Halloween 2009

Friday & Saturday, October 30th & 31st

This Halloween weekend actually happens on Halloween, which is good for the kiddies (not a school night) but sort of kills that extra party day (go to a party on Friday closest, one on Saturday closest, AND one on the actual day). Oh well, two days of debauchery are enough and Buffalo has plenty in store. Beggar’s Night (Friday, Oct. 30) has almost as much going on as Halloween, with Bloodlust at Asbury Hall (a “sexy vampire ball for adults”—www.buffalobloodlust.com); Halloween Overnight Ghost Hunt at Central Terminal and the Iron Island Museum (www.buffalocentralterminal.org); The Riviera Theater will screen the Rocky Horror Picture show at midnight, preceded by a Rocky Horror party at 9pm, and parties at most bars including a Beggar’s Night costume bash at Coles and J.P. Bullfeathers (they’ll both have another on Halloween as well) and the Essex Street Pub party, also on Beggar’s Night. On Halloween at Nietzsche’s The Stripteasers present their annual fun filled evening of burlesque and music with their “Tales From The Stripped” Halloween Burlesque show; the Palace Theater is screening a double feature of the lost classic Spider Baby followed by the Rocky Horror Picture Show; Central Terminal hosts another ghost hunt, the Off-Limits Halloween Ghost Hunt followed by a seance at Iron Island; the Town Ballroom is hosting the House Of Horrors Buffalo’s Biggest Halloween Party (www.houseofhorrors.com); the Mohawk Place has The Rabies and The Irving Klaws; the Third Room is having a Halloween costume contest with drink specials honoring the Seven Deadly Sins; and Club Diablo has its usual bunch of fetishy fun, both on “Devil’s Night” and on Halloween.

Friday, October 30th

The Whigs

The Whigs are a rock trio out of Athens, GA, the birthplace of the B-52s, R.E.M, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the Drive By Truckers, and if the success of the Whigs is any indication, that erstwhile hotbed of indie rock may again be the place to be. Following the release of album number two, Mission Control (ATO Records), the Whigs were snapped up by Kings of Leon to open on last summer’s US tour. A good match: KOL audiences went wild for this new band, and the Whigs’ buzz increased exponentially with each concert at which they were exposed to huge crowds who apparently dug their straightforward southern rock delivered simple and amped up. Luckily the Whigs aren’t too big, yet, to embark on a tour playing smaller gigs, a tour that brings them to Mohawk Place on Friday (Oct. 30). This time they are the headliners, accompanied by Portland’s grime/Americana band Dead Trees and Tenesee rockers The Features.

Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. / 8pm / free / 855-3931 / mohawkplace.com

Sunday, November 1st

Beyond The Pale

Toronto’s popular band Beyond the Pale brings first-class Klezmer and a blend of old and new styles on Sunday (Nov. 1) at 7pm. The sextet will perform at the UB Student Union Theater on the University’s North Campus as part of the 43rd Annual Jewish Community Book Fair. After over a decade of performing at venues and festivals throughout North America and Europe the band has recently released its third CD, Postcards, featuring the mix of Klezmer, Balkan, and Romanian styles that keeps drawing audiences to their raucous live perfomances. Though billed as a “world fusion” band, the music is deeply rooted in Klezmer and Beyond the Pale is one of the lleading groups playing traditional Euro-folk today. Founder and mandolin player Eric Stein is the current artistic Director of Toronto’s Ashkenaz Festival, the world’s largest celebration of Klezmer music and Jewish culture. That’s not to discount the scope and importance of Buffalo’s Jewish Book Fair, which will be sponsoring events through December 9 of this year. More than a literary event, the Book Fair offers novels, memoirs, histories, biography, literary studies, film, children’s books, and—obviosly—music. Visit www.jccbookfair.com for full schedule

—alan victor

UB Studen Union, UB Amherst Campus / 7pm / free

Sunday, November 1st

Bunka No-Hi: Japanese Culture Day at The Gardens

Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 25 Nottingham Ct. | 10am-2pm | $5/individual or $10/family | 873-9644 | bechs.org

The third annual Bunka-no-Hi, or Japanese Culture Day, will be held this Sunday (Nov. 1) at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society from 10am-2pm. Organized by the Buffalo-Kanazawa Sister City Committee, the Friends of the Japanese Garden in Buffalo, Ikebana International, and the Japanese Group of Buffalo, the event is part of the Japan in Buffalo Niagara project. Formed in 2007, Japan in Buffalo Niagara was organized to promote an understanding of Japanese culture in the community, in turn encouraging tourism between the Buffalo/Niagara region and Japan. All of these member groups hold regular cultural events like this one, featuring programs including videos of shakuhachi and taiko performance, Japanese tea ceremony demonstration, ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) demonstration, both Japanese and western music and arts, and much more. At Sunday’s event there will be Japanese and western clarinet solos and a selection of traditional Japanese songs, Japanese folk dances, a demonstration of Japanese doll making and an ikebana display by Ikebana International. Contact www.yearofjapan.org or 445-4446 for more info.

Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 26 Nottingham Ct. / 10am-2pm / $5 individual or $10 family / 873-9644 / bechs.org

Tuesday, November 3rd

Greg Klyma, WBFO On The Border

Local radio station WBFO’s Wednesday night concert series continues at Allen Hall on UBs South Campus with Buffalo-born folk troubador Greg Klyma. Although Klyma now spends most of his time on the road touring, and he did relocate to Austin, TX in 2004, Klyma is still considered a hometowner by his fans and the local media (he continues to get votes in Artvoice’s annual Best of Buffalo polls, having already won the honor of best folk/acoustic performer in the past), and he considers himself the same. This is where he comes “home,” to visit his family and to record his albums. Although a description of this singer/songwriter/storyteller almost invariably includes the word “troubador” (that adjective appears everywhere—except Klyma’s own website), he prefers to describe himself by the title of his fifth album: as a “Rust Belt Vagabond.” He’ll make his way to Vermont right after Wenesday’s (Oct. 4) gig, then tour around the northeast until he returns for a show at the Sportsmen’s on Dec. 2. We’re always glad when he wanders back through our neck of the woods.

—k. o’day

UB Allen Hall, UB's South Campus 3435 Main St. / 8pm / free / 829-6000 / wbfo.org

Wednesday, November 4th

Canisius College 4th Annual Polish Film Festival: Opening Night

American multiplexes may be dominated by animated movies for kids and special effects-laden thrillers for the under-25s, but the rest of the world still makes movies for the mainstream adult audience that Hollywood has written off. You can see proof at this year’s edition of the Polish Film Showcase, presented by the Permanent Chair of Polish Culture at Canisius College. The series opens tonight with Mala Moskwa (Little Moscow), a tragic romance that succeeds as history as well as lavish movie entertainment. Set in the late 1960s in a Polish town on the Russian border that is so dominated by the Russian army that it is nicknamed “Little Moscow,” the unsettled tensions between those countries are played out in an adulterous affair between a Polish officer and the wife of a Russian officer (played by the striking Svetlana Khodchenkova, named Best Actress for her dual performance). Director Waldemar Krzystek will present the film. The rest of the series will be previewed in next week’s ArtVoice. Visit www.canisius.edu/polish/events.asp

—m. faust

Riviera Theatre, 67 Webster St., N. Tonawanda / 6pm / $5 / 692-2113 / rivieratheatre.org

Thursday, November 5th

Fire Under The Snow

Fire Under the Snow tells the remarkable story of Palden Gyatso, a Buddhist monk whose life tracks the modern history of Tibet: Born in 1933, Palden entered a monastery at the age of four. In 1959, after the failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, he was arrested and spent the next 33 years in prison, undergoing brutal torture and re-education. Throughout, he maintained his Buddhist discipline. Released in 1992, he made his way to Dharamsala, India, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile. His autobiography is the basis for the film, which makes its Buffalo premiere next Thursday (Nov. 5), sponsored by the UB Asian Studies Program and the UB Law School’s Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy. All proceeds benefit the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala.

—geoff kelly

Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre, 629 Main St. / 7:30pm / $10 / 855-3022