Editor's Pick: Music is Art Mardi Gras Jam

Friday, February 20

The Big Easy in Buffalo

If you can’t be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, the next best thing is being in Buffalo. Especially this year, when you can start the party the Friday before (Feb. 20) with six hours of great live Louisiana music courtesy of zydeco, swamp-blues, boogie-woogie piano siren Marcia Ball (pictured), Papa Grows Funk—the groovy band that grew out of Monday night jams at the Crescent City’s legendary Maple Leaf Bar, Big Sam’s Funky Nation—the second-line horn group fronted by ex-Dirty Dozen Brass trombonist Big Sam, home grown swamp-funkers LeeRon Zydeco with Eric Crittenden, and the Infinity Blues Project—a Jamestown group that won Music is Art’s Battle of the Bands. Another great thing about this visit is that all the headliners are devoting time to exchange musical vibes with young local musicians. Infinity Blues Band will get tips from Marcia Ball, while Big Sam and Papa Grows Funk will conduct workshops at Grover Cleveland High School and Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts, respectively. This is the latest event in the ongoing Big Easy in Buffalo series, and proceeds from the show will benefit programming for Robby Takac’s Music is Art foundation. Visit www.bigeasybuffalo.com or www.musicisart.org for more information

—buck quigley

6pm doors. Town Ballroom, 681 Main Street (852-3900 / www.townballroom.com). $25 advance at box office and Tickets.com/$28 day of show

Saturday, February 21

Peepshow: A Secret Worth Keeping

Squeaky Wheel’s largest art affair/fundraiser/party of the year, Peepshow, is back and organizers hope it will shake off Buffalonians’ winter blues with multiple floors of live music, dancing, and cutting edge art installations. Saturday’s (Feb. 21) event will showcase exhibits that span artistic genres ranging from sculpture to interactive 3-D video by over 30 accomplished artists from New York City, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Baltimore, Columbus, Ohio, and of course, Buffalo. In a silent art auction, special pieces by some of the region’s best artists will be put up for sale. The Skiffle Minstrels will initiate festivities running into the early morning. Live acts will feature Kendall (a.k.a. Buffalo’s Sexiest Bear Hip-Hopper), electronica-rock star Bev-Beverly and her personal hula hoop dancer, Ilya’s Belly Dance Troupe, an exclusive Club Marcella Drag Show, and local burlesque troupe the Stripteasers. All proceeds will help support Squeaky Wheel’s low-cost workshops, equipment rentals, residencies for media artists, and screenings of independent films.

—lindsey berman

8pm. Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center, 562 Genesee St. (884-7172 / www.squeaky.org). $12 pre-sale or $15 at door

Saturday, February 21

Devil Dollies’ Hellabration

It’s the second annual Devil Dollies’ “Hellabration” celebration on Saturday (Feb. 21), in honor of the number of players’ birthdays happening around this Pisces/Aquarious cusp. This event celebrates not only the Dollies and their recent victory against the Alley Kats—rookie league-mates of the flat-track roller derby—but benefits Crisis Services of Western New York as well. Although any appearance by the Queen City Roller Girls—which includes the Dollies, Alley Kats, Suicidal Saucies, and Nickel City Knockouts—counts as unqualified entertainment, there will also be music by Low Road Revival, Pink Tigers, and multi-media burlesque from the Stripteasers. Happy birthday Dollies, and everybody gear up for the QCRG’s next bout on March 7, when the Alley Kats will go around with the Knockouts in a “Blizzard of Blood.” Visit www.qcrg.net for more.

9pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. (855-3931 / www.mohawkplace.com). $5

Saturday, February 21

WNY Black Film Festival

The seventh edition of the WNY Black Film Festival opens this weekend on Saturday (Feb. 21) with the local premiere of Kings of the Evening, winner of the Audience Award at the San Francisco Black Film Festival and Best Film at the San Diego Black Film Festival. Set in the Deep South during the Great Depression, the story centers on a competition in which residents of a rural community raise their self-esteem by seeing who can dress up the best on their meager budgets. The film stars Lynn Whitfield, Tyson Beckford, Glynn Turman, James Russo, Bruce McGill, and Willard E. Pugh. A television and film veteran (he was Harpo Johnson in The Color Purple), Pugh will be at the screening along with writer-director Andrew P. Jones. The festival concludes on March 1st with The Real Great Debaters, a documentary look at the events and people that inspired the recent Denzel Washington film.

—m. faust

6pm. Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre, 639 Main Street. $5.

Sunday, February 22

Kara Walker: The Emancipation Approximation

This Sunday (Feb. 22), there will be an opening reception at the Castellani Art Museum for Kara Walker’s The Emancipation Approximation, which will be on display through the end of May. The series, which refers to Lincoln’s proclamation and is on loan from the Albright-Knox, consists of 26 prints of black, white, and grey silhouette images that combine the folklore of the antebellum South, the historical realities of slavery, and the elusiveness of freedom. Walker’s attention to violence and sex, mixing fact with fiction, highlights her distinctive approach to exposing racial intolerance, social injustice, and the legacy of slavery. A leader in the contemporary art scene, Walker was one of the youngest artists to ever receive the prestigious MacArthur fellowship. She is currently on the faculty of Columbia University, and has been listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. The Emancipation Approximation showcases Walker’s ability to represent simple eleganceand the grotesque in a way that is both provocative and hauntingly beautiful.

—lindsey berman

2-4pm. Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University (286-8200 / www.niagara.edu/cam).

Thursday, February 26

Steve Aoki with Autoerotique

Next Thursday (Feb. 26) Dim-Mak and Factory Nightlife present a special event from the Communist Party, this time with guests Steve Aoki and AutoErotique. One of the hottest international DJs around, Los Angeles-based Aoki has been touring with the Canadian producers AutoErotique—formerly known as VND/LSM—the team responsible for the dance-floor hit “Gladiator,” a powerhouse mix that’s been shaking the club circuit for the past few months. Known for keeping company with established acts like MSTRKRFT, and now with Aoki, AutoErotique is one of Canada’s foremost up and comers and one of the best house acts we’ll see come through town this winter. Also on the bill next Thursday are Patrice, Mareo Speedwagon, Flava Braun, and Sir Richard Rector. The Communist Party will hold its regular monthly event on Saturday (Feb. 22), also at Soundlab, featuring Steedlord & the Villains.

11pm. Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (www.bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab).

Thursday, February 26

Sam Roberts Band

Rhythmic drumming and hypnotic vocals that’ll finally teach those kids to rock and roll! Quebec’s Sam Roberts Band comes to town for a two-night stand this week, setting up shop in the Town Ballroom. The band’s current tour, stretching from New York’s Bowery Ballroom to LA’s Troubadour, supports the album Love at the End of the World, which debuted number one on the Canadian album charts last year and features the hit single “Them Kids,” an upbeat number that poses the musical question: Why can’t today’s kids dance to rock and roll? The Sam Roberts Band is playing two evenings at the Ballroom with shows on Thursday (Feb. 26) and Friday (Feb. 27). The band’s popularity is such that the Friday night gig is already sold out,, so don’t hesitate if you want tickets to next Thursday’s show.

—joshua figueroa

7pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main Street (852-3900, www.townballroom.com). $20 day of show, $17.50 advance. Tickets.com locations, Town Ballroom box office.