Artvoice B.O.O.M. Grand Finale

Friday, March 5

This is it, local music fans—the grand finale, the battle royale, the main event—where one band will win the whole enchilada. We’re talking about the culmination of months of online and live performance competition among some of the best original groups our area has to offer. It all boils down to one half-hour set, where each of our four finalists—the Albrights, Hunger Anthem, Photos of Wagons, and Deja Fuze—will pour it on in an effort to sway votes their way to collect all the marbles in this, the third installment of our ongoing Battle Of Original Music, or BOOM! Past winners include Dali’s Ghost and TypeRelevant. Who will be the next act to collect the most ballot votes on Friday night, and walk off with a digital recording package from our friends at Guitar Center, plus a hefty cash prize and bragging rights as the newly-crowned Artvoice BOOM Grand Champions? Come down Friday night, March 5, to find out in person, and show your support for our great music scene by casting a vote for the band you deem the best. Visit boom.artvoice.com to find out more.

—buck quigley.

Bands pictured, clockwise from upper left: Round 1 winner: The Albrights, Round 2 winner: Hunger Anthem, Round 3 winner: Photos of Wagons, Round 4 winner: Deja Fuze.

7:30pm. Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. (852-2860 / www.tralfmusichall.com) $7 at door. Ages 18+

Friday, March 5

Buffalo Hip Hop Lives: The Restoration

Headlining this jazzy hip/hop line up are last year’s B.O.O.M. winners Type: Relevant (pictured), with a show on the very same night (Friday, March 5). Type: Relevant will be rocking with the Trinidadian-born, preeminent Canadian jazz trumpet player Brownman Ali, and local hip-hop fusion group Catastrophic, for what doubles as the latter’s CD release party. The long-awaited, five-year-in-the-making album is titled The Restoration, a follow-up to the duo’s only other recorded work on 2002’s now-classic Cinemaddicts album Notes from the Underground, and Catastrophic’s debut recording on their own. Hip-hop in Buffalo could use a little “restoration,” it seems, and this is just the evening to fuel that effort. DJ Cutler rounds out the bill.

—alan victor

10pm. Nietzsche's, 248 Allen St. (886-8539 / www.nietzsches.com)

Friday, March 5

In A Different Light

In A Different Light, a photography exhibit inspired by the visual and symbolic use of light in photography, opens Friday (March 5), with a reception from 7-10pm at Karpeles Manuscript Museum North Hall. Photographers Jill Greenberg and Chelsea Kedron developed the exhibit, curated by Rachel Good, to explore the extreme polarity of the essential role of light in the photographic process. The two photographers ventured out separately to capture their own side of the lighting spectrum in order to reveal their individual perspectives through the comparison of the artwork. Karpeles North Hall, which opened in 2006, is one of 10 privately owned manuscript museums throughout the country. The museums, founded in 1983, are home to the largest privately owned collection of historical, musical, scientific, and literary manuscripts, including such documents as the original draft of The Bill of Rights, and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. In A Different Light will run March 5 through May 1 and is free to the public. A portion of each mounted print sold will be donated to the Buffalo City Mission.

—cory perla

7 - 10pm. Karpeles Manuscript Museum North Hall, 320 North St. (886-3536)

Saturday, March 6

Haiti Benefit featuring Voicemail

Several weeks have already come to pass since the tragic quake in Haiti, but that’s no reason to reduce efforts to the struggling country. The people of Archangel Entertainment are holding a benefit concert/party at Town Ballroom this Saturday (March 6). Voice Mail, a coming straight out of Kingston, Jamaica will be headlining the event. The group has made their mark in their home country and is planning to break the international barrier here. Voice Mail is sure to get the crowd into a dancehall spirit. They began their journey fighting off the heavy competition in their home country by blending heavy beats with soothing, melodic R&B. There’s also going to be a dance contest for those with the best skills, so study up on those popular dancehall moves. The winner will be taking a 47” HDTV home with them. Additional enticing prizes will also be available for the runners-up, and for the younger bunch, try to be early, as the first 200 college students get in at a reduced rate. DJ Dupless (formerly known as Shadow Red) from NYC and Rochester’s own Material Sound will be fueling the dancehall flame.

—jeremy lee

10pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / townballroom.com) $30/$40 at TB box office and Tickets.com

Saturday, March 6

Willie Nile

Willie Nile, nee Robert Anthony Noonan, is one of the best songwriters ever to be born in Buffalo. Which is saying a lot, when one considers our town as the old stomping grounds of Harold Arlen. But Nile came up in the 1970s, and built an impressive reputation in Greenwich Village hootenanny clubs as an heir apparent to Bob Dylan, who’d put the whole folksinger/songwriter thing on the map a few years before. The buzz surrounding him was huge. By the time Bruce Springsteen (who’d been called the new Dylan) was hitting his stride, Nile released two records on Arista that electrified fans of energetic rock-n-roll with a literate twist. He was likened to the Clash, and went out on tour with the Who before musical legal troubles dragged down on him as his star was ascending. He would spend several years without performing or recording. After a decade out of the limelight, he released a couple more albums, and his underground fame was rekindled both here and abroad. In 2006, he released the critically acclaimed Streets of New York, and followed it up last year with House of a Thousand Guitars. By this time, his old pal Springsteen was inviting him up on stage to play at big shows with the E Street Band. Little Steven Van Sandt has said, “Willie Nile is so good I can’t believe he’s not from New Jersey!” Believe it Steven, he’s ours. Opening the show is another hometown boy, Marc Scibilia, who’s been writing songs down in Nashville.

—buck quigley

7pm doors, 8pm show. Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. (852-2860 / tralfmusichall.com) $23 presale, $27 day of show

Sunday, March 7

YACHT

Few bands can make you dance and contemplate the nature of reality at the same time, but this is what Portland, Oregon based indie-pop duo YACHT forces you to do. Electronic composer Jona Bechtolt created the project in 2003 and released three albums before adding vocalist Claire Evans in 2009. The duo, which is part experimental progressive rock and part 1980’s synthpop, recently embarked on a world tour that will soon bring them to Buffalo. See Mystery Lights, YACHT’s fourth album (and first featuring Evans), was released in 2009 by dance-punk master James Murphy’s record label, DFA Records. The album propelled them into the sights of electronic indie music fans with its existentialist lyrics about life after death and the existence other worldly dimensions, hypnotic chants about human nature, and ironic lines about the supernatural, like “I used to live in a psychic city/I never knew what would happen in a day.” The heady themes examined in their lyrics are toned down by upbeat and bouncy digital sounds layered with fuzzy guitar riffs, complex looped drum tracks, and bizarre samples. Be prepared to dance along with this philosophic art duo as they turn knobs and click laptop keys on stage at Soundlab on Sunday (March 7). Bobby Birdman opens the show.

—cory perla

9pm. Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (440-5907 / bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab) $12-$14

Sunday, March 7

Cursive

Cursive has been making music for well over a decade now, which almost seems unbelievable considering the shelf life of so many indie bands. But Cursive hasn’t experienced a creative drop off; in fact, they’re at their lyrical and musical best. Hats off to singer Tim Kasher, too, whose voice remains as volatile and strained as it was when the band started 15 years ago. It’s Kasher’s voice, after all, that is the rallying point, taking songs that start out subtle and transforming them into something chaotic in what seems like one breath. The lyrics themselves are deliberately crafted, placing characters against the ever present, crippling backdrop of society in typical Kasher form. In the song “From the Hips,” off the bands newest album Mama, I’m Swollen (Saddle Creek), Kasher muses on this conflict between man and machine: “We’re all just trying to play our roles/In a play that runs ad nauseum/I hate this damn enlightenment/We were better off as animals.” A scary but rewarding prospect. Joining Cursive on Sunday (March 7) at Mohawk Place are local bands All of Them Witches and Paul’s Grandfather.

—jon wheelock

8pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. (855-3931 / myspace.com/mohawkplace) $12-$15 at Ticketwweb.com or supernautbooking.com

Wednesday, March 10

Foreign Born

On Wednesday (March 10), Foreign Born brings their tribal-tinged folk music to Soundlab. The band creates a simple sonic template that is ideal for sipping a drink in the sun, like a strange blend of Animal Collective, groovy Simon & Garfunkel, and hand-claps. A perfect example of the band’s beach house sound is the track “Early Warnings,” from their album Person To Person, which showcases their flair for driving campfire rhythms and sugary lead guitar lines. The Los Angeles band began in 2003, self-releasing their EPs and a full length, while gaining exposure from a Spin Magazine feature and a performance on the pilot episode of the television series Chuck. Supporting the band will be Philadelphia’s Free Energy, who have a similarly sunny sound with a rock ‘n’ roll attitude. Wednesday’s show at Soundlab starts at 9pm, and will surely cure any Buffalo end of winter blues.

—peter vullo

9pm. Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (440-5907 / bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab)