AV Editors Pick

Friday, October 25

Dark Side of Allen Street

If you’re going to mount a tribute to Pink Floyd, you’d better give some serious thought to the visuals. Even in its earliest days, Syd Barrett and his chums made their shows into spectacles, and the light shows of the post-Barrett years, of course, continue to be the stuff of legend (and flashbacks). Luckily, the bands saluting Floyd this Saturday—which include Relics WNY, Lazlo Hollyfeld, Cat Jugglers, Dee Adams, 6 Foot 12, Vegetable Men, Busted Stuff, Eric Crittenden, and Cowboys of Scotland—have an ace up their sleeves: Buffalo’s own Jeff Garbaz, visual effects artists extraordinaire, will design the sets and the eye candy for the show. Garbaz is a seldom-heralded local treasure, who has done video work for acts ranging from the Flaming Lips to Ween, Lou Reed to Buddy Guy. If you dig Floyd, go. Even if you don’t, go. The show should be spactacular

—geoff kelly

8pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen Street (886-8539, www.nietzsches.com). $6

Thursday, October 23

Mad Professor

Neil Frazer is not nuts, nor does he have a PhD—unless on the job training counts toward a doctorate in music engineering. The Guyana native helped spearhead dub production into the digital age, combining traditional reggae with hi-tech remixing techniques to create one of modern music’s most innovative genres. His past work with masters like Lee “Scratch” Perry, Sly & Robbie, and Jah Shaka, in addition to artists ranging from Sade to Massive Attack, has cemented his reputation in the industry. Starting out as a service technician (after emigrating to London at the age of thirteen), Frazer became known as “the Mad Professor” due to his obvious skill and fascination with electronic gadgetry. These proclivities led him to open his own recording studio, Ariwa, which Melody Maker has called “the biggest black-owned studio complex in Britain.” He has remixed tracks by artists as disparate as the Beastie Boys, Depeche Mode, Perry Farrell, Rancid, and Japanese pop star Ayumi Hamasaki. Joining him at Soundlab next Thursday are DJ Universal and Big Basha.

—k. o’day

9pm. Soundlab (110 Pearl St. / www.bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab). Tickets at www.ticketweb.com

Friday, October 24

Maddhalloween

The MADDTAT2 Six Year Anniversary Party and Pre-Halloween Bash. Five previous years of maddhalloween parties are proof enough that this is one of the best costume parties to attend this weekend (don’t forget, we’ve got next weekend coming, too). Featuring local and national musicians, artists, and entertainers including hardcore MC Pez, DJ Beloved, the Manipulators, Fritz the Kat, the Poor Boyz, Ten Cent Howl, Junkbutton, and Angry Soil Army with DJ Krak (resurrecting after a two year hiatus), plus food and drink specials, suprise guests, giveaways, costume contests, and more. All this will surely culminate in what the partygivers refer to as “monstrous mayhem.” Take it easy, though, and don’t spoil yourself for next weekend by having too much candy...

9pm. Guerilla Gallery @ Ohm Ultra Lounge (formerly Miss Kitty’s), 948 Main St.

Saturday, October 25

Fucked Up

Toronto hard-core band Fucked Up is coming our way with their controversial act. The band’s name aside, references to anarchism combined with a working knowledge of history and skillful use of imagery and symbolism had some itchy triggers yelling about nazi sympathies and fascism, forcing a “clarification” of the band’s collective intentions in 2004. Since then FU’s star has risen, with a more careful but increasingly popular image (which they protected recently by filing a lawsuit in 2008—along with the indie band Xiu Xiu—againt Rolling Stone for improper use of their image in a cigarette commercial) that is belied by their name. Despite the difficulties presented by calling themselves “Fucked Up,” this is definitely a band to watch. Start by catching them at Mohawk Place with supporting act Psychedelic Horseshit.

—k. o’day

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

Saturday, October 25

Marcin Dylla

World-renowned classical guitarist Marcin Dylla will perform at the First Presbyterian Church on Symphony Circle this weekend as part of the Guitar at Symphony Circle music series. Dylla, who hails from Poland, has been gaining great popularity and fame over the last few years. In 2004 he was awarded first place in the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition and in 2007 he won first prize in the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition—which awarded him the opportunity to play in Saturday’s concert. Dylla, who was called “one of the greatest guitarists of our time” by the Washington Post, has been well received by Buffalo audiences in the past. Just after the concert Dyllla will hang around to sign CDs for those interested. The following day he will conduct a master class at Baird Hall on UB’s north campus. This class is free and open to the public.

—justin sondel

7:30pm. First Presbyterian Church (1 Symphony Circle, 884-7250). $20 at the door or online at fleurdeson.com.

Monday, October 27

Sisters of Mercy

Likely inspired by the broodingly haunting Leonard Cohen song of the same name, UK gothic rock band The Sisters of Mercy have cast their “long, dark shadow” (see the feature article, this issue, p. 29) over generations of music fans since the early 1980s. Founded in Leeds, England, by frontman Andrew Eldritch, SOM has seen many line-up changes over the band’s lengthy career, but always with Eldritch at the helm. This rare concert appearance by the current incarnation of the band comes at the perfect time—Halloween—to prime our city’s goth contingent, a population that, in its heyday ,was a committed base of Continental-bound “beautiful people,” and arguably the most stylish set of nightlifers our city has ever seen. Doors at the Town Ballroom open at 7pm. All ages.

8pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / www.townballroom.com). $24/advance (www.Tickets.com / 888-223-6000, Town Ballroom box office) or $28/at door

Tuesday, October 28

Sonic Boom Six

Club Diablo will host a massive beer blowout/rock showas a pre-cursor to Halloween featuring two for one beers and beer tasting samples and music by local ear-splitters the Stupid Fucks (playing what is supposed to be their last show), the Drunkyard Boys, and the Morgue Riot. The headliners are British ska-punk band Sonic Boom Six, fresh off their East Coast tour. This Manchester based band will be stopping in Buffalo as part of their second US tour this year. Sonic Boom Six is known for their versatility, mixing elements of ska, punk, reggae, jungle, and hip-hop. If the music doesn’t kick your ass then the river of beer certainly will. While this show will definitely provide great entertainment, there is no guarantee that you will remember it. Doors open at 7pm. Ages 18+

—justin sondel

8pm. Club Diablo, 517 Washington St. (842-0666 / www.clubdiablo.com). $10

Tuesday, October 28

Green Jelly

When Bill Manspeaker formed Green Jello in 1980, he probably did not think he would make a career of it, but 28 years later he’s on the road again, on his second major US tour this year. (When the band flirted with the big-time in the 1990s, a lawsuit forced Manspeaker to change the collective’s name to Green Jelly. But it’ll always be Jello in Buffalo.) What started as a four-piece band has morphed over the years into a traveling circus, with somewhere around 15 members at any given time. More than 245 people have been members of Green Jello. Some more than once. The current lineup is the first incarnation of the band in which Manspeaker is the only member from Buffalo. Opening are Rosemary’s Billygoat, the Radioactive Chickenheads, and Buffalo’s the Rabies.

—rose mattrey

Doors open at 7pm, show begins at 8pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main Street (852-3900 / www.townballroom.com). $13.

Wednesday, October 29

Henry Rollins

He’s come a long way from the Black Flag days, when he was a long-haired frontman covered in sweat and tattoos in a pair of black running shorts, whipping crowds into a frenzy while blowing out their eardrums with some of the heaviest metal punk to blast its way out of California. Henry Rollins returns to Buffalo with a spoken-word performance as part of his “Recountdown” tour. He’s recently been entertaining troops through the USO—although he hasn’t been doing it as a favor to our current Commander-in-Chief. “Hoping that the bad times are almost over, I am taking advantage of the current situation to spend the last few nights of the catastrophic Bush administration onstage,” he says. Fired up is a good way to catch him, and the evening is sure to be filled with incendiary observations on politics, the war, and life, from a real iconoclastic American voice. He can also be pretty damn funny.

—buck quigley

7pm. The Town Ballroom, 681 Main Street (852-3900 / townballroom.com) $22

Thursday, October 30

Ghostlight: Folklore, Skepticism, & Belief

What better venue than the handsome Riviera Theater in North Tonawanda—with its mighty Wurlitzer organ, its heavy brocade, its gilt balconies—to premiere a film about haunted theaters? Ghostlights: Folklore, Skepticism and Belief, by filmmakers Matthew LaChiusa, Thomas LaChiusa, and Robert Kupczyk, relates the stories of six performance spaces that claim to be haunted: the Riviera itself, the Ghostlight Theater, the Town Ballroom, the Lancaster Opera House, Shea’s, and the Allendale. The film features local historian of the supernatural Mason Winfield. “I think there’s a real tradition about the ghost story among theater people,” said Winfield. “Every theater is thought to have a ghost. So they really kind of like to perpetuate the idea of a ghost even when there isn’t one there, just as sort of a good luck sign.”

—geoff kelly

7pm. Riviera Theatre, 67 Webster Street, North Tonawanda (692-2413 / www.rivieratheatre.org). $7 adults, $6 seniors, $3 for children 12 and under.