Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins

Saturday, March 3

If you know who Ron Hawkins is—singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and frontman of indie rock band Lowest of the Low—then you know that he and his band love to play Buffalo. The Canadian group performed a huge set at Thursday at the Square last year and then returned less than six months later for a gig on New Year’s Eve at the Town Ballroom. Now Hawkins returns once again to Buffalo, but this time he will be performing his intimate Americana tunes with his band The Do Good Assassins. In 2011 Hawkins released his fifth solo album, Straitjacket Love—12 home-recorded roots-rock love songs featuring twangy, instrumentally diverse tunes like “The Sickness (That’s What They Call Love).” After Hawkins went solo in 1996 he recorded three fast-paced big band releases with a new group, The Rusty Nails, between 1998 and 2001, which were critically lauded by Canadian magazines like Now. At the same time he continued to put out purely solo material like his solo debut Secret of My Excess. More recently Hawkins has reunited with Lowest of the Low but he still continues to write, release and tour his own solo material. Don’t miss this chance to see Hawkins in a different light on a smaller, more intimate stage at Mohawk Place on Saturday (March 3), with local support from singer/songwriter Jeremy Hoyle . —cory perla

8pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. (465-2368 / themohawkplace.com) $15 advanced, $17 day of show.

Thursday, March 1

Kathleen Landis

On Thursday (tonight!) musician Kathleen Landis will be performing the works of Alec Wilder at Buffalo State’s Burchfield Penney Art Center. Landis used her piano-playing artistry and vocals to make herself known in the traditionally male cabaret club scene. She has since become a renowned female pianist/vocalist, joining the ranks of Hedda Brooks, Barbara Carroll, Diana Kroll, and Ann Hampton Calloway. In her shows, Landis often creates feelings of elegance and nostalgia as she performs. At 7pm she will be performing “While We’re Young: A Tribute to Alec Wilder” as well as giving a lecture/demonstration at 12:15 pm called “From New York’s Cafe Pierre to Buffalo’s Burchfield Penney” during which she will be discussing both Wilder as well as her own career. Her performance is part of the concert-lecture series “High Standards: The Legacy of the Great American Songbook.” Steve Ross has already taken part in the series and Bob Dorough (jazz-cabaret sensation and songwriter of “Schoolhouse Rock!”) will also partake in a lecture and performance on the following Thursday (March 8) at 12:15pm and 7pm, respectively. These events have been funded by the Office of Student Life as well as a grant from the Faculty Student Association. The lectures are free to all while the concert is free for students, $5 for Burchfield Penney members, Buffalo State faculty and staff, and $10 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased at the Burchfield Penney or online at BurchfieldPenney.org. —dan whitney

Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave. (878-6011 / burchfieldpenney.org).

Friday, March 2

Rock The 500 Block Party

There have been a lot of changes to the 500 Block of Main Street, and the local business and building owners want to show it off. To celebrate the art, music, and businesses in that area, the whole street has come together to throw a special event—the Rock The 500 Block Party. Joining in on the fun from 5pm to 8pm on Friday (March 2) are the WNY Book Arts Center, Spa Alexis in the Hyatt, The Brian Garman Gallery—where visitors will be able to view the artists large format photographic prints—and Jerry’s Photo Shop, which will have historic prints on display. The e-café will have food specials and more, and Lloyd’s Taco Truck will also make a special appearance for the event. From 6pm to 10pm MAIN(ST)UDIOS will feature Art for Good: A Collection of Work to Benefit WNYHeroes, presented by Queen City Prints, which will feature work by 15 local artists including Bruce Adams, Mary Begley, Joe Bergquist, Phillip Casillio, Phil Durgan, Chrstina Laing, Chuck Tingley, Marcus Wise, and more. From 8pm to 11pm there will be an after party in the Atrium at The Hyatt (2 Fountain Plaza), which will feature live music by the Jazz Conception Project, as well as food and drink specials. Take this opportunity to see what’s shakin’ on the 500 Block! For more information go to nomadbuffalo.com. —h. timpson

5pm to 11pm. 500 block of Main Street.

Friday, March 2

SXSW Sendoff: Son of the Sun, The Albrights, and The Tins

This Friday (March 2) come out and support three local bands at Nietzsches. The venue in Allentown will be hosting a show for Son of the Sun, the Albrights, and the Tins. The event is meant to be a SXSW sendoff as the bands are traveling to Austin, Texas next month (March 14-17) and will be showcased in an unofficial SXSW venue along with the community-driven You & Who clothing company who work with t-shirt designers and homeless service organizations in Buffalo, New Orleans, Austin, and more than 30 other U.S. cities. The cover to attend the event is only $5 so come out and show your support for Buffalo! For more information, please visit www.thegoodneighborhood.com. —dan whitney

10pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. (886-8539 / nietzsches.com). $5.

Saturday, March 3

Team Radio: Team Work Featuring Chae Hawk, Grabbitz, and Nameless

With hip hop ranging from pop hooked singles to aggressive street level tunes, Team Radio has been slowly but surely building a roster of ambitious local rappers. Led by veteran Buffalo rapper Chae Hawk, Team Radio is about exposing new, young artists to the scene. Among them are Nick Chiari, also known as Grabbitz and indie hip-hopper Nameless. The Team Radio team recently released a trio of videos including the Grabbitz track “Jump For Me” featuring Chae Hawk. On the new single, Hawk and Grabbitz team up to spit rapid-fire rhymes about some of their favorite substances. Nameless takes it back to his neighborhood in his video for “Thanks to the Lames,” and gets a little bit more dramatic in the video for “Bush Era.” Hawk himself released a new video, “Salute” featuring lady hip hopper GeGev, a funky 1970s soul influenced hip-hop cut that will appear on his upcoming album Dance Party for the Heavy Hearted. The team will show up to show it all off at 700 Main Street (upstairs of the Vault) on Saturday (March 3). —cory perla

9pm. 700 Main St. (teamradio.net). $8m 21+ $5. 17+.

Saturday, March 3

Beautiful Maladies: A Tribute to the Music of Tom Waits - Act II, Scene I

Tom Waits is one of the most enduring, innovative musicians of his era. His ultra-gruff, scraggly, often distressed sounding vocals completely changed the traditional notion of what a singer could be, and his dreary tales of losers, bums, and washouts in general have resonated with listeners for decades. He’s been around for almost 40 years now, and his work continues to break new ground, right up to his most recent release, 2011’s Bad As Me, which was one of the year’s most critically acclaimed albums. Taking this into consideration, Waits would be a perfect choice for a tribute concert, and the performers at Nietzsche’s this Saturday (March 3) will have loads of brilliant material to work as they put on Beautiful Maladies: A Tribute To The Music of Tom Waits – Act II Scene I. This is the 11th year the tribute concert has been put on, and what started as a means to fill a given calendar date at the Continental has become one of Buffalo’s proudest traditions, as performers from all around Western new York will gather to pay tribute to their musical hero. The show will feature acts such as Salt Peter, Tom & The Twotones, Beggar’s Best, and Shaky Stage, all of whom have appeared on the bill before, along with more recent additions such as Flat Bed, and Low Road Revival. Considering the diversity of Waits work, ranging from the warped-lounge of The Heart of Saturday Night, to the just-plain-warped misery of 1992’s Bone Machine, these performers will have many directions to choose from when planning their tribute. Every dollar collected from the show will be donated to the SPCA. —john hugar

8pm. Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. (886-8539 / nietzsches.com). $5.

Sunday, March 4

Brent Green: Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then

To look at the stop-motion films of multimedia artist Brent Green is to be reminded of the early work of David Lynch or even Tim Burton, less for any specifics than a sense of someone inventing his own visual language and even his own tools for putting it on film. Short films like Paulina Hollers (about a religious zealot who kills herself so that she can rescue her son from hell) and Carlin (about a woman dying from untreated diabetes) recall European filmmakers like the Brothers Quay and Jan Svankmajer, with their use of household objects and their nightmarish but compulsively watchable textures. An artist in residence at Hallwalls, where he has been starting his second feature film, Green will present his first feature, Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, with live musical accompaniment at Babeville’s Asbury Hall on Sunday (March 4). Recently acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Gravity is based on the true story of a Kentucky hardware clerk who, in the 1970s, decided to save his wife from cancer by building a “healing” house for her. It features a set built by Green in his rural Pennsylvania backyard in emulation of his subject, who kept building even after his wife’s death. —m. faust

7pm. Asbury Hall, 341 Delaware Ave. (852-3835 / babevillebuffalo.com). $12 general, $10 students/seniors, $8 members.

Wednesday, March 7

moe.

American jam band moe. has significant roots in Buffalo, having formed at the University at Buffalo in the 1990’s as the jam band/improv rock scene that lead to the emergence of bands like Phish or Widespread Panic began to grow. Since their modest beginnings in the UB dorms, basements, and shows at local bar and grill Broadway Joe’s, moe. has since grown into a unique and eclectic sound that they themselves continue to describe simply as good old rock n’ roll. Guitarist Al Schnier says that “it’s an amalgamation of a wide variety of the history of rock, all regurgitated and recycled through the eyes, ears, hands, whatever of the guys in our band and all of that with a sense of adventure, a sense of humor, also a constant desire to push the envelope. All in this arena of taking chances, improvising live, and making things up on the spot.” Check out these live performance veterans when they take the stage at the Town Ballroom on Wednesday (March 7). —max soeun kim

7pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / townballroom.com). $26 advance, $29 day of.