What comes to your mind when you hear the word “zombies”? Flesh-eating monsters? Cheesy movies? Norah Jones fans? If enigmatic, 1960s pop songcraft doesn’t come to mind, stop by the Town Ballroom this Saturday for an awakening. The Zombies were the Van Gogh of the British Invasion—a band that was criminally underrated while it was together and critically lauded after its demise in 1967, after only five years together. Hence, the duo of Zombies keyboardist/songwriter Rod Argent and lead singer Colin Blunstone may be the ideal headliner of “Little Steven’s Underground Garage Rolling Rock & Roll Show.” (Product placement is sooo underground.) Even the band’s most popular singles were outside the box, from the percussive sexuality of “Time of the Season” to the dark, bluesy organ riffs of “She’s Not There,” a track that pre-dated the supposedly unique, organ-driven sound of the Doors by a good three years. The show, organized by Springsteen guitarist/Sopranos star/head-scarf preservationist Steven Van Zandt, also includes New York City garage rockers the Mooney Suzuki, the Woggles of Athens, Georgia, who give garage rock a Southern twist, and Detroit’s the Gore Gore Girls, who are, not surprisingly, a garage rock band.

Although he began his career as a piano prodigy and gained renown as founding music director of seminal New York City art space the Kitchen, it was after witnessing a Ramones concert in 1975 that Rhys Chatham gained the vision to alter the path of art rock and avant-garde music alike. Realizing the similarities between early punk rock’s three-chord fury and the angry drone of minimalists like Tony Conrad and Lamonte Young, Chatham forged a new synthesis of rock and avant-classical elements that invigorated the emerging No Wave scene. “Guitar Trio,” his pioneering piece of punk minimalism, was performed in rock clubs and art dives, where it was witnessed by the likes of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore (who recently performed with Chatham’s new group at South by Southwest, and is pictured above, with Chatham) and Glenn Branca, who built a celebrated career around avant-noise symphonies. In 2002, Chatham’s star soared again thanks to a box set called An Angel Moves Too Fast to See, named after his composition for 100 electric guitars. This undertaking was dwarfed in comparison, when in 2005 the city of Paris commissioned the composer to write a piece for 400 guitars. Opening is local No Wave descendants Bare Flames.

Theodore Bikel has had a legendary career: He has played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof more than 2,000 times over 37 years; he was the original Baron Von Trapp in the Broadway production of The Sound of Music; he has appeared in 35 films, including The African Queen and The Defiant Ones. “A performance by Theodore Bikel is a historic occasion in and of itself,” writes AV theater editor Anthony Chase. Bikel comes to the Canisius College Montante Cultural Center this weekend to read The Disputations, a historical play by Hyam Maccoby, which takes its title from “disputations,” or debates, that were arranged during the Middle Ages between Christian and Jewish theologians in an effort to convince Jews to convert to Christianity. The play is a reenactment of a debate held in Barcelona before King James of Aragon in 1263 between the monk Pablo Christiani and Rabbi Moses ben Nachman. Buffalo actors David Hyde Lamb and Anne Gayley are also featured in the cast. A question-and answer period will follow the performance.

Those of you planning to see the Dalai Lama during his visit to the University at Buffalo this week may want to prepare yourselves with a viewing of the new documentary 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama. Filmmaker Rick Ray, whose previous work includes exploratory and social documentaries filmed in regions as diverse as Israel, Bali, Borneo, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Syria and Iceland, spent two years tracking down rare archival footage of the Dalai Lama’s youth, the Chinese takeover and subsequent hardships. He also visited the Dalai Lama at his monastery in Dharamsala, India over the course of several months, when he conducted the interviews that are at the heart of this film. Seeking to capture the spirit of a leader he likens to Martin Luther King, Jesus and Gandhi, Ray posed such questions as, Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich? Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future? How do you reconcile a commitment to nonviolence when faced with violence? Ray will be present at the screening of his film. A portion of the proceeds will go to charity.