FRIDAY 28
COMEDY: TYRONE HAWKINS
“I’m getting back in the saddle, as they say,” says comedian Tyrone Hawkins. This past December, Hawkins’ son passed away. “I never stopped going on stage. It was very therapeutic,” he says. “I’m good at compartmentalizing. I think I went on stage a couple of days later and kept on going up.” After spending several months at home in Cincinnati, he re-relocated back to Seattle. Along the way, he refocused on comedy. “My friend Drewbacca, a comedian from Denver, showed me Louis C.K.’s tribute to George Carlin.” In that special, Hawkins picked up on Carlin’s advice: After 15 years, throw the old material away. So on his drive to Seattle he wrote new jokes, including much more personal ones, some of which he’ll unveil this week. Showtimes Thursday-Saturday. $8-$14. Go Bananas, 8410 Market Place Lane, Montgomery, gobananascomedy.com.
EVENT: DEAD END FILM FESTIVAL
Spring in Our Steps, a local organization that reclaims, celebrates and activates urban passageways for pedestrians, hosts the Dead End Film Festival Friday at Coral and Drum alleys in Over-the-Rhine. The fest will also have some music, “lawn” bowling and other activities. Read more about the event and Spring in Our Steps in this week's cover story. 6 p.m. Friday. Free. Coral and Drum alleys, Over-the-Rhine, springinoursteps.com.
MUSIC: THE BAND OF HEATHENS
Although The Band of Heathens has been together for 12 years, the Austin, Texas quintet’s seeds were sown even earlier when the founding trio — Colin Brooks, Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist — were working as solo artists in the flourishing Austin scene. The musicians were fixtures at the now defunct Momo’s on Sixth Street, where they were routinely assembled on double or triple bills, so they eventually pooled their talents. With the addition of a rhythm section, the band dubbed itself The Good Time Supper Club and set about amassing a loyal local fan base. A new name was presented when the band was inexplicably identified in a newspaper ad as The Heathens; the inadvertent rebranding stuck. After a debut album, 2006’s Live from Momo’s, Band of Heathens swapped out its original drummer for beatkeeper John Chipman in 2007; that year also saw the band release its second live set, recorded at Austin’s legendary Antone’s, and receive Best New Band honors at the Austin Music Awards. The following year, the group released their eponymous debut studio album, produced by local icon Ray Wylie Hubbard and featuring a stellar guest list that included Gurf Morlix, Patty Griffin and the late Stephen Bruton. The album hit the top slot of the American Music Association’s radio play chart and made the association’s Top 10 of the year’s best albums. Read more about the band in this week's Sound Advice. The Band of Heathens plays Indie Vol. 2017 Friday at Fountain Square. Click here for details for this free show.
MUSIC: CINCINNATI MUSIC FESTIVAL
After years of name changes due largely to rotating sponsorships, it makes sense that the music festival still colloquially known around town as “Jazz Fest” claimed the moniker “Cincinnati Music Festival” a few years ago. By far the longest-running music fest in the area, its genesis dates back more than a half century. And it has long moved on from its Jazz origins, known far and wide for booking a crowd-pleasing mix of classic and contemporary R&B, Soul, Funk and occasionally Hip Hop. Though Cincinnati Music Festival is a huge regional draw regardless of who is booked, organizers have pulled in some top-shelf headliners for this year’s event, with Mary J. Blige topping the bill Friday and Usher closing out the night on Saturday. Before the stadium starts to officially rock on Friday, a fest pre-event party at Paul Brown Stadium’s Club Lounge will feature early Hip Hop stars Doug E. Fresh (the host of the entire event), Kid Capri and Rob Base. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $60-$150. Paul Brown Stadium, 1 Paul Brown Stadium, Downtown, cincymusicfestival.com.
EVENT: AYE MUSIC & ART FESTIVAL
Back in 2006, Cincinnati Hip Hop artist Juan Cosby and his record label Grasshopper Juice founded Adjust Your Eyes Music & Art Festival (AYE) as a fundraiser for various charities and causes, including the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. More then a decade later, the fest is still going strong with a weekend’s worth of music scattered around different bars and venues in Northside including the Northside Yacht Club, Northside Tavern, Chameleon and Urban Artifact. Featured artists run the gamut form Punk to Indie to Hip Hop, with national and local musicians like Chuck Cleaver from Wussy, the Harlequins, Wonky Tonk and more taking the stage. For the full lineup and schedule, visit AYE’s website. Proceeds from this year’s festival will benefit Women Helping Women. See Spill It on page 34. Friday-Sunday. Free admission. Various locations, adjustyoureyes.com.
EVENT: ART AFTER DARK: LEI’D BACK LUAU
Grab a Hawaiian shirt and grass skirt and slip a lei around your neck for the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Art After Dark: Lei’d Back Luau. The museum courtyard will be brimming with tunes from Reggae group The Cliftones, grub from Eli’s BBQ and the Terrace Café (who will serve up Hawaiian pizza for the vegetarians out there) and specialty tropical cocktails. Hula the night away surrounded by chill vibes and beautiful artwork — guests are granted after-hours access to select exhibits. 5-9 p.m. Friday. Free. Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams, cincinnatiartmuseum.org.
ONSTAGE: MARIAN, OR THE TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD
Playwright Adam Szymkowicz offers a contemporary feminist take on the legend of Robin Hood, proposing that the outlaw who robbed from the rich to give to the poor is and has always been Maid Marian in disguise. In fact, the “Merry Men” are a tad more diverse in this gender-bending telling than they’re traditionally portrayed. Modern concerns and romantic entanglements play out hilariously on the battlefield and in Nottingham’s Sherwood Forest. Count on Know Theatre to land a familiar tale squarely into the present. Maggie Lou Rader, an audience favorite at Know and Cincinnati Shakespeare, plays Marian. Through Aug. 19. $25. Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine, knowtheatre.com.
SATURDAY 29
EVENT: BRAXTON, BEAM & BOCCE BLOCK PARTY
Grab your friends for some quality beer, bourbon, bocce and bro-time this Saturday at Pompilios for a tournament to benefit a local charity. Hosted by Braxton Brewing Co., this block party will run from noon until night with plenty of beer — including a special Braxton Labs tapping — and bourbon slushes to go around. Team registration for the bocce ball tournament is only $10; games run noon-4 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Noon-10 p.m. Saturday. Free admission; $10 team registration. Pompilios, 600 Washington Ave., Newport, Ky., braxtonbrewing.com.
EVENT: THE DECADES CRAWL — OTR
Break out the legwarmers, tease up your hair, slip on some acid-washed mom jeans and cloak yourself in neon nostalgia for an ’80s- and ’90s-themed bar crawl to some of OTR’s raddest bars. Get gnarly with drink specials like 16-Bit’s $6 TMNT cocktail with Pop Rocks, MOTR’s $4 Zima or Mr. Pitiful’s $2 domestics. Tickets include a fanny pack, lanyard, access to drink specials, a registration party with a themed photobooth backdrop and more. Check out an old-school drag show at Below Zero and feel like you’re a background character in a John Hughes film as the Drinkery OTR’s DJ plays classic jams all night long. 4-10 p.m. Saturday. $15-$19. Crawl starts at 16-Bit, 1331 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/barcrawlusa.
EVENT: DANGER WHEEL
Is Danger your middle name? What about Drunk Big Wheel Rider? The third-annual Danger Wheel downhill racing event is the perfect combination for those with a love of adventure, a fondness for childhood tricycles and an interest in slamming some beers. Teams of three (two to push; one idiot to drive) will race down a large hill in Pendleton on provided Big Wheels for a series of crash-course races. Instead of risking life and limb, watchers will be able to point, laugh and enjoy summer beers from local breweries and burgers from Nation Kitchen and Bar sans concussion. Noon check-in; 2 p.m. races Saturday. Free admission; team registration is now closed. 378 E. 12th St., Pendleton, dangerwheel.com.
EVENT: O.F.F. MARKET AT MADTREE
Oakley’s monthly market is back! This month, shop ’til you drop at MadTree’s new taproom, where you can enjoy brews and the indoor Barrel Warehouse while perusing artisanal food vendors, delicious drinks, unique boutiques and business and local farmers. For some easy day drinking, grab Deeper Roots Coffee and MadTree’s Cuppa Coffee, the perfect combination of coffee and an English mild beer.10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Free admission. MadTree Brewing, 3301 Madison Road, Oakley, theoffmarket.org.
SUNDAY 30
MUSIC: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
When is a band not a band? Perhaps it’s when a loosely affiliated set of musicians assemble as a whole or in random combinations of its individual members, and in those various permutations create sounds that defy accepted genre categorization. Perhaps it’s when the aggregation’s members operate under pseudonyms and build an epic discography that reflects melodic lessons taught by The Beatles over a half century ago while utilizing the studio as a fifth member, somehow sculpting music into sonic artwork that suggests an acid-dosed jamboree of The Flaming Lips, Polyphonic Spree, Brian Eno, Can, Brian Wilson, Pink Floyd and a dozen other influences that were never really influences. Animal Collective is all that and somehow impossibly more. Childhood friends and products of Baltimore’s progressive school system, Animal Collective’s four members — David Portner (Avey Tare), Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), Josh Dibb (Deakin) and Brian Weitz (Geologist) — indulged in exploratory forays into Pavement-tinged Indie Rock music, then dabbled with psychedelic substances and Krautock, which was followed by experimentalism that was untainted by exposure to previous purveyors of musical weirdness. While all four were enrolled in separate colleges, they reconvened in Baltimore during summers to work on musical projects, the first being Lennox’s solo debut (as Panda Bear). In 2000, the group released its next collaboration, Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished, under the banner of Avey Tare and Panda Bear. After releasing a few more project albums, the band took some industry advice and christened its total unit Animal Collective, taking “Animal” from an early label name and “Collective” for the musicians’ intention to create as an interchangeable team. The group’s first release in this format was 2003’s Here Comes the Indian, a densely textured and exotically appointed album, followed by the stripped-back but equally harmonically beautiful Sung Tongs. Read more in this week's Sound Advice. Animal Collective plays Madison Theater Sunday. Click here for tickets/more show details.
MUSIC: MANNEQUIN PUSSY
Mannequin Pussy’s live shows are like exorcisms. Frontwoman Marisa Dabice is a feral presence, her powerful vocals emitted with the kind of intensity that would seem impossible to replicate on a consistent basis. Yet the Philadelphia band — which also includes guitarist Thanasi Paul, drummer Kaleen Reading and bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford — has toured relentlessly behind last year’s Romantic, an enthralling record full of terse relationship songs that are even more visceral when delivered in a live setting. Romantic is surprisingly eclectic for an album of such to-the-point brevity (11 songs in 17 minutes). Songs range from the Hardcore of album-opener “Kiss” to the ebb-and-flow, Geraldine Fibbers-esque dynamics of “Romantic” to the hook-laden “Denial,” which sounds like The Breeders doing their best Garage Rock impression. CityBeat recently tracked down Dabice to discuss everything from the next Mannequin Pussy record to the role of artists in such politically polarizing times. Read the interview here. Mannequin Pussy plays Woodward Theater Sunday with Cherry Glazerr and Leggy. Tickets/more info: woodwardtheater.com.
ART: CHASING DREAMS: BASEBALL & BECOMING AMERICAN
Attend an opening day for a second time this baseball season:Chasing Dreams: Baseball & Becoming American tells the story of Jewish immigration and integration through America’s favorite pastime at Hebrew Union College. The opening celebration on Sunday pairs ballpark food with history. Complete with films, game footage, photographs and a database of Jewish ballplayers, the exhibit explores the sport’s critical role in creating a national identity. Among the artifacts are baseballs signed by Al Rosen, Mel Allen, Saul Rogovin and Mickey Owen. Join baseball fans of all ages and discover what it means to be an American. Opening reception 1:30-3:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Oct. 22. Free admission. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 3101 Clifton Ave., Clifton, huc.edu.
