THE TO-DO
LIST
BY ROBERT BELL & DAVID KOON
THURSDAY 2/7
‘A CELEBRATION FOR MASON MAULDIN’ 7 p.m. Revolution. Donations.
CELEBRATING MASON: On Thursday, Revolution hosts a fundraiser concert celebrating the life of Mason Mauldin.
With the passing of Mason Mauldin, Little Rock lost a sharp and funny friend, a thoughtful and serious (without taking himself too seriously) musician, a skilled and enthusiastic pilot and so much more. Those who knew him will always have their memories, and everyone will have his music. His friends created a website (masonmauldin.bandcamp.com) as a growing repository for the music he created and collaborated on. I just listened to an EP of his called “Middle Ground.” In just three songs, it shows off Mauldin’s sophisticated grasp of pop music, his understanding of atmospherics and the breadth of his songwriting abilities. It’s clear how deeply Mauldin loved music. So after Saturday’s beautiful memorial service, what better way to remember him and celebrate his life than with a big, raucous all-ages rock show? His friends in The See, Mad Nomad and Whale Fire will be performing. Donations will be taken at the door, and all proceeds will go towards the Mason Mauldin Aviation Scholarship Fund at Pulaski Technical College. RB
SATURDAY 2/9
ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: ‘NIGHT AT THE MOVIES’
8 p.m. Robinson Center Music Hall. $18-$58.
This weekend, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra has lined up a billing of favorites from the silver screen. As ASO Conductor Philip Mann put it, the production has “everything from the
classics all the way up to new releases.” Audiences can thrill to sounds from “Titanic,” “West Side Story,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Harry Potter,” “Indiana Jones” and “The Pink Panther,” among many others. Mann promises the orchestra has some tricks up its sleeve as well. “Hear music for fight scenes, love scenes, car chases — we’ve got it all,” he said. The ASO will perform the show again on Sunday at 3 p.m. RB
SATURDAY 2/9
SOUTH MAIN MARDI GRAS
Noon. SoMa. Free.
So if you’re reading this, odds are better than OK that you won’t be in The Big Easy for Mardi Gras this year. (If you are going to be there, good for you. Have fun, get a Po’ Boy at Parkway, breakfast at Mother’s and bring some Advil.) For the rest of us, there are still options to be had for Mardi Gras revelry, including the Krewe of Barkus Parade starting at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Argenta (see calendar), and there’s this one on the other side of the river, the South Main Mardi Gras celebration. The parade starts at noon at 24th and Main streets, with beads and music and good times. Be sure to come by Bernice Garden at 12:30, where judging will begin for the first Root Cafe/Arkansas Times BeardGrowing Contest. There’s gonna be 24
FEBRUARY 6, 2013
ARKANSAS TIMES
more hirsute faces than you can shake a razor at, all vying for the win in several categories, including “Most Original” and “Best Abraham Lincoln,” among others. Though there isn’t a category for it, I think there should be some acknowledgment of the “Totally Gnarliest” beard. The judges are KARK anchor Jessica Dean, “Arkansas Cooks” host Mary Twedt and food columnist and blogger Rex Nelson; Nathanael Wills is going to emcee this shindig. Each winner (provided that winner is 21 or older) will receive an engraved flask full of whisky and an individual prize that will vary for each category. There will also be live music courtesy of Mark Currey and Nathaniel Greer. Our own Jeff Borg is in the contest, so while we’re completely impartial and all that, we’d like to wish him luck. RB
TENNESSEEIN’ IS TENNEBELIEVIN’: Tennessee’s Laser Flames on the Great Big News plays at White Water Tavern Saturday.
SATURDAY 2/9
DIRTY STREETS, IRON TONGUE, LASER FLAMES ON THE GREAT BIG NEWS
9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern. $5.
Times readers who have a yen for eardrum-shreddin’ heavy riff-o-rama blastilation are probably well familiar with Little Rock’s Iron Tongue and Memphis trio The Dirty Streets. The bands have shared the stage often and released a killer split 7” EP last summer. They’ll be hitting up the White Water Tavern with Central Tennessee’s Laser Flames on the Great Big News. The Laser Flames have played in Arkansas previously, and released a split CD with Little Rock’s Snakedriver last year on CT’s Mutants of the Monster label. Three of those songs are also
on the band’s “Lambs to the Slaughter” EP, which sounds like nothing else. It’s really cool how nowadays there aren’t any weird rules anymore about what your band can sound like. Remember how it used to be? “Well, we’re a punk band, so we’ve gotta sound like a punk band,” or whatever? And how if you tried to mix it up you got called pretentious? I guess it’s still like that in some quarters, but all that stuffiness and puritanical scene bullshit got thrown out the window at some point. The result is that now, if you want to have a metal band that has heavy riffs and breakdowns and harsh black metal screaming, but also lush harmonies and some viola and some Southern rock and some progrock and some beautiful clean vocals, it’s all good and nobody’s gonna give you a hard time about it. Thank God. RB