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Artvoice Weekly Edition » Issue v5n15 (04/13/2006) » Section: See You There


Dyngus Day

Well, slap me with a pussy willow branch and hose me down, baby, because it’s that time of the year again. We’re not talking about the tax deadline, we’re talking about Dyngus Day. For those of us not from this area, Dyngus Day (a.k.a Easter Monday) is an old, rural Eastern European custom of revelry and horseplay that signifies the end of the Lenten season of sacrifice and the beginning of the new growing season—sort of a reverse Mardi Gras. Very few places in the world still celebrate this event. Even in Poland, where Dyngus is said to have originated, the holiday has dropped off. But to the average Western New Yorker, Dyngus Day means a day of drinking, dancing and debauchery, not necessarily in that order. It is said that Judge Anne Mikoll and her husband Ted—who was president of the Chopin Singing Society at the time—brought this custom to Buffalo after their trip to Poland nearly 50 years ago, and now this ritual of pussy willow spanking and water dousing has spread throughout the region. Buffalo can now lay a claim to being home of the world’s largest Dyngus Day celebration. Put on your “Kiss me, I’m Polish” t-shirts and dust off your dancing shoes, because spring has finally arrived. For a list of all the parties to check out, visit the website at www.DyngusDayBuffalo.com.



Greg Klyma CD Release Show

Greg Klyma is a folk troubadour in the old sense, which is to say he is raw and without flash, as in love with storytelling as he is with his guitar. When he moved to Austin in 2004, trading in his snow boots for cowboy boots, he didn’t forget his hometown. And his Buffalo fans here didn’t forget him, either, voting him Buffalo’s best folk/acoustic performer in last year’s Best of Buffalo poll. He’s since returned for several shows, and he’ll be back this Friday for the release of his fourth solo album, Driver. The new album, which was recorded in Buffalo at Sessions Recording Studio, shows more depth and range than any of his previous albums—he’s added piano to this one, while holding onto his vaudevillian organs and, of course, his trusty acoustic. Klyma’s still at his best live in an intimate setting, though, where he weaves his stories with infectious enthusiasm and refreshing candor. And that’s no dig on his albums, which are always entertaining. Rather it’s a testament to his ability to captivate an audience with a witty anecdote, a fresh metaphor, a well-timed hook. Klyma will be followed by the Tom Stahl Band.



Langhorne Slim

Langhorne Slim is a folksinger, but he’s nothing like what that term has come to represent: whiny, opinionated white people with acoustic guitars. This energetic New Englander dishes out a churning brand of Americana that combines the sweetness of Southern Comfort with the punch of Wild Turkey. Elements of bluegrass, jug-band country, early 1960s folk, rockabilly and Sun Records-style rock ’n’ roll surface on Langhorne’s 2005 album When the Sun’s Gone Down (Narnack Records), and it all works, thanks to his crackling, infectious vocals. His band plows through songs like “In the Midnight” and “And If It’s True,” proving that this isn’t your father’s folksinger—he’s your grandfather’s. You don’t want to miss his foot-stompin’ show this Saturday at the Mohawk Place. I know I’ll be there, shaking my exquisite honkytonk badonkadonk until they force me to leave. Hopewell (led by Jason Russo of Mercury Rev) and Memphis country-rockers Lucero round out an excellent bill.



In Circulation: Site-Specific Art at Mead

After the Erie County Library Board selected the Mead Library as one of several Buffalo branch libraries to be defunded and closed, the Lovejoy neighborhood and Councilmember Richard Fontana took steps to keep Mead open as a community resource. Today Mead continues to loan books, host weekly meetings of such groups as the Homemaker’s Society and offer free internet access, entirely through the work of volunteers. This industrious and collective spirit is very much in keeping with Mead Library’s roots: It was built in the 1930s as a WPA site under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. On Wednesday (April 19) 13 students from the University at Buffalo’s Departments of Media Study, Art and Architecture will exhibit artworks made specifically for the Mead Library. The participating artists—Chris Barr, Aimee Buyea, Véronique Coté, Chris Ernst, SeonHyoung Kim, Gautam Malik, Bob Moynihan, Mili Pradhan, David Ruperti, Sujan Shrestha, Aaron Smith, Penelope Stewart, Ayse Taskent—employ a wide variety of tools, concepts and methods, spanning performance, video, sculpture, writing and interactive art. The common link between projects is the fact that all were inspired by the unique qualities of library itself.



Alkaline Trio/Against Me!

The Alkaline Trio, like many bands working in the pop-punk (meaning “punk-off” more than “punk rock”) genre, might be growing up a little. The band’s last album, Crimson (Vagrant Records), released in the past year, is admittedly the most “mature and ambitious” to date. It may be significant that it was produced by Gerry Finn, whose work with Green Day and Blink-182 has brought both of those bands through similar transitions, and it may simply be that age-old claim of “life experience.” A re-release of Crimson (Crimson Deluxe) is forthcoming, and otherwise this tour is the big thing on the band’s agenda. The Occult Roots of the Alkaline Trio Tour comes to the area along with the more in-your-face punk charm of the band Against Me!, who just released a new album, From Her Lips to God’s Ears, on Fat Wreck Records. Considering that both the Trio and Against Me! formed in 1997, it will be interesting to see what different places each is in now that it’s 2006.





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