Regional Cultural Preview, Feb 24 – Mar 1, 2020

Sam Evian

Soulful singer-songwriter Sam Evian brings his distinctive 1970s-tinged psychedelic soft-rock sounds to Club B-10 at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., on Saturday, February 29, at 8pm. The Brooklyn-based indie artist sounds like a sunny, pop-influenced cross between George Harrison and Marvin Gaye, with a good helping of Yo La Tengo mixed in for good measure.

 

Avant-garde ensemble So Percussion performs music by Steve Reich, Viet Cuong, Julia Wolfe and others in Chapin Hall at Williams College, on February 29 at 7:30.

So Percussion’s program will include “Music for Pieces of Wood” (1973) by Steve Reich, featuring one of the simplest possible instruments: the claves. “Water, Wine, Brandy, Brine” (2017) by Viet Cuong explores the various sounds that can be produced by crystal glasses, from the bell-like sounds of “toasting” the glasses to the theremin-like singing produced when the rims are played. “Construction” (2017) by Susan Marshall is a music/dance work that offers the audience a visual way to equate space and time – the visual patterns we see are the rhythms we hear. “the diamond in the square” (2019) by Suzanne Farrin highlights contrasts created through subtle changes in texture. “Forbidden Love” (2019) by Julia Wolfe includes all the things you aren’t supposed to do to stringed instruments.

So Percussion is Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting. So Percussion will also hold a master class on Saturday, February 29, at 3pm, in Chapin Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.

 

Barrington Stage Company’s 10X10 New Play Festival continues its run through March 8, on the St. Germain Stage, located at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden St., in Pittsfield, Mass. Where else can you see 10 new 10-minute plays all in one sitting? And the great thing is, if you don’t like a play, in less than 10 minutes it will be over.

 

Arleigh Kincheloe aka Sister Sparrow

Sister Sparrow brings her old-school soul and R&B to Club Helsinki Hudson on Saturday, February 29, at 9pm, for the “The Souler for Solar Campaign Leap Day Party,” a concert, cocktail, and dance party in support of Ampion’s community-based renewable energy. Catskill Mountains native Arleigh Kincheloe, aka Sister Sparrow, plays a gritty, Southern style of soul-rock. Kincheloe has been described as what you get when you cross Amy Winehouse and Tina Turner with Mick Jagger and a dose of Janis Joplin. The evening will include a house music set by MICK!

 

Indie-rock group Gin Blossoms, best known for its 1990s-style jangle-pop sound derived from R.E.M. and the Replacements, performs at the Mahaiwe on Friday, March 6, at 8pm.

The Grammy Award-nominated Gin Blossoms were one of the top alt-rock bands of the 1990s. The group’s Top 40 hits like “Hey Jealousy” and “Follow You Down” kept the band’s fresh, bright, melodic sound on the radio at a time when grunge-rock ruled the airwaves. Hook-filled, harmony-laden numbers like “’Til I Hear It From You” and “Found Out About You” looked back to the Beatles and the Byrds, more in sync with Counting Crows than Pearl Jam.

 

 

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