Lemonheads avatar Evan Dando makes for something of an ideal rock star template. Figure a shy guy with an innate pop sensibility, bemused cool and coverboy good looks. Take at least one masterpiece of a record (the Lemonheads’ 1992 album of concise, rocky pop brilliance, It’s a Shame About Ray) and then figure in hard partying, celebrity shagging, the shadowy peril of druggy haze and some “lost years.” What you’ve got is Dando as the perfect denizen of rock-and-roll Babylon. As usual, it’s a case of part myth, part truth and plenty of embellishment. Those “lost years” were really only a couple between the perceived “end” of the Lemonheads in 1998 and Dando’s reemergence in 2000—cleaned up, sober, playing solo shows and the happiest he’d been in years. 2003 saw his solo debut Baby, I’m Bored and more touring. The big surprise came last year in 2006 when Dando reignited the Lemonheads moniker with a self-titled album (aided by Descendents’ All rhythm section Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson) for a staggeringly refreshing batch of songs. And ultimately the proof is in his records: If there’s a guy who really deserves to be a rock star, it’s Dando. Listen to it all—the snotty cover of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka,” the sublime lackadaisy of “It’s a Shame About Ray,” the easy ballad perfection “Into Your Arms” or the joy and abandon of “No Backbone”—and you can hear it for yourself. Opening for the Lemonheads is LA’s Icarus Line, a band that’s achieved its own share of notriety for raw, abrasive music and attitude—both on stage and off.

Reggae, fireworks and baseball: Oh, my! This Friday night the Bisons’ game will kickoff with a performance by Neville Francis and the Riddim Posse. Known for performing benefit concerts and a love of spreading joy and helping anyone they can, Neville and his band will perform in the hopes of raising a lump sum for the International Institute’s refugee resettlement, immigrant services, global education and international visitor programs. Proceeds from ticket costs will also be going to the Jamaican/American Association’s Marcus Garvey Scholarship and Caribbean Medical Mission. The Riddim Posse is well known from Jamaica to Toronto and especially in Buffalo. Neville Francis got his start playing guitar on his front porch in Jamaica, later to move to Canada and then to Buffalo to take a social work job at ECMC. Neville has played with the Toronto-based ska/reggae group the Sattalites and has performed at Reggae Sunsplash, the so-called “Woodstock of Reggae.” Friday night, Neville will get a chance to show off his effortless musical talent preceding the Bisons game, where Buffalo is up against the Syracuse Chiefs for a 7:35pm game. As well as music, the pre-game tent party will be full of vendors and activities. Come for the fun while raising money for a tremendous Buffalo based organization, and stay for the game and post-game fireworks.

She’s made you laugh, maybe cry, cringe, scratch your head…or possibly turned you off altogether. In a nutshell, these are just a few of the responses audiences have had to film-actress-turned-punk-rock-frontwoman Juliette Lewis and her band, the Licks. Best known for her gut-wrenching performances in Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers, Lewis has been trying some different things in the past years. Together since 2003, the Licks’ last release was 2006’s Four on the Floor, a reference to a rhythmic drum beat that doesn’t come close to describing the crazy energy that builds onstage and explodes out of Lewis, who has said that of her music, “You either feel it or you don’t.” Apparently their former drummer wasn’t feeling it, as he walked out right before recording and left the band with a void to fill. This may have been a great karmic move, as the masterful Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) stepped in to take over drums in the studio. With a powerful team behind her, Lewis penned a hard-driving record of alternative pop, new wave and old school rock laced with the elements of desire and its consequences, with dreams, love and redemption—and let’s not forget betrayal—and the basic human need for it all. If she’s as captivating on stage as she has been on screen, prepare to be gravitationally pulled in even deeper by the force that is Juliette Lewis. Opening bands include Needle Up!, Amnesty Box and Cryptic Haze.

It may strike you as ironic that animator Helen Hill, who began creating short experimental animation films while attending Harvard University, should have devoted much of her career encouraging the development of do-it-yourself styles in which anyone can make animated films. Really, though, it’s a success story when an education at the nation’s most prestigious institute of higher learning leads not to more ivy tower academicism but instead to the spreading of art throughout the non-academic world. Hill was not the kind of artist who retreated from the world. With her husband, a doctor, she was prominent in community and social activities in the depressed New Orleans community where they lived, teaching animation, starting a local film co-op and organizing programs to get food and medical care to the poor and homeless. Her tragic and senseless murder last January, during a week of killings in New Orleans that focused national attention on the continued problems of that ruined city, will hopefully not be what she is most remembered for. Her friend Sullivan Sheehan, who has been curating Squeaky Wheel’s summer outdoor animation festival, will present a program of Hill’s work this Saturday. It is free and open to the public. Cotton candy, a favorite image in her films, will be served up as well.