Thursday, 9/11

The Sadies

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was a primarily Canadian group that embodied American music. That group was the Band, and not until the last decade has another Canadian group managed to do the same. Toronto-based band the Sadies cover nearly the entirety of American roots music, combining country, rockabilly, bluegrass, soul, and psychedelic rock to create some of the most real and honest music ever made. Having won legions of fans on an international level, the band has also earned quite a reputation among their peers. Their talent is such that they have been asked to be the backing band for albums by Neko Case, Heavy Trash, and Andre Williams, but it’s on their own recordings that the band truly shines. Their most recent release, New Seasons, has received rave reviews in both the underground and mainstream press for both its diversity and its honesty. In a live setting, the Sadies can make an audience want eitherr to dance or to cry in their beers. Either way, no one goes home unaffected. The Sadies perform at Mohawk Place next Thursday. Opening are the Irving Klaws and Mark Norris & the Backpeddlers.

—eric boucher

8pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk Street (855-3931 / mohawkplace.com). $12.

Friday, 9/5

Ana Mariella Bacigalupo

This Friday Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, an associate professor of anthropology at the University at Buffalo, delivers a lecture entitled “Forgetting and Willful Transformation of Memory: The Death and Rebirth of a Mapuche Shaman in Chile.” Bacigalupo worked as an ethnographer and ritual assistant to a Mapuche mestiza Catholic shaman in southern Chile. Her lecture, she says, will explore the “spiritual and reflexive dimensions of personal and collective memory to show how Chile’s indigenous Mapuche integrate narrative, textual, and embodied modes of remembering to create their own history of changing interethnic politics over time.” This is the first lecture of the UB Humanities Institute’s Scholars at Muse series, held in the restaurant in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. The series draws speakers from around the country to cover a wide range of topics, from Chilean culture to American boxers.

—justin sondel

4pm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Avenue (882-8700 / albrightknox.org). FREE.

Friday, 9/5

James Jackson Toth

Under the name Wooden Wand, James Jackson Toth was a pioneer in the new-weird-psych-folk genre of the last decade. Releasing a multitude of recordings over the years, Wooden Wand garnered a reputation for unpredictability. Equally unpredictable was Toth’s decision to drop his stage name and record a collection of straightforward songs under his own name. Released this summer, Toth’s debut Waiting in Vain is a beautiful collection of electrified country and folk. With hints of Neil Young and the Velvet Underground, Toth’s song’s are almost spiritual in their honesty and depth. With contributions from members of Wilco, Deerhoof, and the Geraldine Fibbers, Waiting in Vain is a promising debut from someone who is trying something completely different from his past endeavors. Touring with Toth is the Dutchess & the Duke, a garage folk duo who recently signed to Hardly Art, a new sister label of Sub Pop. Their most recent release, She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke has won acclaim on all the hip webzines and blogs, and is certain to bring them a wider audience. Both acts perform this Friday. Opening is Gut Flora.

—eric boucher

10pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk Street (855-3931 / mohawkplace.com). $10.

Friday, 9/5

Monsters of Nature and Design II & The Art We Wear: Tattoo Art

Friday night outside the Albright-Knox, two pianos will be sacrificed to the gods, all set to an original musical score, in a followup performance to one given in April 2007. Paintings and sculptures by local artists will be on display as well. The talented group behind this event includes Gary Nickard, Reinhard Reitzenstein, George Hughes, Biff Henrich, Catherine Carfagna, Scott Ryan, Dave Meinzer, Brian Grunert, Patrick Heyden, Thom Furtado, Daughters of Creative Sound, David A. Moore, Dave Gutierrez, and Jeanette Sperhac. After the performance, head inside the gallery to get a lesson on the history of body art from Shanghai Kate, accompanied by images from her personal collection. Her lecture is followed by a panel discussion in which inked-up members of the community discuss their experiences with body art, with a special appearance by tattoo legend Lyle Tuttle. Don’t come fashionably late: The piano sacrifice begins at 6pm sharp and will only last about a half an hour.

—justin sondel

6pm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Avenue (882-8700 / albrightknox.org). FREE.

Friday, 9/5

Battle of the Hip Hop Bands

Q Boogie and Type: Relevant will host Friday night’s hip-hop showdown at Nietzsche’s. It’s between defending champions Kinda Like Dreaming, who are up against Rhyson & the Heist and Dali’s Climax—a combo act featuring members of Dali’s Ghost and Constant Climax. Dali’s Ghost is no stranger to competition, after winning the grand prize at last fall’s Artvoice BOOM Bash (Battle of Original Music), where they beat fellow bandmates Constant Climax by a narrow margin. Obviously, there are no hard feelings. Rhyson & the Heist is fronted by Rhyson Hall with Gr& Phee, both staples of the Buffalo hip-hop scene who should surely give both Kinda Like Dreaming and Dali’s Climax a run for the money. This battle is the second one that’s been organized by Type: Relevant, and will be the last one this year. Come at 10pm to see three live bands duke it out for over $1,000 in cash and prizes, all in the spirit of healthy competition.

10pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen Street (886-8539 / www.nietzsches.com). $7. Ages 21+.

Friday, 9/5

Monks, Temples In Exile

Starring Sifu Chik Kadir of Spirit Wind Internal Arts, this dance performance and lecture is a celebration of words, music, and movement. Using poetry as inspiration, the performers—speakers, dancers, drummers, and violinists—cue each other to the next creative medium, evolving from from word into movement, movement into music. The ensemble and solo dances contain elements of traditional Chinese folk dancing, martial arts, and street performance, mixing modern and ancient dance to illustrate universal themes. The stories depicted, some dating back 3,000 years, will be further explored through discussion of Tibetan history, Tibetan art, and Buddhist meditation with artist Tom Edwards of Ithaca. Monks, Temples—In Exile will be presented at Artspace Buffalo, in the Lofts’ Gallery Commercial Space. Artspace functions as a commercial and gallery space for arts organizations and arts-related businesses, as well as providing affordable residential housing and studio/work space for local artists.

—k. o’day

7pm. Artspace Lofts, 1219 Main Street (803-6205 / artspacebuffalo.org). $10 suggested donation.

Friday, 9/5 thru Sunday, 9/7

Birth: The Play

A BOLD event comes to Buffalo this weeked with the national presentation of Birth, a play by Karen Brody. BOLD stands for Birth on Labor Day (boldaction.org), and is a global effort to boost community interest in maternity care issues. The play is based on more than 100 interviews the author conducted with mothers across the country, all of whom gave birth between 2000 and 2004. The true stories of eight of those women—all in different circumstances (a stay-at-home mom, a single professional, a lesbian couple)—are told in the play as it honestly explores the state of childbirth in America. The presentation is a fundraiser for the nascent Emerald Waters Birth Center, a facility in development that will provide childbirth options based on the Midwifery Model of Care. The first of its kind in this area, Emerald Waters has been years in the planning, a mission spearheaded by Certified Nurse/Midwife Eileen Stewart, a co-founder of Life Cycles Center and champion of natural childbirth in the area. Life Cycles’ mission is “to provide educational programs based on natural cycles of life,” and includes programs such as doula training, natural childbirth and breastfeeding classes, fertility awareness, and end-of-life support. All proceeds from the play will benefit Emerald Waters.

—k. o’day

8pm Fri. & Sat; 6pm Sun. Ujima Theater at TheaterLoft, 545 Elmwood Avenue (883-0380). $20 (lifecyclescenter.org)

Tuesday, 9/9

Author Gary Zebrun

Gary Zebrun grew up in Buffalo, so it is fitting that his latest book tour should kick off here, under the auspices of Just Buffalo Literary Center and Talking Leaves Books. Zebrun, whose father managed the Abbott Theater in Lackawanna, is a graduate of Brown University’s writing program, and he has pursued a life in letters ever since: He has been a fellow at the prestigious Yaddo, MacDowell, and Bread Loaf writing conferences. He’s the news editor at the Providence Journal, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, the New Republic, the Iowa Review, and the Sewanee Review. His latest is Only the Lonely, set in Lackawanna. The protagonist’s father dies, leaving Asim to look after the theater and the father’s mistress, and derailing Asim’s plans to leave town and attend university. Meanwhile, his brother Tarik is attending a training camp in Afghanistan…

—geoff kelly

7pm. Talking Leaves Books, 3158 Main Street (837-8554 / tleavesbooks.com). FREE.

Tuesday, 9/9

Brothers & Sisters

Austin, Texas-based band Brothers and Sisters have a sound that draws on the upbeat, sunny harmonies of southern California acts of the 1960s like the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, and the Byrds. Real-life siblings Will and Lily Courtney are at the core of a group that seems unconcerned with posturing to suit current trends. As a result, they’ve landed on a sound, and look, that’s familiar, fresh, and fun. Brother Will spent some time out in California, chasing those sounds that had grabbed him as a youth, but things didn’t really gel until he returned to Austin and put together the band with his sister. Yeah, it’s a little weird to hear these close relatives harmonize so beautifully on a song like “Old Love Letters,” an aching romantic lament that wouldn’t be out of place on a record featuring Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris—but hey, that’s art for you. Opening the show will be Sonny Baker, and Rebecca Ryskalczyk.

—buck quigley

8pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk Street (855-3931 / mohawkplace.com)

Wednesday, 9/10 thru Saturday 9/13

Bread & Puppet

Over four days next week, Vermont’s itinerant apostles of the Cheap Art movement will take up residence at the Western New York Book Arts Center and Artspace to deliver a series of workshops and performances. Bread & Puppet launched the Cheap Art movement in 1982, with the aim of opening up art—both its appreciation and its creation—to folks who might feel alienated by the capitalization of art, and by its appropriation by the so-called elite, both economic and cultural. (If that sounds like a political movement, right you are.) Wednesday at Artspace is a dance workshop, followed by dinner (donation only). Thursday at WNYBAC is a junk instrument workshop, and Friday WNYBAC hosts a workshop on cantastoria, a theatrical storytelling form. Both WNYBAC workshops include dinner; $30 for one or $50 for both. On Saturday at WNYBAC, Bread & Puppet will perform, drawing together the last three days’ work and all the locals who partook. Check for more info at tinyurl.com/buffalo-puppet-08.

—geoff kelly

WNYBAC, 468 Washington Street (p22.com/wnybookarts). Artspace, 1219 Main Street (artspacebuffalo.org).