PATTERSON HOOD, THE STATE ROOM, Friday, March 29, and Saturday, March 30, 9 p.m., $25
Any long-time fans of the Drive-By Truckers can tell you about the songwriting and storytelling prowess of Patterson Hood, the band’s most prolific writer and a man comfortable in the spotlight leading the band’s epic live shows. Hood’s latest work is a solo album, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance, that evolved out of an effort to actually pen a book, what Hood called a “half-assed fictionalization” of a turbulent period in his life a couple decades back, before the Truckers came together and started their winding journey. As he wrote chapters for the book–since put aside–Hood also wrote songs that took on an autobiographical vibe, and those songs fill Heat Lightning. You can expect to hear those songs, as well as Truckers tunes and songs from Hood’s 2004 solo debut, Killers & Stars.
Besides the two shows at The State Room, Hood will be appearing at a CD signing and meet-and-greet at The Heavy Metal Shop on Saturday at 6 p.m.
THE JOY FORMIDABLE, THE URBAN LOUNGE, Friday, March 29, 9 p.m., $18 at the door
When The Joy Formidable announced their presence as a bracing new force in music with the arrival of the band’s 2011 debut, The Big Roar, it was a welcome jolt of big, bombastic rock and roll. The Welsh trio is back with a follow-up album that is even better. Wolf’s Law is another set of memorable tunes, and their songwriting hasn’t taken a leap forward on songs like “This Ladder is Ours.” If powerful, insistent hooks, big guitar rock and lady-wailed vocals are your thing, The Joy Formidable is ready to be your favorite band. Fort Lean and Guards open the show.
Many of Neil Simon’s plays are timeless, easily producing hearty laughs and heartfelt sentiments decades after they dominated Broadway.
The Odd Couple, Pioneer Theatre Company’s latest show, proves trickier to translate for modern audiences than the likes of other Simon period pieces like Brighton Beach Memoir or Biloxi Blues. The familiar tale of ill-matched roommates Oscar Madison and Felix Unger is still remarkably strong at showcasing adult male friendships, and the tricky business of living with someone with a different personality. But some of the jokes and dialogue from the 1968-set plot don’t land in 2013 with the same crack they might have had for audiences 30 or 40 years ago.
The Odd Couple opens with one of its strongest scenes, a gathering of poker-playing buddy’s in Oscar’s eight-room New York City apartment. Simon’s strength is smart, fast dialogue, and the scene of five men trading barbs while they wait for Felix to join set up a night full of consistent, if light, laughs. In fact, the four friends who revolve around Oscar (Mark Le Mura) and Felix (Jeff Talbott) provide some of the strongest moments of the entire show, between cop Murray’s (Joe DeBevc) genuine concern for the unexplained tardiness of Felix, and Speed’s (Paul Kiernan) brusque annoyance at his poker game’s delay.
L-R: Joe DeBevc (Murray), Mark La Mura (Oscar Madison), Paul Kiernan (Speed), Nathan Sears (Vinnie) and Kent Hadfield (Roy). Photos by Alexander Weisman.
Felix is late because he’s split from his wife, and The Odd Couple‘s plot quickly moves to Oscar inviting his buddy to move into his spacious abode as a way to ease the transition to single life–something Oscar has also gone through. There are a few touching moments along the way where Felix and Oscar share the travails of being dads and divorced, but they are largely shoved aside in favor of the jokes inspired by Oscar’s slovenly ways rubbing against Felix’s finicky fastidiousness.
The first act is primarily set-up for the far more energetic second, when a double-date with the neighboring Pigeon Sisters (Helen Anker and Amy Bodnar) injects the show with a boost of hyperactive slapstick. The British women arrive in full, colorful ’60s hipster attire, and to Oscar’s chagrin, immediately bond with the mopey Felix over his heartbreak. The disastrous date leads to a blow-up fight between Felix and Oscar. Not to worry, though–the tiff is easily wrapped up and all is forgiven by show’s end, just like a popular sitcom, which the The Odd Couple became after Simon’s play had been adapted into a feature film.
L-R: Mark La Mura (Oscar Madison), Amy Bodnar (Gwendolyn Pigeon), Helen Anker (Cecily Pigeon) and Jeff Talbott (Felix Ungar). Photos by Alexander Weisman.
The play’s direction by Pioneer Artistic Director karen Azenberg is crisp, making full use of an amazingly detailed set design by Michael Schweikardt. From the large wooden spoon and fork hanging on the wall of the kitchen, to the flowery, Goodwill-ready couch and chair, it’s easy to believe the action on stage is taking place in 1968. (Harder to believe is that there was EVER a time when an eight-room apartment in New York City could be found for $240 a month).
Fans of Simon’s work will find much to love in Pioneer’s production, although I would have liked more background into Felix and Oscar’s relationship; when Oscar declares that Felix is his best friend, there has been little evidence of that in their interactions on stage. But if you can accept that two seemingly opposite personalities can truly love and appreciate each other’s quirks, you can love The Odd Couple.
Pioneer Theatre Company’s The Odd Couple runs Mondays through Saturdays until April 6. Tickets and showtimes are available at the Pioneer Website.
HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN, BYU DEPARTMENT OF DANCE, RICHARDS BUILDING, Friday, March 22, 7 p.m., $6
This Texas trio has been a fave of mine for years, based on their rootsy sound and regular presence at cowboy poetry gatherings and concert halls in the area. On Hot Club of Cowtown’s new album, Rendezvous in Rhythm, they tackle the classic gypsy-jazz and Paris swing sound of folks like Django Reinhardt. The set comes out in late May, but you can bet they’ll be playing selections from the new set when they join a special night hosted by the BYU Dance Department called “Buckaroo: Cowboy Poetry in Motion.” Besides dance performances and Hot Club of Cowtown’s always-smoking live set, cowboy poets Paul Bliss, Dan Bradshaw and Jerry Brooks will be on hand to wax poetic. Quite a night in Utah Valley.
Despite horrific air quality this winter that put protestors in front of the Capitol in gas masks, state lawmakers did zero to improve our quality of life. Nor will their inaction do anything to improve our global notoriety after we racked up the Top Five Cities with the worst air in the America.
No surprise, of course. If you’ve lived longer than five minutes in Utah, you know that citizen protests, petitions, the pleas of 100 doctors in the name of babies and other air-breathing organisms and a series of Democratic-back bills add up to the kiss of death for legislation as far as the majority is concerned.
To be fair, they did pass SB275, which will build more natural-gas stations and convert government vehicles to burn natural gas—and generally extend the state’s addiction to fossil-fuel transportation and highway building. Gov. Gary Herbert, who is basically a wholly owned subsidiary of the extraction industry, says SB275 is “quantum leap forward” in cleaning the air. The Salt Lake Trib does a good job of explaining this madness here.
Considering, the Legislature convenes annually at the same time the capital’s inversion hits its worst levels, they must be aware of the problem. In short, New Delhi and Beijing, watch your backs.
JAY WILLIAM HENDERSON, VELOUR, Provo, Friday, March 23, 8 p.m., $8
Fans of Band of Annuals have seen the former members of that venerable Utah roots-based band continue in exciting new musical directions since that group’s demise a couple years back, and that continues with the release of singer/songwriter Jay William Henderson’s solo debut, The Sun Will Burn Our Eyes. The nine new songs have actually been floating around for a while now via digital downloads and vinyl–early enough to land on Magnet magazine’s Top 10 Indie Roots Albums list for 2012, alongside the likes of Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers and Old Crow Medicine Show. Suffice to say, Henderson’s music is coming from a slightly different, starker place than those groups, a place where searching and spirituality, melancholia and celebration share a home. On the album, Henderson tapped a high-caliber army of musicians to join him, including local notables like David Williams, Sayde Price, Ryan Tanner and Dylan Schorer, among many others, and the results are both a beautiful album, and a singular musical vision that I find undeniable. (At the time of this writing, Henderson was offering a digital download of the album for free, right here). Henderson is finally getting around to playing some proper album release shows, and this one looks to be the best of the bunch, featuring the awesome and intimate Provo venue Velour, Henderson’s songs fleshed out with a full band of guests, and sets by The Devil Whale’s Brinton Jones and Book on Tape Worm’s Scott Shepard.
Daniel Nailen 