations between Neglia Ballet and the BPO are becoming more frequent and ambitious, and every one of them is a rare treat. Don’t miss it.

- geoff kelly

8pm Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main St. (847-1410 / sheas.org) $25+, available from Ticketmaster, Shea’s Ticket Office