Tim’s Picks: Walk the Line edition
Five of the best ideas heading into your Greater Lafayette weekend.
Heads up: This event has been postponed due to illness. Details are in the links. Thanks today to Based in Lafayette sponsor Purdue Convocations. After an astounding 50 years, multi-GRAMMY Award winner Kronos Quartet returns to Purdue. The San Francisco ensemble continues to challenge and reimagine what a string quartet can be on its Five Decades tour. Kronos will perform new commissions, signature works from its vast repertoire, and pieces from its free-access commissioning project, Kronos Fifty for the Future. A recent concert review saw The New York Times rave about the quartet’s “malleable virtuosity” and “wellspring” of memorable music. TONIGHT, Thursday, Nov. 9, at Loeb Playhouse. BUY TICKETS
Thanks, also, to Purdue Musical Organizations and the Purdue Christmas Show. This December, gather the whole family and celebrate 90 years of the Purdue Christmas Show. For nearly a century, this beloved holiday tradition has captivated audiences with its dazzling performances and heartwarming messages of love, hope and unity. Watch the stage come alive in the historic Elliott Hall of Music as PMO’s incredible student talent perform beautiful secular and sacred music alongside a live orchestra. December 1-3. BUY TICKETS HERE.
And now, with five of the best ideas heading into your weekend, here’s …
By Tim Brouk / For Based in Lafayette
“Johnny Cash: The Official Concert Experience,” 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, Loeb Playhouse, Stewart Center, Purdue University — Produced in collaboration with the Estate of Johnny Cash, this concert will be a unique experience for fans of “The Man in Black.” Cash’s unmistakable baritone was digitally lifted from his catalogue and fuels the multimedia show, which features a live band and visuals narrated by John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter. Enjoy the songs, stories and stories behind the songs such as “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Ring of Fire” and “I Walk the Line.” $30-$54. Tickets for the Purdue Convos show.
King’s Gambit with Feed the Grave, Echoes from Oblivion and Ripped Open, 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, North End Pub, 2100 Elmwood Ave., Lafayette — Greater Lafayette hardcore band King’s Gambit will celebrate 10 years of breakdowns, throwdowns and go-arounds (an old-timey name for circle pits that I just made up for the sake of the word jazz). The five-piece, which shares members between Attica and Lafayette, always brings a tight yet chaotic set, and they are always joined by eardrum-piercing colleagues. For this weekend, King’s Gambit will share the stage with central Illinois death metal act Feed the Grave, Muncie death metal-ers Ripped Open and melodic metalcore quintet Echoes from Oblivion. $10.
Today would be a good day to jump aboard the Based in Lafayette reporting project.
Slight Detour, 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, Digby’s Pub, 133 N. Fourth St., Lafayette — Led by longtime solo artist Francois Dior, Slight Detour is a new band in town with much steam thanks to a melodic rock sound with great harmonized vocals. The four-piece, which features Dior’s wife, Jessica Dior, on bass guitar, is prolific in terms of the amount of material it already has in both original and cover tunes, as well as the amount of Lafayette bar gigs the band has accrued. Another one is this weekend. Make a deliberate detour to downtown Lafayette for Slight Detour.
“The Price of Progress: The Indiana Avenue Story,” 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, Fowler Hall, Stewart Center, Purdue — Once called “The Harlem of the Midwest” for its thriving culture of Black-owned businesses, performing arts and jazz legacy, the Indiana Avenue district in downtown Indianapolis attracted the most renowned musicians of much of the 20th century. But starting in the 1960s, chunks of the avenue were bought out for development and the establishment of IUPUI. Year by year throughout the 1970s and ’80s, the Indiana Avenue that had thrived since at least the 1920s slowly disappeared. One of the only remnants of the area is the historic Madam Walker Legacy Center. A play written and directed by Purdue alumnus Vernon A. Williams captures the high and low times of the Avenue. “The Price of Progress: The Indiana Avenue Story” is a multimedia theatrical experience featuring comedy, drama, live music and dance. The show was inspired by the 2010 book by the same name, written by the late, great IUPUI anthropology professor Paul Mullins and Indianapolis author, historian and playwright Glenn White. Free but tickets are required. Here is more on “The Price of Progress,” which I wrote about in a previous life.
Jon Mueller, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, The Spot Tavern , 409 S. Fourth St., Lafayette — Improvisational percussionist Jon Mueller has performed in many world-famous spaces and places throughout his acclaimed career, from the Guggenheim to South by Southwest. The musician plays off each venue for an always original sonic experience. Mueller will soon give the wonderful music room of The Spot a whirl, home of performances crazed, subdued and all around weird. $7 or pay what you can.
Tim Brouk is a longtime arts and entertainment reporter. He writes here (almost) weekly, tracking things to do for Based in Lafayette.
Thanks, again, to Purdue Musical Organizations and the Purdue Christmas Show, with four show times to choose from Dec. 1-3. Get tickets here.
Thanks, also, to sponsor Purdue Convocations, presenting Grammy Award winner Kronos Quartet, TONIGHT, Thursday, Nov. 9, at Loeb Playhouse. Get tickets here.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING BASED IN LAFAYETTE, AN INDEPENDENT, LOCAL REPORTING PROJECT. FREE AND FULL-RIDE SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS ARE READY FOR YOU HERE.
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D'oh, I went to check on Kronos Quartet tickets and it looks like the event was postponed due to illness :(