Back in 2001, one would have thought the Queen City was experiencing a serious case of déjà vu, reveling in the buzz and excitement of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition all over again, when more than eight million people, from local residents to presidents, gathered in Buffalo at the turn of the 20th century to experience the world’s largest and most technologically advanced fair. Now, more than 100 years later, the Pan-Am Exposition site remains a major historical landmark. The 2001 remembrance celebration was such a success that the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society again invites the city to celebrate the Pan-Am Expo on its 105th anniversary. The event features food, entertainment, docent-led tours of the History Museum and many fun activities for both kids and adults. A Buffalo History Quiz Challenge will test participants on local knowledge, and a San Francisco-style trolley car will run between the museum’s main building and its Resource Center (located around the corner on Forest Ave.), where exhibits from the 1901 exposition and those created for the 2001 centennial will be on display. Among these is a nine-foot-tall model of the Electric Tower, original film footage taken by Thomas Edison’s company and the infamous .32-caliber revolver used by Leon Czolgosz in his shocking assassination of president William McKinley. Despite that morbid touch, this is a family-friendly, community-oriented opportunity to celebrate and remember one of the most electrifying, turbulent times in Buffalo history.

Nothing says summer quite like the smell of fresh gunpowder and Chiavetta’s chicken. In the tradition of southern Civil War reenactments, the Amherst Museum will be presenting a “living history” weekend hosted by members of the 36th Virginia and the 49th New York regiments. The weekend will focus primarily on the lives of the soldiers who fought in the conflict. There will be reenacted skirmishes between the two sides including artillery and rifle demonstrations. Civilian involvement, an aspect of the war not many people learned about in elementary school history class, will be the main focus of the events and displays. The 35-acre museum site is home to 12 restored 19th-century buildings, including houses, churches, shops and schools. Visitors are bound to gain new insight into the lives of the soldiers and civilians, Yankee and Confederate alike, who lived during that time. Whether you come for the artillery demonstration or to tour the historic buildings, be sure to bring an appetite. Though Yankee barbecue isn’t likely to rival the famous southern-style cookouts, the locally lauded Chiavetta’s will be available throughout the day on Saturday, offering visitors a much needed energy boost after a day of dramatic displays and exhibits.

In 1993, Gary Bennett was one of the founding members of Nashville based BR-549—the band that was supposed to break the whole alt.country scene on a massive scale. The buzz for that band was so loud that they landed on the cover of Billboard magazine before even signing a record deal—which they eventually did, after provoking a bidding war among the major labels in Music City. But the big explosion never quite came. There were several world tours and five albums—first with Arista, then Sony—but in 2002 Bennett stepped back from it all, feeling that the “retro” label the outfit initially seemed to beg for had become an albatross. While Chuck Mead continued on with a renamed BR549 (minus the dash), Bennett did what any self-respecting man would do—he got a job as a “loader” for Home Depot. He made this career move, he says, just to “prove to myself I was still the same ol’ country boy inside.” With his new album, Human Condition (Landslide), Bennett proves to us that he’s still that and more. Displaying a level of maturity that could sometimes seem lacking in the bar band fare of BR-549, listeners quickly realize that this is country music the way it oughta be—minus the campy “aw shucks” posturing of his old group. This Sunday, June 25, Gary Bennett plays a free show at the Sportsmen’s Tavern with a road band featuring Dave Coleman on lead—who also plays with Robert Reynolds of the Mavericks—and Mark Horn on drums—an original member of the Derailers.

As the singer of LA neo-new wave goth-punk band the Centimeters, Nora Keyes’ vocal style ranged from Casio-cute to downright vampiric. But on her elaborately titled solo record, Songs to Cry by for the End of the Golden Age of Nothing (Dual Plover Recordings), Keyes’ freaky-deaky delivery sincerely creeps the fuck out of you, for lack of nicer language. Cackling like a witch or purring like the ghost of a dead little girl stuck in some musty, Victorian-era purgatory, she renders decrepit vaudeville tunes over a droning pump organ accompaniment. The sinister, spooky quality of these instrumentals suggests rotting homes and shadowy nightmares, and her haunting lyrics and gloomy, sepia-toned melodies give the impression that if punk had never happened, she would have been destined to become the eccentric madwoman who never leaves the big, dark house on the corner. To welcome the audience to Keyes’ nightmare is Madame P., who loops and manipulates her voice in real time against simple beats. The other opener is local solo artist Cages, who creates deeply haunting soundscapes by singing over reworked, lo-fi cassette tape recordings and dis-tuned string instruments.