A highly selective weekly preview of what looks best in the coming days and weeks in visual and performing arts in the greater region.
Chris Gethard
ALT-PUNK COMIC CHRIS GERHARD to STAND UP at MASS MoCA
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – Comedian Chris Gethard, familiar to audiences from appearances on The Office, Parks and Recreation, Broad City, and Louie, as well as his eponymous gonzo cable access program – brings his blend of slightly nerdy, slightly angry, devilishly cerebral standup to Club B-10 at MASS MoCA on Saturday, January 30, at 8pm. Gethard’s program is a ticketed event that caps MASS MoCA’s annual Free Day, which takes place from 11am to 7pm.
Anne Chamberlain
PIANIST ANNE CHAMBERLAIN to PERFORM CLASSICAL and CONTEMPORARY WORKS at SIMON’S ROCK
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Anne Chamberlain performs works by Debussy, Scriabin, and Berg plus contemporary works in a solo piano concert in the Kellogg Music Center at Simon’s Rock College on Sunday, January 31, at 3:30 pm. Chamberlain will also perform works by Stefan Wolpe, Martin Brody, and Ursula Mamlok. The concert is free and open to the public.
Dan Tepfer (photo John Guillemin)
DAN TEPFER and ICE KICK OFF CATKSILL JAZZ SERIES at BARD
(ANNANDALE-on-HUDSON, N.Y.) – Jazz pianist/composer Dan Tepfer and the International Contemporary Ensemble combine forces as Acoustic Informatics in a world premiere performance to kick off the Catskill Jazz series at the Fisher Center at Bard College on Friday, January 29, at 8pm, in the LUMA Theater. Joining Tepfer for this program are ICE musicians Joshua Rubin, clarinet; Rebekah Heller, bassoon; Alice Teyssier, flute; and Ryan Muncy, saxophone.
Donna the Buffalo
DONNA THE BUFFALO to BRING JAM-FRIENDLY ROOTS-ROCK to HELSINKI HUDSON
(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Folk-rock quintet Donna the Buffalo helps Club Helsinki Hudson celebrate its 20th anniversary with a program of its original folk-roots jams on Thursday, February 4, at 8pm. When Donna the Buffalo began performing at folk and roots-music festivals in 1989, there wasn’t even a genre called “Americana.” The group’s easygoing, jam-friendly brand of rock with roots influences in zydeco, country, blues, folk and Appalachian music anticipated much of today’s trendy Americana sounds while still appealing to a fanatically loyal base of followers called “The Herd.” Anyone who has ever enjoyed grooving to the rhythms of the Grateful Dead, Los Lobos or the Band will immediately appreciate the organic grooves of Donna the Buffalo, still led after all these years by founding songwriter-vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Jeb Puryear and Tara Nevins.