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See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of featured events, including our editor's pick for the week: the Artvoice's Battle Of Original Music, Round 4 Live Show, this Friday, May 23rd at Nietzsche's.

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.



Artvoice B.O.O.M! Round 4 Live Show

Friday, May 23

One more quarterfinal round remains in our Battle of Original Music. Four of the area’s best original music acts will battle it out for the final spot in the B.O.O.M. Grand Finale at the Tralf on June 6. There’s more on the line for the winner of this B.O.O.M. Grand Finale than in any previous year. Not only will the winner take home $5,000 and all the bragging rights that come along with the championship, but they’ll also win a spot on Alternative Buffalo 107.7’s local music show AND an opening spot at Kerfuffle—Alt Buffalo’s big summer concert at Canalside. On Friday (May 23) at Nietzsche’s we’ll find out if it will be the Spin Wires, the Heavenly Chillbillies, Mon-Byrds, or Like a Parrot who take home that coveted final spot at the B.O.O.M. Grand Finale. The winning band will be the band that receives the most votes from you, the audiences members. Each person through the door will receive a ballot to vote for the band he or she prefers. At the end of the show those ballots are counted and the winner moves on. Visit boom.artvoice.com for more info. Come on out, check out a few of our fine city’s most talented bands, and vote for your favorite. May the best band win.

- cory perla

10pm Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St.(886-8539 / nietzsches.com / boom.artvoice.com) $5, 21+

Thursday, May 22 - Saturday, May 24

Dave Attell

Insomniacs of Buffalo rejoice—making his second round at Helium Comedy Club this weekend is old-school comic and enemy of the politically correct Dave Attell. Attell is most well-known for his show Insomniac with Dave Attell, which ran for four season on Comedy Central in the early 2000s. His show followed him all over the world, filming his sets at clubs and bars and the nightlife adventures that would follow. Now he’s back on Comedy Central with a new show. Comedy Underground is an uncensored stand-up comedy show and an outlet for all the dirty jokes comedians can’t get away with on the networks during normal viewing hours. It airs after midnight, a time slot that can bypass many FCC and advertiser regulations. The show has featured Amy Schumer, Jeffrey Ross, Artie Lang, and a slew of other off-color comedians who must be thrilled to have their jokes heard on television the way they were meant to be told. If you’re a big fan of overcooked, PG-13 comedy, you probably shouldn’t go to Helium Comedy Club this Thursday through Saturday (May 22-24). If you like your jokes raw, don’t miss it.

- jonny moran

Thursday: 8pm | Friday: 7:30pm & 10pm Saturday: 7pm, 9:15pm, & 11:45pm Helium Comedy Club, 30 Mississippi St. (853-1211 / heliumcomedy.com)

Friday, May 23

WSADA 11

Perhaps there is no category of music that so adamantly resists genre categorization as experimental noise. And there’s most likely no space that defies venue conventions more than a Laundromat. This Friday (May 23), head down to the West Side Value Laundromat aka The Wash Project to experience a lineup of sheer sonic deconstruction as part of the ongoing WSADA series (a project that showcases the most compelling ambient and experimental noise artists to emerge within the region). Hailing from Ohio, noise connoisseurs Karl Vorndran, Fanngface, and Church Slut will be stopping by the laundromat to stir the air with frequencies that’ll challenge your auditory threshold in the best way possible. It’s the sort of exquisitely controlled pandemonium that’ll make the stomach believe; rife with modular synth manipulation, rumbling static streams, and pitch collisions. Joining them will be Buffalo’s own drone project, Low Prospects, a collaboration between local experimental veterans, Bobby Griffiths and Kevin Cain. DJ Needles Numark of Upstate Soundscape will fill in the gaps. BYOB.

- jeanette chin

8pm The Wash Project, 417 Massachusetts Ave. (wsadaseries.tumblr.com) $5

Friday, May 23

The Supreme Experience 2014

In 2008, Buffalo rapper David Adams aka the Supreme General was hanging out in the attic of an apartment on the East Side of Buffalo, helping a friend set up some studio equipment. “I went to test the mic and I heard my voice over the speakers for the first time. I loved it,” he says. He hasn’t put the mic down since. Now the Supreme General is a regular on the local hip hop scene, spitting his brand of street-rap on a consistent basis. His next headlining show—The Supreme Experience 2014— is this Friday (May 23) at the Waiting Room with fellow rappers Yung Zeak, Crisis, Lumberjack Matt, Small World Big Dreams, Teapot, and Fernandough the Poet. Diversity is the key to this line-up says Adams. He met a few of the other acts booked for this event, including Teapot, at a Cretaceous Sunday Cypher. The semi-monthly event has become an essential meeting spot for the local hip hop scene. “It gives rappers an opportunity to shine and show their skills in a way that isn’t necessarily so commercialized,” says Adams. His goal for this next show: “I want to bring a hip hop show to a popular venue and showcase this city’s scene in a positive light.” He’ll do that, along with his Ivy League crew, this weekend at the Waiting Room.

- cory perla

10:30pm The Waiting Room, 334 Delaware Ave (852-3900 / waitingroombuffalo.com) $10

Friday, May 23

Downtown Brown

Taking the DIY approach and starting out in a basement was the road to success for Downtown Brown. Fiercely encompassing a stream of passion while being fully energized with an ambitious love to perform music led to them becoming a successful touring band. Broadening out from the suburbs of Detroit, Downtown Brown produces an eclectic style of music by fusing genres such as ska, funk, punk, and metal. After 13 years, this three-piece experimental group continues to shock listeners with their over-the-top, coarse but laughable lyrics, which are known for repulsing and musically disorienting their critics. Those lyrics radiate through vocalist Neil P.’s (Neebo) larynx, accompanied by catchy guitar riffs, which bounce between ska rhythms and metal insanity. Their sixth full length studio album, Masterz of the Universe (2013), produced with the help of John Norwood Fisher of the legendary ska/punk band Fishbone, is notable for creating a metal sound that fans can still “skank” to with the help of the bands genre hopping technique. Skank, head-bang, and laugh to Downtown Brown with support from local bands Hang Bob Ewell, Battleship Crunch, and Jerry Grind at Broadway Joe’s on Friday (May 23).

- sara ali

7:30pm Broadway Joe’s, 3051 Main St. $10

Sunday, May 25

Sunset Sundays & Capsized

Memorial Day weekend in Buffalo has become synonymous with the launch of Sunset Sundays at the Pearl Street Grill. If you’re a regular at this event or have never attended, this Sunday (May 25) is the perfect time to check out this series that has become an annual tradition. Veteran DJs 3PO and Brandon Chase will kick it off this year along with Bill Bacon back to back with Rufus Gibson. J.P. Freedom aka John Patrick of Igloo Music, the first ever winner in the Best of Buffalo “Best Electronic/Dance” category this year, rounds out the line up. This first event in the series of free weekly outdoor dance parties presented by MNM Presents is also the official Capsized after party. Capsized is an annual boat party aboard the Miss Buffalo II, a two story, 90 foot long cruise boat, which launches from the Erie Basin Marina. If you didn’t pick up tickets to Capsized, which features New York City deep house DJ John Creamer it’s not too late, but it should sell out. For more info, search “Capsized Boat Party” on Facebook.

- cory perla

9pm Pearl Street Grill & Brewery, 76 Pearl St. (856-2337 / pearlstreetgrill.com, mnmpresents.com) free

Sunday, May 25

Black Star Riders

In 2012 iconic Irish rock band Thin Lizzy announced that they would no longer be releasing any recording material under the Thin Lizzy moniker. Though the band had been successfully active for years without singer, bassist, and founding member Phil Lynott—who died a substance abuse related death in 1986—they had exhausted the creative momentum of the nearly 50 year-old project. The remaining members, Scott Gorham, Brian Downey, Darren Wharton, Ricky Warwick, Damon Johnson, and Marco Mendoza decided it was time to reconvene under a new name, Black Star Riders, with the help of former Alice Cooper, Megadeth, and Suicidal Tendencies drummer Jimmy Degrasso. Fans of Thin Lizzy rest assured: Black Star Riders do their best to imitate that classic sound with some new flourishes mixed in. See them start fresh again this Sunday (May 25) at Buffalo Iron Works with support from Melia.

- francis boots

7pm Buffalo Iron Works, 49 Illinois St. (200-1893 / buffaloironworks.com) $20