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See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of events to watch out for the week, including our editor's pick, the Urban Bush Women, performing Friday the 20th at the UB Center for the Arts. As always, check our on-line events calendar for a constantly updated and comprehensive listing of what's going on!

Editor's Pick: Urban Bush Women

Friday, March 20

Urban Bush Women, a performance ensemble founded by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar in 1984, will perform this Friday (March 20) on the main stage at UB’s Center for the Arts. While UBW are known for contemporary dance there are many other aspects to their performances. UBW uses dance, music, and text along with the deep and widely unrecorded history of the African Diaspora. The group is dedicated to using their unique performances to shed light on an untold history and to create social change by raising issues that are too often ignored. UBW has won a litany of awards including a New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”), a Capezio Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, and two Doris Duke Awards for New Work from the American Dance Festival. The Group has traveled the globe performing, visiting places such as Australia, Europe, and South America; fitting for a group dedicated to commemorating a Diaspora. The performance comes at the end of a one-week residency at UB, during which UBW taught several graduate level dance classes, passing on some of the wisdom they have gained during their successful careers and extensive travels to the next generation of professional dancers. Come to UB this Friday to experience a performance that transcends time and borders, giving a voice to a history that has been largely unheard.

—justin sondel

Thursday, March 19

Morrissey

Anyone who came of age in the angst-ridden new wave of the 1980’s surely counts Morrissey as one of the icons of that era. As lead singer of the Smiths, Morrissey commiserated with fans over broken relationships, heartache, and pain. His influence has inspired many performers who followed in the path of the Smiths and he has been referred to as “one of the most influential artists ever” by NME. On Thursday (tonight, March 19), Morrissey will take the stage at UB’s Center for the Arts in support of his latest solo release Years of Refusal. This is the artist’s tenth solo release since the breakup of the Smiths in 1987. The tour got off to a rocky start when the first three shows were cancelled due to illness, and then there was an interrogation by US immigration, but in a statement on his website Morrissey proclaimed: “I have survived the interrogation of Atlanta’s Immigration officials and Myrtle Beach shall have me tonight, and the world from then onwards ... if the world can take it!.....Be ready for anything!”

—rose mattrey

8pm. UB Center for the Arts, North Campus, Amherst. SOLD OUT

Thursday, March 19

Greg Ginn

There is no denying Greg Ginn’s legacy. Not only is he one of the most innovative guitarists of the last thirty years, he is also largely responsible for giving birth to the term “indie.” After forming the mighty Black Flag in 1977, Ginn shunned major labels and just released his music on his own label, SST Records. SST was a powerhouse throughout the 80s, exposing the world to various influential bands such as Husker Du, Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, and Bad Brains as well as Black Flag and Ginn’s other projects. Equal parts Stooges and Grateful Dead, Ginn’s taste and feel is all over the map, refusing to be pigeonholed into any sort of category or sub-genre. Recently reactivating SST, Ginn has been releasing records by his two new bands, Greg Ginn & the Taylor Texas Corrugators and JamBang. Exploring the worlds once pioneered by the Dead, Captain Beefheart, Black Sabbath, and various other musical outlaws, Greg Ginn is not some aging punk who is resting on his laurels, content with invoking nostalgia. This is a rare treat for Buffalo as it’s been over 20 years since Ginn has performed here. The Louisiana Purchase opens the show (tonight!).

—eric boucher

Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk Street (855-3931, www.mohawkplace.com). $10 or Ticketmaster locations

Friday, March 20

Jimkata

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, Jimkata emerges from the depths of the modern collective conscious to convince you otherwise. Members Evan Friedell (lead vocals/guitar), Aaron Gorsch (guitar/keys/vocals), Dave Rossi (bass/vocals), and Packy Lunn (drum kit/vocals) have set out to create a sound that is both new and timeless. Described as “one of the best up-and-coming bands” by jambase.com, the music of Jimkata can best be described as electro-rock. Combining hair-raising rock and roll with an industrial touch of synthesizers, the sound has powerful momentum and their songs leave permanent impressions. While the four-piece is inspired by the world of improvisational and progressive music, Jimkata focuses on song structure, textures, layers, and vibrant lyrics. Slip Madigan open the show.

—darren rinaldo

10:30pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen Street (886-8539, www.nietzsches.com)

Saturday, March 21

Haiku

Local favorites Haiku will host one of their rare concerts on Saturday (March 21) at the Tralf, featuring a new lineup of seasoned artists, truly some of the finest musicians Buffalo has to offer. Players include Buffalo Music Hall of Fame members George Puleo (guitar) and Jim Wynn (bass and keys), with Hugh Arthur on drums, Vince Fossitt playing saxophone, and Spencer Bolder adding percussion. These five are all local legends in their own right, and this show will be an opportunity for them to show off lots of new, mind-bending instrumental material.

—alan victor inez

8pm. Tralf Music Hall, .622 Main St (852-2860 / www.tralfmusichall.com). $10/advance at box office and Ticketmaster locations or $12/day of show

Saturday, March 21

Small Press Book Fair After Party

“Words and music, Shakespeare. Words and music.” Thus spake Eddie Wilson of Eddie and the Cruisers. On Saturday night, Nietzsche’s hosts a sort of after-party for the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair (see page 10) that honors Eddie’s invocation. After trading chapbooks and readings, many of the hundreds of writers and publishers assembled around events at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum will peregrinate to Allen Street for a few last drinks of Buffalo before heading home to their own corners of weird America. The show offers music by Oak Orchard Swamp, with Jaye Bartell and Morgan Fallon; local two-piece Mock Syringa, featuring the operatic vocals of Julia Byrne; idiosyncratic songwriter/guitar player Damian; poet and musician Eric Unger, late of Oswego and currently of Chicago; and Giant Science, a strange combo fronted by local poet Aaron Lowinger, who put together this show. It’ll be packed, unusual, fun, cheap.

—geoff kelly

9pm. Nietzche’s, 248 Allen Street (886-8539, www.nietzsches.com). $3

Wednesday, March 25

Ladybug Transistors

Brooklyn’s the Ladybug Transistor is one of the finest modern examples of indie dream pop. Combining irresistible pop hooks with lovelorn melancholy, the Ladybug Transistor invokes baroque chamber music that brings to mind the best work of Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, and Lindsey Buckingham. Led by songwriter Gary Olson, the band released their 1996 debut Mariborough Farms, named after Olson’s studio. The following year, the band signed to fledging indie label Merge, which has been their home since. Throughout the years, the Ladybug Transistor has featured contributions from members of the Essex Green, the Aislers Set, and Great Lakes, while maintaining Olson’s vision. The most recent recording, Can’t Wait Another Day, has been hailed by fans and critics as some of their best work yet. If you yearn for wistful pop of lost innocence (a la the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds), the Ladybug Transistor is for you. Son of the Sun and the Magic Shoppe open the show.

—eric boucher

8pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk Street (855-3931, www.mohawkplace.com). $10

Friday, March 20 through Thursday, March 26

The Wild Child

In 1970, French director Francois Truffaut received a telegram from fellow director and friend Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock wryly asked Truffaut if he could get him an autograph of the actor who played the lead in Truffaut’s latest film, The Wild Child. Truffaut himself was that actor. Hitchcock greatly admired both the performance and the film, and so did reviewers and audiences in France and North America. Continuing his unusual and rewarding programming at the Hamburg Palace, owner-operator Jay Ruof has booked The Wild Child for a week starting Friday (March 20) and playing through Thursday (March 26). The film is another of Truffaut’s examinations of the effects Western societies have on children’s characters and fates, beginning with his debut film, The 400 Blows. It’s based on the true story of a 10-year-old boy found wandering in rural France in the late 18th century, speechless and feral. A physician, Jean Itald, adopted and tried to civilize the boy, with mixed results. Truffaut’s film is an unusual combination of formal aesthetic devices, and liberal humanism. It’s ultimately both provocative and poignant.

—george sax

9pm. Hamburg Palace Theatre, 31 Buffalo Street, Hamburg (649-2295, www.hamburgpalace.com).