IN BRIEF
THURSDAY 11/14
SUNDAY 11/17
STEVE VAI
8 p.m. Juanita’s. $25 adv., $30 day of.
Guitar geeks rejoice: Steve Vai is coming to town to melt your faces with his insane guitar virtuosity. Vai has to have appeared on more “Greatest Guitarists of All Time” lists than anyone not named Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton or Jimmy
Page. He’s up there with all of your Eddie Van Halens and Joe Satrianis and Yngwie Malmsteens, regarded as one of the most wickedly brilliant rock guitarists ever. He’s also had one of the most interesting careers of any of his few peers, having started playing “stunt guitar” for Frank Zappa, and going on to join the likes of
Whitesnake and David Lee Roth (remember “Just Like Living in Paradise,” with those icy, brilliantly sharp guitar lines? That was Vai), and recording albums with artists as diverse as Alice Cooper, Public Image Ltd. and Joe Jackson, along with releasing a bevy of solo albums that get guitar nerds all in a tizzy.
MONDAY 11/18
FRIDAY 11/15
B.B. KING
At the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, check out “Champions of Justice — Celebrating the Life and Work of Bayard Rustin.” The event includes keynote speakers Mandy Carter, cofounder of National Black Justice Coalition, and Ernest Green, a member of the Little Rock Nine. Cocktail attire preferred, 7 p.m., free. Rouxster plays at The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. Arkansas’s finest psychedelic backwoods metal maniacs, Rwake, play White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. Ben Franks and The Bible Belt Boys play an album-release show with Amanda Avery at Maxine’s. Canopy Climbers, Young International and Knox Hamilton play an 18-andolder show at Stickyz, 9 p.m., $5.
7:30 p.m. The Auditorium, Eureka Springs. $95-$135.
What do you say about one of the giants of modern popular music? B.B. King is the King of the Blues, the Chairman of the Board. He’s had a career that’s spanned eight decades. Eight decades. He’s one of the last of his era of bluesmen, a living connection to a long-gone era, and still an incredibly lively performer. Some of his formative professional experiences happened in Arkansas. He performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s KWEM radio program in West Memphis. He named his famous guitar Lucille after a raucous incident at a concert in Twist (he also paid tribute to Louis Jordan on 1999’s “Let the Good Times Roll: The Music of Louis Jordan”). So what do you say about such an artist? How about just: go see this show.
SATURDAY 11/16
THE KING: B.B. King plays Monday night at The Auditorium in Eureka Springs.
WEDNESDAY 11/20
BUILT TO SPILL
Buzz-happy Nashville up-and-comers Moon Taxi play at Revolution, fresh off of a Monday night performance on The Late Show with David Letterman, 18-and-older, 9 p.m., $12. One-man wrecking crew Scott H. Biram plays at Stickyz, 18-and-older, 9 p.m., $10. Journalist David Horovitz presents “Israel’s Place in the New, Unstable Middle East,” part of the Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture Fall Semester programs. Hendrix College, 7 p.m. Live at Laman continues with The Shannon Boshears Band, Laman Library, 7 p.m. The Junior League’s Holiday House is kicking off at the Statehouse Convention Center, if that’s something you’re into, noon, $8.
8 p.m. Revolution. $17 adv., $20 day of. There have certainly been precedents for the marriage of indie rock to classic rock (Exhibit A: Dinosaur Jr., Pavement on occasion). But I’d venture that few if any have bridged that gap as consistently and effortlessly as Built to Spill. Over the course of a couple of decades, band leader Doug Martsch and crew have crafted
eight albums of guitar-centric pop-rock sublimity, the peak, in my opinion, being the untouchably brilliant stretch from “Perfect From Now On,” “Keep it Like a Secret,” “Live” and “Ancient Melodies of the Future.” That said, I think “You In Reverse” (2006) is a great, underrated album (“Conventional Wisdom” is a classic!). I saw them in Fayetteville on that tour and they were incredible. One particularly enthusiastic member
of the crowd summed up what we were all thinking, screaming over and over, “We love you Doug!” It was true, we all did. “Thanks,” he replied. Then the band closed out with an epic, dubbed-out version of “Mess with Time,” and it was freaking incredible, thus cementing my longstanding personal rule: If Built to Spill is playing, you will go see Built to Spill. Also performing at this all-ages show: Slam Dunk and Genders.
Club diva Ce Ce Peniston is at Discovery Nightclub, with Dominique Sanchez & The Disco Dolls, DJs and more, 9 p.m.-5 a.m. Blues fans, Wes Jeans, Steve Hester & Deja VooDoo and Low Society play Juanita’s, 10 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. Later on, Low Society will soundtrack your latenight escapades at Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5. Singer/songwriter faves Paul Thorn and Will Hoge play an all-ages show at Revolution, 8 p.m., $20. Continuing with the celebration of Bayard Rustin’s life and work, Philander Smith hosts “Brunch, Art and the Film ‘Brother Outsider: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin’,” 11 a.m., free. Food and travel writer Kat Robinson will sign copies of her book, “Classic Eateries of the Ozarks and Arkansas River Valley,” WordsWorth Books & Co., 1 p.m.
MONDAY 11/18
Halloween might be over, but you can get a spooky fix with “The Addams Family Musical,” featuring the classic characters of the TV show with an original story and score, Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 7:30 p.m., $30-$40. www.arktimes.com
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